HRD Minister reviews National online education platform 'SWAYAM'
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Polity & Governance
- Published
25th Apr, 2020
-
-
Context
- Human Resource Development held a detailed review of the National online education platform SWAYAM and the 32 DTH Television Education Channels SWAYAM PRABHA.
- In the lockdown condition there has been a tremendous increase in demand and the usage of SWAYAM Courses and SWAYAM PRABHA videos.
-
What were the decisions taken?
- It was decided that all the 1900 SWAYAM Courses and 60 thousand SWAYAM PRABHA videos would be translated into ten regional languages and made available to the students so that more benefit can be derived from the same.
- The more popular content, and for engineering courses taught in first year shall, however, be prioritized for translation. The whole project will be started immediately and completed in a time bound manner.
- It said, UGC has been asked to prepare guidelines regarding online and Distance learning guidelines to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio.
-
What is SWAYAM platform?
- SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active–Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) 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 an indigenous developed IT platform that facilitates hosting of all the courses taught in classrooms 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 the residents in India.
-
What is SWAYAM PRABHA portal?
- SWAYAM Prabha is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resources Development to provide 32 High Quality Educational Channels through DTH (Direct to Home) across the length and breadth of the country on 24X7 basis.
- It has curriculum-based course content covering diverse disciplines.
- This is primarily aimed at making quality learning resources accessible to remote areas where internet availability is still a challenge.
- The DTH channels are using the GSAT-15 satellite for programme telecasts.
-
Who developed this portal?
- SWAYAM platform is developed by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and NPTEL, IIT Madras with the help of Google Inc. and Persistent Systems Ltd.
- It would be ultimately capable of hosting 2000 courses and 80000 hours of learning: covering school, under-graduate, post-graduate, engineering, law and other professional courses.
-
What is offered in SWAYAM?
- Courses that are taught in classrooms from 9th class till post-graduation.
- The courses hosted on SWAYAM is in 4 quadrants:
- video lecture
- specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed
- self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes and
- an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts.
- Categories of courses include - Engineering, Science, Humanities, Management, Language, Mathematics, Arts and Recreation, Commerce, General, Library, Education.
- Courses delivered through SWAYAM are available free of cost to the learners.
- Students wanting certifications need to register and 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.
