SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active–Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) is a program initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality. Over 12 lakh students have enrolled on SWAYAM. SWAYAM has been developed by Ministry of Education in collaboration with National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning(NPTEL) and IIT Madras. SWAYAM hosts over 2000 courses taught in classrooms from class 9 till post graduation. All the courses are interactive ,free of costs to any learner. The student can avail of pre -recorded video lectures, download specially prepared reading material , take online self – assessments and quizzes to check their progress and participate in online discussion forums to clear their doubts. For a SWAYAM certificate ,the student will need to register and pay a fee for the final proctored exams which are held at designated centers on specified dates.
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. Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by using audio-video and multi-media and state of the art pedagogy / technology.
In order to ensure that best quality content is produced and delivered, nine National Coordinators have been appointed. They are:
- AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) for self-paced and international courses
- NPTEL (National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning) for Engineering
- UGC (University Grants Commission) for non technical post-graduation education
- CEC (Consortium for Educational Communication) for under-graduate education
- NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) for school education
- NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) for school education
- IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) for out-of-school students
- IIMB (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore) for management studies
- NITTTR (National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research) for Teacher Training program.
