Awareness Programme for Counsellors and Trainers on NSOU LMS and OER Repository

New Delhi, May 30, 2018: The School of Vocational Studies, Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata has undertaken a project supported by Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) titled “Increase Access and Improve Institutional Capacity for Sustainable Development through Vocational Education and Training”. The objective of this three year project is to increase enrolment in different vocational courses of the university so that the disadvantaged rural people can get access to skill development programmes of this university. The students may take the advantages of skill enhancement programme by which they can increase their skills and competencies in a particular trade. As a part the project the School has already organized workshop on e-content development for teachers, baseline survey and four Outreach Programmes at different districts in the State of West Bengal. For the first time, the School organized a Job Fair at its Kalyani Campus. Recently, the School organized one day workshop/ training on LMS for the academic Counsellors/ trainers of five selected vocational courses viz. i) Needlework and Knitting, ii) Travel & Tourism, iii) Export-Import Management, iv) Modern Office Management and v) Fire Safety & Security Management. Under the project, the A/V lectures have been developed as per guidelines and the question bank for each course has also been developed and providing access to the learners through NSOU LMS. NSOU also developed an OER repository for better learning for the university learner.

An Awareness Programme for Counsellors and Trainers on NSOU LMS and OER Repository was organized on 28^th May 2018 with an objective to train the trainers/academic counsellors so that they can guide the learners to access the e-contents through LMS and OER repository. Around 30 women participants out of 45 of different subjects (as stated infra) attended the programme. The entire programme was divided into three parts viz. Introduction of the theme, functionality of the LMS and usefulness of OER Repository of the University.

Professor Anirban Ghosh, the Project Director in his introductory speech mentioned the broad objective of the project which is going on in association with CEMCA. He also opined that the academic counsellors/ trainers play an important role in ODL system who actually bridge the gap between the learners and ODLI. They can interact with the learners at the study centres during the F2F counselling. So it is their responsibility to motivate the learners to access the on-line academic content available on the LMS and OER Repository. The trainers can also guide the learners how they can increase the accessibility to the academic content available in the on-line environment. Dr. Ghosh also appraised the House that the university is providing number of ICT support services to its registered learners. But they are not aware of these services. Dr. Ghosh requested all the participants to train the other trainers who are engaged at their respective study centre and to inform about the ICT based support services. It will increase the awareness among the trainers as well as among the learners.

During the hands on training session, the step by step process was demonstrated about functionality and procedures of LMS e.g. with the user ID and Password, how a learner can access his or her academic content (A/V lectures, e-text, question bank etc.). The trainers/counselors practiced themselves. Some A/V lectures on the above mentioned subjects were also screened before the house. The participants appreciated the initiatives that the University is taking for the benefit of its learners. They also informed that the learners will be very happy to access the content at their home for better learning.

Mrs. Barnali Roy Choudhury, Co-Project Manager in her presentation, described the usefulness of the NSOU OER Repository where one can access the A/V lectures and course materials anywhere any time free of cost. She also pointed out that the difference between the LMS and OER Repository is that the learners need user ID and P/W to access the content on the LMS which are not required in case of OER Repository of the University. Other than the registered learners, any person can access the academic content which are made available with an open license, CC-BY-NC-SA. Mrs. Choudhury made a live demonstration on the said Repository to give an idea about the functionality of the same. In the programme the trainers and counsellors prepared a plan of action to replicate the same strategy in their respective study centers.