- NIIT Imperia’s remote-classroom technology enables young
chess champions across the nation to interact and play with World No.
1
Simultaneous release in Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore,
Hyderabad, Chennai on May 31, 2007:
MindChampion Viswanathan Anand has played simultaneous chess with multiple
challengers, many times before. But the simultaneous chess that he played with 6
opponents located in cities as far apart as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore
and Hyderabad, while being at the Kolkata studio of NIIT Imperia Centre for
Advanced Learning, was a first-time experience for him.
NIIT Imperia used its innovative ‘Synchronous Learning’ technology to
connect the recently crowned World No. 1 Vishy Anand, with chess enthusiasts,
students and representatives of media across these six cities.
Vishy’s challengers across these six cities included the most-promising
young members of amateur chess clubs. Aged between 8 and 18 years, many of these
young players have already achieved FIDE rankings and participated in national
and international events. 8-year old Harshal Shahi, the youngest player to have
been rated internationally last year; Raja Surya J. (Asian under-14 Gold Medal
winner); Mahalakshmi M (World under-8 Bronze Medal winner) and Sayantan Das (Sub
Junior Champion) were among those who took on the World No 1.
The unique Synchronous Learning technology–-used by NIIT Imperia for its
Executive Education programs—connects remote classrooms live with faculty from
the Indian Institutes of Management at Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Indore. Dedicated
two-way audio-video interaction systems and special software that fully
replicates face-to-face teaching, lie at the core of this new teaching
technology.
NIIT Brand Ambassador, Anand utilized the same teaching capabilities of
this technology to conduct lively tutorials for chess enthusiasts in the six
cities, during which he also analysed a few of the landmark games from his
career. Using the same platform he also responded to questions from this
dispersed audience, on technical aspects of chess, his professional career and
the experience of being Numero Uno in World Chess.
Earlier in the day, Viswanathan Anand addressed a six-city live press
conference. This was Vishy’s first media conference after being crowned World
No. 1, as well as his first-ever multi-city press interaction.
Speaking at the media event, NIIT MindChampion Viswanathan Anand said,
“It feels great to chat and play with friends across the country using
NIIT Imperia’s technology, which seems to make distances disappear due to the
high level of interactivity. I would love to use this medium to reach out to
chess enthusiasts across the county.”
Earlier welcoming the Chess Champion, Mr. Udai Singh, Head, NIIT Imperia,
said, “NIITians and students across the country join me in congratulating Vishy
for his recent feat. It is an honour for NIIT Imperia to have the MindChampion
at our centre and use the platform to reach out to his fans and students across
the country.
NIIT is committed to bringing the best to its students—be it management
education from the best B-Schools; learning experience through usage of latest
and the best technology platform or World Champion like Vishy,” added Mr. Singh.
Earlier this month NIIT Imperia launched a range of new programs, through
its alliance with the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. These include
executive programs in Financial Reporting Practices (US GAAP, IFRS and Indian
GAAP) of 6 months’ duration; Applied Finance (1 year), and Senior Management
Program (1 year).
Additionally, through NIIT Imperia’s partnership with IIM-Indore, the
institute is offering Post Graduate Certificate Program in Sales & Marketing
(1 year) and a PG Certificate Program in Management (1 year) for the batch
starting June 2007.
As part of the tie-up with NIIT Imperia, the IIMs have designed and
developed the content and will provide faculty and certification for these
programs. The technology, synchronous classrooms across the country and the
management of the distributed education system is being provided by NIIT. NIIT
has also integrated its Learning Management and e-learning systems with this
technology, and is implementing and managing the overall student experience.
Hundreds of working professionals comprising of middle and senior level
managers have already enrolled for NIIT Imperia programs in the first six months
of its inception. Nearly one-third of NIIT Imperia students come from the IT
industry including top IT companies such as Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Accenture, TCS,
Cognizant, Dell, Ernst & Young, Boston Consulting Group, Yahoo and Oracle.
Many come from organizations in the Financial, Manufacturing and the Services
sector, such as Reliance Industries, Bharti Enterprises, Dr Reddy's Labs, HSBC,
HCL, HDFC, ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI, Citigroup, American Express, Godrej, ITC,
Motorola, among others.
Note on Synchronous Learning
Synchronous learning can be used as an effective tool in bringing together
the faculty and students, otherwise separated by significant distances, using
cutting-edge technology. Through the new high-tech environment, students can
experience learning almost in the same way as they would if they were in a
normal classroom, querying their instructor and answering questions. Dedicated
broadband two-way audio-video, together with special software to replicate
face-to-face teaching, are used in this application.
Normal classroom practices such as students raising their hands to
interrupt the teacher, clarify their doubts, browse the power point
presentations, submit quizzes, send assignments and use the white board or any
other application sharing facility, are possible in this form of education.
Background on NIIT Imperia
NIIT Imperia is a unique example of public-private partnership, where
India’s premier institutes in the formal education space have joined hands with
Asia’s largest private-sector training company, to provide a solution that the
country will benefit from.
Launched in September 2006 marking NIIT’s foray into the executive
management education space, NIIT Imperia introduced long and short-term programs
in general and functional management to working executives, from the IIMs in
Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Indore, in the first phase. More details on
www.niitimperia.com
For Media queries:
Prateek Chatterjee, NIIT Limited, 85, Sector 32, Institutional Area,
Gurgaon;
Shivanjali Singh, NIIT Limited, 85, Sector 32, Institutional Area, Gurgaon;