The President of India Pranab Mukherjee has launched Swayam portal, 32 Swayam Prabha DTH channels and National Academic Depository at the National Convention on Digital Initiatives organized by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
Speaking on the occasion, President Pranab Mukherjee said, “The spread of technology, telecom penetration and Internet has offered an opportunity to quell the divide in terms of access and quality. And, we should seize this opportunity with both our hands.”
“Digital technology enables good teachers to directly teach large number of students who are not physically present in classes. ICT solutions offer an interactive learning experience through which students in remote parts of the country can benefit from lectures of the top teachers. The digital modes are cheaper, more easily accessible, interactive and offer flexibility for people to learn at their own pace. We need to work together to ensure that they are widely adopted for teaching,” added Mukherjee.
Swayam portal has become fully functional which enables one to take courses offered by the best teachers, remaining where they are. Swayam should be a call to the pioneers amongst teachers to put new courses in the upcoming areas on this platform in the MOOCs format.
The scale and reach of this technology has been raised manifold through the 32 Swayam Prabha DTH channels. These channels will help students in the rural areas and in the remote areas where IT infrastructure have not penetrated so well.
The Swayam Prabha channels are available for free for anyone who has a set top box to receive either DD Free Dish or DishTV. These channels transmit 4 hours of fresh content every day and contain lectures from the best teachers in the country.
More than 400 courses are available on Swayam covering all the engineering and non-engineering subjects at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The UGC has already issued regulation that allows transfer of credits earned through the courses done through Swayam into the academic record of the students. It is now possible for the students and others to take courses of the prestigious IITs or IIMs without formally studying there. The courses are available on www.swayam.gov.in.
The platform has been constructed by Microsoft with totally indigenous efforts.
The National Academic Depository would help in easy authentication of the credentials issued by the institutions. This would also help in increasing transparency and ease of operation. The several other digital initiatives taken up under the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) being showcased should help all of you in going the digital way in order to improve the quality of teaching.
The President said that the National Academic Depository would help in easy authentication of the credentials issued by the institutions and this would also help in increasing transparency and ease of operation.
Among the dignitaries present on the occasion were Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Human Resource Development and Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, MoS for Human Resource Development (Higher Education).
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