The Journey of SWAYAM: India MOOCs Initiative

Abstract

Under the ‘Digital India’ Initiative of Government of India, one of the thrust area is ‘Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)’. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India has embarked on a major initiative called ‘Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds’ (SWAYAM), to provide an integrated platform and portal for online courses, covering all higher education, High School and skill sector courses. SWAYAM is an indigenous (Made in India) IT Platform for hosting the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). To improve Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), from 20% at present to 30% by 2020 SWAYAM promises to be a possible solution with a capacity to revolutionise the education system in India. The journey of SWAYAM can be traced back to 2003 with the initiation of the NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning), a joint programme of IITs and IISc. This was the first major attempt in E-learning in the country through online Web and Video courses in Engineering, Science and humanities streams. The launch of the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) in February 2009 further broadened the scope catering to all disciplines in the Higher Education sector. As on date under the NMEICT huge amount of e-content have been generated which are available under the CCBY- SA license. NPTEL has developed e-content for 933 Courses, Consortium of Educational Communication (CEC) for Undergraduate subjects in 67 Subjects, University Grants Commission (UGC) in 77 Post Graduate subjects. Similarly, many other institutions have developed e-content in different disciplines at different level. Under the SWAYAM initiative all the contents developed under NMEICT are being repurposed and being made MOOCs compliant. The Beta version of SWAYAM was made live on August 15, 2016. The paper provides an insight into the SWAYAM initiative and reflects on the issues and challenges in its implementation the Indian context. // Paper ID 547