Sensitization Programme for ODL Professionals of West Bengal on Adaption of Open Educational Resources

New Delhi, October 05, 2016: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) New Delhi, supported Netaji Subhas Open University (NSOU), Kolkata, to organise a Three-Day workshop titled “OER Capacity Building and Sensitization Programme” for ODL Professionals, on 26^th-28^th September 2016, at Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata campus. This workshop is a part of the CEMCA supported project entitled “OER Initiatives for ICT enabled Programme of Netaji Subhas Open University”.

Twenty-Six (18 Male and 08 Female) faculties from the University and ODL professionals from four Directorates of Distance Education (DDEs) of West Bengal, India attended the Workshop.

In his welcome address, during the inaugural session, Dr. Anirban Ghosh, Officer-in- Charge, School of Professional Studies, NSOU, talked about the inevitability of Open Educational Resources in ODL system. He mentioned that the university is presently focusing on implementation of OER through its consecutive initiatives. He also said that, NSOU initially developed OER policy for its three schools in 2014 and in June 2016 revised OER policy, with CEMCAs expertise and support, to be implemented in the University. Ms. Barnali Roy Choudhury, Assistant Professor Library & Information Science, NSOU briefly stated the objectives and expected outcomes of the workshop as well as the project. She concentrated mainly on building an institutional OER repository of Netaji Subhas Open University to promote better learning opportunities that will fit with the local, contextual and cultural needs.

Dr B.K. Bhadri, Assistant Education Advisor, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India in his Inaugural address, elaborating the importance and efficacy of OER, stated that, “it is high time to implement OER in present teaching-learning scenario”. He also said that the whole system, society and environment is providing the necessary push to get transformed from the traditional practice to OER based system.  Professor Uma Kanjilal, IGNOU, the key resource person from CEMCA for this three-day workshop, in her eloquent deliberations talked in detail about the present status of OER Repository in India in particular and world in general. Prof Kanjilal portrayed a clear vision for implementing a good number of initiatives with different aspiration of Open Innovations and a dynamic attitude where the key term is “Sharing”.

Professor Subhasankar Sarkar, Vice-Chancellor, NSOU, in presidential address, conveyed the importance of OER in Open and Distance Education. He said that he found ODL system in between the triangle of three pillars of pedagogy system i.e., SLMs, PCPs & ICT based supports. Prof Sarkar also gladly announced that the NSOU started using OER for catering learner-centric education in Open & Distance Learning environment.

The workshop focused on the Concept, Policy, License of OER and finalization of the steps to implement OER repository at NSOU. Resource materials provided by CEMCA and Resource person was made available to the participants during the workshop. Three-day workshop comprised of various sessions including the Pre-Workshop survey, attitude scale towards OER framework, post-workshop survey and group activity. A session titled “Just a minute on your take on OER” was also organised.

Active participation of delegates from different DDEs of West Bengal and faculties of NSOU made this workshop a success. By the end of the workshop the participants were highly motivated to take it forward.