Asserting that today we are building a new Mandavi Bridge in the Education sector Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant said in villages, students who are not able to complete direct Courses will be provided with an opportunity to pursue education and complete their courses in online mode on Mandavi Channel. Dr Sawant was speaking at a launching ceremony of “MANDAVI” (Mentoring and Nurturing Digital and Virtual Initiatives) flagship program initiated by the Directorate of Higher Education in the City.
Speaking further he said the high quality education will be made available to everyone who is willing to learn and not for a small group of privileged students. I have set a target to make Goa as self-reliant State in every sector, be it agriculture, industries and also in education sector and such an unique initiative like MANDAVI (Mentoring and Nurturing Digital and Virtual Initiatives) I am confident that our State will achieve excellence and become the role model for other States, he added. All the youths should make best use of such an initiative to upgrade their knowledge and education, he urged.
CM also appreciated the efforts of DHE for taking the major digital initiatives like IAIMS, DISHTAVO and MOOC to implement new education policy in Goa.
The MANDAVI(Mentoring and Nurturing Digital and Virtual Initiatives) is an initiative of DHE for development of MOOCs to provide high quality courses to thousands and millions of learners across the globe. MOOC is a mode of learning where students can virtually attend digital higher education courses.
The MOOC courses currently under development at DHE are based on university Grants Commission(UGC) curriculum and choice based Credit System and are proposed to be offered in credit transfer mode on the Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds ( SWAYAM) platform – a programme initiated by Government of India to offer the various courses which students can pursue online.
The unique characteristic of this model is to carry out all MOOC development activities in collaboration mode by the faculty and other human resources from higher education institutions along with experts from industry and research institutions. The production basis training and recording of video content of the course have been done with the creative directors and experts from the film industry to produce high quality education content. Eminent scientists and practitioners from research institutions and industries have been involved at various stages of the MOOC development process.
The Director of Higher Education and Consortium for Education Communication signed a MoU on the occasion and as part of the MoU DHE handed over two Massive Open Online Courses one in Music and the other in Analytical Chemistry to CEC.
CM also distributed the Certificates to MOOC teams on the occasion
Present on the occasion were Director of CEC Prof. Jagat Bhushan Nadda; Chief Secretary, Shri. Puneet Kumar Goel, IAS; Secretary (Education), Shri. Ravi Dhawan, IAS; Director, Higher Education, Shri. Prasad Lolayekar, IAS, MOOC Nodal officer Dr. Kavita Asnani and other dignitaries.
