TRY THESE AS WELL
Think we have it all, here at IIT-B? Wait, there’s more! Aishwarya and Prasham, with inputs from the General Secretaries, share a glimpse
In our for-next loop of daily activities we often inadvertently overlook, or aren’t aware of, several really helpful resources that the institute has to offer. Some of them could redefine our approach to academics – others, pertaining to the tech and cultural spheres, bring alive the age old debate of “there aren’t sufficient fundae sessions” vs. “the students aren’t enthu enough to leave their rooms”, which we’ll save for later. All we’ll do is show you things that are out there, which currently aren’t being utilized to their fullest. Remember, at the end of the day, everyone’s paying the same amount for the upkeep of these facilities. How well we use them is up to us.
Moodle: Designed as a forum for discussion, Moodle is a course management system (CMS) which facilitates professor-student interaction beyond lecture hours. Its usefulness lies in its assortment of features; where, along with getting their doubts cleared, students can continually provide feedback on course content and structure. Also, professors could post course updates and announcements, as well as supplementary material such as reference links and videos. Essentially, if integrated into a course instructor’s teaching scheme, Moodle could transform into a one-stop shop for a student’s academic needs, where one can submit assignments, check grades and download lecture slides – tasks which currently require sifting through a lot of emails.
For a detailed idea of Moodle’s usefulness, please visit http://moodle.iitb.ac.in/.
CDEEP Video Lectures: A comprehensive streaming video archive of certain courses of nearly every department is maintained by CDEEP, available free of cost for IIT-B students accessing it within the intranet. This is particularly helpful for students who’ve missed lectures, as it almost recreates the classroom environment we’re habituated to learning from. Even for those who’ve attended, the possibility of completing one’s class notes, and even revisiting something that wasn’t clear earlier, is rather compelling. Several students have overloaded CDEEP courses that parallel their interests, since the problem of clashing slots can be taken care of, as students view the lectures at a later time.
For a list of courses whose videos are available, please visit http://vod.cdeep.iitb.ac.in/vod/vod.jsp.
Free Public Wi-Fi: Even though there is still some time for the entire campus to go wireless, several Wi-Fi hotspots exist, mostly in the academic area. Can’t seem to connect to the internet? Changing your proxy settings to openworld.iitb.ac.in, port 3128, or simply netmon.iitb.ac.in, port 80, should do the trick. The convenience of wireless connectivity can be misused, hence certain Wi-Fi networks, most notably those in the central library and the MB, have been encrypted recently over security concerns. Wi-Fi enabled classrooms are common abroad with the additional material online adding a whole new dimension to learning what’s being taught – a possibility we look forward to being implemented in all departments.
The map shows the locations of the Wi-Fi hotspots in the campus. The red ones have been recently encrypted using a WEP key, hence are effectively unusable. The green ones are still available for general use. Some other departments might also have Wi-Fi networks; these are just the ones we’ve encountered.
Books in IITB: Hunting for an obscure title by your favorite novelist? In addition to the central library, your hostel library, or even the SAC library could be worth a look. The Cult Council plans on revamping the Book Club to include a wider variety of books available to the students who’ve registered. Urgently require a book that’s already been issued to someone else? The department libraries could be your best bet, and a change in the current rules (one book per ID-card) could possibly see a lot more books being issued.
The central library offers several helpful academic resources beyond books for issue. The entire upper floor is dedicated to print issues of journals and periodicals, pertinent especially to PGs and UGs working on their final year projects. Numerous e-journals dealing with the most diverse of topics are available free for download via the central library’s website, providing an excellent alternative to the ubiquitous Wikipedia. Also available are several video CD-ROMs containing documentaries pertaining to course matter, giving us all the information we need on a field of our interest.
Hostel Activity Rooms: Although stocked with everything one could imagine, hostel music and tech rooms remain locked save for when a competition’s around the corner. Right from bass guitars to drum kits, from drilling machines to motors -- there’s enough to keep these rooms buzzing with activity throughout the year. It’s possible to issue one of the several classical music instruments in the Convo Music Room against your ID-card. There’s even a Hobby Room right beside the WEL Labs on the third floor of the EE Department, perfect for applying those electronics principles. Looking for a reason to log out of that chat window or CS game? This could be it.
Looking for more info on what resources the cultural and technical scene at IIT-B has to offer? Please visit:
http://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~cultural/
http://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~technic/
Aishwarya Sharma is a third year student of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Prasham Rambhia is a second year student of the Aerospace Engineering Department. They can be contacted at bonny.sharma@iitb.ac.in and prasham@iitb.ac.in.
