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AICTE approves NPTEL courses for FDPs

UNI, Chennai | Published : 30th July 2018

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on Monday 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 (CAS).

A Memorandum of Agreement to this effect was signed between NPTEL and AICTE. There are a total of 141 courses in the July-December 2018 period and the list of eligible courses was provided at nptel.ac.in/fdp.html, a release from IIT-Madras here said. 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 would be made through weekly assignments and the final in-person proctored examination provides for certifying the learning that has taken place, the release said.

"These courses are latest and can be attended at lower pace from anywhere and still on par with conventional FDPs'', it said, adding, joint certification by AICTE-NPTEL makes it authentic and recognizes it for promotions under CAS. A four-week NPTEL course will be recognized as a half-week FDP, an eight week NPTEL course as a one-week 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 were online, they could be taken from anywhere across the country.

Prof Andrew Thangaraj, NPTEL coordinator at IIT Madras, said "We hope that this initiative will encourage more faculty members across the country to upgrade and refresh their knowledge more easily.''''This initiative where faculty completing NPTEL advanced courses being recognized by AICTE will be a great boost to the teaching community. We also hope that bodies such as University Grants Commission (UGC) will also approve the same for the teachers under colleges affiliated to them", he said.

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