Editorial

Abstract

This is the last issue of volume 32 of IJOL which contains five research papers, one book review, and abstracts of the papers in Hindi language for easy understanding of scholars who read and write in the Rajbhasha.

The first research paper by Tandon and Sharma focuses on awareness and motivation among higher education students on MOOCs offered through the national SWAYAM platform. The results showed favourable attitude of the students especially due to credit transfer, low cost, and flexibility in learning. Selvan and Kalaiyarasan in the second paper on teacher digital competency report that there was no variation in the digital competency of student teachers across gender groups and computer course groups, though the student-teachers who had opted for the course on computer science had displayed higher competency than their counterparts.

In the next paper, Maryam and Lodi report the findings of an experimental study on the effect of mode of teaching science on the science achievement of school students. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the  achievements of students taught through the lecture method and those taught through the online mode, suggesting strongly that the design of learning is more important than the mode of delivery.

The fourth paper is devoted to a critical review of online fieldwork for social work trainees during the pandemic. The meta-analysis of research publications suggests that while it was pertinent to keep going the field work through online mode during the pandemic, the social work students had faced the challenges of connectivity and cost of data bundles which the social work educators need to take into account, and prepare towards development of professional skills at times of distress and uncertainty.
Venkatramanan and Shah in the fifth paper report the findings of a survey on various dimensions of curriculum for a masters programme on climate change through open and distance learning. The results relating to learning outcomes, content, teaching-learning strategies, and employability shall be useful to all those engaged in the education and training on the impact of climate change on land and water resources, nature and environment, and on livelihood.

The book review by Anuj Aggarwal of a fresh book on ODL (by Olg Zaikin) should be useful to the practitioners of ODL with a new addition and new perspective, and on opportunities and challenges in the implementation of modern information and communication technologies in education. Besides, the abstracts of papers in Hindi should be useful to those who have expertise in the vernacular language.
We hope the research papers and the book review included in this issue of the IJOL, a UGC-CARE journal, shall be of interest to our readers.

Editorial Team
Indian Journal of Open Learning