IIT-M students can now take 27 credits through online electives

Speaking to DTNext on Monday, Prof MS Sivakumar, Dean (students) at IIT-Madras said that undergraduate students could take up to 27 credits (equivalent of three 42-lecture courses in the new curriculum) through online mode, provided the departments in the institute and the Senate approves the course. 

“This will be from the 72 credits available for students to choose any courses they wish offered by the institute. Students can take any course that they have not taken already,” he said.

“Our (IIT-Madras) faculty have started offering courses online, so student can register for these courses, besides courses offered online through IIT’s National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) and other programmes. The Senate has already approved in an earlier meeting that students can register for the courses taught by foreign faculty at our institute as part of Union Government’s Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) initiative. Already about 120 such courses have been approved to offered by the Institute. With this addition, IIT-M students will have a greater choice of courses available to register and add to their transcripts” he added. The online elective courses taken will count towards the credit requirement for a student to complete his degree programme. The institute will use a policy similar to that followed for courses taken by its students when they go on exchange programmes to other universities. 

“Any course offered by a faculty member either in the regular stream or in the online mode should be approved by the concerned department and the institute Senate. These elective courses that student wants to take as part of the online courses also needs to be approved by the concerned academic departments and Senate,” Prof Sivakumar said. 

Explaining the benefits of allowing students to take elective courses online, the Dean (students) said that online courses provide the much needed variety and focused on subjects that the students would otherwise may not have not access to and add to their credit. 

“In the future, a number of faculty who can offer the course online could be drawn from several institutes also. In the GIAN courses, students will have access to special topics that might not be available in our institute,” Prof Sivakumar added.