SWAYAM is an Indian government portal for free open online course (MOOC) platform providing educational courses for university and college learners.
History
The SWAYAM initiative was launched by the then Ministry of Human Resource Development (M.H.R.D.) (now Ministry of Education), Government of India under Digital India to give a coordinated stage and free entry to web courses, covering all advanced education, High School, and skill sector courses. It was launched on 9th July 2017 by Pranab Mukherjee, Honorable President of India. SWAYAM has been developed cooperatively by MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development), and AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) with the help of Microsoft. The current SWAYAM platform is equipped for facilitating 2,000 courses. The platform offers free access to everyone and hosts courses from class 9 to post-graduation. It enables professors and faculty of centrally funded institutes like IITs, IIMs, IISERs, etc. to teach students.
According to SWAYAM, there are 203 partnering institutes, 2,748 completed courses, 12,541,992 student enrollments, 915,538 exam registrations, and 654,664 successful certificates.
SWAYAM (meaning 'Self' in Sanskrit) is an acronym that stands for "Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds".
Functionality
SWAYAM operates MOOCs learning resources in different ways and structures. Learning is delivered in four ways; e-Tutorial, e-Content, discussion forums and, self-assessment.
The first quadrant is direct teaching, which means that there is not much extra work by students. It could include teaching video, animation, PowerPoint presentations, Podcast, and so on. These will depend on the individual subject and the strategy adopted by the teacher.
The second quadrant is an e-content which could include e-books, illustrations, Case studies, Open source content, reference links, further reading sources, etc.
The third quadrant is about clearing students' queries where students can interact with each other and faculty; any student or faculty can answer a student’s question.
The fourth quadrant is self-assessment to check what a student has studied and whether they are eligible to get a certificate. This includes tests in the form of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), quiz or short answer questions, long answer questions, etc. The fourth quadrant also has Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and their answers to clarify common misconceptions among students.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) considers that universities should play a key role in publicizing and popularizing SWAYAM courses among their learners and the university, enabling them to gain from MOOCs on a more extensive footing.
National coordinators
Nine national coordinators are appointed to manage the course content. Each coordinator is assigned a particular area for maintenance. All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for self-paced and international courses. National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) has been as a appointed National coordinator by MHRD for engineering sector courses. University Grants Commission (UGC) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for non-technical post-graduate education. Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for undergraduate education. National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for school education. National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for school education. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for out-of-school students. Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for management studies. National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for Teacher training program.