CEMCA Offered Second Cycle of MOOC on Academic Counselling for ODL Learners (AC4ODL)

CEMCA and OSOU successfully offered second cycle of the online course on Academic Counselling for ODL (AC4ODL) Learners on the vast demand of learners from 19 April 2021 to 30 May 2021. 1340 Teachers/Educational Leaders/ODL Practitioners who want to learn more about the Academic Counselling in ODL enrolled to this Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Academic Counselling for ODL Learners (AC4ODL), which they found informative and engaging. Using up-to-date learning design and simple, accessible technology, the course runs on an easy-to-use learning platform (https://www.mooc4dev.org/AC4ODL2) available via the Internet.

The course was designed and conceptualised by Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, CEMCA and prepared by highly experienced ODL professionals viz. Dr. Srikant Mohapatra, Director, EMPC-IGNOU, New Delhi, India, Former Vice-Chancellor, OSOU, India; Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Senior Programme Officer (Education), CEMCA, New Delhi India; Dr. Abhilash Nayak, Regional Director at Patna RC, IGNOU, India; and Dr. Monica Nagpal, CEMCA, New Delhi, India. Along with them, Dr. Manas Ranjan Pujari, Dr. Ansuman Jena, Mr. Aseem Kumar Patel, and Ms. Subhra Saraf from Odisha State Open University, facilitated the course and provided mentoring support to the learners.

The course was run over four weeks and further extended for another a week to complete the activities in the interest of the learners. However, the course designed to accommodate learners’ busy schedules, the course offers flexibility with options for learning the content. The learners learnt from readings, videos, discussions with other participants and instructors, meaningful exercises, and quizzes. During this course majority of the learners participated in the discussion creating 2700 forums and responding 6651 to other’s forum. Certification was made for those who successfully completed all required exercises and quizzes. This course will help and support the teachers and ODL practitioners in upgrading and refreshing their skills for becoming an Academic Counsellor in ODL institutions.