Indira Gandhi National Open University, IGNOU, is one of the most renowned educational institutions in the country. It is known to enable students to undertake various courses through distance learning. In order to ensure that the students get the best educational facilities, IGNOU keeps on coming up with new offers.

Recently, IGNOU launched a new Web Enabled Academic Support Portal (WEAS) for its students. This portal will act as an interactive one-stop solution for the students will allow them to get academic support for their program.

The Web Enabled Academic Support Portal will guide the students with various aspects of their study including pre-entry, programme induction, admission, study material, supplementary study material, assignments, learning and counselling, examination, pre-examination and much more.

The Web Enabled Academic Support Portal will also comprise of self-learning course material, quiz, video, and discussion forum in order to make the learning process more interactive.

The university issued a statement saying that “The innovative features of the WEAS scheme includes Virtual learning by bringing distance learners and teachers on a single platform, enabling self-paced learning irrespective of the time and distance separation.”

Initially, the Web Enabled Academic Support Portal was launched on a trial basis for three courses i.e. Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainability Science, Post Graduate Certificate in Agriculture Policy, and Post Graduate in Pharmaceutical Sales Management.

After the successful pilot program, Web Enabled Academic Support Portal has now been  extended to other programs as well. It will be available free of cost for the students.

The university further added that “It will not only save a lot of money spent on the counselling sessions, but it will also ensure timely academic support by the programme coordinators directly to the learners by the IGNOU facility. The university hopes that the facility of the Web Enabled Academic Support Portal will be beneficial for the courses where the enrolment is low.

IGNOU also provides study material to its students in the digital format through eGyankosh. In an attempt to popularise the usage of digital learning courses, the university had announced a 15% refund on the exam fees for the students who have opted for e-study material. This announcement was made in the month of October and was opted for by several students of the university.