The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), a SWAYAM national coordinator, has recently opened enrollment for more than 500 online certification courses. These courses which are open to students and working professionals across India, are being offered completely free of cost by NPTEL – a joint initiative by IITs and IISc.

While the courses are free, learners will have to pay a fee for the exam. The exams will be held only for the candidates who need certification which is optional. Learners spanning ages from 13 to 86 years can take up NPTEL certification.

“NPTEL has initiated issuing ‘domain certification’, in which a domain comprises a set of core courses and elective NPTEL courses. Those who complete a domain (specified core courses + elective courses) with an average score of 60 will get a domain certificate from NPTEL. There are no additional charges/fees involved in obtaining domain certification. There are 44 domains across 12 disciplines available now and more are in the pipeline,” said prof Andrew Thangaraj, co-ordinator, SWAYAM-NPTEL-IIT Madras.

As part of the course, learners will have to watch videos online, submit assignments on a weekly basis and register for an in-person final exam which is invigilated. More than 1.2 crore learners have joined NPTEL courses till date, as per the official data. The NPTEL videos have received more than 1 billion views so far, it claims.

Prathap Haridoss, co-ordinator, SWAYAM-NPTEL-IIT Madras, said, “NPTEL currently has 49 industry partners. Experts and senior leaders from companies are contributing to NPTEL through their live sessions on various technologies and are giving career guidance to NPTEL learners. NPTEL has conducted more than 150 live sessions till date.”

SWAYAM-NPTEL currently works closely with more than 4,000 colleges in engineering, arts, commerce, science, and management disciplines across the country. Many students are taking these certification exams as it helps them in improving their employability.

Some of the popular courses include programming, data structures and algorithms using Python, basic electrical circuits, engineering thermodynamics, and health research fundamentals, and constitutional studies. Students can join these courses through the SWAYAM website as well.