Impact Of Moocs Usage On Academic Learning: A Moderating Role Of Academic Streams

Abstract

Historically, the evolution of the Indian higher education system in modern times since the British era through 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s succeeded in producing quality output in terms of trained personnel/ persons with higher education degrees from a few select
institutions. However, a huge vacuum had been developing in the system over the years with respect to scalability – the elitist system had not kept pace with the demographic reality of burgeoning upper and lower middle classes of India in the 1980s and 90s and
led to a yawning gap between the aspirations and the few higher educational opportunities in the country. Evidently incumbent universities and Institutes of ‘historical repute’ known for providing ‘quality’ education in the country could only serve a small segment of the population primarily due to their limited intake. A large number of incumbent universities in the remote areas were ‘lack-lustre’, in a dilapidated state and needed up gradation and rejuvenation at various levels. This fact had been at the heart of the exodus of students from semi-urban, tier 2 and 3 cities to ‘urban centres’ for college/university education every year through 1980s and 90s.