The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has launched an online open learning training platform, called ‘KOOL’. The platform can be useful in training teachers, students and the general public. Starting the first batch next month, the training will begin with the teachers. Registration has already begun since last Sunday.
“KOOL is expected to be the largest online training program in the state. KITE is looking forward to introduce more courses in KOOL which would not only benefit the teachers and students, but for the general public as well,” K Anvar Sadath, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, KITE said.
“As the schools in the state are going Hi-Tech, we require teachers and students to be trained on different domains simultaneously. So, it was decided to launch KOOL”, a press release said.
KOOL has been designed in the popular MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) model, which is used worldwide.
“Launching ‘KOOL’ is the step to make Kerala, India’s first complete digital state in Education”, said Prof C Raveendranath, state Education minister.
Learning Management Systems were a part of the approach paper on ‘Samagra’ resource portal and KOOL has been developed as an expansion of ‘Samagra’, the resource portal of the education department.
KOOL has a lot of features for learners in the form of animated learning assistants, video tutorials and check lists for practicing the activities, a press release said.
“There are 200 mentors with a capacity to train 4,000 persons at a time”, K Anvar Sadath, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, KITE said.
It is mandatory for the teachers to successfully complete 45 hours of computer course in order to clear their probation.
More than 5,000 teachers have applied to KITE for such courses. The training program in KOOL has been incorporated with relevant modules.
The modules are designed for six weeks, includes creation of word documents, spreadsheet, presentation, image editing, video-audio editing, development of digital resources, Malayalam typing, internet, educational applications.
As many as 2,500 teachers are inducted for the first batch of ‘KOOL’ where there is one mentor for every 20 teachers. Teachers who will successfully complete the course would be awarded certificates.
KITE has also submitted a proposal to the state government requesting approval to declare the KOOL Certificate acceptable for declaring the probation of teachers.