Lok Sabha Question No. 2835 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-07
Subject: Online Courses on SWAYAM Portal
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi, Y. S. Avinash Reddy, Brijendra Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. †2835 ANSWERED ON 07.08.2023

## Online Courses on SWAYAM Portal

†2835. SHRI GHANSHYAM SINGH LODHI: SHRI BRIJENDRA SINGH: SHRI Y.S. AVINASH REDDY:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the  manner  through  which  online  education  will  be  given  priority  and  encouragement  in  the  new National Education Policy; (b)  the number of online courses available on 'SWAYAM' portal for online education and the number of students who have registered themselves at present; (c) the salient features of 'SWAYAM' portal and the manner by which it is beneficial to youth/students; (d)  whether  the  Government  is  implementing  Massive  Open  Online  Courses  (MOOC)  system  through online and about 1 crore of students are getting educated in higher level courses including SWAYAM, DEEKSHA, etc., along with other schemes and propose to cover 50% of educational courses through online system in future/by 2035 by enhancing the digital basic amenities in educational institutions with  high  Internet  speed  by  reducing  the  UDC  guidelines  also  with  introduction  of  courses  like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and propose to set up digital universities in the country, if so the details thereof, State wise; and
- (e) the funds sanctioned/spent for each project till now?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUBHAS SARKAR)

(a) to (e) Government of India has announced 'National Education Policy 2020' on 29 th  July 2020 with an aim to ensure equitable access of education with highest quality for all learners regardless of social or economic ground.

Union  Education  Ministry  has  taken  several  IT  initiatives  to  achieve  this  goal  which  also  includes SWAYAM, DIKSHA, VITUAL LABS, FOSSEE, SAMARTH, National  Digital  Library,  Academic  Bank  of Credit, National Internship Portal, AI based language Translation Tools etc.

To optimize the available resources, SWAYAM portal was launched on 9 th  July 2017 to make available high-quality content to learners free of cost with the approach of 'Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime Learning'. Education courses are developed in various disciplines under the SWAYAM MOOCs program through a network of 9 National Coordinators which are IIT Madras, IIM Bangalore, University Grants Commission (UGC),  Indira  Gandhi  National  Open  University  (IGNOU),  All  India  Council  for  Technical  Education (AICTE), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), National Institute of Technical Teachers  Training  and  Research  (NITTTR),  National  Institute  of  Open  Schooling  (NIOS)  and  National Institutes of Technology  (NIT)  Trichy. The  National Coordinators have  been  entrusted  with the responsibility  to  develop  technical  as  well  multi-disciplinary/  inter-disciplinary  courses  in  the  emerging areas such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science etc.

Through the SWAYAM portal (www.swayam.gov.in), Anyone can avail the virtual courses offered through portal,  interact  with the  teacher, take  tests,  earn  academic credits  and transfer them on their academic records as per the UGC (Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) Regulations, 2021.

SWAYAM courses are designed with four Quadrant approach The courses hosted on SWAYAM are in 4 quadrants - (1) video lecture, (2) specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/ printed (3) self-assessment  tests  through  tests  and  quizzes  and  (4)  an  online  discussion  forum  for  clearing  the doubts. Student also refer to SWAYAM for various learning needs such as revision, flipped classroom, peer support, refresher courses, upskilling and continuing education.

As on 3 rd  August 2023, a total of 3095 unique MOOCs has been developed and 10,473 MOOCs courses have been offered on SWAYAM Portal since its launch. SWAYAM MOOCs has witnessed a cumulative enrolment of more than 3.59 Crore enrolments. For the current July 2023 Semester, 1125 courses are approved to be offered and 21.88 lakh enrolments are made till date.

Government of India has announced the establishment of the digital university in the budget 2022-23 to provide access to students across the country for world-class quality universal education with personalized learning experience at their doorsteps

Fund released under National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) in last 3 years is mentioned below:

| NMEICT Fund release details Financial Year-wise (in Rs Cr)   | NMEICT Fund release details Financial Year-wise (in Rs Cr)   | NMEICT Fund release details Financial Year-wise (in Rs Cr)   | NMEICT Fund release details Financial Year-wise (in Rs Cr)   | NMEICT Fund release details Financial Year-wise (in Rs Cr)   |
|--------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|
| Financial Year                                               | 2020-21                                                      | 2021-22                                                      | 2022-23                                                      | 2023-24(till 31 st July 2023)                                |
| Fund Released                                                | 267.71                                                       | 350.02                                                       | 395.02                                                       | 94.21                                                        |

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