Faculty members at Delhi University have objected to a committee’s proposed guidelines that would allow students to earn a portion of their credits through online courses offered on the SWAYAM platform or similar massive open online course (MOOC) platforms, saying the move would push online learning “at the cost of physical learning”.
The proposal is scheduled to be taken up for discussion at the Academic Council meeting on April 15.
Following criticism at a meeting last year, the Academic Council recommended forming a committee to examine how students could earn up to 5% of programme credits through online courses in line with UGC regulations.
The committee proposed allowing students to earn up to 5% of their credits through certain SWAYAM or other MOOC courses.
Rudrashish Chakraborty, Associate Professor at Kirori Mal College, said the courses would “severely compromise” the quality of the teaching-learning process. “SWAYAM/MOOC courses are modular in nature and hence very limited in scope and quality; they do not have the plurality and multivocality that are possible in a classroom space,” he said.
