IGNOU ASSIGNMENT GURU

Photos from Indira Gandhi National Open University's post
https://www.facebook.com/249927194358520/posts/948011511216748

NAAC Partners with Commonwealth of Learning for Capacity building for Quality Assurance of Online education

National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has partnering with Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is engaged in a collaborative project on Transforming Indian Higher Education through Online Learning: Capacity Building for Improving Quality Assurance Systems with focus on capacity building for quality focus online education. It is aimed at developing a handbook for Quality Assurance in designing and delivering online programmes through open and dual -mode universities. NAAC partnered with Special Project Unit, IGNOU to deliver the first national-level consultative workshop on opportunities and challenges for qualityassurance in online education, attended by Vice Chancellors and Dean/Directors of Online education on 06-07 March 2026.

The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Anandrao Patil Additional Secretary, Depart of Higher education, Govt of India. He stated that the National Education Policy 2020 is transformative and places strong emphasis on quality and innovation in higher education. He urged institutions to align their initiatives with the policy’s vision while strengthening quality parameters in online education. He emphasized the need for skill-based education and also the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence in education, particularly in enabling multilingual learning. Highlighting the vast potential of the sector with nearly 7 million learners presently pursuing online education, he affirmed that there is tremendous scope to expand and grow.

Prof Peter Scott, President and CEO of Commonwealth of Learning who addressed the participants online, highlighted the importance of the collaborative initiative to increase the GER to 50% in 2035 and upskilling, reskilling and cross skilling the existing workforce in the industry. He said CoL is planning to make the proposed handbook in other commonwealth countries for improving online education, thus the project has outcomes useful beyond India. He also suggested that we need to create a global community of practice for networking and mutual learning.

Prof Ganesan Kannabiran Director NAAC and the Project Lead explained the project scope and objectives. In addition to accrediting institutions, NAAC is focusing on capacity development of institutional leaders and faculty members towards quality assurance. Given the importance of online education, NAAC is specially taking up initiatives through international collaboration for gathering best practices. At the end of the project, about 10-15 Universities will be able to develop quality-oriented online programmes and a handbook for Quality Assurance in Online education for adoption by Indian universities.

Prof. Uma Kanjilal, Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, who also served as a national expert in the workshop discussed the need for engaging e-Learning Materials (ELM), effective learning design tools and capacity building of the faculty and administration. She also mentioned that the UGC DEB framework to be used for internal quality assurance. With the growing emphasis on digital and flexible learning pathways, the discussions align with national priorities for higher education reform and quality enhancement. The deliberations are expected to contribute significantly to the development of strong quality assurance mechanisms for online education across the country.

Dr. Britta Zawada, representing the Council on Higher Education in South Africa, the international expert for the project observed that the workshop would serve as an important platform for bringing together expert insights.

NAAC-India

659 viewsIGNOU ASSIGNMENT GURU, 00:54