Skip to content

Online Courses

IIT Gandhinagar provides its students the provision of enhancing their knowledge and skill-set and further gain credits for it by enabling students to enroll in allocated Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). MOOCs make university courses available to thousands of students. These courses are disruptive, technology-driven learning platforms that are challenging traditional educational models. Numerous companies also recognize the value addition from, say, a Udacity nanodegree or a Coursera Capstone project. Additionally, MOOCs can be leveraged to enhance IIT Gandhinagar’s course offerings (e.g., by using flipped classrooms) and add to the richness of our overall catalogue.

Essential Features:

  • MOOCs may be broadly classified into the following two categories:
    1. Faculty-Sponsored: These courses will be shepherded by IITGN faculty, and would be largely in his/her area of interest. The concerns over proceedings of the MOOCs will be the responsibility of the faculty.
    2. Courses done directly by students: Students are free to choose their own courses on MOOCs, provided that the interest field may be, for example, in areas that are under-represented at IITGN in terms of faculty expertise. The responsibility of completing such courses lies with the student.
  • MOOCs registered on the following platforms are encouraged:
    1. Swayam – NPTEL:
      1. All Swayam – NPTEL Online Certification Courses will be included.
      2. NPTEL courses are typically 4 week, 8 week and 12 week long and will map onto 1, 2 and 3 credits respectively in the IITGN system.
    2. Non-NPTEL platforms:
      1. The courses (and credits) on non-NPTEL platforms (for example, Coursera, EdX, Udacity, etc.) will be approved on a case-by-case basis. A student wanting to include a course from these platforms will need to provide a justification to the concerned authorities (before enrolling for the course) on how/why a certain course can be mapped to an equivalent course at IITGN.
      2. Once a course on these non-NPTEL platforms has been approved, it will continue to remain approved for three years and no fresh approvals will be needed for subsequent students wanting to take the same course.
  • Regarding the finances related to registration for MOOCs on any platform:
    1. Students will be expected to pay the cost. However, for faculty sponsored courses, this cost will be reimbursed to the students upon producing the course completion certificate.
    2. For courses that students do on their own, the costs will have to be borne by the students themselves.
    3. The institute may reimburse a portion of the expenses incurred by a student for MOOCs upon presentation of the original course completion certificate.
  • Regarding credit conversion and Pass/Fail considerations:
    1. Undergraduate (B.Tech) students can count up to 16 credits, and postgraduate (M.Sc., M.A., M.Tech, Ph.D.) students can count up to 8 credits of MOOCs coursework towards graduation requirements.
    2. MOOCs will be treated as "Passed" or "Failed" and will not affect a student's CPI. The total number of credits that a UG student can claim under the Pass/Fail option will be capped at 16 credits (combined across courses done online and at the institute). Likewise, the total number of credits that a PG student can claim for this benefit will be capped at 8 credits (combined across courses done online and at the institute). However, no student may convert more than two courses done at the institute to Pass/Fail (see examples below).
    3. Examples:
      1. A UG student successfully completes four 3-credit courses online. These, by default will be considered as “Pass” and thus will be counted in the 16 credit limit. The student can then convert a non-Fail letter grade of only one more 4-credit course done at the institute to a “Pass” grade.
      2. Another UG student does not take any courses online. This student can convert a non-Fail letter grade to a “Pass” grade in a maximum of two courses done at the institute.
      3. A PG student successfully completes one 2-credit course online. This student can utilize the “Pass/Fail” option for two 3-credit courses or one 4-credit and another 2-credit course done at the institute.
      4. A PG student does no course online. The student can convert a non-Fail letter grade to a “Pass” grade in a maximum of two courses done at the institute.
  • Normally, only elective courses can be fulfilled through MOOCs, but the concerned authorities may allow credits earned in core courses (or similar like Computing) via MOOCs in exceptional circumstances or specific subjects.
  • MOOCs registrations during a semester do not contribute to credit overload, but students must also enroll in regular institute courses and pay full fees while enrolling for MOOCs.
  • Even students on suspension are allowed to register for MOOCs and earn credit.