SOA Varsity, IIT-Kharagpur sign MoU for joint research on pedagogy

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, August 25:

The SOA University today signed a MoU with IIT, Kharagpur at its premises in the Odisha capital to work together in two areas— for research on pedagogy by developing course contents in various subjects and production of Braille material using the ‘Sparsha’ software developed by IIT, Kharagpur.

The ‘Sparsha’ software helps convert any Indian language into Braille and SOA University could produce necessary Braille material for visually challenged students, particularly in Odia, for which IIT would extend the technology support, Prof Anupam Basu, Chairman of IIT, Kharagpur’s Centre for Educational Technology (CET), said.

“The SOAU can also set up a service centre and act as a hub for training institutions and educators for the visually challenged,” he said.

On pedagogy, IIT, Kharagpur and SOAU would jointly carry out research on several subjects based on which content could be developed by SOAU to be hosted on the national portal.

“These contents could be developed in the shape of video lectures, power point presentations, written texts, questions and virtual laboratory,” he said.

The MoU was signed by Prof OP Sha, Dean of the Centre for Continuing Education on behalf of IIT, Kharagpur and SOAU Vice-Chancellor Prof (Dr) Amit Banerjee in the presence of Prof Damodar Acharya, Chairman of SOAU’s Board of Advisors and former Director, IIT, Kharagpur.

Prof PK Nanda, Dean (Research) of SOAU and Dr MK Mallick, Director, ITER, were also signatories to the agreement.