Kochi, Kerala :

Now anyone anywhere can enrol anytime for MG University’s online diploma, graduate and post-graduate courses that are set to start from next month.

“Six months from the time a student joins the course will be considered as one semester, enabling a student to join a course any time of the year. This is the first time that an Indian university is offering online courses where a student can seek admission any time of the year,” said MG University vice-chancellor Dr Babu Sebastian.

Students will have three-hour online exams and results will be declared immediately. The exams will have objective-type questions while the assignments will be subjective-type.

Educationists welcomed the idea, but with significant caveats.

“Unlike in the West, people here are not interested in enrolling for a course for gaining knowledge. They are looking at a certificate that can help them get a job. Therefore, it is important for the university to have live online programmes that are carefully planned to make maximum use of the electronic medium rather than be a reproduction of what is presently taught in regular classes,” said RVG Menon.

For the implementation of MG University’s project, Rs 2 crore has been earmarked and the university is negotiating with Intel to develop a dedicated e-learning portal.

Students will initially get to do BA, BCom, BBA, MBA, BCA and MCA courses online. “All graduation and post-graduation courses that we were offering through distance education will now be offered online. Besides, we are designing new diploma courses that can be offered online,” Dr Sebastian said.

However noted educationist B Iqbal sounded a note of caution. “Anytime, anywhere education is an enabling concept that helps students to simultaneously study various courses. But with most of the universities lacking competence to run regular courses, it is better that they focus on ad-on short term courses online rather than regular courses,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / TNN / April 06th, 2015