NIT Durgapur will start online classes from September 7.

An academic calendar has been uploaded on the institute’s website, announcing the start of undergraduate and postgraduate classes.

The decision to start classes online follows a survey among students regarding their Net accessibility, an official said.

The survey revealed about 12 per cent of 3,000 students lack basic Net connectivity.

The institute will offer them the option of attending “crash semester” classes on the campus.

Live classes will be held on Microsoft Teams or Google Meet.

But the institute will upload recorded lectures on Facebook and YouTube for the benefit of students in case their Net connectivity gets disrupted during lectures.

“If a student fails to participate in live classes, he/she can go through the recorded lectures,” institute director Anupam Basu said.

A link will be shared with the students for them to access the recorded lectures.

After going through the recorded lectures, students can clear their doubts by speaking to teachers either on the phone or through email or on WhatsApp.

At NIT Durgapur, online enrolment of first-semester MTech and MSc students are likely to start from the first week of September.

“No physical reporting or verification of documents will be undertaken during the pandemic,” another official said.