[Cover Story] SSN campus to go wi-fi - News

SSN Institutions have announced their latest initiative aimed at promoting excellence in education through new technology to augment the teaching-learning process. Each student will be provided with laptop and the entire campus will be Wi-Fi-enabled. This is a reinforcement of SSN's vision of being a centre of excellence, said Kala Vijayakumar, president, SSN Institutions.

"Recognising the technological advances of the 21st century and challenges of engineering education of the 21st century, SSN Institutions have decided to adapt advanced wireless technology to enhance the teaching and learning process through E-Learning Initiative," she said, adding that "the E-learning initiative will enrich classroom teaching. This initiative will supplement classroom teaching. Starting with the academic year 2007-08 coverage will be given to the first year B.E., B.Tech. , M.E. , M.B.A., and M.C.A (first year of all under-graduate and postgraduate programmes being offered in the SSN Institution) ."

The entire campus win be Wi-Fi-enabled; students and the faculty members will be provided with laptops; an intranet server will be maintained on the campus where the faculty members will upload the lesson plans, lecture notes and the reading material. The students can go through the material along with their class notes to learn at their own pace and participate more actively in the class. Each student will access the E-Learning Framework using their own user IDs and will be able to access the assignments and submit their assignments online.

Kala Vijayakumar said, "We are creating an infrastructure which will permit students to engage in a much more interactive manner with the learning and teaching process in an environment that is enjoyable and seamless."

Special workshops will be conducted for the faculty to enable them to develop and manage the course content. Workshops will also be held for students to enable them to sharpen their skills for e-learning.

The expected cost for this initiative is expected to be approximately Rs 2 crore.

The unique benefits of the new teaching learning process will be:

* The wireless learning and teaching environment through chat sessions will enable the faculties to answer seamlessly any queries that students may have.
* Using wireless intranet, the student can reserve a book from anywhere on the campus without having to go to the library personally.
* The educational process will become more 'learner driven' giving its benefits to the students.

SSN Institutions comprise SSN College of Engineering (SSNCE), SSN School of Management & Computer Applications (SSNSoMCA). The institutions are managed by the SSN Trust (Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar Educational and Charitable Trust). The trust was instituted in 1994 by Shiv Nadar, founder, HCL and (late) Justice Pratap Singh in honour of Shiv Nadar's father. The SSN Institutions are ideally located on Old Mahabalipuram Road , known as the 'Cyber Corridor' of Chennai.

The campus is spread over 250 acres with a built-up area of over 1 million sq ft and is equipped with state-of-the- art infrastructure for learning including computers and Internet facilities networked by optic fibre links, modern workshops and labs, seminar halls, auditorium, libraries, gymnasium, a sports complex and separate hostels for men and women.

The total students strength is 2,600. The faculty student ratio is a favourable 1:12. SSN Institutions offer significant student scholarships to encourage merit and to make education accessible to students of all economic strata. The institution has initiated a thriving tradition of over 250 scholarships offered every year to meritorious and deserving students.

----Published on June 2nd, 2007