Delhi University (DU) will consider a proposal to set up a center to provide work-oriented courses for students enrolled in the Open Learning campus. The discussion on the establishment of the center will be addressed at the academic council meeting on March 22.
Payal Mago, director, Campus of Open Learning, said: This center will house a media center and offer online and experiential learning courses to students. To increase the employability of School of Open Learning (SOL) students, these will be skills-based courses tailored to their needs. For example, she said many of the SOL students were graduating while also working on their family business, and the center could offer a course on how to run a family business and increase profitability. Students will also learn basic computer skills and some languages that will help them, she said.
To begin with, the center offers three diploma courses: Journalism (English and Hindi), Postgraduate Diploma in Library Automation Services and Mushroom Growing. There will be a mix of online and offline classes, either 50-50 percent or 60-40 percent, she said.
Students get hands-on learning. For example, in journalism they will have to do internships and in mushroom cultivation they will learn how to grow five types of mushrooms, and for that we identified five nodes, Mago said. The Journalism course is conducted in conjunction with the Hansraj College of the University of Delhi, while experts are appointed for the other courses.
There will be nominal fees charged on the courses, Mago said, and they will be run on a non-profit basis, she said. The courses will be in accordance with the National Education Policy, according to the agenda of the meeting.
In a related development, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association said its members will boycott classes Tuesday to demand one-time regulations for the inclusion of ad hoc and temporary teachers. It said they will organize a protest outside the location of the academic council meeting.
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