DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF SWAYAM AND MOOCS ADOPTION, CHALLENGES, AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPACTS

The paradigm shift from teacher-centric to learner-centric frameworks in Indian higher education has been significantly accelerated by state-sponsored digital learning initiatives, prominently the Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) platform. Grounded in the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and Transactional Distance educational frameworks, this systematic review synthesizes institutional reports, budgetary trends, and empirical studies between 2017 and 2026 across Indian higher education institutions. This paper maps the digital architecture across three thematic axes: technical versus pedagogical equilibrium, systemic structural execution via the four-quadrant instructional model, and core socio-technological inhibitors that perpetuate a significant "completion gap" where terminal certification indices hover between 5% and 15% despite a cumulative enrollment of 5.80 crore learners. The findings reveal a profound structural imbalance marked by higher enrollment in brief, technical skills courses over extensive pedagogical training, coupled with systemic barriers driven by infrastructural deficiencies, temporal scarcity, and platform awareness gaps among educators. Based on these findings, we outline a sustainability model and actionable integration pathways to align India's National Education Policy (NEP 2020) objectives with global quality benchmarks.