Study from IIT professors, at your home
#2 - Let's look at a government platform that democratizes education
Thank you to everyone who reached out after reading my latest post on online education. Today, I want to look at another online education masterpiece. Though this one is focussed on technical education, it is still an educational model that a lot of other countries could follow.
I am not talking about the big names - Coursera or Udacity.
This article is about NPTEL - which is run by the Ministry of HRD of the Government of India. NPTEL stands for National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning.
I first came across NPTEL around 2012, when preparing for my engineering semester exams. This was a revelation. You could sit back and study from the best professors in the country, for free. This was a big revelation to me, emphasizing the importance of why education should be accessible for all.
NPTEL was born in 2003 from IIT Madras, whose focus was to come up with online video courses for technical subjects. Wikipedia lists NPTEL as the largest repository of courses in the world of engineering, basic sciences, and selected humanities and social science subjects.
NPTEL states this in bold letters on their website - Knowledge is free.
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
How does it work?
Courses by the top IITs of India and IISc Bangalore are available for free through https://nptel.ac.in/. Complex engineering courses are grouped in smaller modules, which allows users to progress through the courses one step at a time.
The courses also go deep into subjects, thus allowing students to gather deep knowledge rather than superficial knowledge. Most of the people I know use NPTEL videos to supplement their books and classroom notes. Thus, gathering deep knowledge is easier and faster this way.
If you know of anyone currently in college, do ask them to check NPTEL out and see if it helps them.
Problems
While this great resource is available for students, the courses are not designed for an online classroom setting. Most of the courses are recorded videos of classroom lectures conducted by professors. While this is a good starting point, there is a long way to go before NPTEL could turn into a true education democratization platform.
Last week, when I discussed WifiStudy, I wrote about how WifiStudy is emulating the classroom and physical education preparation setting as closely as possible. Such a good user experience comes after rapid iterations and understanding users very well.
In NPTEL’s case, we need more tools that help students, most importantly, a way to ask questions. Without asking questions, it is hard to learn. NPTEL also doesn’t give you exercises to perform on your own, although they are starting to introduce exams.
There is a long way to go to truly make knowledge free. In fact, someone should start an online education venture centered around NPTEL’s content. Imagine - what if you had a subject matter expert ready to answer your questions after watching NPTEL’s videos?
Closing note
The costs of teaching, like the costs of studying, are truly approaching zero. If you think you know something well, please teach it to others! Write a blog, record a video, or simply be available on WhatsApp. The world always needs good teachers.
I am writing a long-form article (around 4000 words) around online education right now. Would you be interested in reading? Let me know if any of you are interested in proofreading and editing.
My second book - ‘The Advisory Board’ releases at the end of November. The book states how taxi drivers are some of the best advisors in the world. Please share a word with your reader friends and family.
Thanks for reading :)
Hemant