Government of India @ Four Major Government-Sponsored eLearning Initiatives in 2017
In
the summer of 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Digital
India” initiative. Its goals are sweeping. They include vastly expanding the country’s
broadband infrastructure to connect 250,000 villages with internet access and
employing data analytics-based approaches to identify tax evaders.
2017,
however, saw the government push to increase internet and technology use focus
in a different field: education. Indian internet users surpassed 500 million in
the spring of this year. Even more own a television.
Throughout
the year, Modi’s government unrolled four different eLearning or remote
education initiatives. Each seek to uphold the three principles outlined in the
Education Policy of “Digital India”: access, equity, and quality.
National Digital Library of India (NDLI)
Ok,
the NDLI was actually launched in pilot
form in 2016, and it’s conducted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
But during 2017, the library has expanded its offerings to over 12 million
ebooks and other items in 100+ different languages. The digitization process is
ongoing and continues to add more and more texts to its repository. As of
November of this year, it counted 1.2 million registered users.
It
also launched a mobile app in 2017, which happened to share
the mBillionth South Asia Award with BYJU and WorldReader in the category
of “Learning and Education.”
As
broadband access increases, the digital library has been reaching more and more
school districts. Most recently in December, the NDLI teamed up with the state
Departments of Libraries and Research in Jammu and Kashmir for a workshop on
how to increase access and integrate with the existing state online library.
“In
the age of the Internet, massive changes were occurring in the world, making it
necessary to adopt and benefit from new technological inventions and digital
inventions” said Minister of State Education, Priya Sethi according to India
Today. “The initiative would help students get online access to the best
possible educational resources within and outside the country and once our
libraries are fully digitized, joining hands with NDLI will contribute a lot in
facilitating the teaching-learning process and the research work.”
Swayam – Free Online Education
The
Hindi name ‘Swayam’ can range in meaning from ‘themselves’ or ‘self’ to
‘inspired.’ This Swayam is an education
platform accessible to any learner in India. It compiles courses taught in
public schools from 9th class through to the post-graduate level.
The online courses include four components: 1) video lecture, 2) online
readings and resources that can be downloaded, 3) self-assessment tests, and 4)
an open online forum.
Upon
successfully finishing the course, students can choose to pay a small fee for a
certificate of completion.
The
platform was created in partnership with Microsoft. At its current capacity, it
can host 2000 courses and 80,000 hours of educational material.
Swayam Prabha
Related
to the online platform, Swayam Prabha
provides free lectures and lessons broadcast for television via GSAT-15
satellite. Many millions of people in the country own televisions but cannot
access the internet regularly (or at all).
The
24-7 programming will include undergraduate to post-graduate level lectures in
STEAM fields and beyond.
The
service is ideal for the hundreds of millions in India who have access to the
internet only at certain times of the day or week. In tandem with Swayam,
students can download the reading material and self-assessments and watch the
lectures from home. Online
to offline education initiatives have begun to have a huge impact in the
world’s second biggest country.
The National Academic Depository (NAD)
The
Indian higher education system includes nearly 1,000 universities and
institutions. Learners can earn many different varieties of degrees,
certificates, and accreditation from these educators. Each of them, along with
several other private or public initiatives, also provide grants, awards, and
scholarships for India’s vast population of learners.
The
National Academic Depository seeks
to track all certificates, degrees, awards, etc. obtained by India’s learners
and provide a reputable source for potential employers. Paper records of
academic accomplishment can be easily damaged or forged. Digitizing them makes
for a more secure form.
The
“Digital India” train continues to roll. There’s no telling where it will take
eLearning and online education in 2018.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan &
Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
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