UGC proposes changes to help students of online and distance programmes accumulate academic credit. Source: Pixabay
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released draft guidelines for amendments to the UGC (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulation 2020. The proposed amendments are set to promote open and distance learning (ODL) through reputable higher educational institutions across India.
One of the key amendments of UGC (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulation 2020 gives institutions complete ownership and responsibility of offering the ODL and online programmes. The institutions would be able to take 40% of the course content from external sources. These external sources include Open Educational Resources (OER), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and other similar modes. Students would be able to use the external content to accumulate academic credits.
Along with 35 other proposed changes, the amendment will allow institutions to source course content externally.
Institutions would have to develop at least 60% of the course content for ODL and online programmes in-house. Collaboration with education technology companies to develop the in-house course content is also encouraged by the guidelines. Additionally, the draft states that the EdTech companies would not have the right to advertise the content they develop for the institutions. Complete ownership of the intellectual property rights for the developed content would belong to the institutions.
While the draft guideline permits institutions to source up to 40% of the course content externally, they are not obligated to do so. The institutions will still have the freedom to develop 100% of their content for ODL and online programmes in-house with or without the collaboration with EdTechs. These guidelines would apply to autonomous higher educational institutions which meet the criteria required to offer the online and ODL courses to students.
The option to source content externally has been provided so that students do not have to put in efforts to locate good online programmes to pursue and add to their credit bank. The institutes themselves will do the research and provide options to students.
The amendments are in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s target of encouraging top institutions to provide high-quality online and distance programmes.
Suggestions and feedback on the draft guideline are welcomed by the UGC till March 15.