Jorhat, July 14: The University Grants Commission (UGC), which frames and regulates policies for university education in the country, has sought the help of the digital domain, films and books for its two new courses on Assamese language and literature.

Three Assamese websites - enajori.com, xukhdukh.com and sahitya.org - have been recognised by the UGC as reference material for its new undergraduate course, study of Assamese language and its use in computers while three books and three films will be used for the other new course - Assamese language in films.

Both the courses are a part of the UGC's choice-based credit system initiated to enhance academic standards and quality in the undergraduate curriculum offered by central, state and deemed universities.

For the film course, two books - Chalachitra Katha and Chalachitra: Samaj-Samay and Nandan tatva - by film critic Utpal Dutta and Close Up by Nayan Prasad have been selected as a part of the curriculum.

The films to be studied are Bhabendra Nath Saikia's Antarip, Mamoni Raisom Goswami's Dattal Hatir Uiew Khowa Howdah and Homen Borgohain's Halodiya Sorae Bau Dhan Khaye.

Himjyoti Talukdar, founder of enajori.com, said the selection of the three websites would go a long way to promote digital preservation of Assamese language and literature.

"Enajori was founded in 2010 with this express purpose. We have come a long way since then and have started a series on legends of Assam which include sahityarathi.org on Lakshminath Bezbaroa, of which 20 per cent has been completed, and dipaliborthakur.info, which has been completed," he said. Enajori has also proposed creation of an archive of rare old photos.

The founder of xukhdukh.com is Ajay Lal Dutta, who is based in Mumbai, and sahitya.org is run by a group of members who belonged to the Facebook group Kathabarta.

The aim of the course on language and its use in computers is to enable the students to acquire a basic understanding of the history of computers, important accessories of computers, Assamese language use in computers and resources in the form of Assamese software, processors like spell-checker and grammar checker, among others.

Talukdar said the students would be able to acquaint themselves with the numerous online publications like e-books, e-journals, Assamese e-libraries, blogs and social and commercial websites in the process and this would open up new vistas in the learning process.

The aim of the course on films is to teach the correlation between language, literature and films and the basic knowledge of film narrative and literary narrative.

Dutta said the course would enable students to understand how novels, short stories and dramas were adapted into films.