The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is an Indian e-learning platform for university-level science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. It is jointly developed by Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science.[1] The initiative is funded by the central Ministry of Education. The project's central idea is to put recorded lectures taught by its member institutes online for open access. It operates an educational YouTube channel covering engineering, basic sciences, and some humanities and social science subjects.[2]
NPTEL was launched in 2003 by seven IITs: Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Guwahati and Roorkee, in conjunction with the Indian Institute of Science (IISC).[3][4] In March 2014, NPTEL began offering courses along with in-centre and proctored certification examinations. Course credits can also be transferred to other higher education institutions student or the Academic Bank of Credits under the UGC guidelines. It is the largest e-repository in the world of courses in engineering, basic sciences and selected humanities and management subjects. The initiative runs through MOOCs (Massive open online course) model so that students outside IIT system can also participate in learning quality content and get certified provided they meet the passing criteria in the exams conducted at the end of the NPTEL semesters. All courses are free to enrol and learn from. The certification exam is optional and comes at a fee of Rs 1000 per course exam.
The headquarters of NPTEL is located inside IIT Madras.