India’s technical education regulator All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has launched a new free e-learning portal to foster digital learning and support the student community across the country amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Called as the Enhancement in Learning with Improvement in Skills (ELIS), the portal has been designed by the AICTE and launched by Professor Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, along with Professor M.P. Poonia, Vice Chairman, AICTE, and Professor Rijive Kumar, Member Secretary, AICTE, on April 12. The portal is available at free.aicte-india.org.
Announcing the launch of the portal, AICTE wrote on its official Twitter handle: “AICTE launches Enhancement in Learning with Improvement in Skills (ELIS) portal to positively engage and support learning of students and overcome setback to academic activity due to COVID-19 pandemic.”
According to its press release, the portal was created to provide all students with contents that will not only enhance learning for regular subjects but also aims to build up valuable skill sets as required in the actual work environment.
AICTE said many companies have come forward and offered their e-learning contents for free of cost to learners. The country’s top technical education body said the portal will offer 26 courses with contents sourced from 18 leading edtech companies.
Explaining about the courses and their prices, AICTE said,
“Under normal circumstances, these are selectively available at prices ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000. However, all participating companies have offered to enrol students in the present lockdown period without any cost till 15 May, 2020.”
The apex technical education body said all companies have agreed to keep the course free and that there shall be no charges whatsoever to be paid by learners who enrol now till the course is completed.
According to AICTE, the development team was led by Buddha Chandrashekhar, Chief Coordinating Officer, NEAT and NEAT cell team members Dr. Elangovan, Debanshu Srivastava, and Baljeet Singh.
Meanwhile, students can take the opportunity and enrol for courses free of cost by May 15. For detailed info, log on to website free.aicte-india.org.