Mumbai: After taking quality teaching imparted at the renowned institute to the masses via the EDUSAT, IIT-Bombay has embarked upon a yet another ambitious project: making the lectures available to students through live webcasting, and that too for free.

"Webcasting has many advantages over the satellite based programme. Web is for the individual while the satellite based programme is a community project," Web Coordinator of Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay's Centre for Distance Engineering Education Programme Rahul Deshmukh told PTI here.

Stating that its a first of its kind project in India, Deshmukh said institutes install equipments worth Rs 3.2 lakh to receive the satellite transmission and moreover, EDUSAT has a very limited footprint due to which users outside the Indian subcontinent cannot avail the lectures which are being beamed presently.

Therefore, starting January 19, a "pilot project" of lectures in five chosen and specialised subjects like power electronics, artificial intelligence, nano electronics will be beamed live on the internet and can be accessed globally. "These are proper lectures. We have created a studio-cum-classroom with a capacity to accommodate 60 students.

Lecture schedules will be put on the web and the lectures will be transmitted live on the web," he said. Each subject has a 40-hour module and for the benefit of the students, IIT-B has also planned to maintain a digital library of the lectures calling it as "video on demand" (VOD).

Source : PTI