With schools having reopened on June 1 across the State, the new textbooks for Classes I, VI and IX, based on the revamped syllabus that includes QR codes, are finding acceptance among students.
Data indicate that till June 11 there have been nearly 3.80 lakh distinct users of the QR codes in the textbooks to access online resources, hosted on DIKSHA, the national digital platform of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The online content received nearly 9.38 lakh views.
As part of the revamp of textbooks, digital content, linked with QR codes and created by the School Education Department, is hosted on the DIKSHA platform. Students can download the DIKSHA app to access the content or use any QR code scanner available on Android phones to link to the portal.
In this connection, nearly 89,066 downloads of the app have been recorded.
“The massive response to QR codes indicates several basic parameters are quite strong in the State such as reasonable e-literacy and exposure to online content amongst students and teachers. The network connectivity across the State as well as quality of printing of textbooks has played a major factor,” said a senior official from the department.
“The hosting of content for Classes I, VI and IX as part of the new textbooks and revamped syllabus has meant that Tamil Nadu has also emerged as one of the States in the forefront of providing digital content for students and teachers,” he added. Apart from the online resources, work is in progress to build a digital repository of video lessons by teachers and subject experts.
Magdeline Premalatha, a teacher who is part of this project, said the focus has been on core subjects for Class XI students.
“At present, we have already made video lessons by experts on topics such as the Law of Thermodynamics and respiration. The lessons have been designed in such a way that they are engaging for the students and have simple experiments as well,” she added.
The videos are being prepared in Tamil with English subtitles first and steps are being taken to make video lessons for every class.