MOOCs A VERTICAL OF SWAYAM

  SWAYAM is a programme initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. SWAYAM seeks to bridge the digital divide for students who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy.


This is done through a platform that facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time. All the courses are interactive, prepared by the best teachers in the country and are available, free of cost to any learner. More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the country have participated in preparing these courses.


The courses hosted on SWAYAM are in 4 quadrants – (1) video lecture, (2) specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed (3) self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes and (4) an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts. Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by using audio-video and multi-media and state of the art pedagogy / technology.


In order to ensure that best quality content is produced and delivered, nine National Coordinators have been appointed. They are:

AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) for self-paced and international courses

 

NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) for Engineering

 

UGC (University Grants Commission) for non technical post-graduation education

 

CEC (Consortium for Educational Communication) for under-graduate education

 

NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) for school education

 

NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) for school education

 

IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) for out-of-school students

 

IIMB (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore) for management studies

 

NITTTR (National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research) for Teacher Training programme

 Courses delivered through SWAYAM are available free of cost to the learners, however learners wanting a SWAYAM certificate should register for the final proctored exams that come at a fee and attend in-person at designated centers on specified dates. Eligibility for the certificate will be announced on the course page and learners will get certificates only if this criterion is matched. Universities/colleges approving credit transfer for these courses can use the marks/certificate obtained in these courses for the same. Under SWAYAM or Study Webs of Active –Learning for Young Aspiring Minds programme of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, professors and faculties of centrally funded institutions like IITs, IIMs, and Central University of Haryana is offering online courses to citizens of India.

SWAYAM is an instrument for self-actualization providing opportunities for a life-long learning. Here learner can choose from hundreds of courses, virtually every course that is taught at the university / college / school level and these shall be offered by best of the teachers in India and elsewhere. If a student is studying in any college, he/she can transfer the credits earned by taking these courses into their academic record. If you are, working or not working, in school or out of school, SWAYAM presents a unique educational opportunity to expand the horizons of knowledge.

In the first phase, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIT Guwahati, University of Delhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru University, IGNOU, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, Banaras Hindu University, alone as well as with the help of faculty from foreign universities will be offering courses in areas of engineering education, social science, energy, management, basic sciences. At least one crore students are expected to benefit in 2 to 3 years through this initiative. India has become one of the few countries in the World which has its own online interactive learning platform that provides, not only video lectures, reading material but also assignments/quizzes that could end up in securing credits after completing the assessment system. The then President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee recently launched the SWAYAM, the portal that takes high quality education to the doorstep of everyone and the SWAYAM Prabha – the 32 DTH channels operationalised for telecasting high quality educational content free of charge.

 ABOUT SWAYAM PRABHA

The SWAYAM PRABHA is a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. Every day, there will be new content for at least (4) hours which would be repeated 5 more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience. The channels are uplinked from BISAG, Gandhinagar. The contents are provided by NPTEL, IITs, UGC, CEC, IGNOU, NCERT and NIOS. The INFLIBNET Centre maintains the web portal.

The DTH Channels shall cover the following:

a).Higher Education: Curriculum-based course contents at post-graduate and under-graduate level covering diverse disciplines such as arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences and humanities, engineering, technology, law, medicine, agriculture, etc. All courses would be certification-ready in their detailed offering through SWAYAM, the platform being developed for offering MOOCs courses.

 b).School education (9-12 levels): modules for teacher's training as well as teaching and learning aids for children of India to help them understand the subjects better and also help them in preparing for competitive examinations for admissions to professional degree programmes.

c).Curriculum-based courses that can meet the needs of life-long learners of Indian citizens in India and abroad.

d).Assist students (class 11th & 12th) prepare for competitive exams.

Mr. Narender Kumar (Director)