 So, how is it being back at IIT Madras campus? It feels awesome. We are reliving our memories of when we were here bachelors as a part of our hostel memories and the ecosystem of environmental ecosystem, birds, monkeys are still there, especially deers and blackbugs, but there is no dogs here anymore that used to create menace. It's good to be back to see the green deer in the campus. So it's time to introduce Lokesh Kumar, who is an alumni of IIT Madras, batch of 2018. He's also a learner of four NPTEL courses and he's here to share his experience about the NPTEL. So I have done four NPTEL courses, advanced non-key technology, modern construction materials, introduction to game theory by IIT Kanpur and one more on from Humanities Department. So NPTEL is basically an online, massive open online course platform. The best thing about it is it has got professors from eminent institutions, including IITs and the courses being offered from various subjects, from humanities, from sciences, from engineering to different disciplines. It covers varieties of length and breadth of courses and the best part is it also includes conversations with classes, live sessions with industry experts as well as the corporate people. So the best part of this is after you go through the lecture sessions, experiments and all, it ends and culminates into a final examination which is conducted by NPTEL in person at the very nominal fees. If you want to learn something, it is free of cost, but if you want to get certification, that is at a nominal cost of 1000 rupees only, you can get a certification by appearing in a physical examination at the end of the semester. So how did you get to know about NPTEL courses during your bachelor days? So during bachelor days, like our professor used to come to class, we used to tell us something, something and we go back to our postals and we go through our suggested materials for readings, but that was not sufficient. So we all use Google. So one of one day I just through Google only, I got a course of advanced concave technology by Professor Manu Santanam. So that's where I got to know about NPTEL. I logged into NPTEL. Setting an account was an easy job. You just have to sign up with a Gmail account and then you can choose whichever course you want to go into. Then I enrolled into that and it was like a very well planned, meticulously planned. There is a detail of all the course curriculum is there, weekly course curriculum is there. So you can very well plan yourself as well as your past activities and other day to day activities. So yeah, it is a pre-recorded lectures are there. So that is one benefit of it. Wherever you leave it between, you can continue later on. So that's how I continued. I enjoyed it a lot. So how was the campus after all these years? So a lot of things have changed in terms of infrastructure. New buildings have come up. I have seen a lot of canteens have been got dismantled and some new things have been added. The new addition is food trucks which are available from 8.30 p.m. to 4.00 a.m. in the morning. During well time it was not there. It's good to be back to campus and we can just go back into our memories when we were in hostels. How monkeys used to teach us, they are still the same. Coming back to NPTEL, so how has these courses positively impacted in your career or in your higher education? So basically it impacted me. It helped me to prepare for my job interviews. Like in my final year, I got a replacement offer. So one thanks is to NPTEL itself because Advanced Concrete Technology prepared me very well for the I got a job in the core sector, L&T. So in that interview, it helped me to counter the questions that were being put to me. So it helped me a lot to prepare for the interview also. So what would be your advice to future NPTEL learners? So my advice will be very straight and forward and simple. The best of professors across the India are making the courses. You just sign it up and be consistent. There may be some breaks just complete the course that you enroll into and I will also say you should appear for final examination because once you appear for final examination, what you are ready to face the final examination with full preparation. It's not just like doing for the sake of doing, but doing for getting the certification itself like there is a minimum bar criteria of 70% that you have to score that's not a cake walk. But yeah, if you are regular throughout the structure of the course, you will definitely pass it and make it through. What is the definition of NPTEL? National Program, Technology and Advanced Learning. So this is code building. That is the studio. We have the studio team and we have the social media and all the NPTEL support team everyone are here. So go towards the office. So we can stand here. So what's the best part about NPTEL learning experience? So the best part of NPTEL learning is courses are full duration of two, four, six and eight weeks. So during that duration, if you are watching some videos, maybe late at night or at any point of time of a day, some question might pop up in your mind. So it is not possible to get answered directly from professor at that point of time. So what we do is we go through FAQs are there. If I don't find in FAQs what we could we can just punch in my question onto the comment section of that particular video. So what happens is my peers are there who are enrolled into same course, they may reply back or it may be possible NPTEL team definitely replies back within 24 to 48 hours. And if the question is like some good question, professor also selects him. So sometimes professor also replies back to the questions there. So that was a good part like everybody's involved even peer to peer learning is there, then team NPTEL team is there to support you and professor himself is ready to answer your questions. So I got to know that you had one professor who was common in your online and offline course. Can you speak a bit about that? Yeah, so in my sophomore year, I had done advanced complete technology course by Professor Manu Santanav. So in my final year, I had taken that course as a credit based course. So it was in person course. So both experience I had both online as well as offline in person experience. So the difference was basically online experience, I can see the lectures pre recorded lectures at any point of time. But when I have doubt that doubt were clear by more of a discussion forum or peer to peer learning. But in person, it was there like I can approach professional directly. Okay. And the professional know he's my student, he will definitely clear you on the spot or he will just tell you which slide of the presentation that was used into the classroom. So that was more like quick resolving of the issue of the question of there. But in online, it does 24 to 48 hours maximum. NPTEL team does a great work and we get to clear our doubts. So that was one of the good parts and also like experiments, like some sort of visual representation is there in online course. But in offline, we get to approach the labs and then we can just see in lab itself with our eyes, like, oh, how is this thing is happening? Something in conflict that was the best time. Okay. So I heard that NPTEL has completed 20 years of excellence in online enhanced learning. So a big congratulations to whole NPTEL team for putting up so many great courses for all the students across the India and bringing all together all the eminent professors and eminent industry experts and academics from all across the India and making such a great platform. A big congratulations to the whole NPTEL team. Thank you, Lokesh Kumar, for sharing valuable thoughts. My pleasure.