Vidyaweb - Grow by Learning Together

The typical syllabus for a traditional higher-studies course in developing countries teaches too many things. This philosophy of casting a wide net, however, adversely affects the chances of the students, especially those in technical streams, because the technical subjects like computer application involving disciplines like programming not only require in-depth technical knowledge but a fair experience of putting that knowledge to use.

Vidyaweb sees subjects revolving around web-programming as the most appropriate for kicking-off e-learning considering its gentler learning curve, the good open source tools available, general interest in the subject and most important of all, industrial demand. According to Wikipedia:

Since the mid-1990s, web development has been one of the fastest growing industries in the world. In 1995 there were fewer than 1,000 web development companies in the United States, but by 2005 there were over 30,000 such companies in the U.S. alone. The web development industry is expected to grow over 20% by 2010. The growth of this industry is being pushed by large businesses wishing to sell products and services to their customers and to automate business workflow.

In recent experimental and quasi-experimental studies contrasting blends of online and face-to- face instruction with conventional face-to-face classes, blended instruction has been more effective, providing a rationale for the effort required to design and implement blended approaches. Even when used by itself, online learning appears to offer a modest advantage over conventional classroom instruction.

In our opinion, it would be difficult to help non-IT savvy learners with any success with online learning due to the limited reach of the Internet and the prohibitive cost of making e-learning useful for the non-ICT courses. The students opting for ICT courses have better chance of understanding the online medium as well as having better access to the PC and the Internet.

Power cuts and inadequate Internet reach could be issues that need to be part of the equation right from the very beginning. Vidyaweb strives to address these issues by offering offline alternatives. Also, it is hoped that the situation in this regard will improve with time and with the PC prices and Internet penetration showing encouraging trends,