E-learning Facilities
A learning system based on formalised teaching but with the help of electronic resources is known as E-learning. E-learning is conducted via electronic media typically on the internet for students. E-learning has huge platforms for learning. The rapid growth of economical technology brings to the world a massive opportunity for learning. Online learning is an effective solution to many- those who are unable to pursue their academic degree due to work, those whose education is hampered due to limited seat constraints in a traditional education system, and to everyone who are hungry for learning. One of them is MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course), which provides substantial courses that are open for anyone who has access to the computer. These learning platforms have pre-recorded lectures and videos which can be watched by individuals at their feasible time. The term ‘MOOC’ was originally origianally articulated by Dave Cormier (University of Prince Edward Island, Canada) to describe a course developed by George Siemens and Stephen DOwnes on ‘Connectivism and Connectivity in Knowledge’ in 2008. Here is the brief rundown of E-Learning platforms you can use for Online Courses. Some of the top course are:
COURSERA
Founded in 2012 by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and DahpneKoller, currently, Coursera is the most popular MOOC provider around the world. An Ambitious company that partners with top universities around the world to offer free and paid online courses, specializations, and full-fledged online degrees. The courses are being taught by top-notch professors from all over the world.
UDEMY
Udemy.com is an online learning platform. It is aimed at professional adults. In 2007, Udemy (you-duh-mee) founder Eren Bali built software for a live virtual classroom while living in Turkey. He saw potential in making the product free for everyone, and moved to Silicon Valley to found a company two years later. The site was launched by Bali, Oktay Caglar and Gagan Biyani in early 2010.Udemy is different from the usual MOOCs. It doesn’t impart courses in collaboration with universities or colleges. Udemy doesn’t impart any courses with credentials – certifications or degrees that could be recognized by universities. However, it is an extremely useful channel to gain skills based on your demand. Businesses often use Udemy for Corporate Training on a large scale. In April 2013, Udemy offered an app for Apple iOS, allowing students to take classes directly from iPhones; The Android version was launched in January 2014. As of January 2014, the iOS app had been downloaded over 1 million times, and 20 percent of Udemy users access their courses via mobile. In July 2016, Udemy expanded their iOS platform to include Apple TV.
EDX
Founded in 2012, it is the leader of online courses. For someone who is interested in learning themselves or educating their workforce by leveraging online courses, EdX can help. EdX courses consist of weekly learning sequences and each learning sequence is composed of short videos with interactive learning exercises where students can immediately practice the concepts from the videos. It also has the facility of online discussion forum where students can post and review questions and responds to each other. EdX relies on supportive contribution to maintain the non-profit education project and continue its research in learning. While you can enroll for a class just for the learning, edX provides an edX Verified Certificate for those who desire proof of their course completion, for jobs, schools, etc. There is a reasonable minimum fee, however, you can also apply for financial assistance.
EDUREKA
Edureka is one of the most interactive e-learning platforms. It stands out for its interactive and engaging teaching method. It provides courses like Data Science, Business and Management, Computer Science – Python, SQL, Big Data, Entrepreneurship, Statistics and also provide programs like Master’s Programs, Master’s Degree in Data Science, Professional Certificate, and Micro Masters and many more. It also provides actual project scenarios designed and evaluated by industry experts.
SIMPLILEARN
Simplilearn was founded by Krishan Kumar in 2010. It is one of the world’s prominent certification Training providers. They provide a blended learning approach which combines online classes, instructor-led live virtual sessions and project work with 24/7 teaching assistants. Most of their courses focus on business and technology.
SKILLWISE
It partners with top-rated online instructors to deliver numerous affordable courses on coding, design, investing, marketing, business & much more. These courses are classified into behavioral skills, enhancement skills, social skills, communication skills, and domain skills. This course gives an opportunity for students to become more independent to gain work and life skills. In addition to this, they provide more than 400 courses to corporate users in IT and Software skills.
UPGRAD
This is the country’s foremost online learning platform. It provides an opportunity for people who want to up-skill themselves. It teaches complex topics in a simple way, and mainly focuses on resume feedback and mock interview sessions with Industry experts. UpGrad empowers professionals through a rigorous online program. It helps in creating an immersive learning experience – anytime and anywhere by providing online sessions.
SPRINGBOARD
It offers flexible online courses for career paths such as Data Science, Design, Analytics and Digital Marketing where students can advance their career with 1-on-1 mentorship from industry experts. It helps students in enhancing their skills and make career progression. Springboard provides a path to rigorous instruction with a focus on active learning and robust professional development.
It is a fast-growing start-up that is passionate about fixing education and bridging the skills gap. One of the differentiating factors is that Springboard offers personalized job-seeking support apart from 1:1 mentoring to the learners.
WIZIQ
It is rated among the largest cloud-hosted learning solutions in the world. It provides virtual classroom training on course management, content authoring, video streaming, insights and analytics, mobile learning, etc. and allows online delivery of real-time instructor-led learning. It also allows you to create, administer courses, run live classes, and conduct online tests and online assessments. It has a cloud-based content library, where users can easily access the support team and have their queries answered in no time. It has received recognition from several education service providers. More than 400,000 instructors have used WizIQ to provide instructional services to over four million learners located across 200 nations.
ALISON
ALISON is a free online education platform that mostly focuses on workplace-based skills It was founded in Galway, Ireland by Irish social entrepreneur Mike Feerick on 21 April 2007. Alison currently offers more than a thousand courses at certificate, diploma, and learning path levels across nine core subject categories. The certificate level courses require two to three hours of study while the more rigorous diploma level courses require ten to fifteen hours of study. There is no time limit for completing a course. One of Alison’s courses is ABC IT, a fifteen to twenty-hour training suite which is cited by The New York Times as “covering similar ground” to the International Computer Driving License without the cost of certification Alison was among the four winners of the 2010 UNESCO King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize, a Prize for innovation in ICT for Education. In October 2013, Alison won an award at the World Innovation Summit for Education held in Qatar. In April 2017, the company decided to make a technical overhaul of the platform. The company also launched its mobile application, which drives 50% of the website’s traffic worldwide.
On 5 July 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee of India announced the partnership between Alison and the National Skill Development Corporation, which included a partnership with Rabindranath Tagore University.
SKILLSHARE
Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong started Skillshare in New York City, New York in November 2010; the site was live in April 2011Skillshare is an online learning community for people who want to learn from educational videos. The courses, which are not accredited, are available through subscription. The majority of courses focus on interaction rather than lecturing, with the primary goal of learning by completing a project. Skillshare organizes courses into advertising, business, design, fashion and style, film and video, food and drink, music, photography, gaming, technology, and writing and publishing, often taught by industry leaders. All online courses are self-paced.
Apart from the above sites, few other popular MOOC platforms include:
i. FutureLearn
ii. Udacity
iii. Cognitive Class
iv. Iversity
v. Kadenze
vi. Canvas
vii. Lynda
The key e-Learning Projects running by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)
i. ICT in Education Curricula for School system:
ICT in Education Curricula for students, teachers and teacher educators has been developed at the national level and being implemented across the country. 805 MRPs/ KRPs of thirty six States/UTs were oriented on ICT curriculum for students and teachers and their roll out in respective states. Guidelines for teacher, student and schools on cyber safety and security have been published.
ii. e-pathshala:
EPathshala is a portal jointly initiated by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and National Council of Educational Research and Training launched in November 2015. E-pathshalaIt hosts educational resources for teachers, students, parents, researchers and educators, which is available on Web, Android, IOS and windows platforms. The resources are available in English, Hindi and Urdu languages.
The students can get access of all educational material, including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and a variety of other print and non-print materials through ePathshala. These materials can be downloaded by the user for offline use with no limits on downloads.
iii. Shagun portal:
A web portal called ShaGun (from the words Shaala and Gunvatta) which has two parts, one of which is a Repository of good practices, photographs, videos, studies, newspaper articles etc. on school education, State /UT wise has been developed which is in public domain. Its purpose is to showcase success stories and also to provide a platform for all stakeholders to learn from each other. This also instills a positive competitive spirit among all the States and UTs.
iv. National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER)
The National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER). NROER is developed by CIET, NCERT. It was launched during the National Conference on ICT (Information and Communication Technology) for School Education. NROER was launched on 13 August 2013 in New Delhi in collaboration with the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Metastudio, the platform hosting the repository is an initiative of Gnowledge Labs, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai. NROER hosts large number educational resources in many subjects and in different Indian languages for Primary, Secondary and Senior Secondary classes. Resources are available in different formats like Video, Image, Audio, Document and Interactive. Apart from this all NCERT books are available in Flip book format.NROER is an collaborative platform, intend to reached the un-reached and institutions like SCERT, SIERT, SIE, Vigyan Prasar, CCERT, Gujarat Institute of Educational Technology (GIET), SIET and other stake holders have share the educational content.
v. SWAYAM:
Under SWAYAM or Study Webs of Active –Learning for Young Aspiring Minds programme of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, professors and faculties of centrally funded institutions like IITs, IIMs, central universities will offer online courses to citizens of India. The ‘Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds’ (SWAYAM) an integrated platform for online courses, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and covering school (9th to 12th) to Post Graduate Level. SWAYAM provides one integrated platform and portal for online courses, using information and communication technology (ICT) and covering all higher education subjects and skill sector courses to ensure that the every student in the country has access to the best quality higher education at affordable cost. It also offers online courses for students, teachers and teacher educators. It may be accessed on swayam.gov.in. Besides, National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is promoting education through e-learning methods by providing courses on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on the portal. There are 44 courses of NIOS offered on SWAYAM platform – 14 at secondary level, 16 at senior secondary level, 4 vocational courses and 10 courses of Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.).
vi. SWAYAM PRABHA:-
A programme for utilization of satellite communication technologies for transmission of educational e-contents through 32 National Channels i.e. SWAYAM PRABHA DTH-TV has been launched. CIET-NCERT is the national coordinator for one DTH TV channel i.e., Kishore Manch (#31) and has started feeding a 24×7 educational TV channel w.e.f. 09.07.2018.
Everyday four hour fresh slot is telecast and repeated 5 more times in 24 hours to provide learning opportunities for the stake holders, as per their convenience. Besides, NIOS is running 5 channels for teachers, for secondary and senior secondary levels and for sign language.
vii. National Digital Library (NDL):-
The National Digital Library of India (NDL) is a project to develop a framework of virtual repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility. There are more than 153 Lakh digital books available through the NDL. It may be accessed on ndl.gov.in.
National Council for Educational Research & Training (NCERT) has developed a team of 800 teachers as State Resource Groups (SRGs) on ICT in Education across all 36 States/ UTs. NCERT is also developing MOOCs in 12 subject areas for classes IX – XII and capacity building courses for teachers. So far, 22 courses have been developed and completed in 2 cycles on SWAYAM platform. The web portal of e-pathshala has 3.74 crore visitors, 2.18 crore YouTube views, 1.82 million app downloads and a rating of 4.4 out of 5 on Google play store and 4.5 out of 5 on windows store. Also, 35,050 users have downloaded the “PINDICS” app of e-Pathshala from Google Play Store. Besides, NIOS is providing e-education to beneficiaries which include D.El.Ed course for 13.78 lakh in-service untrained teachers, 6632 at secondary level, 9978 at senior secondary level and 2293 for vocational education through MOOCs courses.
The ICT component of Centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiskha envisages covering all Government and Government Aided schools from classes VI to XII and Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs), subject to the availability of budgetary provision. Further, University Grant Commission (UGC) has notified on 4th July, 2018 the regulation regarding the minimum standards of instruction for the grant of Certificate or Diploma or Degree, through online mode, delivered through interactive technology using internet
Today, in the 21st century understanding is more important than ever. That is why it is vital for educators to use methods or techniques in teaching that will enable learners to use their knowledge efficiently to solve in their daily lives. Teaching support system are the resources which teachers use to make learning effective and long lasting. These are also known as teaching aids.
