Swayam: Partnering with Govt. of India & Microsoft to transform education
Swayam is the world’s largest MOOC platform and is a Government of India’s initiative. Microsoft and WizIQ partnered to create a platform which would take education in India to the remotest of locations, online. The vision of the Govt. of India for the platform was for it to have the bandwidth to support at least 30 million learners across India.
Why was such a platform required?
According to recent surveys, India has nearly 50% of youth (under the age of 25). Simultaneously, there is an education crisis in the country where the number of schools and school teachers is scarce. Reports even point out to one teacher teaching all classes in village elementary schools. However, other barriers, such as language diversity, lack of school and college infrastructure are real. A solution was required which could surpass these difficulties and yet be cost-effective and efficient in delivering education to the Indian youth.
WizIQ helped the Government build “Swayam” platform which would help in
- Reducing drop-out rates in elementary, secondary and higher education
- Addressing lack of infrastructure in specific geographical regions
- Providing a cost-effective alternative for learners as compared to offline learning
If India can address these issues, then many benefits will be seen in the long term. Some of the gains in the short-term are mentioned in the following section.
Benefits of Swayam – “MOOC platform built on WizIQ”
WizIQ created the largest MOOC (massive open online courses) platform for the Government of India which will change the way India educates its youth.
Using the WizIQ platform, professors and instructors from leading Indian Educational Institutions are coming together to create courses by using the platform features such as Course Builder, Integrated Content Library, Advanced Grading Options, Discussion Forums and many more. The learners/students get access to flexible self-paced learning and can connect to top educators in the country.
This platform will be one of the world’s largest paperless education system, with the biggest online library of online courses and will provide free education for all
- Swayam will empower students to learn from their location instead of traveling great distances for studying.
- One teacher can now teach many students from this platform.
- The platform will provide a certification which will be valid in higher education institutes across India.
- 2000 courses will be available on the platform.
- Multi-lingual support will be provided where students may access courses/ communicate over chat in their language.
- Swayam mobile application will be available on Android and iOS.
With the help of Microsoft and WizIQ, not only has the government succeeded in bringing to life the dream of educating India through SWAYAM but is also going to bring a radical change to the centuries-old education system.
Download the case study to know more about the platform and innovations WizIQ engineered for Swayam.
