On Thursday, August 17, the Andhra Pradesh government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with edX, an e-learning platform that offers massive online open courses (MOOC) from over 170 universities globally. The partnership will enable college students from the state to access over 1,000 courses from various disciplines for free.
The courses include:
Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Machine Learning (ML)
Arts
Commerce
On successful completion, the students will get a certificate from the university or institution which offered the course. Courses from the top four institutions of the world, namely, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, are offered by edX, as per a report by The New Indian Express.
Principal Secretary of the state's Higher Education Department J Shyamala Rao and edX Founder and CEO Anant Agarwal signed the MoU in the presence of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Terming the pact as a game-changer for higher education in the state, the CM pointed out that the free courses will especially help poor students and create abundant job opportunities for them.
Stating that the MoU will help overcome the scarcity of expert faculty and lead to great changes in learning and teaching, CM Reddy emphasised the need to redesign and restructure syllabi in all mainstream courses such as Engineering, Medicine and Commerce. He reiterated that a board should be constituted for monitoring the process of restructuring the curriculum.
Lauding the chief minister's vision, edX CEO expressed happiness over signing the pact. "Irrespective of the students' background, the CM's vision will provide them access to the best courses from the best universities the world over. This is true democratisation of learning through technology," he opined.
As per the MoU, edX will work with the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) department and evolve a roadmap for amplifying existing university courses. Agarwal will also advise the officials on curriculum design, creation of new verticals, revamping of existing courses and innovation in education for re-skilling and upskilling students.
Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, Higher Education Council Chairman Prof K Hemachandra Reddy, Principal Secretary (School Education) Praveen Prakash and representatives of edX were present at the signing event, as per TNIE.
