A NEW ERA OF ONLINE LEARNING IN INDIA: CASE OF MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have emerged as one of the most potential tools in reaching out to large number of participants who may be students or may be interested in honing their existence skills while in work force. The audience for MOOCs are varied and there is no limitation to the number of people who can get engaged with it. MOOC emerged with a promise to reach to a global domain of learners, and promulgate knowledge in an efficient digital platform, besides intertwining a massive network of students, teachers, scholars, or basically anyone who may be interested in learning. The courses offered through MOOC are diverse and wide-ranging. In India, emergence of MOOCs has marked a new era in E-learning or online learning. India being a promising abode of education offers a prospective area to MOOCs for large scale implementation. However, there are several factors and constraints like lack of efficient digital infrastructure that hinder the process of implementation. The paper takes the case of TESS-India MOOC in Hindi and attempts to throw light on the emerging trends in online learning with respect to MOOC. The paper also tries to put together the challenges and learnings in this comparatively new way of learning through the example of TESS-India MOOC.