Strategy Framework for eContent Development for Virtual Open Schooling (VOS) of NIOS
Strategy Framework for eContent Development for Virtual Open Schooling (VOS) of NIOS
New Delhi, 16/01/2015: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi organised a workshop on “Strategy framework for eContent Development for Virtual Open Schooling (VOS) of NIOS” on January 06-07, 2015 in National Institute of Open School (NIOS), Noida. The objective of the workshop was to develop a strategy framework on developing eContent for Virtual Open Schooling platform of NIOS in five subjects (English, Hindi, Social Science, Business Studies and Economics) of Secondary level. Sixteen content and technical experts of NIOS participated in the two days workshop.
Dr. Sandhya Kumar, DD (Academic), NIOS offered a warm welcome to the participants of the workshop and elaborated about the need of VOS in the present scenario. Sh. S.K. Prasad of NIOS explained the objective of the workshop and the readiness of the Virtual Open Schooling technology platform where two vocational courses have already been launched i.e. Rural Technology and ICT Applications. Learners have taken the admission in these courses (ICT Applications and Rural Technology) and attending online counselling classes facilitated by NIOS. He further elaborated upon the readiness about the online examination module for the Virtual Open Schooling (VOS). Dr. Kuldeep Agarwal, Director(Academic) welcomed the guests Dr. R.C. Sharma, Director CEMCA and Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Programme Officer, CEMCA and addressed the august gathering . In his address, Dr Agarwal said that no other ODL institution in India has started online courses. He said that all subjects should be integrated and offered through VOS. He also suggested that online content should be interactive and enriched with multimedia components (audio, video, animation etc.). He requested all the Academic Officers of NIOS to take responsibility for developing the interactive eContent for VOS with the help of CEMCA. Dr. R.C. Sharma, Director, CEMCA delivered the inaugural Address. He stated that he had been involved in Virtual Open Schooling (VOS) project of NIOS right from the beginning by preparing the feasibility report on Virtual Open Schooling. He mentioned that globally the online education is being implemented at a faster pace. Virtual High Schools in the United States of America are good examples of it. In Europe, America, Africa, they are using it very effectively and developed the framework and also courses are launched. As per the 13th edition of the Global Information Technology Report (2014) of the World Economic Forum, India has ranked 83 at the Networked Readiness Index 2014 out of around 148 countries surveyed.
Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Program Officer, CEMCA addressed the participants and stressed upon on the objective of the workshop. He elaborated the salient features of Strategy framework for eContent for VOS. In the group activity all the participants developed a template which was used to prepare the subject wise strategy frame for eContent development.
