Remote Learning Initiatives in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu Government is pioneering the use of digital technology to improve governance, to empower teachers and to enhance resource utilization leading to excellent student outcomes. In this direction, efforts have been made to promote digital learning so that the students as well as teachers can continue to improve their learning and teaching skills respectively by making best use of the available digital platforms.

Presently, all schools are closed as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. School students have been significantly affected due to the lockdown since the academic year 2019-20 could not be properly brought to a proper close. Students are also now confined to their homes for safety reasons and they have little or no access to structured learning material for learning, practice and remediation during this period. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, all students are restricted to their home and they have no access to the classroom and school. There are few opportunities for them to engage with academic content and practice during the extended emergency break in schooling. When students, especially younger ones are confined to the home for a long duration of time without regular schooling in a situation similar to the summer break, there is a significant risk of regression in academic proficiency to happen for a large number of students during this period.

Without access to learning content, practice and suitable remediation a significant learning gap may be observed when the students return to school at the end of the lockdown crisis. This could potentially have a measurable negative impact on student academic performance across students of all age groups in the upcoming academic year. The amount of time needed for teachers to bridge the gap to grade of students may also significantly affect the progress of dissemination of academic content planned for the academic year.

With these aspects in mind, the School Education Department of Government of Tamil Nadu has launched several initiatives supporting the students and teachers during the lockdown. These initiatives are focused on continuously engaging teachers and students by creating multimodal learning opportunities.

The list of major e–learning initiatives provided by the School Education Department in response to the current crisis is as follows.

E-Learn Platform for Students

Tamil Nadu e-learn Platform is a customized content repository for students to access and utilize digital resources to improve their learning outcomes.

• It hosts more than 10,000 E-Learning Contents, 390 Digital Textbooks and 2000+ aggregated YouTube videos in one place. The content is aligned with the updated curriculum and is made available class-wise, term-wise, medium-wise, subject-wise and chapter-wise.
• Online Practice tests with detailed analysis are available for Government and Government Aided Students preparing for NEET exam. 

TN-DIKSHA for Students & Teachers

• All Textbooks are energized with QR codes which provide enriching learning content on TN-DIKSHA enabling students to enjoy and enhance their learning. On this platform, more than 14,000 resources for classes I to XII (Tamil & English medium), over 400 Science experiments, and over 1000 other videos related to the curriculum have been made available.
• ‘A lesson a Day’ initiative was also launched through which a link with the content related to a chapter of a subject is shared with students through a cascading WhatsApp network every day. This enables students to revise smaller chunks of content every day consistently.
• The contents can also be viewed through QR codes on Textbooks

Tamil Nadu Teachers Platform (TNTP)

• Tamil Nadu Teachers Platform empowers teachers with training and support material to deliver high-quality engaging content in their classrooms. Each teacher is provided with an individual login to the portal.
• It is a customized content repository exclusively for teachers of Tamil Nadu to upload, access and utilize digital resources to
  improve their classroom effectiveness.
• TNTP hosts more than 10,000 E-Learning Contents, 390 Digital Textbooks, 980+ Interactive Quizzes and 2000+ aggregated YouTube videos in one place. The content is aligned with the updated curriculum and is made available class-wise, term-wise, medium-wise, subject-wise and chapter-wise.
• For teacher professional development, courses on Spoken English and new textbook training are made available.
• Teachers are encouraged to build a repository of resources that can be shared and utilized by teachers across the State. All contributed content is curated by a team and the curated content is added to the repository. Teachers who contribute content to the repository are recognized through digital certificates sent to their emails.
• TNTP can be accessed through Tamil Nadu Teachers Platform

KalviTholaikatchi (Television Channel for Students)

• KalviTholaikatchi is an exclusive education channel which streams programmes related to state curriculum for teachers and students to access seamlessly. It encourages student learning beyond classroom hours and in the comfort of their homes.
• During the lockdown, to support the secondary students in their exam preparation, programs for 9th and 10th standard students were aired every half an hour every day.
• SMS communication was also sent to all the students regarding the programs so that they are informed about the program schedule.
• It can be viewed in the following cable networks within the State.
  • TACTV - CHANNEL 200
  • TCCL - CHANNEL 200
  • VK DIGITAL (POLIMER) - CHANNEL 55
  • AKSHAYA CABLE - CHANNEL 17
• The contents of Kalvi TV official channel are also accessible through the YouTube Channel Kalvi TV official. YouTube Channel

TNSCERT YouTube channel

• TN SCERT YouTube channel hosts around 3390+ videos which cover a wide range of topics related to education. From science practical videos to teaching video lessons, SCERT channel has vibrant resources which can be accessed by teachers and students for continuous learning.
• TN SCERT videos can be accessed through the YouTube channel whose link is added here. YouTube Channel

Facebook - Workplace

TN Schools Facebook Workplace provides a platform for teachers to learn through collaboration and sharing. Teachers can share best practices used in their classrooms, share resources and participate in discussion in different subject oriented groups.

Website : Tamil Nadu School Education

Student Mental Wellbeing in Partnership with UNICEF

• Launched a program to support the mental wellbeing of students taking board exams this year amidst the crisis, in partnership with UNICEF.
• Students can give a missed call to 9266617888, a toll free number. The students get a call back and can listen to short fun audio clips that help them understand how to cope with the myriad challenges they are going through during this crisis.

Tamil Nadu VagupparaiNokkin (Classroom Observation module)

One of the modules of the TN-EMIS mobile application is the classroom observation module for Block Resource Teacher Educators. This is used to capture the teacher practices, student learning levels and other classroom related data to identify best practices and to improve classroom experience for the students as well as for the teachers. 

NEET – Online Practice tests & Crash Course

• As a part of the e-Learn portal for students, online Practice tests is offered for Government and Government Aided Students preparing for NEET exam.
• Students are provided individual logins based on their NEET registration numbers. Students can log in, take practice tests and receive a detailed analysis of their performance topic-wise.
• Online NEET crash course is also provided to students from Government and Government Aided Schools. The course contains several hours of video lectures and 6500+ questions covering all topics.

Source : Remote Learning Initiatives Across India