KU researchers’ union launches online lecture series

TNN | Apr 14, 2020, 04:05 IST

Thiruvananthapuram: With days in academic calendar passing by, research scholars have decided to utilise the lockdown time to study online. The Kerala University Researchers' Union has started ‘online academic lecture’ series on its Facebook page.
Teachers, experts and research scholars themselves are conducting classes on various subjects. The videos with less than 30 minutes duration are uploaded every alternative day by representatives of the union. The videos may be a lecture or a presentation on subjects with voice-over.
“Productive use of holidays was the idea behind online lecture series. We received a circular that classes will remain closed for summer break from March 23 to May 23. Our examinations were scheduled to be held in April and we are not sure about extension of academic calendar due to Covid-19 scare. So, remote learning is a good option for scholars to continue their classes,” said Ilfa K N, research scholar and chairperson of researchers’ union.
The collective is receiving good response from people for the initiative. However, network issues and editing the videos remain a challenge for the representatives.
“The slow network is the only issue with online classes. Teachers are very supportive. Many teachers had prepared materials for their classes, which they shared with us. And some teachers prepared materials on their subject based on our request. Initially, we started with general topics related to research such as ‘avoid plagiarism and improve scientific writing’ and methodology. Later, subject based topics such as articulatory phonetics for MA Hindi syllabus and development communication were included. More such videos will be uploaded in the coming days,” added Ilfa.
The collective plan is to upload lecture videos till classes resume after summer break.