IGNOU asks students to share scanned copies of handwritten assignments

Students are grappling with a cumbersome process although the regional centres have created dedicated email ids to send their assignments
While several universities are taking the online route to conduct classes, the challenges are different for open universities where students do not have to attend regular classes and are required to engage in self-studies.The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has directed the students to send scanned copies of handwritten assignment to the regional centres by April 30.
“As students are unable to go to the study centres to submit their assignments, we have resorted to online submission. We have always accepted handwritten assignments but as the whole system is shifting online, the handwritten assignments will help in curbing plagiarism while allowing the students to remain engaged during the lockdown,” says M Shanmugham, director, Regional Services Division (RSD), IGNOU.
All the regional centres have created dedicated email ids for assignment submission. “The learners under RC-Delhi 1 are advised to submit scanned copies of their handwritten assignments by email at assignmentsrcdelhi1@ignou.ac.in. The file should be named as course code, study centre code, enrolment number,” read a statement released by Delhi regional centre.
Shally Chauhan, who joined MCom course at IGNOU in 2018, has been grappling with the new cumbersome system. “Though handwritten assignments are not a challenge, creating pdf of each page and compressing it to share via email involves multiple steps, which often proposes to be a problem especially with slow internet,” she says.
Students also claimed that delayed and incomplete information had pushed them to re-do the assignments multiple times. “The initial guidelines did not mention that a student needs to put his/her name and enrolment number on every sheet, because of which I had to re-submit my assignments,” adds Shally.
Mithoon Bhanushali (name changed on request), who joined MA in Economics programme in 2018 at a study centre in Delhi has not yet received any information regarding online submission of assignments. “Though I have not received any official statement, I am trying to complete all the assignments at my end so that I can submit them whenever the regional centre shares further information,” he adds.