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2021 year-ender: Trending courses during the year

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While the year 2021 saw disruptions in most of the academic courses due to the ongoing Covid pandemic, several online courses provided by Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and other institutions and platforms this year were trending. With colleges and universities holding classes remote, students have enrolled in online courses for their easy accessibility and easy course format.

Given the developments in the last five years and unprecedented Covid times, as per International Career and College Counseling (IC3) Institute Academic Head, Amrita Ghulati, there has been a definite surge in courses related to Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Cyber security, Data Science, Digital Marketing, Business Analytics, and Health care.

Particularly, interesting is the growth in courses in entrepreneurship and innovation across different levels of education, also being embedded in some well-established, traditional programs of study. Another noticeable trend is the bent towards more broad-based, inter and multidisciplinary courses T-shaped education with breadth across disciplines coupled with depth or specialization in one or two domains," IC3 Institute Academic Head added.

Also, the second wave of Covid which hit the country during the beginning of the year had led medical professionals and healthcare executives to delve into courses to learn what the virus is all about and how to approach patients who are affected.

With the year coming to an end, let us look at the emerging courses in 2021.

Academic Writing course is among one of the emerging SWAYAM certificate courses that aimed to bridge the gap by providing knowledge for effective and result-oriented academic writing. The course is a foundation-level course and the learning depends on how a learner does their research work on a specific area. Students can avail Academic Writing course in SWAYAM. The course duration is 15 weeks and the course is in line with the higher education regulator, University Grants Commissions pre-PhD courses work.

With the increase in the penetration of the internet and online activity, the scope of digital marketing has also increased. Digital marketing includes topics like content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media and marketing analytics.

The course in Peace and Conflict Management is one of the Swayam online courses that seek to teach the concept of peace and the role of peace in human development. The course in Peace and Conflict Management also seeks to teach learners theories and types of conflict, methods of conflict management, and contemporary initiatives of peace.

The Blockchain courses are designed to help technical and non-technical learners with key concepts. Kerala Blockchain Academy, under the state-run Digital University Kerala, offered two free fundamental programs in Blockchain technology.

The Robotics course was also in trend in 2021. The course in Robotics is one of the SWAYAM free online courses offered by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and is designed for PhD and Masters students in Electrical/ Mechanical engineer and Computer science. Students belonging to all disciplines of Engineering, Researchers and practicing Engineers can take courses in Robotics in SWAYAM. The Robotics course in SWAYAM platform is a eight-week course.

The course on Covid-19 Contract Tracing is for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. This course helps the learners to have a unified and evidence-based approach to saving the lives of patients affected by Covid.

With students and professionals working remote during 2021, many learners enrolled for courses on Languages. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports also found that learning foreign languages enhances the brain's elasticity and its ability to code information.

Data Science courses have been in the hype in 2021. Courses in Data Science will let a student help in analysing data or information from different sources and gain maximum insight. Data Science courses have been provided by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) including in Delhi and Madras.

Introduced in 2020, IIT Madras BSc in Programming and Data Science, is the first-ever online degree programme offered by an IIT.

Digital transformation has truly led the way in 2021 and full-stack software and product engineering, cloud computing, data science, and other technologies have been the key enablers of actioning this transformation, Abhishek Arora, EVP and Business Head, Skills and Careers Business, NIIT Ltd said.

Adding that NIIT is in the process of developing free content for its learners and prospective learners and aims to deep-skill them so as to make them future ready, Mr Arora further added that: "With industry 4.0, there is a general tilt towards courses which focus on automation, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence amongst others and a learner equipped with these in-demand skills tends to have an edge amongst recruiters. Apart from enabling better job opportunities, they offer ample other advantages too such as edge over competition, equipped with knowledge on real-life projects etc."

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Covid, Online Professional Programmes; Here Are Top Trending Courses In 2021 - NDTV