Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Online courses speeding catching city's fancy

Studying abroad and getting an international tag of reputed institutes on their resumes is a dream of many. But a few are able to realize it. However, with advancement of technology and the world turning into a global village, students studying in city colleges and even working professionals are getting hooked to online courses offered by foreign universities like Harvard, Stanford and MIT to get certificates and enhance their knowledge.From colour theories to mythology, sociology and healthcare, several websites such as coursera.org and udacity.com are offering online courses from foreign universities such as Harvard and Stanford as well as Indian institutes like IIT Delhi and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The courses are catching fancy of many. Several universities like Massachusetts Institute of Technology also have opened courseware that allows students from across the world to attend online classes (www.ocw.mit.edu). One can study everything  from cryptography to epidemiology  absolutely free.

Jalaj Jain, an engineering student of SGSITS, has found fancy of doing courses that can enhance his knowledge and expertise. He said, Technology has made it easy to enhance your expertise and I am enjoying doing it. I have enrolled for various computer Science related online courses. You can sign up and get enrolled and choose topics of your choice.Preeti Mukati, a maths teacher at a city-based school said, "There are several sites that offer online courses from these universities. I have signed up for some other certificate courses in education, mathematics and accounting. Once you sign up, you are informed in advance when the course will begin so that you can free up your time.Working professionals who have got school-going kids, loans to pay and finding no way to take a break to pursue a course in the university are finding the online courses a right option. Kshitij Sharma, who runs his own company, completed an MS in Computer Science from Minnesota several years ago and has now signed for a course from Wharton on operations management, which he believes has helped him run his business better. "Honestly, I don't find too much of a difference between actually being there on campus and doing the course online. In fact, I think I am more focused now," says Sharma.

Though there are various international universities that are offering online courses, the ministry of human resources and development too has come up with a concept of online courses.Dr Narendra Chaudhary, a senior professor of IIT-I said, The ministry has developed the concept long ago where engineering students can enrol and choose courses of their choice to update their knowledge. Even working engineers too upgrade themselves through such courses.

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