Online Labs to be used by CBSE to help students perform Science Experiments Virtually
To help the students to perform the Science experiment virtually, CBSE is drawing attention to its newly introduced idea about online labs or OLabs. OLabs was launched in 2015 but did not receive its share of attention that time.
CBSE is putting a renewed focus on ‘Olabs’ considering that the schools are shut due to the ongoing pandemic. The board has also started the Training session for teachers in July so that the students do not miss out on practical learning.
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.
CBSE has been conducting online classes for the students since March 2020 but the experimental learning has been lacking out. With the help of Olabs students would be able to perform Science experiments virtually and learn better.
The CBSE Director of Training and Skill Education, Biswajit Saha said, “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.”
While talking about the initiative, KS Jyothi, Vice Principal of The Samhita Academy, said, “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.”
She further added that, “There is no limitation with the number of times a student can perform an experiment unlike in physical labs within limited resources. It will help students self-learn and explore”.