Thursday, July 11, 2013

Most popular global online courses in India

With India warming up for online education, many of its students are flocking to reputed international online education providers.  The reasons are obvious; more industry recognition, access to latest information in the chosen field, quality of educational content, engagement and access to the renowned faculty members and resources.

1.      The MOOCs (massive open online course)
As the name suggests, it’s the biggest body of online education providers in the US, with several universities and standalone educational institutions offering countless online education programs for both American and foreign students.  It allows you a large scale interactive participation using the web. As far as Indian students are concerned, it’s the biggest attraction for them at the moment and over three lakh Indian students have joined online courses at MOOCs in just a couple of months this year.

The attractions of MOOCS are:
·         Reduced entry barriers to invite more and more students
·         Education from top universities that too virtually free of cost
·         Renowned faculty from reputed institutes and universities
·         Much less fee than the campus programs of the US universities

2.      Khan Academy; the storehouse of casual learning     
Khan Academy was launched incidentally by an Indian Harvard graduate, Salman Khan. He was trying to teach his niece Nadia, who happened to be in another US city, using the net.  Suddenly, he thought of launching YouTube videos with the course content on a large scale, so that she and the other such students can watch them as per their convenience.  He thought that students would be able to watch these videos as many times as they want and can pause or repeat, wherever they need it.  This resulted into the establishment of Khan Academy.  At present, Khan Academy is a leading online education provider in the US and overseas.

3.      Coursera
Coursera is also highly popular American online education provider in India and overseas.  It was founded by the Stanford University computer science professors. It has following features:
·         More than 300 online courses in different subjects in engineering, humanities, medicine and mathematics
·         Over one million students registered in different online courses; most of them from overseas
·         62% of Coursera online students from Brazil, India and China
·         62 participating universities from around the world, which design the curriculum of online courses
·         Participant universities include the University of Michigan, Princeton University, Duke and the University of Edinburgh 
·         Ideal for formal higher education post regular college and to attain cross functional expertise to enhance employability 
·         Hundreds of thousands of Indian students already registered and it contributes towards effective networking and collaboration in studies
·         Enhances the job prospects in the international market
·         Enhances the chances of getting admission in leading American and European universities and colleges.
·         Democratizes the education by reaching out to distance learners in various countries and offers them quality education without having to leave their regular employment and location

4.      edX / HarvardX Online Learning
Harvard has also joined the league of universities offering online education to the global students.  Prestigious Harvard and Stanford have formed an alliance called edX, a $60 million venture, which is joined by the likes of MIT, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Michigan University. These leading institutions of the world have decided to offer their quality content for regular education and research to the global student community through the web.  Indian students, who are passionate about these brands, have joined the mad rush to enroll in their online courses. 

Udemy
A Palo Alto, California based startup has jumped into the world of online education. They have given the name Udemy to the venture, combining “you” with “academy.”  It has a good web-based courseware platform that enables the students get quality education through video lectures, ppt presentations, and other text-based content. 

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