Kerala's General Education Department has rolled out a Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) based video conferencing ( VC) system in the wake of the Central government's security warning against the use of the Zoom Video Communications application, which is being widely used during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown period.
The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has customised the FOSS application -- BigBlueButton -- to be effectively used for online learnings and meetings.
K. Anvar Sadath, Chief Executive Officer, KITE, said that in addition to the VC facility, the BigBlueButton app also features screen sharing, multi-user whiteboard, public chat and shared notes facilities.
"Proprietary VC applications such as Zoom often threatens the privacy of users, and in such a context the BigBlueButton application is not only a unique web conferencing system for official purposes, but KITE also has plans for using this application for providing training to the public," said Sadath.
Besides, the application is a helpful web conferencing software for the teachers since it is fully customised for online learning activities. The application enables the teachers to share slides, videos and audios with their students in a live interactive mode. Further, the presentation area in the application can also be used as a White Board.
Sadath added that KITE has already integrated this VC application with its KOOL (KITE's Open Online Learning) learning management system for online training.
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