In a heartening display of moving forward with the times, the University of Pune has not only published a new textbook to match the recently updated syllabus for first year Maths for B.Sc. and B.A., but they have made the entire textbook available online as a free download, reports Pune Mirror.
This is a great step forward. Students who are used to the slow moving and bureaucratic education systems in India, will notice three unique characteristics that should make them happy,
- It is online
- It is free
- They are soliciting feedback and suggestions for improvements, which they claim they will incorporate in future versions
Any one of these would have been cause for celebration. All three is just too much.
No wonder University of Pune has been picked by the government of India as 1 of the 4 universities to get Rs. 300CR “National Innovative University” scheme.
Excerpts from the article:
In the absence of a single prescribed textbook, Bachelor of Science (B Sc) students studying under the University of Pune (UoP) have always had to shuffle between various reference books. With the Board of Studies realising this issue, the varsity’s Department of Mathematics has compiled an official mathematics textbook .
Not only is such an effort the first of its kind, it has also been uploaded on the University’s website for free download.
According to Dr S A Katre, Head of Department, Mathematics at UoP,
“During the process, we decided to go a step ahead and considering the changing times, came up with an online textbook.”
and
“It is for the first time that an official University textbook is made available online for free,”
And, most importantly, this is just the first step. There is more to come:
The book could be found for download at http://math.unipune.ac.in/FyBsc.htm. The department is now working on the books for the second term and will gradually take out books for further terms. Soon, the entire bunch of textbooks, particularly designed by adhering to the new syllabus for mathematics, will be ready online.