NPTEL, a joint initiative of IITs and IISc, Launches New Courses on Electric Vehicles, Internet of Things, Business & Sustainable Development in SWAYAM Platform

Chennai: National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), a joint initiative of IITs and IISc, has launched new courses on Electric Vehicles and Renewable Energy, Design for IoT, Business and Sustainable Development, for the July 2021 Semester through the SWAYAM platform.

NPTEL courses give an opportunity for students to learn from the comfort of their home. The enrolments for July – Dec 2021 Semester have already commenced. The Last Date to enroll for the first set of NPTEL courses is 2nd August 2021.

The courses are taught by the faculty from IITs and IISc. Learners can enroll for NPTEL courses through https://swayam.gov.in/NPTEL.

NPTEL offers more than 500 courses completely free of cost to learners across the country in online mode. The possibility for anyone to learn anywhere and anytime has made the teaching-learning process more student-centered, and innovative. This online mode of education has also proved invaluable in the COVID-19 pandemic era.

Highlighting the unique aspects of NPTEL, Prof. Vignesh Muthuvijayan, NPTEL Coordinator at IIT Madras, said, “SWAYAM-NPTEL is currently working with more than 4,000 educational institutions in engineering, arts, science, commerce, and management across the country. Students and faculty from these institutions take up NPTEL courses to upgrade their knowledge and skills. Some of the popular courses on NPTEL platform include Data Science for Engineers, courses on programming in Python, C, C++, Introduction to Machine Learning, Soft skills, Project Planning and Control, among others.”

NPTEL offers certification courses through the MOOCs format. Learners must watch videos online, submit assignments on a weekly/monthly basis and can register for an optional proctored final exam. There is a nominal fee charged towards the in-person proctored exam for the certification. Students can request for transfer of credits once they clear the NPTEL certification exam, if it is approved by the educational institute they are affiliated with.

A wide variety of courses are available on NPTEL platform across Engineering, Humanities, Basic Sciences, and Management, etc. NPTEL has received more than 1.4 crore enrolments till date. NPTEL videos have received more than one billion views so far and NPTEL channels on YouTube have more than 3.1 million subscribers.

In order to streamline the efforts of learners and to guide them to obtain expertise in an area, NPTEL has initiated the concept of ‘Domain Certification.’ A domain comprises a set of core and elective NPTEL courses. There are no additional charges/fees involved in obtaining domain certification. There are 51 domains across 12 disciplines available now and 85 learners have completed domain certification from NPTEL till date.

Age has never been a barrier for taking up courses through NPTEL. Mr. Harshwardhan Patil, a 15-year-old student from Savitribai Phule High School, Nanded, Maharashtra, is one of the youngest NPTEL learners and has completed five certification courses through NPTEL, namely Effective Writing, Soft Skills Development, Stress Management, Biochemistry, and English Language for Competitive Exams.

Ms. Singam Nirmala Devi, an NPTEL learner from Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, said, “The knowledge I gained through the NPTEL course, ‘The joy of computing using python’ was very much helpful in getting a job as a software engineer in an MNC. Through the NPTEL courses, I was able to understand concepts of python easily and was able to answer questions asked in the interview.”

NPTEL was initiated by seven Indian Institutes of Technology (Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Guwahati and Roorkee) along with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 2003. NPTEL is the largest provider of MOOCs in India today, with a credible proctored certification exam that clearly qualifies and differentiates the learners who do these courses.