SWAYAM is a Government of India project designed to achieve access, equity and quality for all in education. It stands for Study Webs of Active –Learning for Young Aspiring Minds. It seeks to provide the best learning resources to everyone at zero cost. The aim of SWAYAM is to provide these resources to even the most disadvantaged ones and bring them into the mainstream education through digital revolution. It is a digital platform where education resources and courses from Class 9 to Post Graduation are accessible online for free.
The contents of the course are developed by over thousands of specially chosen faculties specialising in their field. These include senior professors from IITs, IIMs, IIScs IGNOU and various other AICTE and UGC approved universities in India. This means that the wealth of experience and expertise that these faculties possess is available to access for all equally on the same platform.
Courses on SWAYAM are available in four ways, video lectures, reading material that can be downloaded, self assessment tests and quizzes and an online forum for discussion and doubt clearing. The use of video lectures is an example of using the technology to provide technology to everyone. The audio video medium of teaching ensures enriched experience for learners. And the self assessment tests and discussion forum give learners a platform to check their progress and check where they stand in the competition amongst their peers.
The course available on SWAYAM range from technology, architecture, management, law, humanities, sciences, biotechnology and multiple fields of engineering including ocean engineering and textile engineering and can be used for various entrance tests and competitive exams too. To attain ensure quality of content that is provided in these courses across the disciplines, nine National Coordinators have been appointed with a particular objective on which they ensure quality. These National Coordinators is made up of 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 and 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 and NITTTR (National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research) for Teacher Training programme.
There are already a few popular online educational course providers, but what sets SWAYAM apart is that you can appear for a certification exam for a small fee and use the credits earned from these certificates in your academic record as per gazette notification released by AICTE in 2016.
SWAYAM is a great example of what great things can be achieved when private sector and government bodies work together towards providing equal access and rights to all. SWAYAM's current platform is designed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and NPTEL, IIT Madras with the help of two private companies which are tech giants, Google Inc. and Persistent Systems Ltd.
SWAYAM is surely the next step forward. You can go and enroll for upcoming courses on SWAYAM and check out completed courses on their website, https://swayam.gov.in
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