The University Grants Commission (UGC) has doubled the academic credit limit for online courses to 40 percent from the existing 20 per cent. Now, the students can choose relevant subjects as per their course and opt for the online classes using SWAYAM and gain credits for it. As per norms, attending these courses will be considered equivalent to attending physical lectures in a class.
To ensure that more students can avail the benefits, the UGC constituted an expert committee to help map the existing courses with MOOCs (massive open online course). Further, it would also identify areas or subjects for which MOOCs are not available and create digital content for those courses as well.
It proposed to develop 171 undergraduate level MOOC courses in six subjects – history, political science, commerce, sociology, public administration, and anthropology. The UGC has asked higher education institutes to develop “high quality” MOOCs in these areas which can be “comparable to international standards.”
In its official notice, the UGC states, “Keeping in mind the present situation of Covid-19, the Chairman, University Grants Commission has constituted an Expert Committee to map the existing developed MOOCs and identify gap areas where courses need to be developed under SWAYAM as per UGC model CBCS curriculum.”
This is also in line with the recently released New Education Policy which suggests to set-up an academic bank of credits (ABC). The purpose of ABC would be to compile academic credits earned by a student from various educational institutes. Degrees from a HEI can be awarded taking into account the credits earned by a student.
Earlier, 82 MOOCs for undergraduate and 42 for postgraduates classes were approved by the SWAYAM board to be offered in the July semester. The UGC had asked the vice-chancellors to take suggestions from deans of respective departments on which courses each varsity should adopt from the platform.
Source: The Indian Express
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