A One day Workshop on the theme of “CourseDevelopment for NIOS SWAYAM Platform” was organised at Amity Institute ofEducation, New Delhi. It was sponsored by National Institute of Open Schooling(Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India). Theparticipants of the workshop were Teachers, Educators & Principals fromvarious schools and teacher training institutes across Delhi – NCR.

Prof.(Dr.) C.B. Sharma,Chairman, NIOS, Noida was the Chief Guest for this training event. Ms. Mohina Dar, Director, Academics, AmityInternational and Global Schools and Ms. Smita Bidani, Education Officer,UGC, New Delhi were the special invitees.

The inaugural session began with the‘Saraswati Vandana’ and lighting of the lamp by the guests followed by a warmwelcome given by Dr. Ranjana Bhatia, Principal CumDirector, Amity Institute of Education, New Delhi.

Whilespeaking to the participants in inaugural session, Ms. Mohina Dar narrated fewencouraging incidents related to the achievements of some pass out students ofNIOS.

Ms. SmitaBidani highlighted the vast reach of SWAYAM which is going to revolutionize theonline learning and digital initiative of MHRD, India.

Prof. (Dr.)C.B. Sharma, Chairman, NIOS and Chief Guest for this training workshop highlighted thesalient features of this programme SWAYAM which is a programme initiated byGovernment of India and designed to achieve three cardinal principals ofEducation Policy viz, accessequity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take bestteaching learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. Hefurther elaborated on the vast roll that SWAYAM seeks to play by bridging thedigital divide for students who have remained untouched by the digitalrevolution and have not been able to join the main stream of knowledge economy.

Prof. Sharmaalso informed the audience that SWAYAM was the brain child of former UnionMinistry Ms. Smriti Irani, a visionary to conceptualize SWAYAM.

Hefurther informed the audience about the four quadrants of courses hosted onSWAYAM. They are

· Video Lectures

· Specially prepared reading material thatcan be downloaded/printed

· Self- Assessment Test through quizzesetc. and

· Online Discussion Forum for clearing anydoubts.

Prof.Sharma concluded by emphasizing the importance of teachers and their growing demandmore than actors or any other celebrity as they hold the key to a much brighterfuture forour Country.

TheInaugural Session was followed by two Technical Sessions conducted by experiencedtrainers from NIOS.

TECHNICAL SESSION 1

Thefirst technical session was taken by Mr.S.K. Prasad, Director, Student Support Services, National Institute of OpenSchooling (NIOS), Noida. He gave theaudience a detailed guide on what massive open online course (MOOC) is and whySWAYAM is the best platform for MOOC in India.

Heinformed the participants about MOOC which is an online course aimed atunlimited participation and open access via the web. SWAYAM provides the bestplatform for MOOC in India as it is easy to access and use. The courses hostedon SWAYAM are in 4 quadrants – (1) video lecture, (2) specially preparedreading material that can be downloaded/printed (3) self-assessment teststhrough tests and quizzes and (4) an online discussion forum for clearing thedoubts. Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by usingaudio-video and multimedia and state of the art pedagogy / technology.

Alongwith this, Mr. Prasad provided a virtual tour on how to use SWAYAM and how onecan access different courses and also become a faculty member by providing theirvaluable inputs and knowledge by developing courses both present and new. Somevideo clippings of lectures recorded by few educators were shown along withcomprehensive guide of D.El.Ed course that is offered by NIOS.

TECHNICAL SESSION 2

Theresource persons for this session were Mr.Pramod Tripathi, TrainingOfficer, Computer Science, Mr. Chanchal Kumar Singh, Training Officer, ComputerScience and Ms. Sonika Tyagi, EDP, Technical Assistant fromNational Institute of OpenSchooling, Noida. They provided hands onexperience to the participants on how to use SWAYAM and what all can be done onit.

Thisworkshop was a very enriching experience for both pre-service and in-serviceteachers. As we know “Digital India” is the future and in order to improve oureducation sector it is important to revamp it by including technology in ourday to day learning process and this movement is led by SWAYAM.

ValedictorySession

Theworkshop concluded with vote of thanks. The participants were given acertificate of participation by Mr. Prasad at the end of the workshop.