The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation has partnered with ‘Vidya Shakti,’ an initiative of OpenMentor to educate students in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh through online classes and virtual reality. OpenMentor is the CSR initiative of Softsmith Infotech Private Limited.
The initiative aims to tackle the ‘knowledge gap’ between students from urban and rural areas which widened because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The classes are focused on the fundamentals of languages as well as on Mathematics and Science.
The initiative has already been implemented in 100 villages of the Varanasi district with sessions being conducted in Hindi medium for students belonging to Classes 6 and 8.
Student retention levels have increased by adopting various technologies. STEM tutors will take VR headsets to the classes to ‘act’ on educational content and enable students to ‘feel’ the environment (the subject) through sensors. For concepts in Science and Mathematics, short 3D videos are utilized. In order to make the experience more memorable for students, the visualization sessions are made to be interactive through questions and answers sessions. Students will rapidly develop more responsiveness, communication and participation by ‘telling’ answers during Q and A.
The STEM tutor will carry three to four VR devices for each session, they will visit one school in the morning and one in the afternoon. The concept will be explained briefly to the students, after which they will be asked to view the VR videos in small batches.
IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation is the technology innovation hub of the institute. It is a not-for-profit company funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.