IGNOU to offer course content via mobile 3G

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Ericsson have announced that they are signing an MoU to make use of 3G services in education delivery. To enable this new initiative in education, Ericsson will build a 3G environment for students to download IGNOU course content along with facilitating SMS alerts on their mobile phones. The signing of this memorandum will take place on October 29.
The association will help remote area learners to access parts of the course web pages, assignments and video clips offered by the university. The service will initially be launched as a pilot project and will provide certificate course in information technology. The pilot is expected to be completed in the next six months.
Announcing the new development, Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai, vice chancellor, IGNOU, said in a press briefing, “In a country like India, technology can be put to test aggressively. At our university, it is difficult to define the cross section of students as we have students from various portfolios. Thus, we are open to adopting technology to make it simpler. Intervention of technology of this kind can be a model.”
P. Balaji, vice-president, marketing and strategy, Ericsson India, said, “In the pilot project, only BSNL and MTNL will be providing this service but it will later on be extended to all service operators.”
“The 3G solution will work across all 3G networks irrespective of the operator,” added Gowton Achaibar, president, Ericsson India.
Currently, IGNOU is using an SMS model which is available in five regional sectors in India and has a network of 30,000 to 50,000 students. Overall, IGNOU has 2.5 million students enrolled for its various courses.