Open online courses: A
welcome step in
Indian education system
Indian education system
NEW DELHI: India has
officially jumped on to the open online courses bandwagon with the government
announcing Swayam, an initiative that aims at providing affordable and quality
education to citizens for free.
The move is a welcome
step in India, which battles a shortage of infrastructure and qualified
teachers in higher education, with the model also having the potential to
democratise higher education, experts say.
MOOCs or massive open
online courses is a system aimed at unlimited participation and open access via
the web. It does not always quantify as formal education but provides a
platform to study quality courses from institutions offering them, usually for
free.
The government had announced the programme as part of the initiatives undertaken by the ministry of human resource development (HRD) in its first 100 days in office with the aim to reach out to 10 million students.
The government had announced the programme as part of the initiatives undertaken by the ministry of human resource development (HRD) in its first 100 days in office with the aim to reach out to 10 million students.
HRD Minister Smriti
Irani said that the initiative was undertaken in the light of concerns
expressed over the quality and affordability of education. She also said that
an Indianised version has been provided to students.
Welcoming the
initiative, experts said that the availability of the model was a "great
asset" for motivated students.
"MOOCs have the
potential to become a teaching/learning platform, with universities certifying
the competence (degrees) and providing the opportunity for networking and
developing other skills. In this scenario MOOCs are like textbooks," T.V.
Prabhakar, professor, department of computer science and engineering at
IIT-Kanpur, told IANS.
Describing MOOCs to
have the "potential to democratize higher education", Pushkar (one
name), a professor in the department of humanities and social sciences at BITS
Pilani, said that it offers India's young population a platform to get
themselves an education "despite the nation's failed higher education
system".
He, however, added
that young Indians and their parents are more interested in degrees than in
education per se.
"So as long as
one can get a degree after doing some MOOCs, it is all good," Pushkar told
IANS.
At a recently held
higher education event, Irani had said: "Recognising the need for
affordable and quality education, the government has set up a platform of the
Indianised version of MOOCs..." She said in this, all the Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs), central universities, Indian Institutes of
Management (IIMs) and selected best colleges and institutions of India will
provide graduate, undergraduate and post-graduate courses free of cost to all
Indians.
She added that those
seeking a degree or certification can sit for an exam at a nominal cost in that
particular institution.
In the first phase of
Swayam (Study Webs of Active-learning for Young Aspiring Minds) IIT-Bombay,
IIT- Chennai, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Guwahati, University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru
University and IIM Bangalore, among others, alone as well as with the help of
faculty from foreign universities, will offer courses in areas of management,
social sciences, basic sciences, basic sciences, engineering education and
energy.
Explaining the benefits, Richard C. Levin, CEO, Coursera, a global online education company, said its advantage is "multi-faceted".
Explaining the benefits, Richard C. Levin, CEO, Coursera, a global online education company, said its advantage is "multi-faceted".
"For one, MOOCs
are recognised teaching programmes in renowned educational institutions,
including Harvard and MIT; world-class institutions ensure globally accepted
learning and recognition; and there's flexibility in learning time frame.
"Globally, MOOCs
are seen as the future of higher education. India can further benefit from
online education as Indian learners are hungry for skills to help them get a
jobs or get into colleges/universities," Leven told.
He said that the IT
surge in India has fuelled significant demand for online courses among the
country's knowledge-seeking population, adding that India is Coursera's largest
market outside the US.
But, can MOOCs be
taken as a substitute for university education ?
"I think yes
eventually, as technology becomes more readily available. Right now, the way
most of the MOOCs are organized is that there are platforms where one can
create content and create lectures (and you) can pick what you want. But it's
only a matter of time before a lot of these lectures are going to get organized
into what a university has to offer.
"And in that sense, some universities have already started offering online courses," Vineet Gupta, pro-vice chancellor of Ashoka University, Sonepat, told IANS, adding that it was for the universities to see if they wanted to use MOOCs as a way to substitute university education or actual education in the classroom.
"And in that sense, some universities have already started offering online courses," Vineet Gupta, pro-vice chancellor of Ashoka University, Sonepat, told IANS, adding that it was for the universities to see if they wanted to use MOOCs as a way to substitute university education or actual education in the classroom.
According to
Prabhakar, while MOOCs will make good courses, taught by good teachers,
available to the students, "we will have to make sure that these courses
reach the remote parts of India. Otherwise, we will create another form of
digital divide".
Sundar Balasubramaniam,
dean, academic and resource planning, BITS, Pilani, while agreeing that MOOCs
can provide a manifold increase in the reach of quality content and pedagogy,
told IANS: "University programmes and courses provide students with an
opportunity to intellectually engage with peers and mentors over an extended
period in a focussed environment. That is hard to replace."
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