SWAYAM PLUS PLATFORM

29-02-2024

In February, 2024 Ministry of Education launched SWAYAM Plus platform, operated by IIT-Madras.
SWAYAM Plus aims to enhance employability, especially for working professionals.

Notable, SWAYAM, the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform providing educational opportunities for a vast number of learners, was launched by the Ministry of Education in 2017.
In alignment with NEP 2020, the SWAYAM Plus platform will now include courses supporting industry needs that enhance learners’ employability.
SWAYAM stands for Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds.

Key Features:

1. Partnership with Industry Giants: Collaboration with companies like L&T, Microsoft, CISCO, etc., to develop industry-aligned courses.

2. Innovative Elements: Multilingual content to cater to diverse learners. (Courses are to be multilingual as innovation has no language)

3. Ecosystem Development:

Focus on building a comprehensive ecosystem involving learners, course providers, industry, academia, and strategic partners.

4. Objectives:

Vernacular is a term for a type of speech variety, generally used to refer to a local language or dialect
Offering mentorship, scholarships, and job placements.
Facilitating upskilling and re-skilling at all levels.
Multilingual Content: Encourages diversity in audience selection.
AI-enabled Chatbot: Assists students in choosing appropriate courses.
Credit Recognition: Establishes credit equivalency for industry courses, allowing students to earn credits concurrently for degree requirements, providing academic flexibility.

Government initiative aimed at providing free, high-quality e-learning education from Class 9th to post-graduation levels.

Course Range: Covers diverse subjects in higher education and offers skill development courses.
Course Availability: Over 2000 courses available as of December 2022.
Instructor Quality: Courses taught by experienced instructors.
National Coordinators: Nine entities involved in curating, producing, and delivering courses, including NPTEL, AICTE, UGC, NCERT, NIOS, IGNOU, IIM-B, CEC, and NITTTR.
Certification: Participants can obtain SWAYAM certificates upon completing courses and passing exams at designated centers.
Exam Fee: A nominal fee is required for exam enrollment.

SWAYAM focuses on both academic education and skill development for the job market.
SWAYAM is designed to achieve the 3 principles of Education Policy: Access, Equity, and Quality.

Digital India Campaign: promoting the use of technology in education.
National Digital Library (NDL): provides a digital storage of educational resources, including textbooks, articles, and videos.
DIKSHA Platform: national platform for teachers that offers digital content for in-class teaching and self-learning.
e-Pathshala: An initiative providing e-books and educational resources for school students.
NPTEL: National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning offers online courses in engineering, science, and humanities.
Virtual Labs: Virtual Labs facilitate online practical experiments in various science and engineering disciplines.
e-Yantra: Encourages hands-on learning of robotics through online courses.
Swayam Prabha: group of DTH channels for broadcasting educational content for school and university students.
AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy: offers online faculty development programs for technical institutes across India.
SATHEE Platform: In December 2023, the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, with IIT Kanpur, introduced the SATHEE (Self-Assessment, Test and Help for Entrance Examination) portal.

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PLACES IN NEWS 3rd MAY 2025