Berhampur: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted educational systems worldwide, leading to the closures of schools, colleges and universities. The education sector has changed dramatically overnight with focus shifted from classroom teaching to online teaching, school spaces to virtual classrooms. The e-learning or digital learning has now become an integral part of the teaching-learning process, the trend has eventually dominated the education and will continue to persist post-pandemic.
In the rapidly changing education scenario, the Odisha Government’s innovative online learning platform Madhu App, which Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had launched in December last year, has received an overwhelming response among the students and teachers across the State.
The educational app has seen a tremendous rise in number of users. The app has over 78,000 active users daily. It has received more than 2.7 lakh downloads and 3.3 crore sessions. More than 8 lakh educational videos have been downloaded through this app. About 8 lakh students have taken virtual tests, according to official data.
Conceptualized and designed by the Ganjam district administration in line with the Chief Minister’s 5T mantra, the mobile app provides mother tongue based virtual classroom experience in the palm of every student of the State.
Named after Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das, the chief architect of modern Odisha, the Madhu App seeks to provide quality teaching content focusing 5E’s of education – engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate.
The key objective of the App is to kindle the light of knowledge in the hearts of the students using technology. The innovative mobile app aims promoting e-learning skills, self-learning and self-assessment of learning achievement by the students themselves, says Ganjam Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange.
The app contains complete syllabus for Class V to X with video lectures and exercises by leading subject experts and educationists. It also contains the practice tests under DREAM (Drive for Result Enhancement in Annual Matriculation Examination).
This app helps students in learning their lessons through videos and tutorials. It also enables them to clarify doubts at their own space of learning, stated Ganjam District Education Officer (DEO) Amulya Padhan, who plays a major role in selection of teachers for the development content for the app.
At this challenging time, the Madhu App has really helped the students to get a vibrant platform for learning, he said while adding that they are currently giving utmost priority on Class X syllabus.
Besides the teachers, professional video documentation teams have also been engaged for the preparation of lecture videos.
Now-a-days many students are accessible to android based mobile phones even in rural areas. Hence, Madhu App is the best educational app to address the challenges posed by COVID-19 in the teaching-learning process, opines Lingaraj Jena, a primary school teacher in Patrapur block.
During the pre-pandemic period, the app has gained wide acceptance among the students as it helps them refreshing memory what is learnt in the classroom or what is taught in a class, he added.
Meanwhile, there are certain challenges to overcome in order to the online education more inclusive. The major challenge is the lack of reliable internet access in the remote areas.