Launch of Kunjbihari S. Goyal Online Academy (GOLD)The year 2015 started on a great note for Rajasthani Sammelan with the inauguration of the Kunjbihari S. Goyal Online Academy( GOLD) on 16th January at the hands of our Hon’ble Minister of State for Education, Sri. Vinod Tawde.
The event was a huge affair and was attended by many eminent personalities like Sri. Vinod Shelar (Chairman, Education committee, MCGM), Mr. Ravi Goyal (Philanthropist and CMD, AGS Transact Technologies) and the main donor of GOLD academy, Mr. Ashok M Saraf – President, Rajasthani Sammelan Education Trust, Shri Kailash Kejriwal (Hon. Secretary, Rajasthani Sammelan Education Trust) and other respected trustees, members of the staff and students.
There was extensive media coverage of the event in several leading newspapers which helped to create awareness about this new initiative of Rajasthani Sammelan Education Trust. It was a moment of immense pride and jubilation as Rajasthani Sammelan Education Trust added another feather to its cap with the launch of GOLD Academy, aiming to provide easy and affordable online education to students anytime, anywhere.
In his inaugural speech, Mr Ashok M Saraf spoke about the importance of e learning in today’s times and gave an insight into the birth of GOLD Academy. He also thanked Mr. Ravi Goyal , the Chief Donor, for believing in the idea and associating with Rajasthani Sammelan Education Trust in this venture. The formal inauguration was then done at the hands of Sri. Vinod Tawde, Minister of State for Education, by clicking the mouse, in keeping with the mission of GOLD Academy.
The COO of GOLD Academy, Mr. Narinder Singh addressed the audience speaking about the mission and vision of GOLD Academy and how it intends to make education accessible to everyone, either free or at an extremely affordable cost.
Speaking on the occasion, Sri. Badrinathji Goyal, the Chief Donor, shared his views about the importance of education for all and how technology can be used to its best to achieve the same. Mr.Ravi Goyal also talked about his commitment to the cause of education and expressed his joy on getting associated with Rajasthani Sammelan Education Trust through GOLD Academy and naming it after his respected grandfather, Sri. Kunjbihari S. Goyal.
Our Minister of State for Education, Sri. Vinod Tawde welcomed the technological advances in our education system but at the same time, stressed on making education available even in small villages and towns where many are still deprived of it. He also assured that the Government of Maharashtra aims to provide all possible assistance to all such institutions which aspire and believe in the dream of equal education for one and all.
GOLD Academy has come into existence after extensive planning and research carried out by a team of over 15 professionals who put their expertise at work to lay down its foundation. Almost every member of the core team has experience of Online Learning.
Over 50% of the team also has experience of conceiving, designing and building the Learning Portal, more conventionally called the Learning Management System (LMS). Academic team consists of an Academic Board at the apex, an Academic Panel of SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), Academic Authors and Reviewers.
GOLD works with a few in-house full-time employees and a large pool of industry professionals working on assignment basis. Well documented policies and guidelines have already been created and are being used while building/ procuring content.
Content for GOLD can be either in the form of eBooks or in multi-media (audio-visual), interactive format. Content needs to be organized in the form of Course, Subject, Module, Topics and Sections. Assessment is another very important component of any learning content. Currently, GOLD focuses on use of objective questions (MCQs) for the purpose of assessing a student’s progress in a given subject.
A dedicated team of about 10 IT experts has worked on the design, development, testing, training and implementation of the website www.goldelearning.com Continuous extensive research has been happening to add to the features and functions of the portal. In the near future, GOLD is looking at conducting internet based, interactive lectures by eminent faculty. A lot of promotional activities are also being worked upon to increase the global visibility of the website and its outreach such as registering the website on a number of digital educational forums, mass emails, mass SMSes or reaching out even via new age tools like Whatsapp.
As the GOLD vision states, “GOLD Academy will strive to deliver to the students, quality interactive learning material and tools, to any human being across the globe, either free of cost or at extremely affordable or reasonable financial price, in several domains (and specialties) and in multiple languages, and enable the students to acquire recognized educational qualifications, certificates and titles”, and with a great pool of resources at hand, the academy aspires to actively contribute to the society by offering an engaging, learning platform which is easily accessible, extremely affordable and convenient to use.
True to its name, this initiative of Rajasthani Sammelan Education Trust aims to provide every student, the opportunity to learn and shine like GOLD!!
View more photos on Rajasthani Sammelan Education Trust Flickr