Live broadcasting app gives distance learning a connect
01/09/2016
CHENNAI: Distance learning just got a boost. YakSee, a start-up platform based in Silicon Valley, California, on Friday announced the launch in the country of an integrated live broadcasting app to help students and teachers share lesson plans online. YakSee is available on the Google Play store.
Educationists feel the platform could take the learning process ahead in Tamil Nadu, a hub for distance learning with several open universities. It helps teachers and students register and create study groups. Students can tune into live sessions launched by teachers, lasting up to 90 minutes, and raise questions or send individual chat messages to the teacher. The study groups can also coordinate on timings of sessions.
A 3G connection is required for video sessions but students who cannot afford 3G network can go offline where sessions will be in audio mode. For subjects like maths however, the creators recommend visual mode.
While Great Lakes Institute of Management, Kancheepuram, will formally launch the app for its students and faculty on Saturday, it will also be available on all android phones free for students from across the country.
Launched five years ago in the US, it was recently taken to Bangladesh before it arrived in Chennai. "In Bangladesh, many volunteers have been able to reach out to students in remote areas who either cannot afford tutoring or are located in a region where easy access to education is absent. It has had a successful innings in the country with the Bangladeshi government also signing an MoU with us," said a representative of YakSee.
YakSee chairman and chief executive officer Shah Talukder said, "The Chennai launch focuses on a controlled access program in India especially to support, and add live interactivity to several distance learning projects in India."
While Great Lakes Institute of Management, Kancheepuram, will formally launch the app for its students and faculty on Saturday, it will also be available on all android phones free for students from across the country.