The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in India has caused extreme distress to the students and is a setback to academic activity. Fortunately, many companies have now come forward and offered their e-learning contents FREE OF COST to learners.

In order to foster digital learning and support the student community across the country, Enhancement in Learning with Improvement In Skills (ELIS) portal (http://free.aicte-india.org/) has been designed by AICTE. It was formally launched on 12 Apr 2020 by Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman AICTE along with Prof. M.P Poonia, Vice-chairman AICTE and Prof Rajive Kumar, Member Secretary, AICTE. The development team was led by Shri Buddha Chandrashekhar, Chief Coordinating Officer, NEAT and NEAT cell team members Dr. Elangovan, Debanshu Srivastava and Baljeet Singh.

ELIS portal has been created to provide all students with contents that not only enhances learning for regular subjects but also aims to build up valuable skill sets as required in the actual work environment. The e-learning contents on the portal have been sourced from 18 leading Ed-tech companies with 26 different courses. Under normal circumstances, these are selectively available at prices ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000. However, all participating companies have offered to enrol students in the present lockdown period without any cost until 15 May 2020. All companies have also gracefully agreed to keep the course free. In effect, there shall be no charges whatsoever to be paid by learners who enrol now till the course is completed.

Prof Sahasrabudhe expressed his deep gratitude to all the companies for rising to the occasion and offering the contents free of cost for benefit of the student community. He expressed his satisfaction that the nation as a whole has come together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He went on to add that such offerings by the corporate world will help maintain social distancing with constructive & positive engagements and it should be the endeavour of all students to stay home and make the best use of the opportunity to improve their skills by enrolling in the courses.

  AICTE, ELIS, Free E-Learning, Portal