Madras University plans video lessons for college students – Times of India

CHENNAI: Amid the Covid-19 outbreak, University of Madras plans to telecast lessons for college students on Swayam Prabha, a free group of 34 DTH channels for education from the Government of India. The varsity has initiated talks with Swayam Prabha to produce video lectures for BA and MA Tamil courses.
“We will start by recording Tholkappiyam lessons,” said vice-chancellor S Gowri.
University professors will identify common lessons in BA and MA Tamil across the state and record lectures. A course will have 45 hours of lectures. “Each course will be split into 35 to 40 modules and lectures will be recorded. It will be telecast in the existing language channel of Swayam Prabha,” the VC added.
If the project comes out well, the university plans to launch a separate channel to telecast lessons for all degree programmes.
“Besides telecast, if we upload these lectures on our portal, students can access them from anywhere,” Gowri added.
University officials on Monday held the first round of discussions with Swayam Prabha channel chief coordinator professor Mangala Sunder. After approval from the university’s syndicate, the varsity will enter into a memorandum of understanding with Swayam Prabha to produce these videos. The university also plans to launch an initiative called ‘Learning Tamil through English’ for foreigners and students of other states.
These video lectures will be handed over to students who enroll in the distance mode programmes.
“Instead of study material, we can give DVDs of video lectures. Students will get a feel of the classroom and will also be cost-effective,” officials said.
Meanwhile, the varsity has decided to continue with basic Tamil in undergraduate courses following the opposition to merging the course with soft skill courses to accomodate a new professional English course. The university said the time slot for professional English course will be decided after discussion in the syndicate.