# SWAYAM

SWAYAM is an Indian government portal for a free open online course (MOOC) platform providing educational courses for university and college learners.

## History

The SWAYAM initiative was launched by the then Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (now Ministry of Education), Government of India under Digital India to give a coordinated stage and free entry to web courses, covering all advanced education, high school, and skill sector courses. It was launched on 9 July 2017 by Pranab Mukherjee, Honorable President of India.

## Activities

The SWAYAM platform offers free access to everyone and hosts courses from class 9 to post-graduation. It enables professors and faculty of centrally funded institutes like IITs, IIMs, IISERs, etc. to teach students.
To date, a total of 11772 courses have been offered through SWAYAM, and about 1182 courses are on offer in the January 2024 Semester. As per Department of Higher Education (India), about 1.21 Crore unique users/registrations have been made on the SWAYAM platform, and more than 4 Crore enrolments have been made in various courses offered on SWAYAM.
A total of 859 Indian Sign Language videos for primary classes have been produced and regularly telecast on PM eVIDYA DTH TV channels. This aligns with the National Education Policy 2020 which reiterates the need for development of National and State Curriculum materials for use by students with hearing impairment.
SWAYAM has been developed cooperatively by the Ministry of Education and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), with the help of Microsoft. SWAYAM has accumulated 203 partnering institutes, 2,748 completed courses, 12,541,992 student enrollments, 915,538 exam registrations, and 654,664 successful certificates.
SWAYAM (meaning 'Self' in Sanskrit) is an acronym that stands for "Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds"

## Functionality

SWAYAM operates MOOCs learning resources in different ways and structures. Learning is delivered in four ways; e-Tutorial, e-Content, discussion forums and, self-assessment.
The first quadrant is e- Tutorial, which means that there is not much extra work by students. It could include teaching video, animation, PowerPoint presentations, Podcast, and so on. These will depend on the individual subject and the strategy adopted by the teacher.
The second quadrant is an e-content which could include e-books, illustrations, Case studies, Open source content, reference links, further reading sources, etc.
The third quadrant is about clearing students' queries where students can interact with each other and faculty; any student or faculty can answer a student’s question.
The fourth quadrant is self-assessment to check what a student has studied and whether they are eligible to get a certificate. This includes tests in the form of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), quiz or short answer questions, long answer questions, etc. The fourth quadrant also has Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and their answers to clarify common misconceptions among students.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) considers that universities should play a key role in publicizing and popularizing SWAYAM courses among their learners and the university, enabling them to gain from MOOCs on a more extensive footing.

## National coordinators

Nine national coordinators are appointed to manage the course content. Each coordinator is assigned a particular area for maintenance.
* All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for self-paced and international courses.
* National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) has been as a appointed National coordinator by MHRD for engineering sector courses.
* University Grants Commission (UGC) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for non-technical post-graduate education.
* Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for undergraduate education.
* National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for school education.
* National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for school education.
* Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for out-of-school students.
* Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for management studies.
* National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) has been appointed as a National coordinator by MHRD for Teacher training program.

## Courses offered

| Subject | No. of courses | Offered by/under |
SCHOOL :
| Accountancy | 3 | NCERT |
| Biology | 3 | NCERT |
| Business studies | 2 | NCERT |
| Chemistry | 3 | NCERT |
| Economics | 2 | NCERT |
| Food Nutrition for Healthy Living | 1 | NCERT |
| Geography | 4 | NCERT |
| Mathematics | 3 | NCERT |
| Physics | 4 | NCERT |
| Psychology | 3 | NCERT |
| Sociology | 2 | NCERT |
Undergraduate courses :
| Engineering |||
| Aerospace | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Bioengineering | 3 | - IIT Madras |
| Biotechnology | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Chemical | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Civil | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Computer Science | 18 | - Punjabi University - Panjab University - Anna University - Gujarat University - IIT Madras - IGNOU |
| Electrical | 4 | - IIT Madras |
| Electronics | 115 | - IIT Madras - Anna University - IIT Mumbai - IIT Kanpur - IIT Roorkee - IIT Kharagpur - IISc - IIT Delhi - IIT Guwahati - IISER Kolkata - IIIT Delhi |
| Environment | 1 | - Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya |
| General | 31 | - IIT Madras - IIT Kanpur - IIT Roorkee - IIT Kharagpur - IIT Mumbai |
| Geology | 1 | - Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya |
| Graphics | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Instrumentation-and-Control | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Mechanical | 8 | - IIT Madras |
| Metallurgy | 1 | - IIT Madras |
Management :
| Entrepreneurship | 2 | - IIT Madras |
| Finance | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Human Resources | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Marketing | 3 | - Jai Narain Vyas University - SP Pune University - IIT Madras |
| Operations Research | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Services | 2 | - IIT Madras - IIM Bangalore |
Science :
| Biochemistry | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Biology | 1 | - Gujarat University |
| Chemistry | 5 | - IGNOU - IIT Roorkee - University of Delhi - IIT Madras |
| Genetics | 1 | - University of Kashmir |
| Physics | 2 | - IIT Madras - University of Hyderabad |
| Sericulture | 1 | - University of Mysore |
| Zoology | 1 | - Gujarat University |
Mathematics :
| Basic | 2 | - IIT Madras - Shiv Nadar University |
| Calculus | 2 | - IIT Madras |
| Statistics | 3 | - University of Calicut - IIT Madras |
| Humanities | | |
Humanities :
| Archeology | 2 | - Manipur University - IIT Delhi |
| Economics | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Ethics | 2 | - IIT Madras - Jadavpur University |
| Geography | 2 | - University of Mysore |
| History | 2 | - St Xaviers Autonomous College – Kolkata - Punjabi University |
| Population Studies | 1 | - Madurai Kamaraj University |
| Psychology | 3 | - The English & Foreign Languages University - IIT Madras |
| Sociology | 1 | - University of Calicut |
Language :
| English | 5 | - IIT Madras |
| Literature | 1 | - The English & Foreign Languages University |
| German | 2 | - IIT Madras |
| Russian | 2 | - Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda |
Arts & Recreation :
| Audio-Visual Media | 1 | - Shiv Nadar University |
| Films | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Music | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Performing Arts | 1 | - IIT Madras |
| Photography | 1 | - Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya |
| Script Writing | 1 | - St Xavier’s Autonomous College – Kolkata |
| Visual Art | 1 | - IIT Madras |
General :
| Research | 1 | - University of Hyderabad |
| Film Studies | 1 | - Central University of Kerala |

## Credit transfer

All the courses offered by SWAYAM are recognized by the government of India. All the courses are valid in the country. UGC announced a “Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through SWAYAM” Regulations where credit transfer was defined. The UGC regulation requires Universities to make changes in their rules to incorporate provisions for credit mobility and MOOC courses under the SWAYAM platform. Certificates will be given upon completing the criteria of the course taken, and that certificate can be used for credit mobility for academic credits. The current guideline of UGC constrains just 20% of the courses for a degree-level program.

## Local chapter

NPTEL is a joint initiative of the IITs and IISC. NPTEL offers online courses and certifications in various fields and has set up a system to provide certificate courses in different colleges across India termed as NPTEL- local chapters. A local chapter will be under one faculty member of the college as one Single Point of Contact (SPOC).
Further under the SWAYAM-NPTEL webpage, two more departments are operated, i.e., timeline, list of active local chapters, local chapter ratings, etc. Other departments show news from local chapters, i.e., local chapter colleges/universities. Each Local Chapter has a separate Coordinator/SPOC.

## SWAYAM PRABHA

SWAYAM PRABHA is an education learning platform initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) available through 40 (initially 32) DTH channels. This initiative provides an educational program on television. As with the SWAYAM online portal, the content providers are NPTEL, IITs, UGC, NCERT etc.
In 2023, the SWAYAM PRABHA started broadcasting educational counselling in Meitei language (officially called Manipuri language) on behalf of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in Imphal. The live sessions for the lectures were archived on YouTube, thereby enriching and the resources for its learners in the language.