National Consultation for Promotion of Virtual Open Schooling in India

National Consultation for Promotion of Virtual Open Schooling in India

New Delhi; 21/11/2014: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi in collaboration with National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Noida Govt. of India, organised a National Consultation for the promotion of Virtual Open Schooling in India at NIOS, Noida on 15 May 2015. A total of 42 participants from State Open Schools (SOS), National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET) and NIOS participated in this consultation. The objectives of this national consultative workshop were to: promote Virtual Open Schooling in the country; provide an overview and concept of NIOS-Virtual Open Schooling; provide technical knowledge and skill to use online technologies to the participants; provide technical experience of MediaWiki and Learning Management System (Moodle) for development of open courses.

Prof. Mohd. Akhtar Siddiqui, Former Chairman, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), Govt. of India; Dr. R. C. Sharma, Director, CEMCA; Prof. C. B. Sharma, Chairman, NIOS and Dr. Kuldeep Agarwal, Director (Academic), NIOS were the main speakers during inaugural session. In his welcome address Prof. C. B. Sharma, Chairman, NIOS outlined the importance of Virtual Open Schooling through ODL. Prof. Sharma opined that knowledge is a key part of 21^st century and one should work for its propagation through various mediums. He concluded by saying that there is a need to identify learner’s requirements to customize learning accordingly. Dr. R. C. Sharma, Director, CEMCA highlighted the background development and chief features of VOS and assured CEMCA’s support to NIOS. The Inaugural address was delivered by the chief guest Prof. Mohd. Akhtar Siddiqui, Former Chairman, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), Govt. of India. He said that the learners are the core of the teaching learning system and they should always be motivated. The most important part of this system is technology which can provide education as per the need and requirement of learners. He also said that educational ICT is now seen as an opportunity to study anywhere at any time and VOS is an effective addition to it. Proposing a Vote of Thanks, Dr. Kuldeep Agarwal, Director (Academic) emphasized the need to re-visit the self-learning materials, digitize it and make it available to the public. He informed that e-content will be developed for all the subjects at Secondary and Senior Secondary levels.

In Plenary II, Dr. Kuldeep Agarwal introduced the participants to Virtual Open Schooling and explained the objectives of the workshop. Mr S. K. Prasad (SAP, NIOS) presented a technical report which acquainted the participants with the Virtual Open Schooling platform and its practical mechanisms. Immediately after the presentation, the participants were divided into groups on three themes- Registration/ Admission Issues, Delivery mode and Evaluation. The groups separately brainstormed on the challenges, opportunities and threats in these areas of Virtual Open Schooling. In Plenary III, Dr Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Programme officer (Education), CEMCA moderated the group presentation and discussion.

Plenary IV was marked by the Valedictory Address of Prof. C. B. Sharma, Chairman, NIOS. He said that NIOS has to play a vital role as a mentor for under-privileged learners. Prof. Sharma stressed that even the poorest learner of India should be a part of NIOS for the purpose of nation building. He thanked all the participants, especially SOS representatives who spared their time on short notice to attend the workshop. Shri. R. Thyagarajan, HAF, CEMCA proposed the Vote of Thanks. He thanked all SOS representatives, NCERT, CIET and NIOS faculty for their valuable thoughts and new ideas for taking the VOS forward in a right direction.