Making Learning More Accessible for Women: The Practitioners’ Viewpoint

Abstract

ODL has been seen as a great liberator which has brought education to the doorsteps of those who are deprived and excluded. Over the years, ODL has been promoted by governments as a viable means for reaching out to the unreached and for overcoming the gaps that conventional face to face education has been unable to fill. Women are considered to be a major section of society that has and can benefit from the ODL system; the flexibilities of ODL are regarded as advantageous to the educational requirement of women and a suitable medium for strengthening women’s education. In the recent years, the advances in technology have revolutionized the way in which society functions – the impact on the educational system being significant. Technology is seen as a channel that can increase the outreach to women and can overcome barriers that restrict women’s education and change the way in which women learn. The present study was carried out with the twin objectives of reviewing the status of women’s enrolment in the world largest university, IGNOU, and suggesting policy interventions for improving access of women to ODL. // Paper ID 333