Indian Institute of Technology (NPTEL) Distance Education Brief Information

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is a unique MHRD initiative carried out by seven IITs and IISc Bangalore as a collaborative project to develop curriculum based video and web courses. These e-learning resource materials mostly follow the AICTE curriculum. The main objective of NPTEL program is to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country.

• Courses

A proposal was jointly put forward by the IITs and IISc and was formally approved by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), India in the year 2003. Under this proposal, contents for 100 courses and self-contained video lectures, as web based supplements, would be developed for engineering students in popular branches that they take in their UG engineering programmes. The project was initially known as National Programme for Technology Assisted Learning (NPTAL) but was later renamed as the National Programme for Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL).

Courses - As a part of NAPTEL initiative more than 5000 hours of video lectures and web-accessible content have been recorded on 260 courses collaboratively by seven IITs and IISC, Bangalore. A total of 260 such courses have already been developed in Phase-I and another about 1000 courses are being developed in Phase II of NPTEL. It covers all major disciplines of engineering on the UG core and elective subjects. The contents are based on the model curriculum suggested by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the syllabi of major affiliating Universities such as Anna University (Tamil Nadu), Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (Andhra Pradesh) and Visvesvaraya Technological University (Karnataka).

IIT Delhi - It has started graduate level courses in various disciplines to the students of Addis Ababa University, Ethopia. Four prorgrammes, viz. (1) Construction Technology and Management; (2) Chemical Engineering; (3) Electronics and Computer Engineering and (4) Manufacturing Engineering have been started in the academic year 2008-2009. There are about 50 students in each programme. This programme is being delivered using two-way video/audio link. A dedicated line (IPLC) with 2 Mbps has been set up for this purpose. For facilitating this activity, two delivery rooms have been fully equipped for video conferencing facilities and recording of lectures held in them. Over the years , the Centre has produced a large number of complete video courses , single concept video programmes and CAI packages with the help of the faculty members of the Institute covering a vast range of subjects. Web address is - http://etsc.iitd.ac.in/distancelearning.html

IIT Kharagpur - It has decided imparting education in the distance-learning mode with a judicious choice of agencies to implement the programmes. The Centre has developed an Electronically Networked Life-Long-Learning System (ELNet-3L). The programme runs in more than hundred centres and about 10,000 students have gone through it. Many of them are known to be employed in established organizations. Contracts have been signed up with various interface organizations under which courses in specific areas are designed and produced by IIT Kharagpur. Web address are - http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/nptel and http://cet.iitkgp.ernet.in

(VNIT) Courses from IIT Bombay - VNIT has set-up remote Centre for Distance Engineering Education (C-DEEP) of IIT Bombay in 2002. Majority of the courses taught at IIT, Bombay are made available at this remote centre. Students / teachers / Professionals in the the faculty of Engineering, Science, MCA are eligible for the courses. A semester long course in various subjects are offered through this remote centre. The courses is taught by IIT faculty and made available live through video-conferring via Edu-Sat satellite. Student can interact with faculty on-line which helps him in better and deeper understanding of the course. For the detailed information about the courses being offered, fee structure, mode of registration, please refer to www.cdeep.iitb.ac.in or C-DEEP, VNIT, Nagpur-440010 phone - 280-1314 , email: dep@vnit.ac.in.

IIT-Madras - IITM was in the forefront of putting together an online learning programme (NAPTEL) that may provide distance learning to graduates from India's most prestigious technical institutions. All web contents are available through the web site http://nptel.iitm.ac.in and are continuously updated .

IIT- Guwahati - Being a part of NPTEL, IIT Guwahati also contains entire web course contents developed by all partner institutes of NPTEL as a mirror site http://nptel.iitg.ernet.in.