Learner Friendly Admission System in Open University: A Case of IGNOU

Abstract

As a part of its ongoing efforts for offering Information and Communication Technology enabled learner-friendly services, IGNOU has designed and developed an Online Admission System which was launched in May 2015. In the new system of admission, the prospective learners submit their application forms online and they receive instant confirmation about successful submission of their application form through email as well as through SMS. Besides it, there is a provision
of online submission of the documents and online payment of programme fee through online payment gateway. IGNOU is offering admission through online as well as offline mode. But the admission data of both the systems is transferred to the centralised database through the Registration Data Transfer System. The hybrid model of admission has been successfully implemented for four admission sessions.

Besides highlighting the salient features and architectural design of the learner friendly hybrid model of admission in IGNOU, the present paper discusses about the design, development, implementation and benefits of the online admission system. The paper also discusses about the first hand feedback from the prospective learners of IGNOU and further it explores the possibilities of improvements and research in the newly designed system of Online Admission at IGNOU.