SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active–Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) is a program initiated by the Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity, and quality. 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 the hosting of all the courses taught in classrooms 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.
SWAYAM platform is developed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and NPTEL, IIT Madras with the help of Google Inc. and Persistent Systems Ltd. It 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.
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.
- 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 (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