Workshop paves future path for University of Delhi’s School of Open Learning

The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), the regional centre of the Commonwealth of Learning, recently hosted a two-day workshop on ‘Envisioning the Future’ for the Department of Distance and Continuing Education (DDCE), School of Open Learning (SOL), University of Delhi, India.

SOL is a cornerstone of India’s higher education landscape, offering Open and Distance Learning (ODL) opportunities to learners who could not pursue education through the conventional mode for assorted reasons. SOL partnered with CEMCA to gain the technical expertise needed to maximise the potential of technology-enabled learning and innovative teaching methods.

The workshop aimed to empower SOL’s teaching and non-teaching staff to recognise and uphold shared values and purposes. It sought to assist staff in creating a strategic plan for achieving short-, medium- and long-term goals. The key outcomes of the workshop were the development of vision statements for SOL and the creation of a draft vision document.

Over 50 participants, including senior officials from SOL and CEMCA, visioning experts, and strategy analysts, attended the workshop. Dr B. Shadrach, Director of CEMCA, explained the context and outlined the purpose and potential impact of the workshop in shaping SOL’s future. Dr Payal Mago, Director of DDCE at SOL, thanked CEMCA for its support in organising the impactful workshop.

In closing, Dr Shadrach commented, “This collaborative workshop effort led to significant progress in defining SOL’s vision, mission, values and purpose for the future. Although the final vision statement is still being refined based on valuable feedback from the workshop, participants were enthusiastic about the promising direction ahead.”