AICTE APPROVES NPTEL COURSES

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has approved advanced National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) online certification courses for Faculty Development Programmes (FDP) for engineering college faculty under Career Advancement Scheme.

A Memorandum of Agreement to this effect has been signed between NPTEL and AICTE. There are a total of 141 courses in the July-december 2018 period.

Highlighting the benefits of the initiative, Prof. Dileep N. Malkhede, Advisor-i (Research, Institute and Faculty Development), AICTE, said, “Due to limited opportunities available for faculty to attend face-to-face, residential fulltime training programs, faculty promotions under CAS are adversely affected. The one-stop solution to overcome all such problems is to register for the Nptel-offered online courses.”

Self-assessment is made possible through weekly assignments and the final in-person proctored examination provides for certifying the learning that has taken place.

Further, Prof. Dileep Malkhede added, “These courses are latest and can be attended at lower pace from anywhere and still at par with conventional FDPS. Joint certification by AICTE-NPTEL makes it authentic and recognizes it for promotions under CAS. Faculty members should take benefit of these courses.” A four-week week NPTEL course will be recognized as a half-week FDP, an eightweek NPTEL course as a oneweek FDP and a 12-week course as 1.5-week FDP. This development eliminates the need for engineering college faculty to travel for FDPS, cutting down on time and cost. As the courses are online, they can be taken from anywhere across the country.

NPTEL offers a wide variety of courses and faculty can also do courses from other discipline.