The School of Open Learning (formerly School of Correspondence Courses and Continuing Education) was established in the year 1962 under the University of Delhi. We are the pioneer institution in the field of Open and Distance Education in India. The School was started with a modest admission of 900 students in 1962 and presently it has enrolled more than 4 lakhs students in the five Undergraduate and five Postgraduate programmes. We are one of the best ICT governed Institutions in terms of Student Information Management System (SIMS) and office automation under the ambit of e-governance. It, being one of the best Schools in distance education and is moving towards technology based students support services by providing Online admit cards with QR codes, demand letters-cum-examination forms, mark sheets and provisional certificates etc. The School also facilitates the students in downloading their ID Cards, Fee receipts from SOL website. The School has initiated to provide online Library Cards for issuing books. The School has also taken a major initiative in decentralization of admission process both online and offline. The admission for the UG Honours and registration for PG programmes for the academic year 2014-2015. However, admissions for B.A./B.Com. programme were done both online and offline. We have crossed more than 100K online.
The School has taken initiatives for developing flipped-classroom technology by giving importance to virtual/audio-visual teaching-learning followed by activity/skill based experiential learning in different study centres and providing open access to all text to speech contents/study material, audio lectures and video lectures. The School has been initiating Learning Management System (LMS) with Online user friendly Dashboard for the Student. We have established more than 30 study centres in different colleges of the University of Delhi for conducting PCP programmes of our students.
SOL has set its goal to achieve complete automation, virtualization, having paperless office implementing office automation process. The study material are already available online in our website. We are exploring the possibilities of providing Tablets to our students at the time of admission with pre-loaded study materials, Lecturers of eminent personalities, and other information. The updated study material will be available to our students over the air (OTA) - online. Even Audio/Visual Conference facilities will be provided to the students at their fingertips so that they can interact with teachers in virtual mode and get solutions to their queries at the comfort and convenient time. We facilitate the dreams of the Eklavya.
In the past, adopted manual processes in all spheres of admission and examination related activities which was very difficult to manage. Even the other activities such as Personal Contact Programme, Degree, Mailing (Study Material distribution) Printing, and Accounts were carried out manually. As a result it was slow & consuming more effort and time on paper work.
There was a paradigm shift from traditional / conventional to ICT based solutions from the year 2005 onwards. The School implemented Online Process from Admissions to Examinations and the also further automation of Accounts, Establishment, General, Printing, PCP and Degree sections were automated, thereby drastically improvement in the productivity and lesser turnaround time which made our system student friendly.
We admit students through Online and Offline processes. Online process can be accessed by students via our website however the Offline admission process also runs at our North and South Campus of SOL through dedicated windows through the admission module which is part of our ERP application. A Single repository of CBSE and other State Board results are available in our database which helps our students to check their eligibility and verification process at the time of admission. As the student data are confidential, our ERP is implemented with role based credentials to maintain the confidentiality. In the year 2014-15 SOL admitted approximately 1.5 lakh students out of which more than one lakh was through online, thus leaving far behind the regular colleges of the University of Delhi.
The School has implemented online module for their students when promoted to the next year of study. Our students can download their Demand Letter cum Examination Form having details like their Name, SOL Roll No., Enrolment No., Marks obtained in each subjects, Examination Fees, last date of submission of Examination Form and submit the same through Online and Offline mode. The payment can be made via Online as well. The Hall tickets are embedded with QR Code to provide instant verification of the students which can be downloaded from the SOL website. In academic year 2013-14 of annual examination, we have admitted more than three lakh students in various UG and PG courses.
SOL distributes the Study Material of the courses immediately in-person after the submission of Admission / Examination Forms. Thereby, cutting down environmental and postal costs.
Activities related to Personal Contact Programme classes in SOL study centers like information to students, record of Resource Person, student data-class wise, centre wise, course wise, medium wise are prepared through automated PCP Module. Every Student gets a personalized SMS regarding their PCP Classes. Even period wise students attendance is also available under the Students Tracking System (STS) and even the payment are made via ECS. This year, the SOL has established about 30 Study Centers for PCP Programmes in different colleges of University of the Delhi.
SOL has automated all the records related to Degrees, Mark Sheets for undistributed degress and Provisional Certificate. We have data available online from 1962 onwards.
Pull-push-SMS services are available on 922-305-1616 for the use of SOL students wherein students can enquire about Eligibility Requirement, Admission Schedule, Fee Information, Entrance Result, Venue for Examination, Date Sheet, Result, Enrolment Number etc, 24x7, round the year, through a fully automated Interactive Voice Response System. The Pull SMS service provides required information through a text message to the concerned student on his cell phone.