HRD ministry prepares a roadmap to keep higher education teachers abreast about latest developments

In the first phase, 75 discipline-specific National Resource Centres (NRCs) have been identified which have been given the task to prepare online training material.

Using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform SWAYAM, teachers will be provided with the opportunity to keep abreast of the latest development in their respective subjects.

Actually, Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched an initiative of online professional development of 1.5 million higher education faculty. In the first phase, 75 discipline-specific National Resource Centres (NRCs) have been identified which have been given the task to prepare online training material.

The ministry sources informed that focus on latest developments in the discipline will be new and emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum. Institutions under the ministry like Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) located in Central Universities, IISc, IUCAA, IITs, IISERs, NITs, state universities ; UGC's Human Resource Development Centres( HRDCs), National Institutes for Technical Teachers Training (NITTTRs), IIITs and open universities have been notified as NRCs.

These NRCs cover wide range of disciplines of social sciences, sciences, engineering and technology, design and manufacturing, humanities, language teaching, commerce, management, education planning and administration, public policy, leadership and governance, library and information science, astronomy and astrophysics, assessment and evaluation, pedagogy and research methods, cutting edge areas of nano-sciences and internet of things.

All teachers in the service irrespective of their subject and seniority will have to utilise this opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments in their respective disciplines through the technology-based online refresher course under this initiative. The NRCs will develop the refresher module that will include the latest trends in their earmarked discipline by June 15 every year.

The training materials will be uploaded and made available through SWAYAM to all the teachers on October 1 every year and based on the response, the course can be repeated in the following January. NRC will publish the list of the faculty who have been certified by December 31, 2018. UGC will issue regulations for the purpose of career progression and APIs. Faculty can benefit from this initiative as it is highly flexible and can be done at one's own pace and time. The NRCs will revolutionize professional development of faculty by catering to massive numbers by leveraging ICT and online technology platform of SWAYAM.