10 best online learning portals in India for students and teachers

Over the last 2-3 months, millions of students and teachers are adopting online education and skills in India. With students being outside the classroom, teachers are using online tools for delivering lectures. We are at an exciting phase when it comes to adopting online education and skills in India. In this article, we provide you a list of 10 best online learning portals in India for students and teachers.

Adopting online education in India

For the Indian education system, moving towards online teaching/learning is a paradigm shift in the domain. However, the country has taken several steps towards it. One such step is that the University Grants Commission has recently decided upon allowing the top 100 Indian universities, as rated by the National Institutional Ranking Framework, to offer their degrees fully online under the automatic route.

We as a country are transitioning to a new phase in the domain of skills and education, where online learning and digital tools are enabling us to have continuity in learning without a break. Vocational education and technical training institutes, which have their curriculum majorly based on practical and hands-on training have also moved online to deliver classes and use innovative methods to train the current batch of students.

The Government, higher educational institutions, and some of the corporates like IBM and TCS have taken initiatives to provide courses through online portals. The 10 online learning portals available for school, college students, including it is higher education and research institutes.

10 best online learning portals in India for students and teachers

1. Bharat Skills – https://bharatskills.gov.in/

Bharat skills and eSkillIndia portals are a repository of skill-based courses, where most of them follow the NSQF curriculum. Currently, the Bharat skills portal has e-learning videos available for 79 trades like carpenter, electrician, plumber, etc.

2. eSkillIndia – https://eskillindia.org/

eSkillIndia, a multilingual portal offers more than 400 courses in about 10 regional languages. Content on these portals is aggregated by various knowledge and content partners.

Know more about eSkillIndia portal – https://nationalskillsnetwork.in/eskillindia-from-nsdc-indias-gateway-to-online-skill-development/

3. NASSCOM – Future skills – http://futureskills.nasscom.in/

NASSCOM Future skills portal is a portal where students can learn the skills of the future. It is an industry-driven learning ecosystem that aims to reskill two million professionals and potential employees and students in the industry over a period of five years.

4. Skillsbuild – http://skillsbuild.org/

With ever-evolving technology, new job roles emerge which require newer skills to perform a task and make a difference in the world of work. Portal like Skillsbuild build provides courses in the latest technology like Artificial intelligence, Cybersecurity, Client engagement, etc. along with training in soft skills.

5. TCS ion Digital Learning Hub – https://www.tcsion.com/LX/login#lx

TCS ion is a digital portal that offers a number of courses spread across various fields. It collaborates with several organisations to offer these courses. A couple of recent collaborations were with NSDC and NCS, to enable virtual training and job information for those in the skilling ecosystem.

All the following four portals provide higher education courses like graduate, post-graduate, and research courses. 

6. Swayam – https://swayam.gov.in/

Swayam portal runs on the principle of access, equity, and quality. It has courses from class nine to post-graduation. Courses delivered through SWAYAM are available free of cost to the learners, however, learners wanting a SWAYAM certificate will have to attend an exam at a fee. Eligibility for the certificate will be announced on the course page and learners will get certificates only if this criterion is matched.

7. NPTEL – https://nptel.ac.in/

NPTEL portal is coordinated majorly by IIT Madras along with other IITs. The portal has recorded lectures from IITs, which are then uploaded online for others to access. NPTEL has web and video courses across 23 disciplines, where learners get a tangible end result in the form of a certificate from the IITs/IISc for their effort.

8. Swayam Prabha – https://www.swayamprabha.gov.in/

Swayam Prabha is a group of 32 DTH channels, which run high-quality educational programs. The contents are provided by NPTEL, IITs, UGC, CEC, IGNOU, NCERT, and NIOS. The courses are available for students from class 9 to post-graduation level in the subjects of arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences, agriculture among others.

9. E-patashala – https://epathshala.nic.in/index.php?ln=en

E-patashala is an initiative by NCERT, which is a storehouse of audios, videos, flipbooks, etc. available in Hindi, English, and Urdu. The portal and the mobile in total have 3886 resources and 504 e-textbooks.

10. Diksha – https://diksha.gov.in/

National Teacher Platform (NTP) branded as “Diksha” is built to host Open Educational Resources (OER) and tools for Teachers in Schools, Teacher Educators in Teacher Education Institutes. The platform provides resources such as lesson plans, concept videos, worksheets, mapped to the curriculum.

Most of these portals have a combination of free and paid courses. Information about certification is provided on the individual course page and it differs based on the course. Also, most of the portals are mobile-enabled, which means they have an app that students or teachers can use on their mobile phones.