Directorate of Open Learning

Not a Choice, but a Commitment

XIM University came into being with the passing of Odisha (Amendment) Act 2021 in the Odisha Legislative Assembly on 11th May 2021, renaming Xavier University as XIM University, being the first Jesuit University in India, is committed to the ideology of ‘education for the margins’. XIM University believes that starting the Directorate of Open Learning (DOL) will open the floodgates of higher education to the margins and those who wish to enrich their professional and personal life through continuous learning.

The 1st programme under DOL, Bachelor of Arts in Sustainable Development (BA-SD) is being offered in collaboration with JWL (Jesuit Worldwide Learning)

More Details

Suggested Activities:

Academic Programmes:

DOL will support the respective Schools in designing, developing, delivering and assessing the programmes. The programmes can be at Certificate, Diploma, Degree and Doctoral level. Initially, DOL will be launching BBA in Rural Management (2020) in collaboration with Mahatma Gandhi National Council for Rural Education and School of Rural Management and B.A. in Sustainable Development (2020) in collaboration with JWL and School of Sustainability.

Roadmap:

Keeping in view the mission of XIM University, DOL will prepare and submit a roadmap for the academic programmes to be offered during 2020-2025 in consultation with the Schools of XIM University.

Mode of Delivery:

Blended learning will be the dominant mode of delivery for facilitating teaching and learning.

Capacity of Building of Faculty and Staff:

DOL will organize various need-based training programmes, workshops, seminars to build the capacity of faculty and staff for designing and developing academic programmes that can be offered through blended learning mode.

Networking and Partnership Building

Besides JWL, DOL will partner with universities and institutions engaged in open and distance learning in India and other countries.

Advisory Board:

DOL will have an advisory oard consisting of eminent persons representing:

Open Universities
MGNCRE, MHRD, GoI
Directorate of Distance Education, UGC, GoI
UNESCO
CEMCA (Commonwealth Education Media Centre for Asia)
International Civil Societies and Business Organizations

Academic Committee:

This is similar to SAAB of each School. There will be separate Academic Committee for each programme. The committee members will be eminent scholars and the Dean and faculty from the respective Schools.

Module Preparation Team

Each academic programme will consist of different modules. Its proposed to have a team of experts for each or some modules. The team members will mostly be the faculty, also known as subject matter experts (SMEs) and the SMEs from other institutions.

Office of DOL

The office of DOL will have the following set of personnel and facilities.

Director
Assistant Registrar
Faculty: As per UGC norms, the faculty students ratio is 1:100
Academic Coordinator: Three Academic Coordinators, one for UG, one for PG and one for PhD programmes.
Technical Coordinators: Two Technical Coordinators, one for UG and the other for PG and PhD.
Programme Coordinator: For each programme, there will be one Coordinator. S/He will be from the respective School and will work closely with DOL.

Learning Centres:

Depending on the number of students enrolled, it may be necessary to have Learning Centres (LCs) in different parts of India and other countries if permitted. Each LC will have a team of 2-3 persons. The LCs can be on partnership mode.

Expected number of Students:

To have at least 2000 students by 2025

Academic and Administrative Policy:

A detailed policy document is being prepared for the smooth functioning of DOL. The policy document will focus on the following.

XIM University

Menu