With a vision to transform agricultural education in India, top institutes such as the GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology (Patnanagar) , Punjab Agricultural University (Ludhiana) and Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (Hisar) have entered into an agreement to go digital. These universities aim to shift focus from blackboard teaching to virtual classroom teaching.
A meeting on the joint initiative of agricultural universities in India was held in Patnanagar recently, where the top officials from these three universities were also present. The agenda of the high-level meeting was to finalize the modus operandi for the New Dimensions (JAI HIND) initiative of honing as well as inspiring young agricultural graduates.
So what is the New Dimensions (JAI HIND) initiative all about? It basically relies on the shared intellectual resources that are available at different institutes in the country. The universities will identify the best teachers or resource persons from their respective institutes who will be bestowed the responsibility of conducting sessions on the variety of technologies available in the virtual learning space.
As a part of the discussion, GBPUAT Patnanagar, PAU Ludhiana and CCSHAU Hisar agreed to adopt a common course curriculum and time table to facilitate virtual learning. Professors from one university will be delivering the lecture which will be live-streamed at the other two universities. This is the first time that such an initiative is being taken to teach regular classes for regular degrees such as agriculture in the country.
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The Vice-Chancellor of the Haryana-based agricultural university highlighted the fact that through the medium of virtual classroom teaching, students will become more interested in the learning process and will be able to grasp more. According to the Dean of Agriculture at GB Pant University of Agricultural Technology, Dr. J. Kumar, technology can be used in various forms at the higher education level to keep the students informed with the latest developments in a particular domain or area of study.
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The Coordinator of the JAI HIND programme, Dr. A.S. Nain said that he will ensure that all the three universities are aligned and work in tandem to get the maximum benefit out of the agricultural sector of the country.