Training of ODL Professionals of Odisha on OER and ODL at Odisha State Open University
Training of ODL Professionals of Odisha on OER and ODL at Odisha State Open University
New Delhi, February 16, 2016: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi organised a Capacity Building Programme for ODL Professionals of Odisha on OER and ODL to develop materials in Open Education Resources (OER) and Understanding details of Open Distance Learning (ODL) from 11-13 February 2016 in collaboration with Odisha State Open University (OSOU), Sambalpur at IGNOU Regional Centre, Bhubaneswar. Thirty One (Female and Male) ODL Professionals from different universities of Odisha attended the training. Dr. Pankaj Khare from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) facilitated this three days training along with Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Programme Officer (Education), CEMCA, New Delhi.
The Inaugural session was attended by Prof. Dr. Ashok Kumar Das, Vice-Chancellor, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar as Chief Guest. Prof Das discussed how important to develop the e-contents and offer education through online in the present scenario. He appreciated the initiatives of CEMCA and OSOU for the development of OER. Dr. Srikant Mohapatra, Officer on Special duty (OSD), OSOU elaborated the requirement of OER training and how it would benefit the participants for determining the quality education in the state through ODL.
Dr Manas Ranjan Panigrahi conducted the technical sessions on Understanding of Open Educational Resources and Open License (Creative common licenses). Dr. Panigrahi discussed what ODL is and how it differs from the conventional learning system. Discussion about learning object was highlighted and how learning objects can be combined to form a new study material.
Dr. Khare in his session briefed the participants about the searching tools apart from Google. He taught upon content, content management system, and organisation of content. He focused on creating wiki accounts, Wiki editing skills, Creating New page etc. The participants were divided into five groups based on different skills and each group was instructed to choose a topic for OER content generation. One of the members from each group presented and defended the topic that has been chosen for content generation. On the Second day participants were taught on Creating OERs in OER Common Platform. Participants created their accounts in Wiki Educator and OER Commons as well. Hands on training were given to participants on software’s like Audacity, My Movie Maker and Adobe CS3 professionals. Recording and Editing Visuals, Sound clippings, preparing Animations were part of the session. Adding to this, the participants were given task to prepare a course using OER and develop strategy for marketing it and giving the course a full shape. On the Last day of the training Dr. Pankaj Khare took sessions on Wiki Ethics, Monitoring activities, reverting edit and converting documents. Participants worked on refining collaborative projects and choosing a creative common open license to declare their content as OER.
Prof. SriKrishna Deva Rao, Vice-Chancellor of National Law University, Cuttack graced the Valedictory as the Chief Guest. In his concluding remarks he said, ODL is a new revolution in educational arena in Last three decades. We need to use the best tools and techniques that are available. Dr. Srikant Mohapatra, OSD, OSOU while concluding hoped that the training will help the participants to develop and use OER and OSOU will engage these professionals for creating of OER for the university in future. Dr. Abhilash Nayak, Regional Director, IGNOU presented the vote of thanks.
