Launching learning into cyberspace, the Maulana Azad National Urdu University’s YouTube channel for higher education went live on Tuesday.
The channel, an initiative of the university’s Instructional Media Centre (IMC), is expected to reach over 80,000 students who have enrolled in various courses which are different stages of completion in the distance mode.
University Vice-Chancellor M. Aslam Parvaiz underscored that while the large number of its students stand to benefit through the YouTube channel, the initiative would also reach a larger number of Urdu speakers who are not students.
“The books which we give in form of study material is insufficient these days as there is no teacher. This channel takes the teacher to the student’s house,” Dr. Parvaiz said. The Urdu speaking diaspora of the country in Europe and the USA too would benefit.
Describing the launch of the YouTube channel as a day of liberation of Urdu, Dr. Parvaiz opined that the language has been confined to ‘literary ramps’ and would now be associated with knowledge.
Taking questions from the media on the frequency of generating content, he said that each department is given a schedule to record its videos. The IMC, he said, generates 30 such videos each month. “That is more than one per day. There is a good collection which already exists. This too will be made available,” he said. The IMC will also start making 3-D films soon.
Touching upon how MANUU’s schools would benefit, he said that the second phase of content generation would deal with this aspect.
Also launched at the event were the IMC logo, Cinematheque MANUU Signature Film and MANUU Knowledge Series.
