Organisation : Ministry of Human Resource Development
Scheme Name : Swayam Scheme
Applicable For : All India
Website : https://swayam.gov.in/
Swayam Scheme :
SWAYAM is a programme initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality.
Related : UMANG Service Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance : www.statusin.in/24638.html
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 from 9th class till post-graduation 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. More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the Country have participated in preparing these courses.
The courses hosted on SWAYAM will be in 4 quadrants :
(1) video lecture,
(2) specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed
(3) self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes and
(4) an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts.
Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by using audio-video and multi-media and state of the art pedagogy / technology.
In order to ensure best quality content are produced and delivered, seven National Coordinators have been appointed : They are NPTEL for engineering, UGC for post-graduation education, CEC for under-graduate education, NCERT & NIOS for school education, IGNOU for out of the school students and IIMB for management studies.
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.
SWAYAM platform is indigenously developed by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with the help of Microsoft and 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.
Creation of online courses for SWAYAM :
Identification : The National Coordinators (NC) shall ensure that work of converting a course into a MOOC shall be done in a comprehensive manner, such that there is complete coverage of all the courses in a subject/programme.
a) The NC shall identify courses where online education is possible and preferred. The identified courses shall be advertised in newspaper and other media calling for Expression of Interest (EoI).
b) In all identified courses, Expression of Interest (EoI) can be invited for credit courses from CC through recognised Universities/ Institute of National Importance and other educational Institutions authorized to award degrees/credits and from subject specialists both in Public and Private Sectors for non-credit courses.
c) The CC while submitting the expression of interest (EoI) shall also submit an undertaking from a Host University/Institution conveying its willingness to offer the course for credit, conduct examination, assessment, evaluation, issue certificates and transfer the credits to the students of the Parent University/Institution as per the UGC/ AICTE/any other regulatory body Regulations issued for the purpose.
d) After evaluating the EoI received, the NC shall identify a Course Coordinator (CC) for each Course, based on
(i) the quality of the sample content,
(ii) reputation of the expert/ institute and
(iii) teaching-learning methods proposed, and invite him/her to prepare the MOOC within 6 months from that date.
e) The NC shall ensure that no further courses are allotted to a CC unless he/she has successfully completed a course allotted earlier.
f) In case two or more CC from the same Institution drop / discontinue courses at a given time, the host Institute shall be denied further participation for a stipulated time.
g) In case, the selected CC is a private person or a private institution, not entitled to award credits/ certificate, it shall identify a public Institution authorized to offer credits/ certificate for the course and issue certificate, as Co-applicant.
An MoU between the two defining their roles will be formulated and later approved by the NC / SB.
h) The NC shall constitute the following Committees immediately :
i. Academic Advisory Council (AAC) consisting of academicians for assisting the NC to consider and take decisions on every MOOC proposal.
ii. Subject Matter Expert Groups (SMEGs) for each subject consisting of academicians for evaluating the Proposals for Online Courses and make recommendations for its acceptance, improvement or rejection.