An Evaluation of Digital Learning Platforms in Higher Education with MOOCs Perspective in India

Abstract

Digital technological interventions have radically changed the landscape of education. The inclusion of digital learning in the traditional education system has challenged the current pedagogical practices. Globally, universities have launched digital learning platforms through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which offers online courses for free or at a small cost for certification. MOOC, an educational tool has emerged as a supplementary tool to the traditional teaching and has refined the pedagogical practice to achieve higher quality of learning through multitude of services like video, quiz, discussion forum and so on. Lifelong learning, free access, collaboration and interactive forums, self-assessment, high-quality educational resources are the unique characteristics of the MOOC platform. Education in India has also witnessed many changes. The increased registration of Indian students from different location and with multiple educational background in the global MOOC platform has sparked interest from the Indian Government and many other prestigious Indian institutes and private organization to launch Indian-specific MOOC. In the present study, current papers related to MOOC in Indian higher education were reviewed to extract the information on the level of usage of both global and Indian-specific MOOC platform in Indian higher education. Though this article does not comment on any one particular MOOC platform in an Indian context, the findings of this study showed a sizeable use and benefits of different MOOC platform and identifies the major characteristics of digital learning platform for its wide social acceptance; however, it was no short of challenges in terms of students retention in the course, infrastructure and other aspects. Finally, the present article also highlights on the recommendation for MOOC in Indian higher education.