Training Program on OER and ODL organized by OSOU and CEMCA

Bhubaneswar:To develop materials in Open Education Resources (OER) and Understanding details of Open Distance Learning (ODL) a three day training 2016 program from 11^th Feb 2016 to 13^th Feb was organized by Odisha State Open University (OSOU) in collaboration with CEMCA (Commonwealth Media Education Centre for Asia), New Delhi at IGNOU Regional Centre, Bhubaneswar in which faculties from different streams participated.

 

The Inaugural session was attended by Prof. Dr. Ashok Kumar Das, Vice-Chancellor, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar as chief guest. Prof Das discussed how to develop  the e-content and said, this is the platform to utilize all the resource person to develop e-content. He appreciated the development of OER because it will be useful in replacing the conventional system. Dr. SrikantMohapatra, Officer on Special duty (OSD), OSOU elaborated the requirement of OER workshop and how it is going to benefit the participants.

 

Dr. PankajKhare from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Dr. ManasRanjanPanigrahi, Program Officer, CEMCA briefed the participants about the program and it’s objectives.

After the Ice breaking session DrManasPanigrahi (the resource person) presented upon the topic “Understanding Open Educational Resources! “What and Why “.He continued the next session with Understanding Open License [ Creative common licenses ! What , types, where to search for Open Licensed Materials ].He came up with the concept of not reinventing the wheel but matter collected from more than two sources to prepare a new matter. Dr. Panigrahi discussed what is ODL(OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING ) and why it is far better than the conventional learning system. Discussion about learning object was highlighted and how learning objects can be combined to form a new study material.

 

Dr. Khare in his session briefed the participants about What are the searching tools apart of Google, What is content and what is content management system, How do you organize the content.

After the above session the participants were divided into five groups based on different skills and each group were instructed to choose a topic for OER content generation. One of the members from each group presented and defended the topic that has been chosen for content generation.

 

On the Second day of the Workshop participants were taught on Creating OERs in OER Common Platform. Dr. ManasPanigrahi with detailed examples explained tit bits of the same to participants.

Then Dr. PankajKhare in his session focused on creating wiki accounts, Wiki editing skills, Creating New page etc. Participants created their accounts in Wiki Educator and OER Commons as well. Hand on training were given to participants on software’s like Audacity, My Movie Maker and Adobe CS3 professionals. Recording and Editing Visuals, Sound clippings, preparing Animations were part of the session. Adding to this participants were given task to prepare a subject and develop strategy for marketing it and giving the course a full shape.

On the Last day of the workshop Dr. PankajKhare took a session on Wiki Ethics, Monitoring activities, reverting an edit and converting Documents. Then Participants worked on refining collaborative projects and choosing open license.

 

In the Valedictory session Prof. Dr. SriKrishna Deva Rao, Vice-Chancellor of National Law University graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. He said, ODL is a new revolution in educational arena in Last three decades. We need tools and technologies for teaching at the present context. But after everything, in the whole system the teacher exists. He said, we need to use the best tools and techniques that are available. Dr. SrikantMohapatra, OSD, OSOU while concluding hoped that the training will help the participants to work in OER in future.

Dr. AbhilashNayak, Regional Diretor, IGNOU presented the vote of thanks.