Microsoft set to design app for HRD Ministry’s SWAYAM platform

Microsoft, the tech giant, seems to be making all the right waves to stay in the news. After sending the whole world into a tizzy by acquiring social-networking site LinkedIn for $26.2 billion on Monday, the company is now making headlines for making the cut as the technical partner for India’s HRD ministry’s SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) platform.

The SWAYAM platform once functional will be launching 2,000 massive open online courses (MOOC) in order to help over three crore students. The platform is most likely to go live by the end of this year only.

According to sources inside the industry, Microsoft will be selecting and deploying a team of dedicated professionals to set up the entire state-of-the-art application. The tech giant and the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) have already signed a deal worth a whopping Rs. 38 crore for the same. Apparently, the app would be run by Microsoft for an initial period of three year after which the duty will fall over AICTE.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has already finalised the Credit Framework for the online learning courses that will be provided through SWAYAM. As per UGC’s regulation, the online courses will be made available on the SWAYAM platform by a partner institution, which will be duly identified by the National MOOCs coordinator.

Twice an year, the registrars of all the partner institutes will given a list of all the online courses being provided in each semester. It will be the duty of the parent institutions to provide the students with physical facilities like library, computer facilities and laboratories etc.

Upon the successful completion of the MOOC’s by a candidate, a certificate of completion would be issued to him/her by the parent institution through the host institution.

Microsoft is surely having a good week. Won’t you say?