Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal requested teachers to become adept with recent technology and have a command on technological skills by taking up the various online courses on the Ministry of Education's SWAYAM portal.
"Teachers, the educational technology has been evolving at a light speed and you should keep up! Take up this #online course on @SWAYAMMHRD to learn various technical skills that all educators should have a command on!" wrote the minister on his official Twitter account on Friday.

SWAYAM is a Government of India initiative directed at ensuring a holistic learning environment for the aspirants. As the name suggests, "it is an instrument for self-actualisation providing opportunities for life-long learning. Here learners can choose from hundreds of courses. Virtually every course that is taught at the university/college/school level," the ministry website says.
Pokhriyal urged teachers to take up the ICT skills in education courses on the UGC MOOC or massive open online courses portal, which is a vertical of Study Webs of Active – Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM). It has been designed by the Central Government "to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz, access, equity and quality".

ICT Skills in Education includes courses on Artificial Intelligence, blended learning, Internet of Things, computer networks, audiovisual aids, fundamentals of communication and many more.

Government urges students and teachers to use SWAYAM platform to support digital learning.

How to pursue SWAYAM online course?
Follow these steps to get know how to enrol for the SWAYAM online classes:

- Visit swayam.gov.in/explorer
- There are two option windows that show two options – Upcoming courses and Ongoing courses
- Enrollment for the upcoming courses is open for the candidates
- Click on the desired course that you wish to pursue
- You will see the option “JOIN” for each course. Click on it
- Provide the necessary details and start learning
- All the details pertaining to the starting of a course, end date, exam date, number of lectures, etc are provided on the portal
- All the courses at SWAYAM range for the duration of 4 weeks to 24 weeks
- Aspirants are also required to choose the exam date while registering for the course