IGNOU plans new online courses on tourism and food safety

NEW DELHI: In its effort to make learning convenient and flexible for the students, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is planning to start new online courses such as MA in Hindi, certificate course in food safety and certificate course in tourism studies from July 2019. The open university has submitted a proposal to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and is awaiting their confirmation.
“Under the umbrella of Online Courses or Programmes Regulations, 2018 by UGC, we have submitted the proposal for four online courses which includes a two-year masters in Hindi programme and two certificate courses that will be conducted for six months.We will soon disclose the name of the fourth course after getting approval from the UGC,” says Nageshwar Rao, vice chancellor, IGNOU.
“The course structure for all the online courses will be based on the curriculum of similar existing regular courses for which the online examinations will be conducted across 56 regional centres of IGNOU,” he adds.
In 2018, UGC released eligibility criteria of higher educational institutions in India that allowed open universities to conduct online programmes only in those disciplines which were already offering the similar courses in open and distance learning mode and at least one batch has been passed out from the same.
“In our center of online education, we have identified around 85 online courses that include 46 undergraduate and postgraduate certificate programmes, 22 diploma or post graduate diploma courses, two undergraduate, six postgraduate and four awareness/refresher/appreciation programmes,” says Rao while talking to Education Times on IGNOU’s 32nd convocation day.
“For the online courses, the university will adopt four quadrant learning approach that will include digital study material through e-gyankosh, e-learning videos, doubt session with teachers through IGNOU’s web-based TV channel- Gyandarshan and online evaluation,” he adds.
With an aim to establish IGNOU as an online platform of learning, the varsity is planning to conduct regular examinations in online mode. “We are in conversation with the National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct our online entrance as well as the regular examinations. Although it is difficult to conduct long stretched regular examinations, initially they might just conduct IGNOU’s entrance examinations from next academic year,” says Rao.