How to learn government recognised courses through online learning
This article describes the SWAYAM online website portal by the Government of India. Get to know how to participate in the hundreds of different courses and to get a certificate with the examination. Choose courses relevant to you and learn from home.
This article focuses on the online learning facility created by SWAYAM. The SWAYAM platform is a Government of India initiative to impart education to every student and improve on practical skills.
Introduction
SWAYAM was introduced by the Government of India as an Indian Massive Open Online Course. The world SWAYAM comes from its Hindi word 
, which means self, or self-study. The full form of SWAYAM is Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds.
This initiative was launched on 9th July 2017 by the President of India. Today, the platform is home for nearly 3000 courses which are government recognised courses and from well-known organisations.A little bit more about SWAYAM
The launch of the initiative was done by the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the Digital India movement. It is developed in the coordination of the MHRD - Ministry of Human Resource Development, AICTE - All India Council for Technical Education. The government took assistance from Microsoft and is a very easy to navigate website.
As of Jun 2020, SWAYAM has partnered with 203 institutes, has nearly 3000 courses. Till date, 1,25,41,992 students have enrolled for the courses and 9,15,538 students have registered for examinations. Out of these, 6,54,664 students have been successful to receive certificates. These certificates have credits as well, which can be utilised in formal education courses.Advantages of doing online courses at SWAYAM courses
The SWAYAM facility uses the Massive Open Online Course - MOOC - way of imparting education. These courses can be taken from students who are in the 9th standard of the school. There are courses which are meant for graduate and postgraduate students as well.
The best part of these courses is that they are interactive. They are not simply a one-sided teacher to student courses. But there is an examination and online discussion forum facility. These help the students to connect with the mentor for the particular course.Structure of courses on SWAYAM
The courses on SWAYAM are broadly divided into 4 quadrants. These are:National Coordinators at SWAYAM for the courses
The courses are conducted by nine major national coordinators. The role of the national coordinators is to ensure that the quality of the course is upheld at high quality.
These nine coordinators are:
While programmes are free of cost, some courses need to pay a fee for the proctored examination. The examinations are conducted at designated centres. Credit Transfer facility
All courses taught on the SWAYAM portal are recognised by the Government of India. To get the benefit of the certificates granted for these courses, a Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through SWAYAM was created in July 2016. This transfer facility is developed together by the MHRD, NPTEL, IIT Madras, Google Inc and Persistent Systems.
The Ministry of Human Resources Development also created a SWAYAM PRABHA channel. This channel also provides an Education Learning platform through 32 Direct To Home channels.
Through the television channel, the national coordinators can provide their education content as shown on the SWAYAM Online learning portal.A detailed look at the portal
The SWAYAM online learning portal provides easy ways to filter down to the course.
The first way of searching for your course is by the Course search box
This helps to find out the various courses that are related to your interest.
The second way is by filtering through drop-down lists on the website:
Thirdly, the student can also search for which courses are upcoming and which courses are ongoing. The Upcoming courses are the ones which have open enrollment. The ongoing courses are the ones which have closed the enrollment.
The courses are presented as tabs with relevant details on the same.
It tells about the course name, course coordinator. It also tells about the University or Local chapter conducting the course and the National Coordinator. The further details are till when can a student enrol for the course and when is the examination date. The course duration is mentioned and so is the starting date.
When the tab is clicked, it leads to further information where there is an introduction to the course, an introductory video for the course and a Join button. It also shows the number of co-learners in the course.
The brief layout of the course is also mentioned:
How to Sign In or Register for the course?: One can easily register through a laptop or mobile phone.
Open the website on your browser. The website address is https://swayam.gov.in/.
One can easily register using social media, Microsoft account, Google account or by creating Username and password. One can even use Instagram or Twitter to register.
After logging in, the following option is provided:
Once registered, one can go to their courses through the My Courses option
When you click on Go to Course, it presents information about:
It also presents a progressive timeline as the course progresses. The timeline gives the reading and viewing material and a link for the Test.
Such are the benefits of the SWAYAM online portal to get a lot of learning online at home and also to have recognition of the courses.SWAYAM Contact details
If you wish to get in touch with SWAYAM for any concerns or queries, the following contact details would be helpful:
Email: support@swayam.gov.in
Phone Helpline Number: 1 800 121 9025
All images are screenshots from www.swayam.gov.in website.
Check here for The official website of SWAYAM .