Online courses delivered through platforms like NPTEL, SWAYAM, MOOCs and Coursera are revolutionizing education. NPTEL offers video and web courses created by IITs and IISc in engineering and science. SWAYAM initiated by the Government of India aims to provide access, equity, and quality in education through online courses from school to postgraduate level. MOOCs provide massive open online courses accessible to anyone for free through platforms like Coursera, which partners with universities to offer online courses, programs, and degrees to over 33 million registered users worldwide.

1. ONLINE COURSES
Online courses are revolutionizing formal
education, and have opened a new genre of
outreach on cultural and scientific topics.
deliver a series of lessons to a web browser or
mobile device, to be conveniently accessed
anytime, anyplace.
It’s a directed learning process, comprised of
educational information , communication and
some way to measure students’ achievement .
NPTEL, SWAYAM, MOOCS and Coursera .

2. NPTEL
NPTEL is an acronym for National Programme on
Technology Enhanced Learning which is an initiative
by seven Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian
Institute of Science (IISc) for creating video and web
course contents in engineering and science.
NPTEL as a project originated from many
deliberations between IITs, Indian Institutes of
Management (IIMs) and Carnegie Mellon University
(CMU) during the years 1999-2003.
NPTEL open online courses were initiated so that
students anywhere can directly learn from faculty in
top colleges.

3. COORDINATORS OF NPTEL
Prof. Mangala Sunder. K (Dept. of chemistry,
IITM)
Prof. Prathap Haridoss (Dept. of Metallurgical
and Materials Engineering, IITM)
Prof. Andrew Thankaraj (Dept. of Electrical
Engineering IITM)

4. ADVANTAGES OF NPTEL
Learn for free
Learn together & learn from the experts
Courses have no eligibility criteria
Open to anyone & everyone
Students can review & assess their progress
Directly interact with course instructors to
understand concepts
An optional in-person proctored certification
exam is offered at the end of the course to earn
certificate from IITs

5. SWAYAM(Study Webs of Active-Learning for
Young-Aspiring Mind)
Initiated by Government of India and designed to
achieve the three cardinal principles of education policy ,
access, equity and quality.
it 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 main stream
of the knowledge economy.
Its platform is indigenously developed by Ministry of
Human Resource Development and All India Council for
Technical Education with the help of Microsoft and would
be capable of hosting 2000 courses and 80000 hours of
learning: covering school, under-graduate, post-graduate,
engineering, law and other professional courses.

6. 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.

7. 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 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

8. National Coordinators of SWAYAM
In order to ensure best quality content are
produced and delivered, 7 National Coordinators
have been appointed.
They are as follows.
•NPTEL for engineering
•UGC for post-graduation education
•CEC for under-graduate education
•NCERT for school education
•NIOS for school education
•IGNOU for out of the school students and
•IIMB for management studies

9. Massive Open Online Courses, or
MOOCs, are online courses that allow
participants free access and unrestricted
participation to any course of their choice.
Besides the conventional modes of
teaching such as lectures, videos and
reading material; MOOCs also provide a
platform for interactive forums.
MOOCS

10. CLASSIFICATION OF MOOCs
cMOOC
cMOOC emphasize the connectivist philosophy:
it is a social platform for collaboratively sharing
and building knowledge within a community of
people.
xMOOC
An xMOOC relies on a more traditional model
of education, based on lectures recorded in
videos and usually is well-financed.

11. Advantages of MOOCs
1. Courses are offered for free.
2. Access to courses offered by professors at the top
schools.
3. Courses are available to a vast and diverse audience
across the globe.
4. Learners’ performance can be monitored easily using
the data captured during the start of courses.
5. Both professors and learners get world-wide exposure,
thus improving pedagogical techniques and knowledge
sharing
6. Can be used as a tool in a blended learning program,
where students can access more information than what is
provided in the class

12. Disadvantages of MOOCs
1.Can’t provide for personalized courseware and
attention from a tutor.
2. It is difficult to keep track of students’
assignments and involvement.
3. Learners with disabilities and a poor Internet
connection can’t use MOOCs.
4. Language can be a barrier while offering
MOOCs.
5. MOOCs can’t be used as a credit-earning
course at universities.

13. COURSERA
Coursera is an online learning platform founded
by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne
Koller that offers courses, specializations, and
degrees.
Coursera works with universities and other
organizations to offer online courses,
specializations, and degrees in a variety of subjects.
 As of June 2018, Coursera had more than 33
million registered users and more than 2,400
courses