SWAYAM is a programme initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. SWAYAM seeks to bridge the digital divide for students who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy.

This is done through an indigenous developed IT platform that facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from 9th class till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time. All the courses are interactive, prepared by the best teachers in the country and are available, free of cost to the residents in India. More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the country have participated in preparing these courses.

The courses hosted on SWAYAM are in 4 quadrants – (1) video lecture, (2) specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed (3) self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes and (4) an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts. Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by using audio-video and multi-media and state of the art pedagogy / technology. In order to ensure best quality content are produced and delivered, nine National Coordinating agencies have been appointed: They are AICTE for self-paced courses, NPTEL for engineering, UGC for post-graduation education, CEC for under-graduate education, NCERT & NIOS for school education, IGNOU for out of the school students and, IIMB for management studies.

For more details visit website : swayam.gov.in

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), a project funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), [1] provides e-learning through Online Web and Video Courses in Engineering, Sciences, Technology, Management and Humanities. This is a joint initiative by seven IITs and IISc, Bangalore. Other selected premier institutions also act as Associate Partner Institutions. NPTEL has been offering self-study courses across engineering, humanities and science streams for more than a decade. These are available at: http://nptel.ac.in. From March 2014 NPTEL has been offering online certification for its courses, the highlight being the certification exam through which the student gets an opportunity to earn a certificate from the IITs! These are available at: https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in