Multimedia Kiosk for Course Counselling

Developed by C-DAC’s National Multimedia Resource Centre

Most students, who wish to pursue a computer course at an elementary or advanced level, seek a satisfactory response to all their queries before taking a decision to enroll.

The role of a course counselor is un-doubtedly crucial. Doubts and queries regarding the syllabus, admission procedure, and entrance test need to be addressed seriously. The utility of a course, inputs and time required to be spent by a student while pursuing the course are details which are normally discussed at length with a course counselor. Course brochures are sometimes inadequate and impersonal as compared to the personal touch of a course counselor.

Expectations from the course counselor are therefore immense and the responsibility of guiding students is tremendous.

Training centres continue to get queries even during holidays and often times, these are not addressed correctly. In the framework of franchised training centres, uniformity and standard counselling methods are essential. Many times it is found that the syllabus of a course is interpreted and presented differently by the counselors.

These are universal problems experienced in the training domain. In order to address these problems, C-DAC’s National Multimedia Resource Centre (NMRC) developed an interactive multimedia application to impart information about it’s courses which could be accessed using a touch screen kiosk. This interactive application was developed in-house including the script, narration, video shooting, interface designing and interactivity by the members of NMRC. In putting together the multimedia course-counselling kiosk, every member at NMRC was involved. It was possible to address the Frequently Asked Questions and evolve appropriate answers. Expert members working on specific portions of the course explained the syllabus. Thus ensuring that correct and authentic information was available at the fingertips. Care was taken to ensure that information available in the brochures was not fully repeated but different and additional points relating to the syllabus were discussed at length in the multimedia application.

A series of rehearsals, involving the narration of the script was undertaken. The contents and their presentation in the Kiosk format were finalised. The course counselling multimedia kiosk is user friendly and all the information is accessible by using minimum clicks on the screen. The buttons are animated to reflect the impact of a finger touch on the screen.

The kiosk was setup at the reception counters of C-DAC and NMRC when the Diploma in Advanced Computer Arts course was announced. It was accessed by more than 300 aspirants during July and August 2000. Several CDs were produced and the multimedia application was supplied to all the franchised centres of C-DAC.

The multimedia Course Counselling Kiosk has led to automating and improving the quality of course counselling and reaching out to students in a more interactive mode. The kiosk was used by students, parents, professionals and even casual visitors due to it’s interactive and innovative presentation.

Presently, the Course Counselling Multimedia Kiosk incorporates information on the Diploma in Advanced Computer Arts, Low Cost Multimedia Creations and Applied Computer Arts courses, and is being updated to cover other taining courses offered by C-DAC.

(For more information about the Multimedia Kiosk, click here to send an eMail.).