activities of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), ICT is being used as a major strategy towards reaching the unreached and management of NIOS.
14.1 Infrastructure and Areas of
Applications
The NIOS has come a long way in the forefront of use of ICT since it made a small beginning with very limited resources to well - equipped computer centre with various types of computers, printers and networking of latest configuration. The NIOS Online is a major ICT initiative in the direction of e- Governance. Today in the arena of Web World, NIOS is playing a significant role by providing all the information through Internet as well most of the Services are online. For the NIOS Online applications there are three web servers and one mail servers installed and maintained at the CDAC- NOIDA.
14.2 Student Information System
Student Information System is a complete package developed inhouse to computerize all the process from Registration to issue of Certificate.
Admission 2010-11: Online Admission
During the year, the online admission was expanded further at large scale. Technical infrastructure were deployed for 100% online admission. The necessary modifications were made in the online application and database to handle the 100% online admission. The online admission were done by the Facilitation Centres identified by the Regional Centres of NIOS.
Total of 4,58,055 learners were admitted in different streams of online admission which is about 9% increase from the last year’s admission.
Examinations
Pre-examination Activities (April 2010 and October 2010 Examination)
During the year, the pre-exam processing in respect of data of about 690 thousand students was done both in the academic and vocational streams as against
677 thousands during last year. The work includes
data-entry of examination lists and examination forms, processing of online examination data, processing of examination data received from Regional Centre, their verification, updation and generation of various reports for use by the examination centres and Regional Centres for conduct of examinations.
Result Processing (April 2010 and October 2010 Examination)
During April 2010 And October 2010 Examination result of about 690 thousands students was processed. The photographs of all the successful candidates scanned at the time of admission were also printed on the certificates. In addition the result of On-Demand Examination was processed during the year. The ODE result is processed every month for the examinations held during last month. During the year result of 12,314 students was processed under ODE.
14.3 NIOS Online
Online Student Information System: For the
learners of NIOS and information regarding online admission, a Single Window Student Information system has been placed on the NIOS web site. In this section, information about each learner has been given. Study Centre (AI) wise information is also included. It includes information about Admission, Tutor Marked Assignments, Course Material, Syllabus and Sample Question Papers, Previous Year’s Question Papers and Performance of students.
Information and Communication
Technology (ICT)
Online Registration for Admission and Examination
NIOS introduced the facility of Online Admission during 2007-08 on pilot basis and extended to 100% online admission during the year. There are four
streams of Online admission catering to the
learners with different needs. The admissions in these Four Streams are mutually exclusive i.e., learner can only opt for one of them. The Four Streams of
Online Admission are
Online Admission Stream-1 for all learners : This
stream for Online Admission was opened for all the learners as per the laid down criteria for Secondary and Senior Secondary levels. This stream of online admission is open round the year with cut off dates for the public examination given as under:
• Ist Block : 1st March to 31st August
First public examination In April next year
• IInd block : 1st September to 28th February
First public examination October same year
Online Admissions Stream-2 for learners wanting to appear in October- November, 2010 Examinations : This stream for On-line admission
was open for all those learners who had appeared but could not clear the Public Examination with transfer of credit facility for upto two pass subjects or learners who were eligible to appear after completing their study period but could not appear. This stream of online admission gives an immediate opportunity to all unsuccessful learners to appear in NIOS examination.
Online Admission Stream-3 for learners wanting to appear through On-Demand Examination (ODE) at Secondary level : This stream for On-
line admission is open round the year for all those learners who had appeared but could not clear the Public Examination at Secondary level with transfer of credit facility for upto two pass subjects or learners
who were eligible to appear after completing their study period but could not appear and want to appear through On-Demand Examination.
On-line Admission Stream-4 for learners wanting to appear through On-Demand Examination (ODE) of NIOS at Sr. Secondary Level : This stream for On-line admission is open
round the year for all those learners who had appeared but could not clear the Public Examination at Sr. Secondary level with transfer of credit facility for upto two pass subjects or learners who were eligible to appear after completing their study period but could not appear and want to appear through On-Demand Examination.
The facility of Transfer of Credit up to two pass subjects is applicable to all the streams of online admission as per NIOS norms.
In addition to the above there is provision for Online admission for Vocational Courses. Payment Option:
There are three options for the payment of fees:
A. The fee can be deposited On-line through Credit Card (Master/Visa) Debit Card (visa only of select banks), or
B. Through Bank Draft of any nationalised bank only in favour of Secretary, NIOS payable at respective Regional Centres of NIOS in case of Stream-1 and payable at NOIDA only in case of Stream-2, 3 and 4.
C. The required admission fee can be deposited through Cash Challan system of any branch of India Bank, The Bank branch will collect fee and return two copies of bank challan after issuance of acknowledgement and putting a unique number on to the bank challan receipt. The above three options of payment is applicable for all online applications for admission, examinations, On-Demand Examination, Accreditation and any other online services.
14.4 e-Accreditation
NIOS has started Online system of submission, monitoring and grant of Accreditation for Academic/ Vocational /Open Basic Education Programme. The schools and institutions desirous of becoming NIOS study Centre are applying through online mode for grant of accreditation. In the e-Accreditation, there is provision to convert the offline application received into online so that the entire data for accreditation is available in electronic form and all the processes right from submission of application to award of accreditation are done through the online e-
Accreditation system.
14.5 Computer Training
Training-cum- Orientation Programme on Web designing with web Accessibility
A 2 day Training-cum-Orientation Programme on 17- 18th Apr 2010 on Web designing with web accessibility was organised in Collaboration with Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) at the NIOS
Computer Training Lab.
The Workshop was attended by the representative of Five State Open Schools and the officials from NIOS HQ. The Five State Open Schools were:
1. Andhra Pradesh State Open school 2. Haryana State Open school
3. J&K State Open School, 4. Assam state Open school 5. Rajasthan state Open School
The Resource Persons were from CIS - Prashant Verma, Manish Agrawal
Participants from NIOS, State Open Schools and NCOS along with the Resource persons from CIS
Process flow for “Learner” User for Online Admission
The Focus of the Training programme was on the Web Designing from the Accessibility point of view as large number of learners with special needs take up courses from Open Schools.
14.6 Technology Orientation Workshop
on Effective Communication and
Online Forums
A Technology Orientation workshop in collaboration with Intel for NIOS officers was organised on 13th October 2010 in the Computer Training Lab.The workshop included sessions on exploring the web for effective communication and the use of Web 2.0 technologies to collaborate and conduct online forums. A consensus was formed to create an online community as one common platform for all NIOS Learners to share and interact. A demo on using Skype Application was held keeping in mind the specific needs of NIOS officials. The NIOS online Community (http://rdonlinecommunity.blogspot.com) was also showcased and utility of such online communities in distance learning environment as that of NIOS was discussed.
14.7 On-Demand Examination System
with Online Registration facility
The On-Demand Examination at Secondary and Sr.
Secondary level is conducted at NIOS HQ at NOIDA and at the Regional Centre of NIOS. The registration of ODE is done through online and more and more seats are being made available to facilitate the learners.
During the year about 50000 learners at subject level and 12,314 learners at enrolment level appeared through On-Demand Examination.
Development of Question Bank for Sr.Secondary for On-Demand Examination
During the year, question bank was developed based on the new syllabus for Sr.Secondary course in English(302), Political Science(317), Accountancy (320) and Home Science(321). With these subjects, there were 11 subjects at Secondary level and 13 subjects at Sr.Secondary level in which ODE is being conducted at the NIOS HQ and at the Regional Centres. At present a learner can appear in the following subjects only through ODES
14.8 Learner Support Centre (LSC)
On the pattern of Call Centre, NIOS started Learner Support Centre to facilitate the learners. LSC is user friendly, simple, convenient and efficient system with a toll free number 1800 180 9393. The LSC is supported by IVRS.
The LSC is equipped with Learner Support Executives. There are large number of calls being received from the learners at LSC. On an average, the LSC addresses about 140-150 calls per day per Executive. In addition, the LSC also responds to
80-100 e-mails everyday. Learner Support Centre
Course Level Subjects with codes
Secondary Hindi (201), English (202), Sanskrit (209), Mathematics (211), Science and Technology (212*), Social Science (213), Economics (214), Business Studies (215), Home Science (216*), Word Processing (219*) and Psychology (222) .
Sr.Secondary Hindi (301), English (302), Mathematics (311), Physics (312*), Chemistry (313*), Biology (314*), Geography (316*), Political Science (317), Economics (318), Business Studies (319), Accountancy (320), Home Science (321*), Psychology (328).
Accr -> Accreditation, Voc -> Vocational, Res ->Result, Acad -> Academic, Exam -> Examination, Adm -> Admission, Icard -> Identity card, Books-> Course materials, Corr-> Corrections, NIOS -> About NIOS,Misc.-> Miscellaneous
14.9 Information under RTI Act
As per the RTI Act, the information has been placed under the Link RTI act on the Home page. The status report of all the RTI applications were made available on the website.
14.10 Mobile Technology (M-Support)
NIOS uses the mobile technology for dissemination of various information and support services to learners. It is also used for advocacy in a great way. These information are sent through the medium of SMS.
Promotional Activities through SMS: During the
year promotional advocacy of NIOS online admission was sent through SMS to more than 40 lakhs mobile subscribers across the country.
Automated Information through SMS : Under the
system a learner gets an automatic information through SMS regarding his/her online admission upon. – Submission of online admission
– Confirmation and allotment of enrolment and study centre.
Information about NIOS Activities through SMS : The NIOS learners are informed about the
various activities of NIOS through SMS in respect of
Examination Fees Deposit Examination centre, Examination date sheet and
Results LSC Call Report from April 2010 to March 2010
Month No of calls Queries Regarding
Received Accr Voc Res Acad Exam Adm I Cards Books Corr NIOS TMA Misc.
April 10932 32 43 589 135 2254 5526 751 942 85 59 48 468 May 8397 26 59 576 145 1920 4056 260 389 492 41 53 380 June 10313 22 50 480 138 2658 5546 180 424 59 74 72 610 July 11066 46 116 682 195 2859 5679 297 428 95 74 64 531 August 10251 38 105 924 189 1875 5973 127 312 94 81 41 492 September 13597 53 87 1177 130 3887 6068 592 192 559 159 149 544 October 9394 23 123 672 59 1366 6018 121 278 65 62 67 540 November 9883 29 57 685 121 912 6695 209 383 61 46 77 608 December 10079 44 52 580 156 1818 5440 459 878 87 48 44 473 January 10722 37 47 563 122 2966 4004 678 1475 88 78 83 581 February 9670 54 219 841 96 1161 3563 675 1797 96 104 164 900 March 10731 36 46 562 122 2964 4003 677 1474 88 78 83 580 Grand Total115035 440 1004 8331 1608 26640 62571 5026 8972 1869 904 945 6707
The outcomes envisaged for the workshop were (i) an increased understanding of Monitoring and Evaluation, (ii) ability to write indicators pertaining to their work in open schooling and (iii) to contribute to the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. The workshop focused on the aspects related to knowledge and skills required for monitoring and evaluation, development of tools and techniques and indicators for the same with the objective to evolve a sustainable system and to achieve the goal of education for all.
15.1.2 Annual General Body Meeting of COMOSA
Under the aegis of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) organized the Annual General Body Meeting of the Commonwealth Open Schooling Association (COMOSA) on November 21, 2010 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. COMOSA as a democratic, collaborative and futuristic organization is committed to initiate collaboration and cooperation in the development of quality, gender sensitive and equitable school education through open and distance mode. Dr. S.S. Jena, Chairman, NIOS was re-elected as the chairperson of COMOSA. Ms Fancy Amey from Botswana as Vice Chairman, Ms. Lystra Samson Ovid from Trinidad & Tobago as Secretary, Prof. Desh Bandhu Gupta from Jammu & Kashmir State