Amrita University’s e-learning solution A-View wins FICCI National Award for Excellence in Technology

The Open-Source E-Learning solution A-View, developed with support from the Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India, is currently being used in 11,000 institutions of higher learning all over India 

by Shrutee K/DNS 

Mumbai, 23^rd November 2016: Amrita University’s open-source E-Learning solution A-View has won the 2016 FICCI National Award for Excellence in Technology. The award was received by Prof. Kamal Bijlani, Director, E-Learning Research Lab, Amrita University, from NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr. Arvind Panagariya at the 12th FICCI Higher Education Summit. The event was inaugurated by HRD Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar, along with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and EU Director General for Culture and Education, Martin Reicherts. 

Prof. Kamal Bijlani, Director, E-Learning Research Lab, Amrita University, said, “We at Amrita University are deeply honored to receive the FICCI award for excellence in higher education for A-View. This recognition is a testimony to the immense value that A-View provides by addressing the acute shortage of quality teachers in India. It is a live audio-video educational platform being used by 11,000 institutes of higher education. It is open source and provided free to promote higher education in the country. A-View allows any teacher anywhere in the world to connect with thousands of students simultaneously by setting up online classrooms, meetings, training sessions, workshops and conferences. Students can attend live online sessions and clear doubts from expert teachers online.”

The A-VIEW online virtual classroom facilitates live student-teacher audio/video interaction with shared whiteboard, questions, quiz, polling and monitoring. The trainer can share content share documents, 3D objects, desktop sharing, and Youtube videos through the platform. The technology is open-source and provided free to colleges and universities to promote higher education in India. It has also been adopted by many CBSE-affiliated schools through a program called UDAAN.

The FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards 2016 recognise and felicitate achievements of universities and other higher educational institutions and individuals for improving the quality of higher education in India, through visionary thinking, adopting process innovation and disruptive technology.

Amrita University has developed A-View with support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. Prof. Kamal Bijlani, Director, Amrita University’s E-Learning Research Lab, said, “There is a big need for a collaborative e-learning solution like A-View in India. The country has very few excellent teachers and trainers but millions of students. A-view connects the two remotely. It allows a teacher to teach and interact online with thousands of students simultaneously regardless of location. This is done on real-time basis through live audio-video streaming and synchronized content sharing.”

A-View software can be set up in classrooms for groups or by individual learners on a computer or smart phone. The teacher also installs the same software. The platform works by using a set of servers. Amrita University provides the A-View software for free through its website www.aview.in while the users have to arrange for the hardware.

About A-View

www.aview.in
A-View (Amrita Virtual Interactive e-Learning World) was launched by Amrita University in 2009 with support of the Ministry of HRD. It is an award-winning, indigenously built, multi-modal, multimedia e-learning platform that provides an immersive e-learning experience that is almost as good as a real classroom. It is a part of “Talk to a Teacher” program coordinated by IIT Bombay and funded by the Ministry of HRD under the Indian Government’s National Mission for Education using Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT).

About Amrita University

https://www.amrita.edu/ 
Amrita University is a multi-campus, multi-disciplinary research university that is accredited 'A' by NAAC and is ranked as one of the best research universities in India. The University is spread across five campuses in three states of India - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, with the University headquarters at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The University continuously collaborates with top US institutions including Ivy League universities and top European universities for regular student exchange programs and has emerged as one of the fastest growing institutions of higher learning in India. The University is managed by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math.

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi is the founder and Chancellor of Amrita University. She is also known as Amma to millions around the globe. A world renowned humanitarian leader, Amma is the guiding light of the university. Amma's words, thoughts, and views on education and research have shaped the university's mission and vision.