Education
constitutes the backbone of a Country as it produces the human force which
plays the most determining role in the advancement of a Nation and also in the
progress of a civilization. No Nation could establish its dominance in world
history by virtue of its sheer military might or economic affluence. The march
of a Nation towards glory is carried forward by the competent human resource
that a strong education system prepares. Education is one that provides the
thrust in getting ahead and building up a powerful democratic society.
Education system in India has a long history starting from Gurukul System to
the ancient urban centers of learning like Takshashila, Nalanda and
Vikramshila. After the second world war, world has been seen an enormous expansion
in higher education. India was not exception from this. The higher education
system of India has witnessed many fold increase in its institutional capacity
since independence. Now India is the third largest higher education system in
the world.
Open Educational Resources (OER) movement began in the 21st
century for furthering the culture of open knowledge by free dissemination
/sharing of knowledge. It is basically rooted in the philosophy of Open and
Distance Learning (ODL) with the objective of expanding the access to knowledge
to all types of learners pursuing non formal, formal and informal education.
The using OER implies support for an open curriculum where learners have the
flexibility to select units/courses to suit their personal needs. It is the
responsibility of the Distance Education Council (DEC) to promote quality and
standards in the ODL system and encourage ODL institutions to develop and offer
quality programmers. Besides this, the DEC also encourages sharing of academic
resources and thereby reducing duplication of efforts and enhancing the
knowledge and other skill requirement of the users at large and also ensuring
their wider accessibility.
The Distance Education Council can take up this initiative
for developing Web Based Multimedia, Interactive e-Content repositories by
pooling all the programmers developed by Distance Education Institutions (DEIs)
attached to conventional Universities. The Directorate of Distance and
Continuing Education of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University is offering various
programmes with the mission of (i) to provide quality education for the rural
and the unreached, (ii) to attain excellence in teaching, research and
extension activities (iii) to imbibe, inculcate and promote human values so as
to create a 'culture of lawfulness'. Based on the mission, the institute will
fulfill the academic needs of the poor and weaker sections of the society. I
appreciate and wish the students of the programmers of the Directorate of
Distance and Continuing Education, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University,
Tirunelveli.
