SWAYAM-NPTEL courses
NPTEL is a project of 7 older lITs and IISc. Today, NPTEL is a National Coordinator for Engineering courses (UG and PG) under SWAYAM, the National MOOCs portal. The USP of NPTEL courses is that they are offered by the best faculty in the IITs/IISc/IISERs/IIITs in each subject. The content is very current as the faculty also carry out research in these areas.NPTEL also offers courses in Humanities and Management subjects as the NPTEL partner institutes also have these departments.
NPTEL courses are for a duration of 4/8/12 weeks and each week has the following components:
The courses we offer are offer UG/PG/PhD level and the guidelines given here are applicable to students of any degree programme.
Calculating Learner Effort in SWAYAM-NPTEL MOOCs
Learner engagement per week is estimated as follows:
Minimum effort required:
Table 1: Calculation for minimum effort from an online course
| Watching videos | 3 hrs for one time viewing | For better grasp and making notes, which the learner would normally do, maybe taken as 4-5 hours also. |
| Assignment solving time | 1 hrs | If the assignment involves problems to be solved or coding work, the time taken may be 2.5 hours |
| Minimum Total effort per week | 4 hrs | Counting only the video content and assignment time. |
Possible additional effort involved:
Table 2: Calculation of possible additional effort from the learners in an online course
| Assignments | Additional 1 hr | When assignments are more complex and require more time for solving or are subjective assignments |
| Going through the text documents and additional reading material | 1-2 hrs | Text transcripts are normally given along with other reference material. |
| Participation in discussion forum | 1-2 hrs | Any course has normally anywhere between 5-10 posts everyday. Learners are encouraged to try and answer the queries raised by others if they know the answer and actively |
| Total additional engagement possible | 1-5 hrs per week | Counting other components of the MOос course such as reading material and forum including additional time for assignment |
Steps involved in taking up an NPTEL online certification course
1. Awareness of timelines related to SWAYAM-NPTEL Courses
2. Requirements to enroll to SWAYAM- NPTEL courses
3. Activities to be done by students once course starts
4.Financials related to SWAYAM- NPTEL courses
5. Logistics related to certification examination
6. About the SWAYAM-NPTEL Certificate
Pass criteria
The weekly assignments are all graded out of 100 marks. Forthe 4/8/12 week courses, normally best 3/6/8 assignments are considered forcalculating the Average assignment score (out of 100).
Final score = 25% ofAverage assignment score (out of 100) + 75% of proctored certification examscore (out of 100)
Learner is said to be certified in the course and he/shewill be eligible for the e-certificate IF Average assignment score >= 40/100
AND
Proctoredcertification exam score >= 40/100
For a few courses (particularly programming courses), thispattern of grading may be slightly different, though the broad guideline andsplit will be the same as above. These will be announced during the course runand when final scores are published.
Use of SWAYAM-NPTEL courses for faculty members:
NPTEL has an MOU with AICTE to have specific coursesapproved as FDP and contribute towards career progression points for thefaculty. The modality is for faculty to enroll to these courses, write theexams and pass and then apply for the AICTE-NPTEL FDP certificate.
We have seen a large number of faculty enroll and learn fromthe courses on their own and also institutes encouraging them to do so. Werecommend that institutes ask faculty members to complete at least one NPTELcourse every semester, with in their discipline or any other discipline. Thiswill ensure continuous learning and updating of technical concepts, get aninsight into the pedagogy of teaching the course, ideas on different types ofassessment of the student, etc.
NPTEL also has courses on technology in education, teachingusing learner-centric methods, on IP, Patent laws, Education system, etc. Thesecan be recommended for new faculty recruits so that they understand the system.
Local Chapters
NPTEL is partneringwith more than 2700 colleges across the country today, which includeengineering, arts/science, polytechnic, management, pharmacy colleges andworking with them in an organized manner to take the online courses to thelearners there. There are no financials involved, with the only requirementbeing that a person be identified, who can serve as an interface between thecollege and NPTEL, and who is designated as the Single Point of Contact (SPOC).
The SPOC gets directaccess to
The above information is directly shared from NPTEL with theSPOC through their login and can be used towards crediting the courses as perthe decided norms.
In addition, the SPOCcan nominate a mentor faculty from the college to help students in betterunderstanding the content. For this, both the mentor and mentee student need tobe enrolled in the course and the students have to select the mentor from theonline course portal. The mentor will be able to see the progress of thestudent real time and can blend face-to-face instruction to supplement theonline learning. The SPOC and Mentors for specific courses can also facilitatethe learning by arranging for computer time, internet facility and help inunderstanding the content better.
