Madurai Kamaraj University will soon get Digital Lounge to facilitate access to e-learning modules, as per a memorandum of understanding signed between the university’s Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC) and the Consortium of Educational Communication (CEC), a body set up by the University Grants Commission to further the use of information and communication technology in higher education.
Vice-Chancellor P.P. Chellathurai told the media here on Thursday that as part of the Digital Lounge initiative, the university would get a centre with computers to exclusively access e-learning content produced by the CEC through the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) initiative.
The key advantages of Digital Lounge were: free access to material for learners, ability to access content even without Internet connection, access to download the content, and a distraction-free learning ambience, he said. Pointing out that the EMRC at the university was one of 22 such centres functioning across the country, he said that of the two EMRCs in Tamil Nadu - the other one is in Anna University, Chennai - only MKU had Digital Lounge facility.
The benefits of the Digital Lounge would be extended to the affiliated colleges as well by collecting a nominal membership fee, which would be shared between the university and CEC.
M. Lellis Thivagar, Director, EMRC, MKU, said the centre had ramped up its output in the recent months by producing e-learning materials for hundreds of courses in the past few months. He pointed out in particular that more than 400 persons had enrolled for two e-learning courses hosted by the centre - Glimpses of Indian Social Legislation and Social Welfare, and Population Studies - in the past few months.
Knowledge sharing
Referring to his recent visit to Kuwait University and Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait, Mr. Chellathurai said that faculty members from the two universities would visit the MKU in December to conduct a training programme for their counterparts here.
“Those two universities have already secured world-level rankings. We want to learn the steps they took to achieve the status,” he said.
