New Delhi: While online education has helped schools maintain learning continuity in some form or the other, students are missing out practical and hands on experience. To address this, Central Board of Secondary Education is drawing the attention to Olabs or online labs to help students perform Science experiments virtually. Olabs were introduced earlier in 2015 but did not receive its share of attention. However, the Board is putting the focus on helping students so that they do not miss out on practical learning.
CBSE Board is already conducting the online classes for the students but the experimental learning was missing out due to the pandemic. But Olabs will help students perform Science experiments virtually and learn better.
The training session for the same has been started for the teachers since July so that they can introduce this to the students in the online classes.
“Olabs was launched a few years back as an assistive tool for the teachers but in this pandemic, it is providing to be an important resource to ensure that students do not have to skip practical learning. The training is to increase awareness of this platform among educators and how they can best use it with daily classes”, said the director of Training and Skill Education, CBSE.
“Practicals carry a 30 mark weightage in Board exams and with such resumption nowhere in sight, students have been missing on all the lab experiments. Though Olabs students from Classes IX to XII can conduct experiments in Physics, Chemistry, Biology as well as Mathematics. The platform offers detailed experiments wherein students can first read the theory important to conduct the practical and then go through the steps to conduct the same”, said KS Jyothi, Vice Principal of The Samhita Academy, the report further added.
The e-experiments let students simulate the practical similar to a physical lab, says Jyothi. Though there are some limitations with experiments such as titration that would require students to use their sensory organs to identify the compounds, she says, the virtual experiments will help students learn.
“Also, there is no limitation with the number of times a student can perform an experiment unlike in physical labs with limited resources. It will help students self-learn and explore” she added.
OLabs is developed jointly by CDAC, Mumbai and AmritaCREATE, Amrita University. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.
Note: News shared for public awareness with reference to information provided at online news portals.