IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation has collaborated with 'Vidya Shakti' to bring education to rural parts of Uttar Pradesh using Online Classes and Virtual Reality (VR).

The initiative has already been implemented in 100 villages in the Varanasi District, with sessions held in Hindi for pupils in grades 6th to 8th.

This initiative is intended to tackle the ‘knowledge gap’ created by Covid-19 between students from urban and rural areas. The classes are focused on the fundamentals of languages as well as on maths and science.

Student retention levels have increased by adopting various technologies. STEM teachers take VR Headsets to classes to ‘act’ on the educational content and enable students to ‘feel’ the environment through the sensors. Short 3D videos are utilised for each concept in science and maths.

‘Vidya Shakti’ is an initiative of OpenMentor, formed in 2009 as a Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of Softsmith Infotech Private Limited to cater to the online education and skilling of the student community in the country. It conducts online courses in industry-relevant software skills besides providing recorded sessions and online exams for the students to practice and do self-evaluation.

"Vidya Shakti is a project involving several like-minded organisations including IIT Madras, committed to improving the Gross Enrolment Ratio of our country. 

The project involves a STEM Tutor carrying three to four VR devices for each session. The tutor will visit one school in the morning and one school in the afternoon. The concept will be explained briefly, after which the students, in small batches, will be asked to view the VR videos and ‘feel’ the subject.

Students will be asked questions by the tutor while the video is on. By ‘telling’ the experience, students rapidly develop more responsiveness, communication and participation.