Perspective Chapter: MOOCs in India – Evolution, Innovation, Impact, and Roadmap

Abstract

With the largest population of the world and one of the highest enrolments in higher education, India needs efficient and effective means to educate its learners. India started focusing on open and digital education in 1980’s and its efforts were escalated in 2009 through the NMEICT program of the Government of India. A study by the Government and FICCI in 2014 noted that India cannot meet its educational needs just by capacity building in brick and mortar institutions. It was decided that ongoing MOOCs projects under the umbrella of NMEICT will be further strengthened over its second (2017–21) and third (2021–26) phases. NMEICT now steers NPTEL / SWAYAM (India’s MOOCs) and several digital learning projects including Virtual Labs, e-Yantra, Spoken Tutorial, FOSSEE, and National Digital Library on India—the largest digital education library in the world. Further, India embraced its new National Education Policy in 2020 to strongly foster online education. In this chapter, we take a deep look into the evolution of MOOCs in India, its innovations, its current status and impact, and the roadmap for the next decade to address its challenges and grow. AI-powered MOOCs is an emerging opportunity for India to lead MOOCs worldwide.