A mobile application- ‘IGNOU e-Content’ was designed and developed and made available on Google Play store for the IGNOU learners. Through this app the IGNOU learners can access their programme and course material through their Smartphone anywhere anytime. It is a digital initiative to take the education to the doorsteps of the learners. Study materials available as on date 28^th December 2020 is: No. of programmes: 366, No. of courses: 3681, No. of blocks: 15,137, Usersaccess: 27,55,397(Since access log implemented on 13-06-2020)and Installation of App: 10,22,737(up to December 28, 2020).

 

Center for Online Education (COE) and Public Information Unit (PIU) collaborated during the lock-down to provide students’ academic support as well as other support services via Facebook Live Sessions through IGNOU's Facebook Page. More than 350 sessions have been conducted where IGNOU faculty members have taken course specific sessions to provide academic support. 

Another initiative by PIU, IGNOU "Hello IGNOU" which responded to students queries real-time by IGNOU experts was also well received.

 

 The special “Hello IGNOU” sessions conducted to take the queries of the learners and clear their doubts and worries by the university have got tremendous feedback. So far 4 sessions have been held by PIU with the help of Regional Services Division (RSD) IGNOU. The response has been overwhelming in terms of Facebook Reactions, Comments from the learners of each of these sessions.

 

The lecture series conducted via Facebook is indexed and uploaded onIGNOU FB Live Recorded VideosChannel for the learners.

 

Facebook page has been there since 2018 and has more than 42K Likes and around 50 K followers.

 

The Podcast is based on the motto: ‘freedom 2 learn’ and is to provide the learners and other stakeholders of the University an opportunity to update them on the advancements in the field of management. It will also provide digital resources by which they can get the latest insights on various inter –disciplinary and contemporary topics.

The technical support is being exclusively provided by COE, IGNOU. At present nine episodes of the series are available on the following link:

 

The theme of the present series is ‘Future of Work: Navigating a Sustainable New World’. In this series professionals from different fields will speak under the section ‘Experts Speak’. They will speak on issues ranging from Navigating the new digital world business ecosystem, global talent market, reorganization of social and organizational cultures, technology change and work force, reshaping future work through remote working, effect of automation on the world economy, coping strategies for sustainable work etc. This series will give you a whole new experience and will serve as an add on resource in your learning process.

Visitor analytics as on date 28^th December 2020 is:  Users: 92,247and Pageviews: 1,39,012

 

GYANDHARA
Gyandhara is an internet audio counselling service offered by IGNOU. Students can listen to the live discussions by the teachers and experts on the topic of the day and interact with them through telephone. This service is hosted and maintained by COE.

 

WEBCASTING of GYANDARSHAN
A 24x7 web based TV channel devoted to educational and developmental needs of the society. This service is hosted and maintained by COE.

WEBCASTING OF IMPORTANT EVENTS AT HEAD-QUARTERS is coordinated by COE. Some of the major events web-casted by COE are Convocation of IGNOU, Bharat Bodh, International Yoga Day, etc. The live webcasted videos are uploaded on the IGNOU YouTube section of eGyankosh digital repository (on request).

25^th Prof. G Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture was organized through Virtual Mode on 2^nd July , 2020. The chief guest of the event was former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University Prof. V R Mehta and the distinguished guest was Vice-Chancellor of YCMOU, Nasik, Prof. E.Vayunandan.

 

WEB-CONFERENCING 

Web-conferencing is very useful to communicate synchronously in Open Universities. It is coordinated by COE. In IGNOU it is being effectively used to communicate between

• IGNOU head quarter to communicate with Regional Centers across India 
• Schools to communicate with academic counselors
• Schools to communicate with Regional Centers.

 

The platform used for web-conferencing, earlier, was Adobe Connect and the URL is http://classroom.ignouonline.ac.in. But at present both ZOOM and Microsoft Teams are being used for web conferencing. During the pandemic times, online counselling was also being conducted on these platforms. 

Discussion Forums
Interactivity in ODL programmes can be provided through web support. Web support through Discussion Forums for two programmes of School of Gender and Development Studies: MAWGS Forum and PGDWGS Forum is being facilitated by COE. The activities done on these Forum are:

• Upload Study Material (PDF, Audio, Video)
• Upload Assignments
• Announcements
• General Queries and Exam
• Interaction with Students

URL for MAWGS Forum:http://wgforum.ignouonline.ac.in/wgforum/mawgsforum/index.php
URL for PGDWGS Forum: http://wgforum.ignouonline.ac.in/wgforum/pgdwgsforum/index.php

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS)

LMS- Moodle is being used by discipline of Library and Information Science, School of Social Sciences for 
• Uploading Study Material: eLearning Contents
• Event announcements 
• Exam
• Project Work
• Assignment
• Assessments
• Student Interaction
The URL is: http://phdlive.ignouonline.ac.in/phdlive/

COE has installed, customized and deployed LMS (Moodle an Open-source application) for DOPT courses on COE Servers. Total number of 2 course (Relevance of Gandhi in the Contemporary World (RGCW) and LIFE, PHILOSOPHY AND LEGACY OF SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL(LPLSVP)) are being offered. The URL of the courses are:

·         RGCW:àhttp://rgcw.ignouonline.ac.in/

·         LPLSVP:àhttp://lplsp.ignouonline.ac.in/

OPEN JOURNAL SYSTEMS

COE is facilitating the Open Journal Systems (OJS) for the prestigious journal of IGNOU: Indian Journal of Open Learning (IJOL). OJS assists with every stage of the refereed publishing process, from submissions through to online publication and indexing. OJS seeks to improve both the scholarly and public quality of refereed research.Visitor analytics as on date 28^th December 2020 is:  Users: 1,323and Pageviews: 11,981(Since migrated/restored to new platform on 20th June 2020)

 

The following facilities are being provided through OJS:

o Editors configure requirements, sections, review process, etc.
o Online submission and management of all content (Journal’s Articles).
o Subscription module with delayed open access options.
o Comprehensive indexing of content part of global system.
o Reading Tools for content, based on field and editors’ choice.
o Email notification and commenting ability for readers.
o Complete context-sensitive online Help support.

The URL for the OJS is: http://journal.ignouonline.ac.in/ojs/index.php/IJOL

 

A step towards process automation, IGNOU decided to make the examination process online. In the first phase COE has been entrusted the responsibility to develop the application for Online Question Paper Delivery System (OQPDS) for practical examination of July 2019. COE has designed; developed and implemented this application in collaboration with SED.

OQPDS is the automation of Question Paper Bank, Printing, and Delivery of Question Papers (QP) at the IGNOU exam centers. SED, School, RCs and Exam Center are the main stake holders of this Application. The management (VCO, Registrar SED) has access to the MIS dashboard to monitor all activities during practical examination. This application includes modules on uploading of password protected question paper, scheduling and automated delivery system through systematic secured processes. 

During practical examination of July 2019 total exam centers were successfully used this application for 152 courses. During term end examination of Dec 2019 total exam centers had  successfully used this application for 353 courses. During Term end examination of June2020 total 763exam centers were successfully used this application for 834courses. In future the application will be enhanced with more features to make the practical examination completely online. IGNOU plans to implement this application for theory-based exams also.

OPENMAT (MBA) and B. Ed ENTRANCE TEST THROUGH NATIONAL TESTING AGENCY (NTA)

IGNOU decided to conduct the OPENMAT (MBA) and B. Ed. entrance examination online in July 2019. COE was given the responsibility to coordinate this activity with schools and SED. Responsibility to organize the online test was given to National Testing Agency (NTA). 
NTA has been established as a premier, specialist, autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions.
NTA designed and developed the interface as per IGNOU requirements for OPENMAT (MBA) and B. Ed. entrance examination. The application was launched successfully and total 8646 (OPENMAT) and 22834 (B. Ed) candidates paid the fee for entrance examination. This number is higher than the previous year (July 2018) entrance tests.

 

Workshop on Design and Development of Online Programmes /SWAYAM Courses

A five days’ workshop was organized by COE on ‘Design and Development of Online Programmes /SWAYAM Courses’ during 10th to 14th February, 2020 at Conference Hall of Dr. Radhakrishnan Block, IGNOU. Three Online Programs were being offered by IGNOU from January 2020 session as per the UGC approval and IGNOU notification. In the January,2020 session, IGNOU was running 22 courses on SWAYAM 2.0. The programme/course coordinators needed training to convert the ODL programmes in online mode and manage their courses on SWAYAM 2.0 platform. Thus, a five days’ workshop for programme /course coordinators was organized. The main objectives of the workshop were to develop online programmes from present ODL form; to understand the ecosystem of SWAYAM 2.0 platform; to understand LMS-MOODLE to enrich the ODL/online programme delivery. Twenty-two faculty members from IGNOU (programme /course coordinators of IGNOU) actively attended the workshop.

 

COE is developing IGNOU Website in Hindi using open source technology (Java/J2EE, ORM, MySQL, Thymeleaf, Bootstrap 4, CSS3 with HTML 5) with latest architecture. Content Management feature are also included for changing page contents on real time. User Management will also use to give access to school/division/centers, etc. for editing page contents. The content in Hindi is being facilitated by SOTST.

 

COE Team has migrated Library Management System from LibSys to Koha (Open-source Library management system). Installed koha application is customized as per IGNOU library requirementwhich also include customized UI Design along with that also migrated all the data (biblio, patron, check-in/check-out, serial, etc.) from LibSys to Koha.

 

Total no. of Biblio is1,95,380with no. of holdings are1,95,690.The Koha application server is installed and deployed on COE server with SSL enabled domain/URL. User visitor analytics as on date 28^thDecember 2020 is:

·         Library-OPAC :àUsers: 16786and Pageviews: 63462

·         Library-Staff   :àUsers: 406 and Pageviews: 225634