LUCKNOW: Taking technology enabled learning to the next level and to aid teachers, parents and students with simplified and localized content, the basic education department would be initiating an Open Education Resource (OER) platform on Thursday.
Developed with the help of HCL Foundation, the platform VIKALP caters to the need of children up to class 8. It has notable edge over comparable options like NCERT’s DIKSHA, Swayam and Mission Prerna. The OER is already in use in several southern states including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Director, State Institute of Education and Training, Lalita Pradeep said: “The platform comes with a repository of 10,000 questions which will help teachers and parents make question papers and quiz to test the subject knowledge of their wards. This option is not available with other platforms.”
She added that the platform had smartly married ‘flexibility’ and ‘quality control’ which makes it unique. “Any teacher from any part of the state can upload content on the platform but each video will be scrutinized for quality and content by a review and moderation committee. The flexibility also includes freedom to generate localized content,” she explained.
Director, Samuday-HCL Foundation, Alok Varma saw VIKALP as a community model of learning and exchange of knowledge. “The portal will not only ease the process of teaching and learning more interesting, but also enrich the quality of knowledge dissemination,” he said.
Minister of state (Independent charge) for basic education, Satish Kumar Dwivedi would be launching the portal. Dwivedi described VIKALP as an outcome of state’s commitment to introduce and encourage ‘innovative practices to improve culture of learning and improving learning outcomes’. Pradeep said in the course of time, VIKALP will be used as a platform to promote exchange of knowledge through webinars, workshops and discussions. “Users will also have the option to learn from our technical handholding exercises like how to make a video from your cell phone etc,” she said, recalling that VIKALP was a great example of those who believe in ‘IT for Change’.