Curriculum Revision and Content Development (Print & Non-print) at NSOU 25-27 July 2008
New Delhi, April 10, 2018: The School of Vocational Studies, NSOU is working on CEMCA supported project on “Increase Access and Improve Institutional Capacity for Sustainable Development through Vocational Education and Training”. Five job oriented vocational courses have been identified for revision and content development in print and non-print version and will be further uploaded at NSOU-OER repository offered through blended learning approach. In this regarded NSOU conducted a 3-day workshop on “Curriculum Revision and Content Development (print & non-print)” during 25-27 July 2018 at the University. Twenty-two subject experts from four selected courses attended the workshop. The workshop was initiated by Hon’ble Vice Chancellor NSOU Professor Subha Sankar Sarkar, Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Program Officer, CEMCA and the Registrar NSOU Sri Mohan Kumar Chattopadhyay.
In the inaugural session, Professor Anirban Ghosh, Project Director informed all the participants about the current project which has been started in 2017-18. This workshop was particularly meant for the subject experts who would be engaged in curricula revision and content development. The workshop was designed to revise curriculum and development of content both in print form and audio/video form. The CEMCA is supporting NSOU to reach the unreached learners and to include the excluded. He shows his expectation of reaching the unreached learners of the university by using Information and Communication Technology for fruitful accomplishment of the project and initiatives, this year during 2018-19, SVS, NSOU selected another 5 courses. As he mentioned, last year School of Vocational Studies, NSOU developed e-content for 5 courses which are on roll, this year they have selected i) Entrepreneurship Development, ii) Disaster Risk Management, iii) Human Rights, iv) Organic Agriculture and v) Consumer Rights and Awareness for the same. The selected and invited subject experts will be involved in the curriculum revision and content development. Smt. Barnali Roy Choudhury, Co-Project Investigator, highlighted the importance of the current project in reaching out to maximum number of learners for successful implementation of CEMCA integrated higher education model. In these three-year period, NSOU will implement and test this higher education model to increase access and improve quality of higher education by avoiding duplication of cost. She also emphasis on the main objective of this project i.e., to increase access and improve institutional capacity for sustainable development. Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi stressed upon increasing employability and entrepreneurship for not only in west Bengal but also for the nation as a whole. He also requested all the participants to involve themselves in the process of development of course materials both print and non-print version as OER.
On this occasion, a two minutes’ video on NSOU’s activities was released by Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, NSOU.
Professor Subha Sankar Sarkar, in his presidential address voiced that this is a sequel of last year’s program which actually was the initiation of this process. This workshop was meant for subject experts and two things have been integrated- one is e-content development and the second is curriculum revision. These two things are integral parts of all sorts of courses undertaken by any open distance learning institution. As per the deliberations of Hon’ble Vice-chancellor, NSOU, ODL system follows hybrid mode of education depending on 4 important issues viz. 1. e-content development, 2. the SLM one of the backbone of open distance learning, 3. ICT that is ICT intervention and 4. face to face mode of interaction. He also expressed his words of gratitude for CEMCA’s constant encouragement to develop OER and access through NSOU institutional OER Repository.
Session I started with a presentation of Dr. Panigrahi where he introduced COL-CEMCA along with acknowledgeable talk on Four-quadrant approach of the pedagogy for development of econtent. In this session he also expressed his plan of action for the entire workshop.
Session II was started with Activity number 1 as per the schedule. In this activity, total number of participants were segregated into four groups for each subject viz., Human Rights, Consumer Affairs, Entrepreneurship and Disaster Risk Management. They have started their work on the existing university syllabus and curriculum. Each group prepared a chart highlighting the distribution of papers/ modules for each course incorporating the new ideas. The session ended with the presentation of the revised and proposed curriculum.
Session III was started with the thought-provoking speech and presentation by Shri Ashim Sekhar Paul, Assistant Professor, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata on topic “Digital Storytelling: Amusement with Education”. Through the entire session he has nicely spell out the journey of educational video lecture from inception to the present day. That session was ended with the healthy discussion.
Session IV: This session was dedicated for group activity to identify the hard spots in the curriculum for which video contents, PPTs, Animations, Tables and Figures and other resources are required.
Session V: In this session a live demonstration on NSOU- LMS was presented by M/S Schoolguru who are technically engaged with NSOU for development and dissemination of ICT supports. They have extended their enormous supports to Participants for widening up the use and accessibility of ICT enabled learners support system.
Session VI: The groups were engaged in identification of various components viz. PPT, Script, e-text, voice over etc. to develop respective e-contents. The session ended with the presentations from each group. All group members were participated in an enthusiastic mode for better understanding of the new plethora of educational system.
Three-day workshop on “Curriculum Revision and Content Development (print & non-print)” was ornamentally ended with the valedictory session which was chaired by Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Subha Sankar Sarkar. He expressed his gratefulness to all participants for their active participation throughout the entire workshop. He also greeted project team members for their active work plan. Dr Panigrahi also greeted participants and shows his highest expectations to the participants for fruitful execution of the initiatives. The valedictory session as well as the workshop ended with distribution of certificates to the participants.
