Indigenous Development of Light Boards

One of the major difficulties faced by educators developing online content is about missing the conventional chalk board. Science teachers needed it for derivations, Commerce teachers needed it for accountancy problems and the list was not so small. University had come up with this innovative idea; in which teachers can face directly the students without losing eye contact and can engage the class more effectively.

 Lightboard was very soon constructed in house using acrylic glass, led lighting, and SS supports. We could minimize the cost to Rs.17000/ and we are happy to inform you that this was the first light board in the state of Kerala or any college in India. IQAC spearheaded the indigenous development of Light Boards (Two Versions): Interface 1.0 and Interface 2.0.

Though the first version was successful it was observed that many of the teachers faced problems to take live classes and the cost was comparatively high. The brainstorming and trials soon came up with the solution of desktop version and a suitable android app to flip the live video. The cost came down to Rs. 7000/-. Live classes can be conducted in google meet, zoom or any video conferencing applications using the Interface 2.0.

The outcome of this project is that high quality video tutorials are completed in thirteen different subjects. The videos are uploaded in public domain for the use of student community. Four educational institutions approached us to make Interface Lightboard for them. The lightboards were delivered and the institutions are using it successfully.

Evidence of Success

Majority of teaching and non-teaching staff of the college has been trained in the use of ICT application. Majority of teachers have started using Moodle LMS and other ICT resources. There is an increased use of ICT by the teachers in classroom teaching, evaluation and assessments, use of audio-visual resources, applications to engage the students, recording/uploading lectures in various platforms, data analysis through software.

Two dedicated YouTube channels for education with more than 700 high quality video lectures (www.youtube.com/Christopencourseware, www.youtube.com/Christopencoursewarebeta). Christ OpenCourseWare - the online portal has now 31 full-fledged courses and is now been used by students of other colleges also Audit Courses developed by our College are also made available to students of other colleges. Five Mandatory Value-added Founation Courses are provided through Christ OpenCourseWare.

ICT team became capable to work as resource persons and started giving training to teaching staff of other colleges. The number of students qualifying in JAM examinations have increased by 30 percentage and our placements have increased by 45 percentage during the period. Teachers could easily switch over to the online education mode during the Covid pandemic. Many teachers have started the YouTube Channels for the dissemination of their video classes. Ingeniously developed 

Light Boards were marketed to educational institutions at an affordable price. ICT has become an integral part of teaching-learning process of our college.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required

The non-availability of strong network connectivity (low bandwidth) from the service providers (Semi-urban locality) in the beginning was a major handicap in the use of ICT facilities. The College has switched to100 mbps connection to overcome this difficulty. Some teachers were reluctant earlier to adapt with the new technology. There is now an enhanced vigour visible among teachers, achieved partially due to conscientisation programmes and partly due to the pandemic. Students who were deprived of gadgets faced difficulties in accessing the Moodle LMS. NSS and Thavanish spearheaded programmes to provide mobile gadgets. Number of computer labs and systems available were not sufficient in the beginning. College has now 18 computer labs with all facilities. Students were not allowed to use their smartphones in the classes in the initial stages. Situation changed after the pandemic where phones are now a part of students’ knowledge acquisition tools.

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