QR coded books for Classes VI-X to boost learning skills

Visakhapatnam: This academic year, for the first time in India, students of classes VI to X will get ‘Energising Textbooks’. The department of school education has recently concluded the content curation process for the textbooks. Comprising of embedded QR codes for certain topics/science experiments/words/procedures alongside regular content, the codes will redirect students to digital content such as text and rich media such as interactive animations, graphics, videos, etc. These textbooks will be ready for distribution across the state in the next few days.

Director of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), D Madhusudana Rao, revealed that Andhra Pradesh is a pioneer in introducing the QR code embedded textbooks at school level in India. “The QR coded textbooks provide an opportunity to students to revise lessons at home. They can even learn the basics of a topic before they go to school as the QR codes contain images and videos. We are developing an application for the students to access the data,” said Madhusudana Rao.

Rao further added that the content has been specifically mapped, pooled and curated for the state students by a team of specialist teachers. “The content was curated for the unique set of needs and understanding levels of students of our state,” said Madhusudana Rao.

The department of school education of Andhra Pradesh has also proposed to constitut e ‘e-content corporation cells’.

State coordinator/administrator of ‘e-Knowledge eXchange’, Pokuri Srinivasarao, said they are mulling on how to popularise QR coded textbooks at government schools. “The digital classrooms at these schools will help in the initiative. On the other hand, we are planning to provide mobile screen enlargers at these schools with which they can use their existing computer tablets — currently used for biometric attendance — and get the required content in the textbooks,” said Srinivasa Rao.

The state government has already set up the ‘e-Knowledge eXchange’, which is an online learning resource for teachers as well as students. The Energising Textbooks project was undertaken as part the ‘e-Knowledge eXchange’ initiative. The APeKX is a platform anchored by 120 subject experts from across the state that was recently replicated by the ministry of human resource development at the national level.


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