Virtual Education in a Developing Nation (India): Experiences of IGNOU

Abstract

IGNOU came into existence in the year 1985 with a mandate to democratize higher education by a diversity of means using traditional and new technologies. The university has achieved many milestones in a short span of 15 years existence in terms of courses and programmes introduced, instructional technologies adopted and student services offered. Above all it has enrolled a large number of students achieving a 'mega open university' status. Since 1998 IGNOU has introduced virtual education, with a few academic programmes pertaining to Computer and Information Sciences in two phases. In order to assess the 'Virtual Campus' initiative a study was initiated by the researchers in the year 2000. The findings of which have been discussed in this paper. Also background information about the trends in the development and delivery of academic programmes through Virtual Campus at IGNOU have been explained.