eLearning Solution to Rural High Schools through KSCST

In order to address the challenges of our society, particularly the rural and the urban poor, the visionaries of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Government of Karnataka established Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology in 1975. Under the Special Development Program (SDP) of Government of Karnataka, KSCST, Department of Planning Karnataka Science and Technology Promotion Society (KSTePS), and Department of Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka (DST-GOK are jointly implementing Virtual Laboratories in 10 high schools in the backward talukas of Karnataka. The objective of these laboratories is to improve the quality and effectiveness of education by collaborative learning and teaching process through state-of-the-art IT platforms and e-content. The students will learn science experiments, inculcate scientific attitude and spread the same with their neighborhood schools.

Virtual Laboratory:

It is an advanced learning environment created using internet, computers, and supplemented video conferencing devices in the classroom.

VL is very multipurpose technology or platform which can be used for webinars, tuitions, One-to-one training and tuitions, mentoring, and interviews. It provides improved student satisfaction, knowledge retention and academic achievements. The virtual learning content is accommodating different learning styles and is available round the clock for the students and teachers.

The growing popularity of eLearning has introduced new terms to education, as virtual classroom, where students will be present with their teacher and fellow learners in a classroom. Virtual Laboratory aims to simulate the experience that is similar to a real classroom.

Objectives:

• To support live on-line classes for distance learning and remote education
• To pool academic resources thereby improving access to advanced educational experiences.
• To improve the quality and effectiveness of education by collaborative learning and teaching process.
• To hold and participate in the meetings, webinars, conferences/symposium/workshops, interviews etc. through digital studio.
• To increase and improve the accessibility of educational resources.
• To enable Students independently view the specific topics and breakout sessions allowing teachers to divide the students into groups to discuss a specific topic or to work on a group assignment.

Achievements:

• Students are actively participating in the VL
• Students understand their lessons by asking for immediate feedback, answering questions and giving in depth verbal explanations of complex material
• Students are able to visualize the concepts from digital contents
• Students are easily browsing through the digital contents provided and choose the topics they want to learn.
• The admission of the students has increased in the VL schools from this academic year.

Press coverage:

"A new wave of learning sweeps rural classrooms in Bangalore Mirror"

"In September, the Karnataka government introduced these self-learning computer consoles, or 'laptops' at 10 high schools in backward talukas, with digitized lectures on a wide variety of subjects. It was apprehensive at first as students at these schools were unlikely to have had much experience with digital technology. But the results have been immediate and fabulous.

Students such as Arpita have taken almost naturally to these laptops and their academic performance in the last two months has risen dramatically, their teachers said. What is more, they seem to be thrilled with the technology and are enjoying learning with it. "The project is working like magic in our high school. Those who had never heard of laptops are now trying to master these consoles. We had never imagined government school students could learn lessons in such a technologically advanced way.

Students walk into classrooms and study chapters using these consoles. The best part is that results have improved by at least 20 per cent. We are hoping that these results will reflect in the final exams as well," said MB Dashrath, vice principal, Government Junior College, Channapatna."

List of Schools Virtual laboratories Established:

1. Government Girls Urdu school, Gurmathkal, Yadgiri
2. Government High School Jahageer Gudadar, Kushtagi (T), Koppal (D)
3. Government Pre- University College (High School Section ) Kokathanur, Athani (T), Belguam (D)
4. Valaballari Shri Channabaseveswara High School, Gudadur, Sidhanur (T), Raichur (D)
5. Government Girls High School, Athani post, Dharwad (D)
6. Government Girls High School, Gulbarga
7. Government Junior College(High school Section) Kudur, Magadi (T), Ramanagar (D)
8. Government Junior College(High school Section) Harohalli, Kanakpura (T), Ramanagar (D)
9. Government Junior College for girls (High School Section) Channapatna, Ramanaga (D)
10. Government Junior College(High school Section) Madhugiri, Tumkur (D)