Goa CEO, Pramod Sawant, launched on Monday ‘Dishtavo,’ an online teaching channel with a virtual higher education focus. Sawant said Goa will be the country’s first to develop such a higher education infrastructure.
The Government also plans to provide “e-mitra” – a facility for each student who is not connected to a network, so that they can learn through an acronym (digital, integrated teaching and virtual orientation) called “Dishtavo.”
In a recent study by Goa University, poor Internet access in remote areas of the state is a major obstacle. “The majority of respondents (74 percent) have not been pleased with Internet speed,” TOI said, adding that the situation in rural areas was worse.
Students are able to access the 24×7 content of Dishtavo. Sawant said that no other State took this initiative when he spoke at the opening ceremony. Sawant also said Goa is the first country to give their teachers online education and added that this is “permanent infrastructure” for students.
Sawant said that many people have approached the DHE to create channels that cost rupee crores, but DHE did so with only thousands. “I like the DHE e-mitra definition that helps students study online.”
Around 3,500 videos were collected and about 1,000 were uploaded. There are currently about 2,500 videos edited. He said 20,000 videos will be made available when the channel is a year complete.
Prasad Lolayekar, director of higher education said that if anyone has no internet connexion, they can download or upload videos on request.
He also said that a video script is available which states what students are expecting and what tasks they are expected to undertake. He said the channel also contains reference books and other study materials. “With online training, we want to cover the whole curriculum,” he said.
Around 1,200 professors from all schools have taken part in the project and developed the videos. The 55-person technical team was founded and Lolayekar added that the University of Goa and Chowgule University have helped to develop Dishtavo – a multiple DHE projects aiming to allow learning to be open to all.