Visvesvaraya Technological University holds 1000th EDUSAT Class

Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belgaum, Karnataka, the first university to implement EDUSAT-based e-classes for technical education, has successfully completed 1000 sessions of lectures via EDUSAT. To mark the 1000th session, a special panel discussion was organised at DSERT Campus, Bangalore this morning (March 23, 2006). The panel had interaction with the students via satellite to review the effectiveness of the programme so far and modifications required to tune improve the effectiveness further. A message from Mr G. Madhavan Nair, was also broadcast to the students on the occasion.

Dr. Nair, congratulated VTU for being the first to implement EDUSAT programme and said that VTU can become a role-model for other institutions of higher education to implement EDUSAT based classrooms across the country. He added that EDUSAT network could be used for administrative purposes and even for conducting online examinations and evaluations. He also said that possibility exists to upgrade technology to enable interconnectivity between national and regional beams of EDUSAT for conducting classes across the country. He said that while ISRO has been striving to use space technology for efficient societal benefits, it should be the user community, which has to come forward and use the advanced technology to improve the efficiency and capacity of the existing conventional systems like communication, resource monitoring, education, health and others .

EDUSAT, launched on September 2, 2004, is configured for audio-visual medium employing digital interactive classroom lessons and multimedia content. The ground coverages are specially configured to cater to the educational requirements of the country. The EDUSAT programme is primarily for school, college and higher levels of education and to support non-formal education. EDUSAT pilot projects were taken up in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh ahead of EDUSAT launch using INSAT-3B, covering Visveswaraya Technological University in Karnataka, Y B Chavan Open University in Maharashtra and Rajiv Gandhi Technical University in Madhya Pradesh.

In the present semi-operational phase of EDUSAT programme, Karnataka Primary Education Project under 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' covering 885 primary schools has been made operational using the southern regional beam of EDUSAT. Networks for IGNOU, CEC/ University Grants Commission (UGC), CIT/National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) have been set up using the national beam. Interactive networks for Kerala and Tamil Nadu are operational and extensively used for teacher's training and other training programmes using regional beam.

School networks in Chamarajanagar and Gulbarga in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Mallapuram in Kerala and Lakshadweep are under various stages of implementation. As of now, about 2,700 schools are enefited by this programme. About 900 interactive networks for application of Higher and Technical education and teachers' training are operational at present. Many networks in J&K and in North Eastern states will soon be operational. A total of 33 interactive/ROT networks are proposed, in the national beam and regional beams of which 12 are operational. This includes a unique network for Blind Peoples Association operating in Ku-band western regional beam established in 10 blind schools of Gujarat. At present, more than 2300 classrooms have been connected through EDUSAT in various educational networks

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : March 23, 2006