Methods of teaching in Institutions of higher learning: online Methods : MOOCs

 

The aim to raise the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in the higher education including vocational education from 26.3 (2018) to 50 by 2035, and the quest to enhance the quality of education would require a large-scale expansion of the high-quality education opportunities.

1.    Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM): SWAYAM is an indigenous (Made in India) IT Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Platform for providing best quality education that can be accessed by anyone, anytime and anywhere using the IT system.  All the courses delivered through SWAYAM are available free of cost to the learners, however students wanting certifications shall be registered, shall be offered a certificate on successful completion of the course, with a little fee.

Important Points:

Ø The Concept of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) involves online delivery of interactive learning content to large number of people simultaneously. It allows sharing of best quality education with everyone, thereby bringing in equity as far as the quality of education is concerned.

Ø  It is developed by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with the help of Microsoft.

Ø Its ultimately capable of hosting 2000 courses and 80000 hours of learning: covering school, under-graduate, post-graduate, engineering, law and other professional courses.

Ø  More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the Country have participated in preparing these courses.

Ø At present, the Credits up to 20% of the total courses can only be earned in a Semester by such students through online learning delivered on SWAYAM platform.

Courses under SWAYAM would be available in the following levels: For each level, there is a National Coordinator, who would be responsible for the quality of content:

·       Out of school Children: for classes 9th to 12th (National Coordinator: National Open School Society: NIOS

·        School children in classes 9th to 12th (National Coordinator: NCERT)

·       Undergraduate (non-engineering) courses (National Coordinator: CEC)

·       Post graduate (non-engineering) courses (National Coordinator: UGC)

·       Engineering Courses (National Coordinator: IIT Madras)

·       Management Courses (National Coordinator: IIM Bangalore)

·       Out of college students (National Coordinator: IGNOU)

·       Teaching the teachers (National Coordinator: NITTER Chennai)

There are 4 quadrants in the MOOC pedagogy:

      I.          Video tutorials covering a whole course – normally having about 20 hours of instruction in series of lectures, each lecture not exceeding 30 minutes.

   II.          E-Content: reading material that could add to the learning imparted through the video tutorials.

 III.          Self-Assessment: Quizzes/assignments that intersperse the course

IV.           Discussion forum for posting queries