Study to Explore the Strategies to Increase Student Participation in Academic Counseling in the Programme Offered Through Open and Distance Learning Mode

Abstract

When a learner joins a programme in open and distance learning university, he/she is assigned a Programme
Study Centre (PSC) which is an approved and recognized Centre for the offered programme. Subject-wise
counseling is provided at the PSC by experienced academic counselors. The motivated learner of Indira Gandhi
National Open University (IGNOU) is expected to go through the study material and clear his or her doubts
regarding the material during the counseling session. In a majority of the programmes of IGNOU, a minimum
10% of total study hours are provided for counseling session, but in professional skill based programmes it varies
and attendance is compulsory. For example, in the Post Basic BSc Nursing programme of IGNOU, for which
target population is in service nurses, the highly motivated learner joins the programme after entrance test and
all in-service nurses take No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the organization as it is compulsory to attend
theory and Practical counseling every year for which they are expected to take leave for 50-54 days each year.
It is a novelty of the programme that students do attend the counseling session and complete their attendance
requirement i.e., 75% attendance in theory and 90% attendance in practical, failing which they are not allowed
to sit in the examination. Since the year 2008, the author is an academic counselor for one of the course of Post
Basic BSc Nursing programme and has provided counseling for 12 hours for the batch of 30 students of the 1st
year. Initially the author followed the traditional way of counseling i.e., doubt clarification and tutoring, but
it was found that with this method, the student attendance in the class was always 12 to 15 students only, and
a majority of them used to leave the class early. This irregularity was brought up in a focus group discussion
and the following strategies, which were supported by other research studies also, were explored for enhancing
student participation in the counselling sessions: (i) Counsellors should be student-friendly, (ii) Counselling
sessions could be made more interactive and friendly, (iii) The counsellor should facilitate group reading during
counseling sessions, (iv) A topic can be given to the students for presentation, and (v) The counsellor should get
in touch with the learner more often so that the communication gap is bridged. This study was carried out to explore the different strategies to increase student participation during academic counseling session the courses of Post Basic BSc Nursing programme of the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system using a questionnaire. The semi structured questionnaire consisted of 20-25 items related to academic counseling, some suggested strategies, and the additional strategies. The respondents 30 learners of the ODL system. The list of strategies with role of academic counselor and learner will be made available for future use. It is expected that the results of this study will enable the other academic counselors to use suitable strategies to increase student participation in the counseling sessions.