Higher Education MOOC Providers in India

MOOC or Massive Open Online Course is an online course for large-scale interactive participation and open access through the web. MOOCs provide an interactive platform to the students in addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets. It is a common platform proving opportunity for interaction between students, professors, and teaching assistants. In India a total of 43 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are available on the information technology platform SWAYAM — Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds.

SWAYAM provides opportunities for a life-long learning. It gives the opportunity for a learner to choose from hundreds of courses, offered at the university, college or school level. These are offered by the 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. SWAYAM gives an opportunity to students to continue their studies if they have dropped out of school or even if they are working. SWAYAM presents a unique educational opportunity to expand the horizons of knowledge.

How are Courses Planned in SWAYAM?

Courses are delivered through an indigenous developed IT platform. It is developed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). It facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from 9th class till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time. The courses are prepared by the best teachers in the country, they are interactive and are available, free of cost to the residents in India. More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the country have participated in preparing these courses.

Under SWAYAM, professors of centrally-funded institutions in India — such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and central universities — will offer online courses to citizens of India.

In order to ensure best quality content are produced and delivered, seven National Coordinators have been appointed:

They are NPTEL for engineering, CEC for under-graduate education, NCERT & NIOS for school education, IGNOU for out of the school students and, for management studies.

Benefits of MOOC Courses

Free of Cost
Students wanting certifications shall be offered a certificate on successful completion of the course, with a little fee
Courses developed by the best teachers of India
Assessment at the end of each course where marks and grades will be awarded
Credits can be transferred on to the academic record of the students for courses done on SWAYAM

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. At the end of each course, there will be an assessment of the student through proctored examination and the marks/grades secured in this exam could be transferred to the academic record of the students. UGC has already issued the UGC (Credit Framework for online learning courses through SWAYAM) Regulation 2016 advising the Universities to identify courses where credits can be transferred on to the academic record of the students for courses done on SWAYAM.