MOOCs in India and SWAYAM: An overview

Abstract

Education plays a vital role in every possible way of shaping the future of any nation. One of the major responsibilities of the Government is to enable the citizens of the country to skill themselves through quality education. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through the SWAYAM portal is one of the major initiatives by the Govt. of India to promote learning among its citizens. Although the concept of MOOC is now more than a decade old, in India it started in 2014 through MooKIT. Later in 2017 Govt. of India launched the SWAYAM portal. It aims at providing learning opportunities through MOOCs which provide online free education to all and have the capacity to bridge the digital gap. Through these courses, quality education can be made available at the doorstep of every learner without any cost. These courses are curriculum-based having interactive content material on different topics across all disciplines. The materials are developed by the best teachers from various top-level educational institutions across the country from secondary to post-graduation levels. The MHRD now the Ministry of Education has identified nine national coordinators to ensure the production and delivery of high-quality content material. It is meant for anyone, anytime, anywhere with the facility of credit transfer for up to 40 per cent of the courses in a programme. It follows a four-quadrant approach. In this paper, the focus is on a) Development of MOOCs in India b) Emergence of SWAYAM c) A brief review of SWAYAM course content and its activities d) Critical review of the accessibility of MOOC courses on SWAYAM.