Though colleges and other educational institutions in the state remain shut due to the lockdown, the students at Thiruvananthapuram CET, Ernakulam Model Engineering College and Kollam TKM College are still busy learning.
Students can learn more than 3800 online courses offered by prominent institutes like the John Hopkins University, Yale University, University of Illinois, University of Michigan and University of Colorado Boulder and also tech giants like Google and Intel, through an online platform called Coursera.
Coursera has allowed free access to courses for students of educational institutions in coronavirus hotspots. The students can make use of this opportunity and take certificate courses during the lockdown.
Other platforms
Experts say that courses designed using learning management system where students and teachers can interact online would become more popular now. Dr. Sunil Thomas, principal of Attingal College of Engineering, said that the students would have access to video recordings of sessions, notes, assignments and grades using Google Classroom, Moodles, Piazza and OpenEdx.
Moodles software can be used absolutely free of cost. It can be installed in the server along with the college website. Group study sessions and interactive learning is possible through various online platforms like Zoom, Google Hangout and Microsoft Team.
Courses
From dog emotions and cognition, chicken behaviour and welfare to the motion planning of the self-driving cars, online platforms allow free access to any number of courses. Normally, these courses would at least cost between Rs 4000-20,000. Besides video classes, there are weekly projects and assignments. Students can apply till July 31. The courses should be completed before 30 September.
Even if the college doesn't get any free packages, there are lots of free courses available on online platforms like Coursera and Udemy. However, fee should be paid if you need the certificate.