MOOCs, or massive open online courses, are catching on fast as Indian students look to fill gaps in their syllabi. As demand grows, options are growing too. Oxford University launched its first MOOC in November, as did the union government.

 The future of the education system in India will be an integration of models, where the student will be able to choose whether they want to study online, offline or in a combination of the two. UDAY SALUNKHE, group director of WeSchool, Matunga

You can now study economic development at Oxford, free and online.You can learn about genetics via India’s union HRD ministry and its new Swayam e-courses. 

ILLUSTRATION: SIDHHANT JUMDE

You can even dabble in nuclear energy management via edX.

As massive open online courses, or MOOCs, catch on, the number of students registering is climbing by as much as 70% a year, and hallowed institutes that never offered them before — like Oxford University — are opening their doors virtually too.

This is encouraging industry to be more embracing of MOOCs too, and the result is a virtuous cycle that gives the Indian student the ability to pick a field of study, anywhere in the world, and pursue a course in that field right from home, and usually free.

“MOOCs used to be seen as almost an extra-curricular activity. But even the book-centric Indian students are learning that it can be very enriching, personally and professionally, to attend a prestigious foreign university virtually,” says education consultant Karan Gupta. “It also helps expand the horizon when it comes to higher study options, as MOOCs allow students to opt for standalone courses in topics like game theory, antimicrobial resistance or 3D printing.”

The numbers speak for themselves. Coursera, a US-based platform that partners with universities to offer online courses around the world, registered 70% rise in number of registrations from India between 2014 and 2015, to reach 1.1 million users in the country; and that number has since risen further to reach 1.8 million this year.

Meanwhile, Oxford launched its first MOOC, From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding Economic Development, in November.

Even the union government is betting big on MOOCs. The Swayam initiative (Swayam is Hindi for ‘by yourself ’), which opened for registrations in November, is already offering 216 free courses, with plans to expand to 10,000 over the next two years, according to Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

“The growth in digital education has been massive and the main factor driving it is changing student perceptions,” adds Andrew Thangaraj, a professor of electrical engineering at IIT-Madras associated with Swayam. “Even though a majority of students are still inclined towards classroom learning, the acceptance of online courses in rising rapidly.” WHY MOOCS? “Online courses are very customisable and manageable with academics,” says Sunny Gurbani, 20, a management student from Kalyan who has completed four courses in digital marketing and entrepreneurship over the past year, from Cloudera and edX. “They help increase job prospects and learn niche skills, so they are quite popular among students.”

Source | Hindustan Times | 14 December 2016

Regards!
Librarian

Rizvi Institute of Management Studies & Research