Thought of virtual classrooms and indirect group learning when it comes to entrance preparations for the coveted IITs? Educomp Solutions Ltd., the leader among education solutions providers, has turned it into a reality. With the launch of India's first VSAT enabled Engineering Prep Program, called Educomp LEAP, aspirants can now get the best of faculty and facilities even while staying nearer to their hometowns. A number of centres called Leap Learning Centres (LLCs) help students in the leverage of experiencing the best of information technology and internet in terms of new-age learning. At present, there are 22 LEAP centres across India including cities like Patna, Jalandhar, Sonepat, Surat and others. There are plans for expansion with 60 more centres to come up within a year.
Praveen Kumar, Programme Director, Chemistry, feels such a “model facilitates transformation (in a student)”. Kumar, who has taught the subject for 12 years, confesses that he teaches “Chemistry as ‘a whole subject' for students' better understanding and not ‘topics' to merely crack a competitive exam”. Gupta, while demonstrating the working of the live classrooms, explains that “any student from across the centres can ask questions to the teacher with the help of plasma screens with Smart Assessment System (SAS) that is similar to chat sessions without disruption or through microphone towards the end of the four-hour lecture session that deals with two subjects”. The programme also claims to be cost-effective.
The two-year programme with classes three days a week for four hours costs around Rs.70,000.
Apart from the reading material, the students enrolled get access to its vast online library. This includes every recorded session that becomes very useful if they miss a class or need to revise.
But, isn't the human touch missing somewhere in the technology? Kumar says the feedback from the students and their parents has been very satisfactory. He says, “It is human behaviour to adapt to new technology so it won't be a problem”.
