Karnataka government is going to invest Rs 195 crore for this fiscal year to boost digital learning for students in government colleges. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa unrolled an initiative on Wednesday that seeks to promote digital learning and combine the digital divide in the higher education, according to reports by The New Indian Express.
As a part of this initiative, tablets and PCs will be provided to almost 1.55 lakh students in the government colleges. Department of the higher education also aims to convert nearly 2,500 classrooms in colleges into smart classes and developing a unique Learning Management System (LMS) that will help online and offline classes.
After launching the scheme Yediyurappa said “the initiative of empowering students by providing tablet PCs and creating 2,500 smart classrooms are expected to largely benefit the students belonging to economically weaker sections of the society, who pursue their studies in government institutions.”
Tablet PCs will be provided to first-year students of 430 government first grade colleges, 1st and 2nd-year students of 87 government polytechnic colleges, and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-year students of 14 engineering colleges. Smart classrooms will be equipped with a projector, whiteboard, Android box, UPS, and the Internet. The LMS facilitates access to learning both in online and offline modes.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan said that this initiative will enable ‘Any Time, Anywhere’ learning and will be helpful for almost 25,000 teaching faculty and 5 lakh students across the State. “Karnataka is the first state in the country to implement such a comprehensive learning management system,” said Ashwath Narayan, who is also Minister for Higher Education.
He said the aim is to resolve the imbalances between offline and online, digital and physical, rural and urban, government and private, rich and poor and also English and native language barriers pertaining access to quality teaching and learning.
