Micro-learning: An Effective E-learning Resource with Poor Net Connectivity

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The modern era is a digital era. From banking to healthcare services to business, everything is becoming digitalized. So is education. Online education is a metamorphosed version of Distance Learning. Distance learning started more than 150 years ago. It was initiated by Sir Issac Pitman (1840) to teach shorthand. This paves the way for a more structured model of distance education by the University of London (1858) and the Society to Encourage Studies at Home (1873) in the United States of America by Anna Eliot Ticknor. Online education was started with the School of Management and Strategic Studies (1982) by Western Behavioural Sciences Institute, California. The earlier versions of online education relied on computer conferencing, but online education flourished with internet web browsers. Online education in India began with the use of satellites for Education way back in the 1970s. However, the version of online education in its modern form started with the advent of the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) in 1999. It is an initiative by seven Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for creating course content in engineering and science. Ministry of Human Rights Development (MHRD) announced SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) in 2014. It is India’s national platform for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) under its National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NME-ICT). The online course was designed as a four-quadrant approach.