Lecture in motion
GTU is developing mobile app that will enable it to deliver to students summary of lectures, seminars and exam schedules, notices on cellphones; service will be launched in 2 months
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Wednesday, June 20, 2012 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=201206202012062002191434df3fcf0)
While most of the educational institutes discourage students from using mobile phones on campus, Gujarat Technological University has decided to make use of this unavoidable ‘nuisance’ to their benefit.
The varsity is developing an application that will help it deliver to its students summary of lectures and seminars, examination schedules, notices and other relevant information through cellphones.
The university has involved its own final year BE students as well as experts and is all set to launch the IT-enabled service in this semester. “Within six months we shall be catering to all students in all streams across the state,” Vice Chancellor Akshai Aggarwal told Mirror.
Pedagogy has to change with time and the university is equipping itself to stay in tune with time, he said.
GTU currently has 2.5 lakh students spread in government and affiliated colleges.
Currently, the university puts its study material on a web site which the students can access and take printouts from. For sending out other information, it relies on traditional methods like circulars and notice boards.
The mobile application will help the university save time on spreading information and notices. Besides, it will also cut out the possibility of distortion that sometimes creeps in.
“Almost every student these days carries mobile phones loaded with several features. We decided to make the best use of this. Our teachers and students are collaborating on the application and also the content has to be made mobile compatible. The current content is web-portal specific and they are being converted in small modules to suit the mobile platform,” Dr Aggarwal said.
Given the myriad sources of information, a filter is being put in place so that students get information relevant to their semester and curriculum from teachers and industry experts.
The students can use the application for revision of the lectures delivered earlier in the day and those who missed out on the lectures due to some reason will get to know what they have to catch up with.
According to Dr Aggarwal, it will be two-way communication, enabling the students to send in their queries. Experts will analyse the questions and trend and prepare answers. “They may not get answer immediately, but they will be given it in due course in pdf format and in bullet points. These can be saved and be referred to in future, too.” he said.
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Wednesday, June 20, 2012 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=201206202012062002191434df3fcf0)
While most of the educational institutes discourage students from using mobile phones on campus, Gujarat Technological University has decided to make use of this unavoidable ‘nuisance’ to their benefit.
The varsity is developing an application that will help it deliver to its students summary of lectures and seminars, examination schedules, notices and other relevant information through cellphones.
The university has involved its own final year BE students as well as experts and is all set to launch the IT-enabled service in this semester. “Within six months we shall be catering to all students in all streams across the state,” Vice Chancellor Akshai Aggarwal told Mirror.
Pedagogy has to change with time and the university is equipping itself to stay in tune with time, he said.
GTU currently has 2.5 lakh students spread in government and affiliated colleges.
Currently, the university puts its study material on a web site which the students can access and take printouts from. For sending out other information, it relies on traditional methods like circulars and notice boards.
The mobile application will help the university save time on spreading information and notices. Besides, it will also cut out the possibility of distortion that sometimes creeps in.
“Almost every student these days carries mobile phones loaded with several features. We decided to make the best use of this. Our teachers and students are collaborating on the application and also the content has to be made mobile compatible. The current content is web-portal specific and they are being converted in small modules to suit the mobile platform,” Dr Aggarwal said.
Given the myriad sources of information, a filter is being put in place so that students get information relevant to their semester and curriculum from teachers and industry experts.
The students can use the application for revision of the lectures delivered earlier in the day and those who missed out on the lectures due to some reason will get to know what they have to catch up with.
According to Dr Aggarwal, it will be two-way communication, enabling the students to send in their queries. Experts will analyse the questions and trend and prepare answers. “They may not get answer immediately, but they will be given it in due course in pdf format and in bullet points. These can be saved and be referred to in future, too.” he said.
