IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) have launched online courses and certification in Programming, Data structures & Algorithms together in partnership with Google and Nasscom, for aspiring engineering students. The courses are called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). The courses are a part of the joint initiative by IITs and IISc, called NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning).
The programme will benefit around four million engineering students who will be able to get quality education through the distant online course. "The courses will focus on providing strong foundation skills in IT and engineering proficiency programmes," professors associated with the programme said. The "unique" part of the entire initiative is that students can get a chance to learn from the best professors.
The programme was launched by Human Resource Development (HRD) minister MM Pallam Raju. The objective behind this initiative is to provide IT industry-ready and job-ready courses to students.
These programmes are prepared for duration of ten weeks and the first offering has been made by IIT-Madras .The course will provide an interactive platform for teachers and students. Text materials, videos and problem sets will all be provided to the students. Candidates can sign up for the programme, throughonlinecourses.Nptel.Ac.In. The courses will begin on March 3.
"I hope that the expansion of the programme does not lead to deterioration of the quality of the content," Raju said.
IIT Bombay will be launching the first MOOC in July 2014 in partnership with edX. Students will have to give a protracted exam in person at various centers across the country after the course completion. A scorecard from the certification exam and a course completion certificate will be issued to all the successful candidates.
MOOC aim to make high-quality education from top universities accessible to anyone, across the world, online and for free. The model was first rolled out in early 2012 by, Udacity and Coursera, both associated with Stanford University, followed by edX, MIT-Harvard's online courses platform.
Source: TOI
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