Tuesday, June 18, 2019

SOL eyeing students from outside Delhi

The online courses introduced by DU's School of Open Learning in 2019-20 will enable outstation students to enrol in various programmes
Delhi University's School of Open Learning (SOL) is aiming at increasing the gross enrolment ratio (GER) from 24% to 30%. For this, the university is planning to increase its reach to students outside Delhi through online courses. Currently, most students enrolling in SOL are from Delhi, but the authorities want to enrol students from the rest of India, particularly from tier II and tier III cities.


"A large number of students enrolling in courses offered by SOL come from Delhi. It created a geographical barrier for students belonging to other parts of the country. We are focussing on enrolling students from all across the nation and world by offering courses in online mode," says CS Dubey, director, SOL. The programmes are designed to provide academic support to students, working professionals, and people who want to restart their education after a break. The School is also focussing on digitising the examinations and shifting the whole process to computer-based tests.


The School will offer five courses in online mode, namely, BA programme, BCom, BCom (Hons), BA (Hons) Political Science and BA (Hons) English. These programmes are currently offered in regular and distance learning mode, wherein a student has to attend a few classes conducted on weekends and also have to appear for the exams held in Delhi. This restricts students from outside Delhi to join the courses. The decision to offer programmes in online mode was taken up by the varsity after a gazette notification issued in July 2018 by the University Grants Commission (UGC).


"We have followed SWAYAM's four-quadrant approach where students will get access to e-tutorial, e-content, assessments and discussion forums. The online courses will allow students and teachers to engage in other activities for enhanced experiential learning," he adds.


Apart from creating an online dashboard for every student to access the study material, the process of making e-textbooks available for the students is also underway. "We were awaiting copyright approvals in the cases of some textbooks. Now, the students will be able to access the e-textbooks from anywhere as per their convenience," adds Dubey.

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