The document discusses the status and trends of open and distance learning (ODL) in India, outlining its historical development, current challenges, and strategic approaches. Key issues include quality, access, equity, and technology, with efforts to improve these areas through better teacher training, innovative use of technology, and open educational resources. It emphasizes the importance of ODL in providing flexible educational opportunities and highlights the ongoing need for policy improvements and resource allocation to enhance its effectiveness.

1. Commonwealth Educational
Media Centre for Asia
Open, Distance and
eLearning in India: Status
and Trends
Sanjaya Mishra
Director, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia
September 22, 2013

2. Structure of the Presentation
 Historical Perspective and Current Situation
 Problems and Issues
 Strategies and Approaches

3. Historical Perspectives
 1962: University of Delhi
 1964: Kothari Commission
 1975: Parthasarathy Committee
 1978: CBSE project Open School
 1982: Dr. BRAOU
 1985: IGNOU
 1989: NOS (Now NIOS)

4. Structure of ODL
 National Open University
 15 State Open Universities (including 2
private: Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh)
 Over 200 Dual mode universities and
specialized institutions offering ODL
 Chartered Accountancy, Company
secretary, Cost Accountancy, etc. also offered
programmes in distance mode

5. Structure of ODL
 Programmes offered at all level (Open Basic
Education to Doctoral Degrees)
 Number of students (over 2 million at School
level; 4.2 million at higher education level)
 Technical courses through AICTE-UGC-DEC
Committee
 Some areas still not allowed (e.g. Medicine
and Law)

6. PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
 Quality
 Access
 Equity
 Technology
 Interaction

7. Quality
 IGNOU Act (dual role: offered programme and
also monitored quality of ODL in the country)
 Distance Education Council established in
1991 under IGNOU Act (first quality agency in
the country) – now, part of UGC
 Dual standards of quality learning
 Poor monitoring of quality
 Poor perception of ODL

8. Access
 Lack of National Human Resource Planning
 Planned to have additional capacity of 1
million in ODL in 12th Plan (about 15% in
ODL)
 Additional 2.5 million in School in 12th Plan;
5.2 million at HE
 Reduction in attrition rates in ODL

9. Equity
 Who is the ODL student?
 Rural-Urban gap
 Enrolment of Women (about 27%) and people
with disabilities

10. Interaction
 Interaction is the hallmark of quality (this is
at least in F2F)
 Interaction in ODL through
materials, assignments, technology, contact
session, different formats of tutorial support
(including, f2f
contact, telephone, online, mobile SMS)

11. Technology
 Started with supplementary approach to use
of Audio and Video
 Added teleconference (audio and video) at
designated centres
 Used Satellite based interaction (again from
designated centres)
 Learning materials available through
eGyanKosh, NPTEL
 eLearning is yet to follow pace

12. ODL Human Resources
 Not enough teachers with ODL capacities
 IGNOU has MA in Distance Education and Post
Graduate Diploma in eLearning
 Short term courses organised for in-service
training
 Large numbers of Academic Counsellors, who
are backbone of the support system are
untrained

13. STRATEGIES AND
APPROACHES
 Understanding ODL
 Ensuring Quality
 Improving Access and Equity
 Using Appropriate Technology
 Strengthening Institutional Capacities
 Improving perception of ODL

14. Understanding ODL
The classical definition of Distance Education
says, it is a system:
 Where teaching and learning is mediated by technology
(print, audio, video, computers, etc)
 Where didactic conversation takes place through
learning materials and assignments
 Where learning is primarily asynchronous (taking place
at a time, place and pace decided by the learner)
 Where the student and teacher are not permanently
separated
 Where the student is quasi-permanently separated from
peer group.

15. Understanding ODL
Open is all about:
 No requirement for entry qualification
 No physical boundary of the institution
 Flexibility of choice of courses
 Use of technology to teach

16. Understanding ODL
Use of eLearning is changing teaching-learning
practices:
 Both face-to-face and distance education
 It can be used effectively to increase quality
of student interaction in both the systems
 Make teachers and institutions more
accountable
 It is the new age distance education

17. Why ODL?
 NKC recommendation: 1500 universities by
2015
 Do we have the resources?
 ODL provides Economies of Scale
 Optimally utilizes the existing infrastructure
and expertise
 Cost of Open Schooling per child is about
1/10 of cost in conventional system (NIOS)
 Cost of graduate distance education is about
35% of F2F

18. Costs in ODL
 Korea (KNOU): annual cost/student
$186 as compared to $2880 in a
campus university
 Thailand (STOU): studies show
cost/learner is $226 compared to
$876 for conventional learning
Open and Distance learning in the developing world –
Perraton (2000)

19. Dual-mode provision
 University of Nairobi: cost/learner
of a residential B.Ed was 3 times
that of an ODL programme
For dual mode systems: cost in CCIs were
15% of conventional departments
Perraton (2000)

20. Open and distance education
in mega universities
COUNTRY INSTITUTION ENROLMENT
% of Campus
Cost*
Pakistan AIOU 456.126 22
China CCRTVU 2,300,000 40
India IGNOU 1,187,100 35
UK OU 203,744 50
*Unit cost per student as a percentage of the average for other universities in the
country, NKC, 2004.

21. Ensuring Quality
 How?
 Recognition Vs. Accreditation
 Common quality framework for Learning
irrespective of mode (e.g. QAA of UK )
 Internal quality assurance system
 Development of quality standards

22. Improving Access and Equity
 Existing number of colleges (over 31,000) in the
country: Use unutilized space and time
 All universities offer need based programmes
through ODeL; especially use eLearning for existing
courses and programmes
 Release all materials produced through public
funding as Open Educational Resources under
suitable license
 Provide special incentives for women, persons with
disabilities and economically weaker sections of the
society to pursue ODL programmes

23. Technology and Interaction
 Content is King: Make all learning resources
digital and Open Educational Resoruce
 Content is King, but not ENOUGH: Create e-
environment for increasing student-
teacher, student and teacher to content and
student-student interaction
 Support asynchronous learning by accessing
learning resources on the Web, Mobile and
through on-demand DTH services

24. Technology Innovation: COL Tablet
server
A tablet used as
a server can host
an LMS or CMS
such as Moodle
or Wordpress
pre-loaded with
learning
materials.
A portable wireless router can broadcast a
network that students can connect to
An external battery can power
the wireless router off-grid for
up to 12 hours.

25. Improving ODL Practitioners
 Trained human resources for ODeL (in-service
vs pre-service training)
 Policies aligned with national mandates
 ODeL as a lifelong learning strategy rather
than second chance to education

26. Trends in eLearning and OER
 eLearning initiated in late 1990s, but now it has
become more pervasive
 Over 80 programmes are available online in
Commonwealth Asia
 eLearning is used in different ways by both
distance teaching and F2F universities
 Use of Open Educational Resources increasing
 Shift from content development approach to
learning facilitation
 More of a convergence of distance and F2F
teaching

27. eLearning Models
 Use of in-house technology (IGNOU’s PG Certificate on
Management of Resettlement and Rehabilitation)
 Use of Open Source/ Proprietary LMS (currently several
programmes, including the PGDEL)
 Use of Wiki platform for training (2008 conducted online
training and delivered online certificate)
 Delivery of video lessons online and web courses (NPTEL
Courses)
 Emergence of MOOC (IIT, Kanpur and COL on Mobiles for
Development)
eLearning can bridge the gap between face-to-face and
distance education.

28. Open Educational Resources and MOOC
 Making available textbooks in open licences
to create an ecosystem for re-use and re-
mixing of knowledge resources
 Make textbooks accessible to all
 Teachers will have more time to
teach, explain, mentor students (including in
Distance education)
 MOOCs can address up-gradation of skills and
knowledge of large numbers

29. Possible Steps
 Policy on Open Distance and Technology
Enabled Learning as a strategy for lifelong
learning
 Adoption of an Open license framework for
sharing educational resources
 Adopting more online learning practices in
Indian universities
 Adopt consortium approach to delivery of
education through ODL

30. Thank YOU