Guidelines framed for transfer of online credits to regular courses

New Delhi: The UGC has come out with guidelines that provide a framework for the transfer of marks scored in approved online courses to regular classroom courses.

The University Grants Commission (credit framework for online learning courses through Swayam) Regulation, 2016, which was passed at a recent meeting of the Commission and received the approval of the HRD Ministry, will be notified soon, official sources said.

The guidelines have been framed keeping in mind the HRD Ministry's massive open online courses (MOOC) platform Swayam (Study Web of Active Learning by Young and Aspiring Minds).

2,000 such courses are expected to be launched for three crore learners under the government's ambitious Swayam project.

Through this project, students from the backward rural areas can access to teaching facilities of best institutes which will offer online courses, thereby raising the overall standard of higher education in the country.

According to the new UGC norms, institutions can, keeping in view their academic requirements, decide upon the courses which they shall permit for credit transfer.

However, an institution can allow only up to 20 percent of the total seats being offered in a particular programme in a semester through online mode under Swayam.

"The aim is to widen the access to higher education and bring down its cost by using technological advances," a senior official said.

As the new guidelines aim to supplement classroom teaching with online learning, educational institutions have been advised to consider factors like non-availability of suitable teaching staff for running a course for choosing online courses.

Swayam will notify to the Registrars of institutions on June 1 and November 1 every year the list of online courses to be offered in the forthcoming semester, the UGC regulations say.

Institutions, however, must designate a course coordinator to guide the students during the programme, practical sessions, and examinations.

Final marks or grade shall be communicated to the students as well as the parent institution of the student within four weeks from the date of completion of the final examination, the guidelines said.