Distance education courses
India has a large number of Distance education programmes in Undergraduate and Post-Graduate levels. The trend was started originally by private institutions that offered distance education at certificate and diploma level.
By 1985 many of the larger Universities recognized the need and potential of distance education in a poor and populous country like India and launched degree level programs through distance education. The trend caught up, and today many prestigious Indian Universities offer
distance programs. Indira Gandhi National University, one of the largest in student enrollment, has only distance programs with numerous local centers that offer supplementary contact classes. Since its establishment in 1985, IGNOU has contributed significantly to the development of higher education in the country through the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode. The programmes are offered by the University at the following levels: doctorate; masters and bachelors degree programmes; post-graduate and under-graduate diplomas; and certificates.
The education is disseminated in conventional, as well as emerging inter-disciplinary areas, such as consumer protection, disaster management, environment, human rights, tourism, women empowerment and child development, participatory forest management, participatory planning, resettlement and rehabilitation, teacher education, food and nutrition, continuing medical and health education, HIV/AIDs, laboratory techniques, and online learning.
One of the biggest contributions of the University has been making available to long-distance learners, courses which were hitherto exclusively limited to Face-to-Face classroom transactions. These include programmes in physical and natural sciences, nursing, health, engineering and technology, computers, library and information sciences and BEd degree, among others.
