Beaming onto children
Under a project expected to commence later this year, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will utilise a permanent satellite facility for beaming programmes and lectures to students throughout the country. This project, which follows a successful experiment conducted in October 1993 by the Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (stride), is being undertaken with the technical collaboration of the Indian Space Research organisation.
The software for the programmes will be prepared within the IGNOU campus and then transmitted by the satellite uplink van on the premises to the satellite, which will beam it down to the class rooms. The students can access the audio-visual package and can also interact with the teachers through std connections. There are plans to set up class rooms at all the 16 IGNOU regional centres, the 3 regional open universities, and a few in remote areas like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshwadeep and the northeast, according to stride executive director B N Kaul.