Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE) -IGNOU

Introduction 

Division of Distance Education in 1986, soon after the establishment of IGNOU in 1985 to cater to the training needs of various functionaries of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

Later, based on the proposal by Commonwealth of Learning (COL), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, the Division of Distance Education of IGNOU was upgraded into the Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE) in 1993 to set up a training and research institute for distance education in the South Asian Region.

STRIDE has been conducting training and research activities for IGNOU, State Open Universities (SOUs) and distance education institutes in India as well as serving the distance education training, research and capacity building needs of the Asian, African and the Caribbean countries (around 45 countries). More than 500 major training programmes have been conducted by STRIDE since 1985. Also around 40 major research projects have been completed by STRIDE.

Electronic Media Production Centre (EMPC) of IGNOU

The Electronic Media Production Centre (EMPC) has emerged as a major hub for the use of electronic media in distance education. Housed in the Sanchar Kendra Complex at Maidan Garhi campus in New Delhi, it serves as a Nodal Resource Centre in production, dissemination and transmission of educational software in the country, utilising a wide range of communication media. The facilities are being shared with various educational and training institutions, State Open Universities, Central and State Govt Ministries/Departments, NGOs, corporate bodies and other sectors.

The major activities undertaken by the Centre are the production and dissemination of educational audio-video programmes. Curriculum-based audio-video programmes are developed to supplement the courseware of IGNOU by a trained and skilled in-house staff, using state-of-the-art facilities. In addition, freelance filmmakers have been empanelled and suitable programmes are also sourced from agencies such as UKOU, Transtel DW TV and RCI, etc.

Both broadcast and non-broadcast modes of delivery are adopted. The cassettes/CDs are sent to RCs/SCs and are also sold at reasonable rates through the Marketing Unit of the EMPC.