Taking a cue from MIT’s Open Courseware initiative, India’s most reputed education institutions – the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – are offering their course material online at http://www.youtube.com/IIT. 

Various video courses in science and engineering of the IITs are available for online viewing. This initiative is part of the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), a joint venture between the seven IITs and IISc, funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The main objective of the NPTEL program is to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum-based on-time video and web courses.

Phase I of the project is complete, costing about US$ 5 million (Rs.20.5 crore) to develop 240 courses in five streams of engineering vis-à-vis civil, computer science, electronics and communication, electrical and mechanical engineering.

NPTEL will also allow colleges to use the course material for in-house students who do not have Internet access. While it will be free for government-aided institutions, a one-time fee of around Rs. 1 lakh is proposed for private institutions.

Resources: