Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham got a unique chance to demonstrate before India its prowess as a pioneer in science and technology when the institution’s top functionaries displayed in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a cutting-edge virtual facility called A-VIEW.

A proven large-scale online training platform that has been deployed at over 8,000 institutions, the finer features of the award-winning A-VIEW (Amrita Virtual Interactive e-Learning World) were detailed in the presence of Mr Modi on the occasion of his launching Skill India. The cutting-edge facility has been a highlight of the 2003-founded varsity, whose chancellor—spiritual icon Mata Amritanandamayi—is renowned for her encouragement of research-driven fusion of science and spirituality for the benefit of the common man.

On World Youth Skills Day this week, as the Prime Minister launched the ambitious national programme for skill development and entrepreneurship reaching over 30 crore Indians by 2020, Prof  Kamal Bijlani of Amrita demonstrated the use of A-VIEW through a conference class of 100 ITIs across the country. The July 15 event here caught the fancy of the nation as much as that of the PM.

In fact, the Skill Ministry has itself been using A-VIEW, Amrita’s distance education and training platform, at 200 Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) across the nation. The facility the varsity has developed in partnership with IIT Bombay with support from the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (under the Ministry of HRD) has so far helped train 15,000 ITI teachers. This has now prompted the Skill Ministry to use A-VIEW as capacity-building platform for distance training in skill development.

Employing A-VIEW, IIT Bombay has been training around 10,000 teachers simultaneously. The Government of Maharashtra has trained 35,000 school teachers at the same time. During Digital India week, Dr Ashwini Kumar Sharma, who is managing director of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (functioning under the Information Technology Ministry) used A-VIEW platform for online digital literacy classes targeting lakhs of students.

As an Amrita e-Learning Research Lab-developed and indigenously-built multi-modal, multimedia e-learning platform that provides an immersive e-learning experience that is almost as good as a real classroom experience, A-VIEW features a number of easy-to-use features for skill development. It enables instructors to conduct distance trainings with huge number of trainees across hundreds of skill development centers.

Using A-VIEW mobile application, trainees with a smart phone can instantly participate and interact in class discussions. Multimedia content for skills can be shared and recordings downloaded into mobile phones for offline study. A-VIEW provides a number of interactive collaboration tools including whiteboards, animations, and video sharing.

A-VIEW is a fully customizable platform provided free for national skill development programs, higher education programs, and digital literacy programs.

Cross posted from indiaeducationdiary.in