Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: Utkal University, Bhubaneswar has found a place among the 75 discipline-specific National Resource Centres (NRCs) identified by the HRD Ministry for online refresher programmes for development of at least 1.5 million higher education faculty members.
Each of the 75 NRCs have to prepare discipline wise online training material with focus on latest developments, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum that will be provided through SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) platform of MOOC – Massive Open Online Courses.
“Under this initiative, all in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority will have an enabling opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments in their disciplines through the technology based online refresher course,” read an official notification of the HRD Ministry released on Friday.
The task of the NRCs will be to develop the Refresher Module including the latest trends in the earmarked discipline by June 15 each year. The training materials will be uploaded and made available through SWAYAM to all the teachers from October 1 every year and based on the response, the course can be repeated in the following January.
The NRC will publish the list of the faculty who have been certified by December 31, 2018. Following which, UGC will issue order/regulations for the purpose of Career Progression and Academic Performance Indicators (APIs).
“Faculty can benefit from this initiative as it is highly flexible and can be done at one’s own pace and time. The NRCs will revolutionize professional development of faculty by catering to massive numbers by leveraging ICT and online technology platform of SWAYAM,” stated the HRD Ministry’s notification.
As per the notification Utkal University has been notified as NRC for Anthropology.