YouTube recently announced a partnership with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), a government advisory body on school education, to launch multiple YouTube channels over the next few months.
1. With the surge in demand for online educational content, Youtube-NCERT partnership can be seen as a big development in online education. The channels launched in partnership will carry educational content pertaining to the curricula of students from grades 1 to 12. It will be available in 29 Indian languages, the company said.
2. YouTube has emerged as a hub for educational content in India, with of videos related to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam as the most popular category of such content on the platform.
3. The video-streaming giant wants to ensure that all types of exam preparation content is available for users, including those related to competitive entrance exams in the country such as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), said Jonathan Katzman, the director of product management at YouTube Learning in an interview with indianexpress.com.
“Our job is to democratise knowledge, to enable any creator, whether they are new or established, to put out the right learning content and to work with partners like NCERT, NPTEL, and CBSE,” Jonathan Katzman said.
YouTube-NPTEL Partnership
1. Besides NCERT, YouTube is also rolling out 50 credentialed courses in collaboration with the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL).
Jonathan Katzman, director of product management at YouTube Learning. (Image source: YouTube)
2. The courses offered on NPTEL’s YouTube Channels will focus on a diverse range of subjects such as pure sciences, literature, sports psychology, and rocket propulsion, among others.
Story continues below this ad
3. “Through this initiative, a pathway has been created for anyone outside the IIT system to be able to do a course on NPTEL’s YouTube channels and then complete the online certification on the NPTEL-SWAYAM portal and get a certificate from the IITs,” YouTube said in a blog post, adding that more courses will be rolled out in the coming months.
‘Key Concepts’ By Youtube
1. Notably, in addition to partnerships with different educational bodies, YouTube is looking to make learning more accessible in India by offering Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven features.
2. The platform will be rolling out a new learning feature called Key Concepts in India. This feature uses AI to identify concepts covered in a video and pull definitions of those concepts from the web. It can cover concepts related to various subjects like biology, physics, and chemistry.
3. YouTube will also show users definitions and images from Google’s Knowledge Graph that will be based on the transcript of the video and its metadata.
Story continues below this ad
AI-Generated Quizzes By Youtube
To help students test their knowledge, the platform is introducing AI-generated quizzes. The quiz questions will be based on the topics of videos that a user watches and will appear right after they have watched a video, as per the company.
BEYOND THE NUGGET: SWAYAM Portal & SWAYAM Plus Platform
1. SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) is the Indian Government’s program to achieve the three principles of education policy, viz., access, equity, and quality. It seeks to bridge the digital divide for students who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy.
2. The program offers digital classrooms with the help of internet and satellite connectivity to the remotest corners in the country.
3. The SWAYAM is essentially a portal which has been formulated as a solution to the problem of difficult access to physical educational infrastructure and teachers along with study material and textbooks.
Story continues below this ad
4. It facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time. All the courses are interactive, prepared by the best teachers in the country and are available, free of cost to any learner.
5. SWAYAM has the largest enrolment base today, with the total enrollment increasing from 31 lakh in 2017 to more than 72 lakh by the end of 2023, an IIT Madras statement said.
SWAYAM Plus Platform
1. In February 2024, the Central Government launched the ‘SWAYAM Plus’ platform to offer courses developed collaboratively with the industry. The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras) will be operating the ‘SWAYAM Plus’ Platform.
2. The establishment of SWAYAM Plus seeks to enhance the employability of both college students and lifelong learners. It will offer programmes in sectors including manufacturing, energy, computer science and engineering, IT or ITES, management studies, healthcare, hospitality and tourism besides Indian knowledge systems.
Story continues below this ad
3. Multilingual content, AI-enabled chatbot to assist the students and credit recognition are some of the features of the SWAYAM Plus platform.
(Sources: Education Minister launches SWAYAM Plus platform, What is Swayam?, ‘Want to ensure all types of exam prep content is available for users’: YouTube Learning head Jonathan Katzman)
For your queries and suggestions write at roshni.yadav@indianexpress.com
Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week.
Story continues below this ad
Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – Indian Express UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.
6 min read
Jonathan Katzman, director of product management at YouTube Learning. (Image source: YouTube)
