Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, the in-charge and program officer, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre, New Delhi stressed on the importance of open educational resources, their preparation and production in the changing scenario of technological advancement and information explosion.
He was addressing the gathering of academicians on the occasion of the inauguration of a week-long workshop on ‘Use and Development of Open Educational Resources’ organised by the Faculty Development Centre, under Pandit Madan Mohan National Mission for Teachers and Teaching Scheme of MHRD, Government of India at Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University Srinagar (Garhwal) on Friday.
He, further, stated that there is a huge gap between traditional teaching and now- emerging on-line content and courses. “In view of this, an initiative with perfect planning needs to be initiated.
In this sphere, knowledge journey requires being interesting, enjoyable and suitable to wellness, happiness and good mental health,” he said. The workshop is being attended by over fifty higher education teachers from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand.
Prof Indoo Pandey Khanduri, the director, Faculty Development Centre, explained the aims of the workshop-motivation for opting online courses, preparation of content and three media production of these programmes. She, further, said that in the present scenario, online courses are important for providing autonomy to the students to opt for the desired courses without any obstruction aside from addressing the acute shortage of the teaching faculty and making the students and the teachers techno-friendly.
Prof R P Bhatt, the dean, School of Life Sciences while presiding over the session, said that Open Educational Resources are the need of the hour for educational and skill development of the youth in the state like Uttarakhand beset with geographical limitations.