The free of charge service has already been subscribed by more than 150 students in less than two weeks.

Through the initiative, the Centre hopes to ensure that students don’t have to visit the University to get general information such as those pertaining to evaluations of assignments, counselling sessions and classes, among others.

For instance, if there is a holiday on any particular day, a message will be sent to the candidates informing them.

“Being sensitised to some constraints of working on internet and the ease of communication through mobiles, the applications of SMS channel was initiated for educational purposes. It is a service by google that has been harnessed. For getting inputs on the latest developments or updated information, the learners enrolled with Student Cente 0601 can subscribe by just sending a sms “ON 0601ignou” to 9870807070,” said co-ordinator of the study centre Dr Ravi K Mahajan.

Similarly, to unsubscribe, candidates can send a SMS “OFF 0601ignou” to the same number and they will not get the alerts and centre related messages.

The University School of Open Learning (USOL) has already demonstrated the practicability of economically harnessing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) components for educational purposes without taxing the exchequer.

Get details on distance education council

The blog that was created last year for the study centre ensured learners could get all the latest developments and announcements with a click .

“IGNOU has about 1400 study centres, but probably its Study Center 0601 in PU is the only one with such unique initiatives,” claimed Dr Mahajan.

B-learning classes begin

Mobile classrooms: The University School of Open Learning (USOL) has initiated mobile classrooms or e-learning classes. To begin with, the diploma programme in Statistics at the USOL will provide lessons with the help of latest technology through a mobile van. The programme that will span a period of a week is scheduled to begin next week and will teach a batch of 23 students at the Ludhiana regional centre.

n Online learning lessons: In 2010, USOL had introduced the concept of online learning lessons and online learning material to students . At present, one course - Post Graduate Diploma in Statistics - is being offered online to the students where they can take lessons, send queries through e-mails and take online tests. The university is planning to extend this facility to other correspondence courses as well.

Source: [indianexpress]