Awareness Of Swayam Moocs Among Students Of Teacher Education

Abstract

Purpose: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming more and more well-known and are still very important in the higher education sector. A relatively new paradigm of teaching and learning that greatly enhances ongoing lifelong learning in India is the delivery of MOOCs via SWAYAM. Even though there are a number of low-cost blended courses available, our students aren't enrolling in them.  This shows that youngsters are not aware of the situation. Three categories were used to categorize awareness of SWAYAM MOOCs: knowledge about SWAYAM MOOCs, infrastructural facility, and enrollment status. The purpose of the current investigation is to examine the degree of awareness, the availability of infrastructural facilities for students, and the enrollment rate among students pursuing teacher education in state, private, and central universities in Middle Eastern India.

Methodology – The current study included 800 participants from B.Ed. and M.Ed. teacher education programs at central, state, and state-private institutions in Middle Eastern India. Utilizing a stratified random sampling approach, data were gathered using a self-made, closed-ended questionnaire that had been pretested and validated. Descriptive statistics, such as percentages, frequencies, and chi squares, were used to analyze the data.

Findings – The study's findings showed that teacher education students at central, state, and state-private universities in middle-eastern India were not well informed about MOOCs offered through SWAYAM, and that half of the participants did not receive adequate infrastructural support from their institutions. As a result, the majority of participants did not sign up for MOOCs offered through SWAYAM.

Practical implication – The current study will be helpful to Indian policy makers and everyone else engaged in spreading a healthy awareness through various initiatives like workshops, seminars, and orientation programs on awareness of MOOCs through SWAYAM. As a result, it would be helpful to understand the state of the ICT infrastructure and to take steps to increase awareness of MOOCs among higher education students across the nation. The data cannot be used to compare student awareness levels across contexts due to institutional limitations.

Social Implication- The study's conclusions demonstrated that, in the context of India, the identity of the university has a substantial impact on people's awareness of MOOCs via SWAYAM.

Originality/value: The present work is being carried out in the Middle Eastern Indian states of Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tripura, Asam, Meghalaya, and Chhatisgarh from January 2022 to August 2022.It reflects an investigation of how B.Ed. and M.Ed. teacher education students responded to SWAYAM's MOOC awareness questionnaire.