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The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has taken a unique step to make its high-quality courses in Computer Science available to everyone. The Faculty from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) has developed a portal containing the core courses that can be accessed by students, educational institutions and anyone else interested.
The initiative is also a significant step towards realising the vision of IIT Madras Director, Prof. V. Kamakoti, who is keen to make high-quality education accessible to rural India, the institute said in an official statement.
The core Computer Science courses available on the portal- nsm.iitm.ac.in/cse/ are on programming, computer organisation, algorithms and data structures. Each course has YouTube recordings of live lectures taught to the students at the institution during the COVID-19 pandemic, News18 reported.
Speaking about the initiative, Prof. C. Chandra Sekhar, Head, Department of CSE, IIT Madras, said, “The recordings of live lessons for CSE core courses at the undergraduate and the graduate level are expected to be useful for the students in engineering colleges to learn the underlying principles and concepts of the subjects of these courses in the proper manner.”
He added that it will also be beneficial to the teachers in engineering colleges to learn how to effectively teach the essential and fundamental subjects in computer science and engineering and how to equip students with problem-solving skills. It is expected that the portal will be used to improve the quality of teaching and to learn the CSE core subjects in Engineering Colleges in India.
Computer science is one of India’s most sought-after engineering disciplines, especially in the IITs, and is of high interest to the students. Although many students apply for this stream in IITs, only a few seats are available in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Highlighting the initiative’s unique aspects, Dr Rupesh Nasre, Associate Professor, Department of CSE said, “The portal has been developed to help students who could not study at IIT Madras, especially those from far-flung and rural areas of India. They will have access to the same curriculum taught at the institute. This initiative will ensure that quality material is accessible to all students.”
“Apart from helping students, it will also benefit faculty of other educational institutions by providing access to lectures taught at IIT Madras,” Nasre added.
The Department also plans to engage senior students to conduct live tutorial sessions where they will also clarify their doubts.
Abhishek Dhiman, a student, thanked the faculty for this step and said, “Even if I don’t study at IIT Madras, I can access the institute’s lectures mainly due to this amazing initiative.”
Also, those availing of this initiative can attend quizzes on the portal for self-assessment and ascertain their understanding of the courses.
Sharing his experience, Kovvuri Sravankumar Reddy, a third-year BTech student, said, “The level of the quizzes on the portal is on par with the exams conducted by IIT for the undergraduate students.”
The department plans to create random quizzes in future for better evaluation. All the elements will provide a comprehensive package for the students to learn the course.
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