Usage of Online Educational Courses by Undergraduate Engineering Students in Karnataka

Increasing availability of low-cost technology has enabled many students to use online courses to supplement their studies. The emergence of MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) has also brought about a great revolution in the teaching and learning methods. In case of Indian students, since most of the online courses available are not customized according to the syllabus, the students do not find them completely useful. In this case, Massively Empowered Classrooms (MEC) provides curriculum based video lectures and quizzes to students free of cost. The students are able to gain a good understanding of the subject and also score well in exams. This paper is based on an exploratory study conducted to analyze the usage of online courses and MEC by the undergraduate engineering students in Karnataka, India. The paper also describes some expectations from students and teachers to improve the reach and impact of online education.