The chronic shortage of qualified teachers as well as lack of adequate equipment to effectively teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects to students across India has become a matter of grave concern.
Responding with extraordinary solutions to such pressing problems, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, in partnership with the Government of India, has developed the e-learning platform A-View as well as virtual labs in several subjects.
Another innovative digital solution developed by Amrita is the Adaptive Learning Environment (ALE) being promoted by the Amrita Center for Research in Analytics & Technologies for Education (AmritaCREATE).
AmritaCREATE is supported by research grants from the Ministry of Human Resources and Development and Department of Information Technology, both of the Government of India.
ALE was recently featured in the annual report of the New Media Consortium, USA, a non-profit consortium of over 250 colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations.
The annual report showcased a worldwide review of educational technology projects.
“The NMC report classified our work under a time horizon of 2 to 3 years … which indicates that Amrita is doing quite future-oriented work in this area,” stated Raghu Raman, Director, AmritaCREATE.
“ALE currently consists of a multilingual, collaborative platform that uses simulations, animations and e-access to remote equipment, providing an effective learning environment to promote STEM skills,” he added.
A pilot study is planned with secondary and tertiary institutions in rural as well as urban areas with over 3,400 students for six months, using HP mini notebooks and HP tablets, and over Amrita’s cloud-based e-learning network.
Student motivation to use the system, the resultant learning achievements, as well as teacher collaboration in development and usage of online material, will be studied with qualitative and quantitative analyses.
“By providing learning material that meets the student at the individual performance level, the system interacts with the pupil, allowing personalized learning to take place. Besides addressing individual performance levels, ALE also aims to provide tailored material for students with differing learning styles,” explained Raghu.
Not only does AmritaCREATE promote the use of world-class technology to aid learning, it is also now becoming known for its emphasis on value-based education through its online lessons.
Shri. Vineet Joshi, Chairman, Central Board of Secondary Education, recently invited Raghu Raman to become a member of the Advisory Committee for its Values Education Program.
September 30, 2012
Amritapuri Campus
