Indore: A record 50 per cent rise has been witnessed in the number of students registering for pursing massive open online courses (MOOCs) at Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya from March to July this year, thanks to Covid-19 fear which made pupils opt for online instead of regular courses.
“Till March, there were around 26,300 registrations which shot up by more than 13,000 in six months,” said DAVV media in-charge Chandan Gupta.
In the times of Covid-19, when the classes are held online even for regular courses, the MOOC programmes classes which are already conducted in virtual mode got overwhelming response from students, at least at DAVV.
A look at the MOOCs registration data at DAVV revealed that online courses run by the university saw the highest number of registrations in the year 2020 compared to previous years.
In more than one-and-a half-dozen courses, close to 40,000 students are studying. The university administration has sent these figures to the Ministry of Education.
The university started offering MOOC programmes since 2017-18. In the initial year, around 12,000 students had registered. Gradually, the number of courses started increasing and UGC started giving credit in online courses.
The credits were being added to the regular courses. Due to this, the interest of students increased in online courses. Digital Marketing, Environment Study, Financial Accounting, Cyber Security and Forensics, Photography (Level 2) are the hot courses in 2020-21.
Gupta said that five new online courses have been started between July and September. They are Digital Marketing, Environment Study, Financial Accounting, Photography (Phase II) and Retail Marketing. He said that now courses are designed on the basis of demand by students.
Courses reached 30
The university started short-term courses under MOOC scheme. In 2017-18, 15 courses were started for students. Then in 2018-19 and 2019-20 some new courses including contractual law, cyber law, music, microeconomics were added to the tally. Courses such as photography (level 1), retail marketing, advertising, computer learning were also started.
Courses to start from January
- Cyber Forensics
- Retail & Management & Chain
- Computer Networking
- Digital Marketing
Year-wise increase in students
2017-18: 12200
2018-19: 18075
2019-20: 26363
2020-21: 40000
