MOOCs: Changing Trend Towards Open Distance Learning with Special Reference to India

This study provides an overview about massive open online courses (MOOCs), about how technology has changed over the years the face of distance learning and how relevant and beneficial these courses might be for distance learners. Studies related to MOOCs in India and world around have been reviewed. It also furnishes the details of various MOOCs platform such as The Open University, Iversity, ALISON, Open Learning, Coursera, Udacity, EdX and EduKart available free of cost to distance learners. This paper further provides availability of MOOCs in India and various institutions and companies associated across the nation providing MOOCs courses to academia. Limitations of MOOCs and their future has also been discussed. The paper concludes that MOOCs and online education has a huge potential which would help in accelerating and ensuring social cohesion and sustainable growth. With little efforts by the government of India, online education can successfully reach every individual. DOI: 10.14429/djlit.35.2.8191