NPTEL To Provide Degrees Soon

Chennai: The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is on the way to become a virtual university which is likely to provide degrees, very soon. NPTEL was created by the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in order to enhance engineering education through virtual classrooms

Currently, NPTEL has become one of the most popular educational programmes on the internet, spread across 17 countries and registering over four million hits. The programme will soon be expanded by adding more courses along with physical infrastructure, and by being able to grant degrees and diplomas.

As per sources, the programme had been introduced in the year 2003 with web and video content that was provided to help engineering students across the country. Next year onwards, the number of disciplines available through the online project will be increased from five to 20 and the number of courses provided will be increased from 260 to 1,000.

Usha Nagarajan, Principal Project Officer of NPTEL has said that they currently offer 135 video courses and 125 web courses. He also added that they will launch the Virtual Open University in 2012. By that time, they will be having around 100 courses which will be both undergraduate and postgraduate.

In addition, it was informed that unlike the first phase of the programme that offered only undergraduate courses, Phase II will also offer postgraduate courses in 5 out of 20 disciplines. The idea for NPTEL was conceived in the year 1999 for facilitating technical education in under developed areas and has since grown much in popularity. The programme includes recordings of lectures given by IIT faculty members. It has now a reach that has been spread to the northeast as well as central India to institutes in south India.