A virtual teaching environment was considered as a dream in professional institutions in India till some time ago. But now two leading medical colleges in India have organized a virtual teaching session for the first time in the country. The session connected Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal with the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). This is in fact a revolutionary step in the field of medical education in India.

Virtual classroom concept introduced for the first time in medical colleges

For the first time, the students from Gandhi Medical College interacted with professors from AIIMS with the help of virtual teaching session. This is a pilot project which is backed by the National Knowledge Commission (NKC). The main objective behind the project is to improve the medical education standards in the country and to increase the interaction between the medical colleges in India.

There are many other medical colleges that will be connected in the future as a part of the project and it includes Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research- Chandigarh, Jawaharlal Institute of PostGraduate Medical Education and Research- Pondicherry, Lady Hardinge Medical College- Delhi, and North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences- Shillong.

Plan to connect all the medical colleges in India

Official sources say that NKC plan to extend the project to all the medical colleges in India and connect them through Virtual Teaching. One of the officials said that VT is not considered as a substitution to teaching, rather a supplementation to the efforts.

The National Informatics Centre is giving technical support for the project with dedicated fiber optic cable.

Virtual teaching to improve quality of education

The Virtual Teaching sessions are set to enable sharing of knowledge between the participants. It connects professors and students from various centers and thus they will have a platform to share their views, experience and the students will be able to ask questions and clear doubts. Getting connected with leading institutes will help students in other institutions to have access to experienced and quality professors which will improve the outcome of the learning process. The students will be opened to a world of ideas which will enhance their thinking and creative abilities.

Students will also get the opportunity to interact with students from other institutions, which will give them a better understanding of their skills and capabilities. Student to student interaction helps them to understand where they lag and what needs to be done to make improvements. Such a faculty-student interaction and student-student interaction will improve the quality of the education system in the country.

Virtual learning ensures interaction between students and thus will lead to collaborative research works among them. This will enhance the ability of the students to ask sensible questions and their logical thinking.

With Virtual Teaching, a single professor will be able to take classes in different institutions at the same time and interact with students from those institutes. This will eliminate the need for the physical presence of faculty in each of the classrooms. This will in turn save time and money.

With access to better faculty and that too from leading institutes, the virtual teaching is definitely going to improve the quality of education in the country.