With uncertainty looming over reopening of campuses and holding of exams due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked universities and colleges to consider adopting the 124 SWAYAM MOOCs as credit courses for the July 2020 semester.
The students can thereafter sit for the exams to be conducted by the National Testing Agency in November, get the credits transferred thus overcoming the loss due to the lockdown. The regulatory authority has suggested that higher education institutions could get these courses ratified by the statutory bodies.
Currently there are 82 UG and 42 PG MOOC courses on offer under SWAYAM or ‘Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds’, an Indian massive open online course platform launched by the ministry of human resource development in 2017 to offer free online courses.
According to MHRD, since the lockdown from March 23, 2020, over 50,000 learners have accessed 1,900 MOOCs, which is in addition to the 25 lakh students enrolled in the January 2020 semester of SWAYAM.
UGC cited the Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through SWAYAM for credit mobility, where students can learn online and take the SWAYAM semester exams to be conducted by the National Testing Agency and get the credits transferred to his/ her university.
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In his letter to all the heads of higher education institutions, Rajnish Jain, secretary, UGC said: “In the prevailing Covid-19 scenario, universities and colleges are encouraged to make optimum use of the SWAYAM online platform…” and added, “The SWAYAM courses may be approved and adopted through the SWAYAM platform by the vice chancellor on the recommendation of dean academics/ heads of department of your university for credit transfer and ratified by the Academic Council.”
The SWAYAM semester exams will be conducted in November 14 and 15, 2020 and the UGC has asked the HEIs to plan their examination schedule accordingly so as to avoid any clashes.
The commission has also invited faculty members from the HEIs to submit their expression of interest for developing non-technology UG and PG courses to the consortium for educational communication (CEC), an inter-university centre of UGC, which is the national coordinator for the courses offered under SWAYAM.
Courtesy: TOI
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