Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ held a review of SWAYAM and SWAYAM PRABHA in New Delhi. The ministry said that 1,902 courses are available currently in SWAYAM, the national online education platform, which have been offered to 1.56 crore students since its launch. Currently, over 26 lakh students are taking 574 courses on offer, it said. 

The HRD ministry has taken several initiatives to ensure that the education of  learners should not get affected by the challenging situation arising out of COVID-19.

Under the direction of MHRD, National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has initiated a unique method to ensure effective schooling to reach the unreached directly at doorsteps. 

Fulfilling the objectives of quality education, content is being made available online through SWAYAM platform of MHRD for various subjects from Class 9 to 12. 

Along with self learning material, SWAYAM portal provides video lectures and facility of self-assessment. The questions and queries of the learners are also being resolved through discussion forums.

In addition, for those who do not have much access to the Internet, these video lectures are telecast on SWAYAM PRABHA TV channels with live sessions to interact with their teachers and subject experts.

Those who are preparing for JEE and NEET also benefit with this initiative.

What is SWAYAM?

Study Web of Active Learning by Young and Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) is an indigenous platform for online learning. 

SWAYAM was launched on July 9, 2017 with an objective of anyone, anywhere, anytime learning.

SWAYAM is a programme initiated by the government and designed to achieve the three principles of education policy — access, equity and quality. 

SWAYAM 2.0 with enhanced features and facilities was launched in 2019 to offer online degree programmes by top ranking universities.

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 a platform that facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 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 any learner. 

More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the country have participated in preparing these courses.

The courses hosted on SWAYAM are in four quadrants:

1) Video lecture.

2) Specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed. 

3) Self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes.

4) An online discussion forum for clearing the doubts. 

Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by using audio-video and multimedia and state of the art pedagogy/technology.

Significance of SWAYAM

SWAYAM creates synergies between the salient features of anytime-anywhere format of e-Learning and the traditional classroom-based chalk and talk method to develop a unique content delivery mechanism, which is responsive to learners’ needs and ensures seamless transfer of knowledge across geographical boundaries.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have emerged as a viable model for imparting education, involving conventional and online education.

Courses delivered through SWAYAM are available free of cost to the learners, however learners who want a SWAYAM certificate should register for the final proctored exams that come at a fee and attend in-person at designated centres on specified dates. 

Eligibility for the certificate will be announced on the course page and learners will get certificates only if this criteria is matched.

Universities/colleges approving credit transfer for these courses can use the marks/certificate obtained in these courses for the same.

In order to ensure that best quality content is produced and delivered, nine national coordinators have been appointed. They are:

* AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) for self-paced and international courses.

* NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) for engineering.

* UGC (University Grants Commission) for non technical post-graduation education.

* CEC (Consortium for Educational Communication) for under-graduate education.

* NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) for school education.

* NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) for school education.

* IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) for out-of-school students.

* IIMB (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore) for management studies.

* NITTTR (National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research) for Teacher Training programme.

SWAYAM PRABHA

SWAYAM PRABHA is a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting high-quality educational programmes on 24x7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite to reach out to students/learners with wide reach and minimal cost.

Every day, there will be new content for at least four hours which would be repeated five more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience. 

All telecasted videos are available on YouTube as archival.

SWAYAM PRABHA aims to support those students who do not have good learning options like lack of teachers or Internet. It also aims to provide dedicated channels ‘IITPAL’ to assist the students of 11 and 12 standards aspiring to join premier educational institutions in the country.

SWAYAM PRABHA project is managed by the chief coordinator from IIT Madras.

The DTH channels cover the following:

a) Higher Education: Curriculum-based course contents at postgraduate and under-graduate level covering diverse disciplines such as arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences and humanities, engineering, technology, law, medicine, agriculture, etc. All courses would be certification-ready in their detailed offering through SWAYAM, the platform being developed for offering MOOCs courses.

b) School education (9-12 levels): Modules for teacher’s training as well as teaching and learning aids for children of India to help them understand the subjects better and also help them in preparing for competitive examinations for admissions to professional degree programmes.

c) Curriculum-based courses that can meet the needs of life-long learners of Indian citizens in India and abroad.

d) Assist students (Class 11 & 12) to prepare for competitive exams.

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