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With online education becoming more and more popular, Information technology or IT as it is called cannot remain far behind. When the Indian Institute of Technology, which is also known as the IIT launched its first online IT degree program to be offered from all of its seven branches located in different Indian cities in the year 2003; it received an astounding four million or forty lakh hits from more than seventeen countries of people who were interested in the same. These courses are conducted in virtual classrooms and the institute is expected to add more different courses in the coming months. Infrastructure facilities too are going to be improved to make room for the same.
The first program of such a kind was known as the National Program on Technology and Enhanced Learning abbreviated as NPTEL, was initiated by IIT Chennai in 2003. The content used to teach students online was in the form of Flash games, Videos and an online discussion board and chat room for discussing the issues faced by the students and also for adding an interactive feel to this new patter of learning. This course was an instant hit and in the very next year an additional twenty different disciplines or courses were formulated and designed for online learning. Today, with the approval of the Indian Human Resource Development ministry, this number has increased from twenty to more than one thousand and fresh approvals are constantly being made for the online IT courses. Many educational institutions have even set up totally new departments for online degrees in IT and other fields. In addition, things have changed a lot for the better today. Earlier, only graduation courses were being offered online but today there are even many post-graduate degrees and diplomas being offered online in more than twenty three different disciplines.
The NPTEL program was initiated more than a decade ago in 1999 and today many private engineering colleges opt for having a joint venture or tie-up with them to offer engineering courses and degrees. The overall program too has improved a lot with the basic videos and recordings of professors being played to interactive websites and even some good engineering flash games to help the students learn and score better in their exams. All these are again conducted online. The option of getting an online IT degree is much better than opting for un-recognized engineering colleges that do not have trained and experienced faculty and can make you lose precious time and money in your learning years.
The biggest savings for students going for online degrees is time. Many of them claim that they have learned more in just three sessions on online learning as compared to what they would learn in fifteen lectures in colleges and yet fail to comprehend properly. Online courses not only help the students harness their full potential but also make it convenient for them to learn at their own time and without the burden of traveling or relocating from their home.
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