Staff Sensitization Workshop on Institutional Open Education Resources (OER) Policy at OSOU regional center, Bhubaneswar

New Delhi, October 10, 2016: Commonwealth Media Education Center for Asia (CEMCA) is engaged in assisting Higher Education Institutions to adopt Open Educational Resources (OER) through the development and implementation of institutional OER policy. With this background, COL-CEMCA organized a three-day (1-3 June 2016) National Capacity Building Workshop on Institutional OER Policy Frameworks for development of OER policy and its implementation in the Indian Universities. In this programme Odisha State Open University (OSOU) came up with draft OER policy. OSOU organized a day long staff sensitization workshop on Institutional Open Education Resources (OER) and finalization of draft OER policy at its regional center at Bhubaneswar on October 05, 2016 in Collaboration with CEMCA.  

Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr. Srikant Mohapatra, gave a detailed outline about the Open Education Resources and said, OSOU will try to put all its material in digital format, so that all learners can freely access it. He said, opting for OER saves costs of the students and quality material can be developed. Dr. Mohapatra stressed the faculty members to search for good OER and modify it as per the need of the course.

Registrar of the University, Dr. Jayant Kar Sharma said that the workshop was being organized in collaboration with CEMCA. OSOU has signed an agreement with CEMCA for adoption of institutional OER Policy and timeline has been fixed for various activities. He gave an in depth presentation on the OSOU – OER Policy. Jyoti Prakash Mohapatra, Faculty of OSOU gave a presentation on why we need to go for OER and its applicability.

Twelve (10 Male and 02 Female) faculty members and IT staffs of Odisha State Open University participated in the workshop.

Odisha State Open University being the first Open University in the state is focusing on good quality materials for its students and it is producing self instructional materials both in Odisha and English. OSOU presently offering 14 courses at Diploma and certificate level.