What makes Swayam attract IITs, IIMs and crores of students?

Over 1 crore enrollments in less than two years. Over 1.6 lakh enrolled in four courses in July 2020. The government’s online platform Swayam has seen a massive jump in demand as colleges were forced to rely on online teaching due to the pandemic. Data exclusively accessed by TOI showed that around 1.1 crore enrollments took place on the platform between July 2019 and January 2021. An average of 27.44 lakh joined courses every semester since 2019 to study in courses offered by some of India’s top institutions such as IITs, Indian Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University and IIMs. Courses like Machine Learning, Python for Data Science, Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms using Python and Programming each saw an enrollment of over 40,000 in the July 2020 semester. These courses were offered by IIT-Madras, Chennai Mathematical Institute and IIT-Kharagpur. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r “Covid is one of the major reasons for this growth. Growth that would have otherwise taken a decade has now been achieved in two years,” said V Ramgopal Rao, director of IIT-Delhi. “Another reason for this growth is the quality of the content. Now, in the years to come, we will see exponential growth of online courses and further increase in consumption,” he said.Enrollment in courses is expected to rise with the approval of credit transfers upto 40% from online courses towards the completion of degrees. Around 149 universities, including 26 central universities and 48 state government-run universities will accept credits received on Swayam from 2021.Jump in courses, exam takersAdditional secretary at the Ministry of Education Vineet Joshi said that the number of students appearing for Swayam exams and getting certified, or earning credits, has tripled since July 2018. The exams are conducted twice a year.Around 70,000 took the exams and nearly 65,000 qualified per semester in 2018; the number rose to nearly 2 lakh taking the exams in 2019 and 2020. An estimated 1.8 lakh students were certified per semester during this period. The number of courses offered on the online platform has more than doubled since 2017. There were 323 courses available in July 2017, which grew to 876 in January 2021. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Career counsellor Pervin Malhotra said that the rise can be attributed to employers asking what students had done while colleges were shut due to the pandemic. Value addition and certifications achieved through Swayam helped increase students’ domain expertise in technical fields, she said. “Another plus is that the brand value of a course offered by an IIT looks great on your resume. Why would a learner from a second-rung institution miss an opportunity to learn from lectures of IITs or NITs, earn a certificate or credit? Most students from second-rung institutions need supplementary learning and if you are getting it from premier sources why not?” said Malhotra. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Top institutes’ digital courses also witnessed significant growth over the past year. IIT-Delhi director Rao said that the institute had seen a marked increase in participation after it digitised 1,400 of its courses and made them available online. “We launched eVidya during our last convocation with support of five edtech companies. Not only has it helped us reach students from remote areas, but our revenue has also increased by 400% in the online learning space,” said Rao. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Secretary for higher education at the Ministry of Education Amit Khare credited the new National Education Policy with facilitating the rapid growth of online learning. “Soon students will be able to take any course from the choice of their institutions, earn and deposit credits and complete their degrees. And ultimately the day is not far when they can take courses from any universities and earn their degree from a virtual university, which is basically an aggregator of courses offered by different institutions,” he said. Like this story? Get more such stories in your inbox. Subscribe to the Education+ newsletter hereUntitled Carousel 85072150