Distance Education and e-Learning have become important buzzwords in our country today. Many students have found this mode suitable for fulfilling their dreams of personal development, employment and social recognition. In the field of Distance Education, e-Learning has created a virtual environment for learning which has made education even more easier and effective. The Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL), Gauhati University, launches its e-portal on November 13, 2009 marking its entry into the world of e-Learning. Formerly known as Post Graduate Correspondence School (PGCS), IDOL, GU has successfully completed ten years in May, 2008 and has also succeeded in translating its mission of spreading and providing quality higher education to all into a reality. IDOL, which has been the pioneering institution offering the advantages of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in Assam and its sister states, has now created history by taking another important step towards modernizing the processes of teaching-learning by launching its e-Learning Portal. This portal, thoughtfully named ‘Bodhidroom’, will prolifically provide an “Integrated Knowledge Environment”. Now, the distance learners of Gauhati University will be able to make use of internet facilities from anywhere in the world and enhance their learning with the help of www.bodhidroom.idolgu.org-the first educational e-portal in the entire North-East of India.
While formally launching the portal on November 13, 2009 in the BKB auditorium, the honourable Vice Chancellor of Gauhati University, Prof. O. K. Medhi said that this e-Learning portal will benefit the entire students’ community to a considerable extent. The new portal will become a key tool for the delivery and development of educational content to be used by teachers, experts and students not only in the North-East but also in the other parts of the world. His emphasis on the amalgamation of both distance and regular mode through creative and productive use of the portal bears tremendous significance as it is clearly understood that the real success of such efforts lie in its use for the optimum development of society and its people. In the same occasion, the director of IDOL, GU Dr. Kandarpa Das publicly thanked the faculty members because of whose bold initiatives this e-portal could be developed. This portal is actually the result of almost two years of hard work of two of the most dedicated and committed faculty members of the institute namely Mr. Ridip Dev Choudhury and Mr. Khurshid Alam Borbora who did not take any help from commercial developers and completed the portal just at the right time. The core content of the portal, as we are told, will presently cover areas of humanities and social sciences. But soon, in near future, other subjects/areas will also be brought under its purview. IDOL is now having twelve MA/MSC/MCom/MCJ programmes, eight PG Diploma programmes and one Certificate programme. Almost all information relating to these programmes will shortly be available through this e-portal. However, the authority also has plans to conduct online examination in certain subjects and to allow students to upload their assignments for reviewing through the portal in near future. It is worth-mentioning that IDOL has already started sms alerts and very shortly, it is going to implement short-code sms services and online telephone counseling facilities for its students which will further strengthen its position as a leading ICT-based institute in the North-Eastern part of India.
Conceptually a portal is nothing but a gateway through which we can access information, data and systems. An e-portal, uniquely adapted to individual needs, can be accessed by the users via intranet or internet. Thus, it can be used as an interface to provide relevant data from a central source, through secure and password-protected entry. Password-protection is highly necessary because the system can immediately identify its users and restrict unauthorized access to authorized areas. Hence, once registered, a user can both access and add information directly into the database, making it a powerful tool for data management and updating the database immediately and ensuring all information is current. The other benefits of the e-portal include—easy access from any internet connection, quick and easily available information, involvement of parents and peers in the educational processes, monitoring of self-progress, simple interface for easy data input, improvised communications between policy makers and other stakeholders and so on.
As we all can see, the growth and penetration of digital technologies in recent years have greatly influenced education and the educational practices in India. The proposed 11th five year plan suggests the allocation of more than 600 hundred crores of rupees specifically for integrating ICT in school education. The Indian Government also has plans to spend abundant resources on information and communications technologies (ICT) aimed at enhancing access and at improving educational quality in India through both the regular and the distance mode. As the Government increases its investments in ICTs for education, continued efforts, like we find in IDOL, must be made to ensure that investments in technology positively impact all aspects of education, including intangible aspects such as character development, inculcating values, psychological and cognitive developments, development of social skills, and development of critical and creative faculty. Consequently, many educational technologies have emerged to support learning and improve instructional quality. In the present context, technology is not only a means to assist traditional education and its delivery, but it has also become an end itself. Of late, India has seen tremendous growth in the use of technology to enhance learning through distance mode. It is in this context that the launching of ‘Bodhidroom’ is exemplary and can be seen as a groundbreaking step to support and uplift the educational scenario of the relatively backward North-East of India. The launching of this new educational portal will undoubtedly share insights of Assam’s looming large as a ‘knowledge society’ in a technology driven world.
Toady, while we are discussing the need for a very strong and self-sufficient support system in ODL, the e-portal, with all its resources, provides a number of benefits to the users. It has a number of important features like—independent discussion forum and news forum for every programme, online interaction facility with fellow students, faculty members and even officials which also includes the Director of IDOL, G.U. The idea however is to make room for a collaborative learning environment through interaction. But what is so exciting is the facility that when a student logs into “Bodhidroom”, after enrolling himself/herself to a programme, he/she will see the names of the virtual class teachers appearing on the screen. Then they can directly send offline messages to these teachers. When the teacher logs in, he/she will receive an alert of incoming messages and subsequently send reply to the message. The other features that “Bodhidroom” incorporates are—online study material which can both be studied on-line and download if necessary, old examination question papers so that students can keep themselves aware of the patterns of questions that are asked in the term-end examination, recent activity reports of the members/users, online self-assessment test where a student can test himself/herself on a particular topic or issue. Besides all these, it will have provision for uploading special writings of teachers/experts and a facility where a student can view the list of online participants on a particular topic so that they all can communicate with each other through chatting. As we are told, the teachers can also schedule, deliver and upload live, online classes on course topics which the students can view at any time after logging into “Bodhidroom”.
The e-portal has finally enabled IDOL, GU to keep pace with the worldwide development of ODL and to sustain itself in a competitive world. By providing more effective and efficient access to information, this e-portal facilitates improved collaboration and communication, integration of information and applications, increased document flow and workflow, smarter decision-making and increased productivity. It can even show us the ways in which we can reduce information overload and improve the quality of information while reducing the problems of quality control. Moreover, personalization features of this e-portal will enable its users to select the information sources in which he or she is most interested. But the real challenge of the e-portal is to present only those information the users mostly require at certain pint of time. Teachers from all over Assam can contribute to the learning environment by using the discussion forum and offering their valuable insights on specific issues. Even those staying outside Assam and the Assamese NRIs can also extend their helping hand by providing necessary advice and suggestions so that more functions and innovations can be added to the portal. But the most important point is to create an awareness on the efficacy and functionality of the portal. With a view to enhance ‘learning by participating’ teachers, students and all who are associated with education, should contribute meaningfully to the world of knowledge through this e-portal.
Email: prasenjitgu@gmail.com
While formally launching the portal on November 13, 2009 in the BKB auditorium, the honourable Vice Chancellor of Gauhati University, Prof. O. K. Medhi said that this e-Learning portal will benefit the entire students’ community to a considerable extent. The new portal will become a key tool for the delivery and development of educational content to be used by teachers, experts and students not only in the North-East but also in the other parts of the world. His emphasis on the amalgamation of both distance and regular mode through creative and productive use of the portal bears tremendous significance as it is clearly understood that the real success of such efforts lie in its use for the optimum development of society and its people. In the same occasion, the director of IDOL, GU Dr. Kandarpa Das publicly thanked the faculty members because of whose bold initiatives this e-portal could be developed. This portal is actually the result of almost two years of hard work of two of the most dedicated and committed faculty members of the institute namely Mr. Ridip Dev Choudhury and Mr. Khurshid Alam Borbora who did not take any help from commercial developers and completed the portal just at the right time. The core content of the portal, as we are told, will presently cover areas of humanities and social sciences. But soon, in near future, other subjects/areas will also be brought under its purview. IDOL is now having twelve MA/MSC/MCom/MCJ programmes, eight PG Diploma programmes and one Certificate programme. Almost all information relating to these programmes will shortly be available through this e-portal. However, the authority also has plans to conduct online examination in certain subjects and to allow students to upload their assignments for reviewing through the portal in near future. It is worth-mentioning that IDOL has already started sms alerts and very shortly, it is going to implement short-code sms services and online telephone counseling facilities for its students which will further strengthen its position as a leading ICT-based institute in the North-Eastern part of India.
Conceptually a portal is nothing but a gateway through which we can access information, data and systems. An e-portal, uniquely adapted to individual needs, can be accessed by the users via intranet or internet. Thus, it can be used as an interface to provide relevant data from a central source, through secure and password-protected entry. Password-protection is highly necessary because the system can immediately identify its users and restrict unauthorized access to authorized areas. Hence, once registered, a user can both access and add information directly into the database, making it a powerful tool for data management and updating the database immediately and ensuring all information is current. The other benefits of the e-portal include—easy access from any internet connection, quick and easily available information, involvement of parents and peers in the educational processes, monitoring of self-progress, simple interface for easy data input, improvised communications between policy makers and other stakeholders and so on.
As we all can see, the growth and penetration of digital technologies in recent years have greatly influenced education and the educational practices in India. The proposed 11th five year plan suggests the allocation of more than 600 hundred crores of rupees specifically for integrating ICT in school education. The Indian Government also has plans to spend abundant resources on information and communications technologies (ICT) aimed at enhancing access and at improving educational quality in India through both the regular and the distance mode. As the Government increases its investments in ICTs for education, continued efforts, like we find in IDOL, must be made to ensure that investments in technology positively impact all aspects of education, including intangible aspects such as character development, inculcating values, psychological and cognitive developments, development of social skills, and development of critical and creative faculty. Consequently, many educational technologies have emerged to support learning and improve instructional quality. In the present context, technology is not only a means to assist traditional education and its delivery, but it has also become an end itself. Of late, India has seen tremendous growth in the use of technology to enhance learning through distance mode. It is in this context that the launching of ‘Bodhidroom’ is exemplary and can be seen as a groundbreaking step to support and uplift the educational scenario of the relatively backward North-East of India. The launching of this new educational portal will undoubtedly share insights of Assam’s looming large as a ‘knowledge society’ in a technology driven world.
Toady, while we are discussing the need for a very strong and self-sufficient support system in ODL, the e-portal, with all its resources, provides a number of benefits to the users. It has a number of important features like—independent discussion forum and news forum for every programme, online interaction facility with fellow students, faculty members and even officials which also includes the Director of IDOL, G.U. The idea however is to make room for a collaborative learning environment through interaction. But what is so exciting is the facility that when a student logs into “Bodhidroom”, after enrolling himself/herself to a programme, he/she will see the names of the virtual class teachers appearing on the screen. Then they can directly send offline messages to these teachers. When the teacher logs in, he/she will receive an alert of incoming messages and subsequently send reply to the message. The other features that “Bodhidroom” incorporates are—online study material which can both be studied on-line and download if necessary, old examination question papers so that students can keep themselves aware of the patterns of questions that are asked in the term-end examination, recent activity reports of the members/users, online self-assessment test where a student can test himself/herself on a particular topic or issue. Besides all these, it will have provision for uploading special writings of teachers/experts and a facility where a student can view the list of online participants on a particular topic so that they all can communicate with each other through chatting. As we are told, the teachers can also schedule, deliver and upload live, online classes on course topics which the students can view at any time after logging into “Bodhidroom”.
The e-portal has finally enabled IDOL, GU to keep pace with the worldwide development of ODL and to sustain itself in a competitive world. By providing more effective and efficient access to information, this e-portal facilitates improved collaboration and communication, integration of information and applications, increased document flow and workflow, smarter decision-making and increased productivity. It can even show us the ways in which we can reduce information overload and improve the quality of information while reducing the problems of quality control. Moreover, personalization features of this e-portal will enable its users to select the information sources in which he or she is most interested. But the real challenge of the e-portal is to present only those information the users mostly require at certain pint of time. Teachers from all over Assam can contribute to the learning environment by using the discussion forum and offering their valuable insights on specific issues. Even those staying outside Assam and the Assamese NRIs can also extend their helping hand by providing necessary advice and suggestions so that more functions and innovations can be added to the portal. But the most important point is to create an awareness on the efficacy and functionality of the portal. With a view to enhance ‘learning by participating’ teachers, students and all who are associated with education, should contribute meaningfully to the world of knowledge through this e-portal.
Email: prasenjitgu@gmail.com
