NEW DELHI: With 2.4 crore enrolling for courses which yield credits and with over 26 lakh having earned them, the government-run Swayam Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) has actually exceeded any other eLearning platform by a big margin.

Now the ministry of education has written to college institutions (HEIs) to popularise the platform in their respective states.

Overall enrolment, consisting of those in courses which dont have examinations and credits, is 3.1 crore with a ratio of 40:60 in between female and male candidates.Having currently performed examinations for over 26 lakh candidates since its launch in 2017 and 8.8 lakh active task submissions, the ministry stated that the MOOC platform also uses credit transfer after a test at a small charge and at present there are over 3,000 MOOC complimentary courses from throughout streams.According to MoE authorities the appeal of Swayam is also due the increased involvement of the universities using their courses through MOOCs along with accepting the credits made through the Swayam tests.

At present 288 universities have given formal approval of SWAYAM credits, which in January 2022 was 155.

In a letter to the HEIs, Vineet Joshi, extra secretary, department of higher education, MoE, stated that Swayam MOOCs are developed by academicians from leading ranked organizations and are offered free of expense to all learners.

Today Swayam is a rich repository of more than 300 high quality MOOCs courses enrolling over 3 crore students.

If one were to compare the efficiency of Swayam on the contours against which eLearning platforms are assessed, the efficiency of Swayam is far much better.

Numerous independent studies and research emphasize that the completion rate of eLearning is in between 1% to 5%.

Some of the most in-demand courses presently on Swayam platform are computing using python used by IIT-Ropar with 46,081 students followed by ethical hacking by IIT-Kharagpur with 45,934 trainees, setting through C++ from IIT-Bombay with 45,629 students and programs in Java by IIT-Kharagpur with 45,445 students.Urging the HEIs to utilise the courses, the ministry said that these courses are likewise qualified for credit transfer upon effective completion of the final proctored examination.The letter also mentioned that apart from the popularity of the technical and expert courses, there has been a rise in enrolment for courses in education domain post-pandemic.

This likewise reflects the changing paradigm of the mentor learning process post Covid and the focus on ICT-led mentor learning in NEP, said Joshi.The letter likewise advised the universities to accept Swayam credits and supply formal acknowledgement to the University Grants Commission.

The ministry informed the HEIs that apart from those informally accepting these credits, there are 288 universities which are officially accepting credits awarded via these MOOCs.