2014: SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) is announced by the Ministry of Human Rights Development (MHRD), as a national platform for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for the country in 2014 under its National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NME-ICT). This platform is being developed to serve as a source for courses related to all fields from high school, starting with the 9th standard, up till post graduation.
2014: For first stage of the program, MHRD chose faculty from the IITs; Bombay, Chennai, Kharagpur, and Guwahati to develop engineering based courses; IIM Bangalore and Calcutta for the business and management study base, and University of Delhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru University, Banaras Hindu Unviersity, and IGNOU for the field of social sciences. It was decided that a small fee would be levied on users who wanted a verified certificate from the university upon the completion of their course.
5th January, 2015: MHRD established the ‘Main Committee regarding SWAYAM platform for MOOCs’ to conduct a thorough examination of all elements for a successful MOOC project, including but not limited to the type of software platform to be used, any IPR or licensing issues, the expansion and scalability of the project, its capability to accommodate large number of students, among other concerns.
12th January, 2015: During the first meeting of the Main committee, one of the many policy considerations was that the national MOOC platform should be ‘Made in India’ with respect to its hardware, software, platform and that appropriate open source technologies should be used on the MOOC platform, and the source code should be available in the public domain.
13th January, 2015: A Sub committee was created to to recommend the most appropriate platform for SWAYAM, along with developing a road-map for the project to ensure it is sustainable and self sufficient, after deliberating upon the existing frameworks.
30th March, 2015: The Sub Committee submitted its report after evaluating the existing MOOCs in operation on open source platforms at IIT Bombay, Kanpur, and Madras. It recommended that the National Knowledge Network (NKN) data center, made by the National Informatics Center (NIC) along with E-Sikshak (an initiative by C-DAC) should be developed by incorporating all the features that are currently being used in the MOOCs platforms of IIT Bombay, Madras, and Kanpur.
22nd June, 2015: The Main Committee analyzed the Sub Committee’s Report. It accepted their recommendation that SWAYAM should be be developed as a home grown platform by C-DAC on Open Source and the advancements made by C-DAC. This would eliminate concerns of licensing or IPR issues with respect to the platform. It was concluded that C-DAC’s project proposal would further be examined by an Expert committee and recommendations would be given.
28th October, 2015: At the 30th Project Approval Board meeting of MHRD,
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It states that the Minister for Human Resources had decided in a meeting that SWAYAM would be developed by National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI) through NIC. NICSI is the arm of NIC that purports to assist by providing IT solutions for the development of e-governance projects undertaken by NIC, Deity, or other Government organizations.
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DeitY was asked to seek a suitable consultant to draft Request For Proposals (RFP) for the job of a ‘System Integrator’ for SWAYAM as per the above stated Project Approval Board meeting. (It is important to note here that in the minutes of the first meeting of the Sub Committee, it was reportedly suggested that RFPs be drafted to tender the contract in the event of C-DAC not being able to deliver the development of SWAYAM. Although, it was noted that it would be a commercial venture and the MHRD would have to examine such action.) Through the bidding process, NICSI awarded the work to draft the proposal request to Price Waterhouse Coopers Pvt. Ltd (PwC), with the cost of entire project estimated at Rs. 29,88,510 (inclusive of service tax and NICSI’s operating margin)
21st November, 2015: MHRD releases Request for Proposal for System Integrator for MHRD-SWAYAM MOOC Project for the developer to be selected from a competitive bidding process. The three volumes of this RFP can be accessed as Volume 1, 2, and 3.
3rd December, 2015: At the 31st Project Approval Board of the MHRD, it was discussed that:
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The process already underway for hiring the services of a consulting firm to draft the RFPs to select a System Integrator should be completed within 4 months at the decided price of Rs. 29,88,510.
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The PAB also agreed in principle that the IT platform that would host the MOOCs under SWAYAM could be developed under the NME-ICT project and the cost for this development could be met from the head ‘Development of suitable pedagogical methods in e-content.’
23rd May, 2016: Post the floating of the RFPs, in the 32nd Project Approval Board of National Mission on Education through ICT held on 23rd May, 2016, it was stated that that SWAYAM project has been given to AICTE to be developed internally due to the lack of success in finding a successful bidder.
17th June, 2016: AICTE, after consultation with a technical committee along with PwC had decided to engage Microsoft as the system integrator for India’s MOOCs platform for Rs. 38 crores. The contract with Microsoft entailed their services for developing and maintaining the platform for 3 years, at the end of which, AICTE will take control.
19th July, 2016: the University Grants Commission (UGC) (Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through SWAYAM) Regulation, 2016 was notified on 19th July, 2016 that entails a system of transference of credit of courses completed under SWAYAM.
[Update: SFLC.in, along with other concerned organizations and individuals has sent a Joint Letter to the MHRD, asking them to re-consider the decision of using proprietary software for developing SWAYAM. Further details along with the full text of the letter can be accessed here; if you wish to join the effort and be included in the list of signatories, please write to mamta@sflc.in]
More information on this issue can be accessed here.
Image credits: Opensource.com, CC-BY-SA 2.0; available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/47691521@N07/4370250843
