The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) has introduced 11 new courses covering disciplines such as humanities, physics, management and chemical engineering.

Details of the free online courses offered by seven Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, can be viewed at https: //onlinecourses.nptel. ac.in.

Andrew Thangaraj, NPTEL coordinator at IIT-Madras, said access to the courses does not involve certification process. Students study by themselves and can later take an exam. Exams will be held in 100 centres including Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Eastern states.

In the past two sessions, as many as 60,000 enrolments were made, with Tamil Nadu topping the list with the highest number of registrants followed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Enrolment is open till January 16 and the course duration is from January 5 to February 27.

Exams will be held on March 22 and 29.

Pratap Haridoss, one of the coordinators said the advantage of NPTEL Online Courses was that a set of classes and assignments for the week would be released. “Students can be anywhere in the country but must commit two hours a week and submit assignments.”

The scores would be available for verification by employers, who could also access data such as how many appeared for the exam and how a candidate had performed, Prof. Pratap said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Tamil Nadu / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – December 09th, 2014