View DocumentAutomation systems

The level of automation of different aspects of Institution including the features of Office Automation System/ERP/MIS (Online Support to Learners, Staff, RCs and LSCs) 

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Response:

The University authorities are highly aggressive in providing all the learner centric and administrative services on the figure tip of the learners and other stakeholders. Hence, it has digitized most of its operations at all levels, including those associated with student lifecycle, bringing about transparency and efficiency in the overall management of the University:

A) Automation of services related to learner support:

Admission and re-registration: The process of admission and re-registration (registration in subsequent semester/year of a programme) has been made online. Applicants register on the online admission portal, fill in all the required information, make online payment, upload documents, submit their application, get the confirmation of their admission online and download their confirmation letter, learners’ identity card from the portal. The same services are also made available to the learners for re-registration for the next semester/year.

Eklavya – Learner Support Portal: 

It’s a unique feature of the University website containing all relevant information for the learners. The portal can be accessed by providing enrolment number and date of birth. This portal allows the learners to have access to track their registration, fees paid/pending, study material dispatch, library, hall-ticket, exam schedules, results, grade card status, download section for Syllabus, eSLMs, Assignments, Qld Question Papers, Question Bank, Mark-sheets, Admit-cards along with all latest news about the University etc.

 

Post-admission services: Requests for change of communication address, courses (wherever applicable), study centre, can be done online by the learners through regional centres or through learner support service division at headquarters. Students can see their registration status on the website, status of requests made for change of address, study centre, status of assignments submitted, examination result, grade card status etc.

Examination Process: 

All the services related to examination for the learners and other stakeholders of the University are totally online beginning with filling of examination form, downloading of hall ticket, evaluation of answer sheets, preparation of data-sheets for the declaration of results, availability of statement of marks, applying for the degree certificates and transcripts is ensured online. 

It has been extended to online verification of degrees and other documents. Finally, the data is uploaded on the NAD/Digi Locker portal to make it safe and easily accessible. The Manual of Digitization of examination system contains the detailed information about it.

Registration for Degree Certificate and Convocation: After successful completion of the programme, learners can apply for the degree certificate and pay the requisite fees online. Further he/she can register for Convocation online.

Online Grievance Management System: Learners can submit any of their grievances related to academic or administrative services through the Online Grievance Management System and track the response. The portal facilitates follow-up measures by generating reports on grievances received and resolved.

App-based support: University has developed various mobile and web based apps to provide all the facilities to the learners The learners The e-Content App allows access to digital form of study material on the mobile, thus promoting ‘anywhere, anytime learning’. 

Online Counselling Service Tools:

Swadhyay TV: Along with the above educational medium university is also having various web based initiatives which are being used to provide counselling to the learners. Swadhyay TV is an on-demand video based learning platform where learners can attend the class of his/her choice at any time, anywhere. Also this medium can be used to live broadcast any interactive sessions by invited experts. www.baou.edu.in/swadhyay.tv

 

Swadhyay Radio: Swadhyay Radio is an on-demand internet audio counselling service and learning platform where learners can listen to the session of his/her choice at anytime, anywhere. However, the live broadcast through Interactive Radio Counselling is provided on radio by invited experts from Chaitanya studio. Learners can ask questions right from their locations through telephone, email and through chat mode. www.baou.edu.in/swadhyay.radio

 

Webinar/Web Conferencing: University provides internet based Webinars/Web conferencing services to learners in all the programmes to enhance the learning experience of the learners through Google Meet, Zoom Meeting, Zoom Webinars Webex Meeting, Webex Events and Microsoft Teams.

 

OMKAR-e: Considering the demand of today’s learners, BAOU is the first State Open University in India to successfully launch an internet enabled open access free-of-cost digital learning platform for online and self-driven courses that pro-activates learning with four quadrant mechanisms. 18 Multilingual courses are offered and others are under development that cover wide spectrum varieties. URL: www.omkare.in

 

OMKAR: Open Matrix Knowledge Advancement Resource is a technology-enabled domain, constituting a repository of e-resources of information and knowledge making the e-content accessible to millions of students and aspirants across the globe. https://baou.edu.in/omkar

 

Mobipaedia: BAOU is the first university to introduce Educational Mobile Apps- Mobipaedia, to assist the keen learners. This Mobile Encyclopedia application provides information related to unfamiliar terms or words as a reply SMS with minimal cost involved. The android application MOBIPAEDIA can be downloaded from Google Play store at no extra cost.

 

eResources: Programme Guide, Syllabus, Digitized Self-Learning Material, Video Lectures, Audio Lectures of all the courses are made available on the University website, so the students can easily view, read, download and refer at his/her convenience.

Online Grievance redressal Management System: 

University has indigenously developed a web based solution, Grievance Redressal Management System to reduce response turnaround time to student grievances. Grievance Redressal Management System of the university is used to redress the learners grievances more transparently and efficiently. Students are advised to submit their query/grievance on the Grievance Portal at http://digital.baou.edu.in/grievance. 

The Learner Support Section, categorizes the grievances and forwards queries and grievances to respective section heads, and takes follow up with concerned division/unit/cell/regional centre and monitors the information and notification alerts on Grievance Portal on regular basis. 

B) Automation of processes associated with RC and LSC Operations

RCs and LSCs Portal: University has developed a portal for the RCs and LSCs. It helps the university to maintain continuous monitoring of RCs and LSCs. This portal maintains the availability of Physical Infrastructure, IT Infrastructure, Library Resources and other infrastructure at the RCs and LSCs. It also manages the availability of empaneled Counsellors, Academics, Evaluators of the Assignments and other human resources. It also keeps stock of various repositories of the important documents associated with the establishments of the RCs or LSCs.

Empanelment of Academic Counsellors: The process of empanelment of academic counsellors is fully online. Prospective academic counsellors submit their applications for empanelment online, which are examined by the faculty of the School concerned. Upon approval of application, the letter of empanelment is generated online. 

Submission of evaluation data by RCs and LSCs: RCs and LSCs and have been provided with secure login accounts for online transmission of assignment evaluation data, project evaluation data, practical examination data etc. to the Headquarters.

Database Access: Regional Centres have been provided with secure login for accessing/ downloading student data of their Region from the Central database of the University.

Web conferencing: Weekly meetings of all the Regional Centres are arranged with the Headquarters using the Virtual Class Room facility available at Headquarters and Regional Centres. Also the same is carried out using Google Meet on Google Workspace. 

C. Automation of Academic Administration Activities

Learners Admission and Registration Management: 

The activities related to admission and re-registration of the learners like information verification, document verification, payment verification and payment reconciliation are carried out through this system.

Learners Service Management (Post Admission Activities):

University has indigenously designed and developed an ERP application for all the types of Learner Support Service Management. The Learner Support Services like Change of LSC, Change of Name, Surname, Address, Contact Details, Change in Course/Subject, bona-fide certificate, admission through credit transfer are being managed through this ERP. 

Learners Services Management (Assignment, Examination and related activities):

The ERP portal for learner support services also serves the learners for issuing migration certificate, trial certificate, recommendation letter, transcript, certificate for completion of programme in minimum duration, submission of assignment both online/offline, status of evaluation of assignments, processing the assignment results, managing the records of filled examination form, preparation of attendance sheets, various reports for conduction of examination, reports for distributing the answer sheets for evaluation, data entry/verification of marks for evaluated answer sheets, preparation of data-sheets for the declaration of results, declaration of results, availability of statement of marks, applying for the degree certificates and transcripts is ensured online.

D. Automation of Administrative and Financial Processes

Scheduling and Conducting the Meetings: The communication about the management of meetings as well as circulation of agenda and minutes takes place online during the pandemic majority of the meetings took place online through virtual meeting/conferencing tool like Cisco Webex, Google Meet, Zoom Meeting etc. 

 

Purchase Operations: Purchase of any kind of product or services are made online through GEM portal only, if the required product or services are not available online then it is procured through e-tender.

 

Recruitment Procedure: 

University invites all the applications for the teaching and non-teaching post through its recruitment portal. 

 

Human Resource Information System: In order to ensure the smooth tracking of the presence and the academic data related to all the staff members of the university, indigenously developed Human Resource Information System is being used.

It helps in managing Workforce Administration, Position Management, Recruitment, General Administration, Leave Management, Global Payroll, Loans and Advances, Medical reimbursement, LTC, Children Education Allowance, etc.

This application is further used to prepare the salary statement of all the staff of the university. It contains information about academic growth of the staff members and it is expected to be a very handy system at the time of handling the issues related to performance appraisal for CAS, etc.

 

Payment Methods: University makes all the kinds of collection of fee from learners and payments to all the stakeholders of the university are online.

Accounts and Finance: It includes the activities related to General Ledger, Budgeting, Accounts Payable, accounts Receivable, Inventory, Purchasing, Asset Management, Project Costing, Investment, Bank Reconciliation, etc. All the functions related to accounting and bookkeeping are done using Tally ERP since 2014. For this purpose university has subscribed to licence of Tally ERP and it is being renewed regularly. 

Recruitment Portal for Academic and Non-Academic positions: University has indigenously developed a portal for the recruitment process for academic and non-academic positions. Using this portal, the applicants can submit their application online and the review/ screening processes are done by the Divisions/Schools concerned as per application workflow.

Purchase Management:

Purchase of any kind of product or services are made online through GEM portal only, if the required product or services are not available on GEM Portal then it is procured through e-tendering process.

Store and Inventory Management:

The store department takes the requisition of various items from various departments through intranet application and the procurement is done through the GeM Portal. The inventories of all the procured goods are being managed through Tally ERP.

The inventory of the self-learning material is being managed by the Material Production and Distribution Division. The inventories of all the procured self-learning goods are being managed through Tally ERP.   

Governance in Office Management: All the functions related to office management are either intranet based or internet based. It ensures smooth management of the office functions of the University.

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Automation systems

 

The level of automation of different aspects of Institution including the features of Office Automation System/ERP/MIS (Online Support to Learners, Staff, RCs and LSCs)

 

Write description in maximum of 500 words

 

Response:

The University has digitized most of its operations at all levels, including those associated with student lifecycle, bringing about transparency and efficiency in the overall management of the University:

 

A) Automation of processes associated with learner support

Admission: The process of admission and re-registration (registration in subsequent semester/year of a programme) has been made online. Applicants now register on the online admission portal, submit their application, upload documents, make online payment, get the confirmation of their admission online and download their QR Code-based student identity card from the portal. The same facility is available for re registration.

 

Post-admission services: Requests for change of study centre, regional centre or courses (wherever applicable) are processed online by Regional Centres. Students can see their registration status on the website, status of requests made for change of address, study centre, regional centre, status of assignments submitted, examination result, grade card status etc.

 

Examination form submission: Students submit their examination form on the examination form submission portal, make online payment, get confirmation of submission and later on download their examination hall ticket from the portal.

 

Registration for Convocation: Students can register for Convocation online and pay the requisite fee online.

 

Online Grievance Management System: Students can submit their grievance on the online portal iGRAM (IGNOU Grievance Redress and Management) and track the response. The portal facilitates follow-up measures by generating reports on grievances received and resolved.

 

App-based support: The IGNOU e-Content App allows access to digital form of study material on the mobile, thus promoting ‘anywhere, anytime learning’.

 

Discussion Forum based Student Support Service: School of Gender and Development Studies provides direct learner support services for MAWGS and PGDWGS programmes through Discussion Forum based platform (http://wgforum.ignouonline.ac.in/) through COE. The forum provides learning resources and assignment to the learners and also answers general queries pertaining to the programmes.

 

B) Automation of processes associated with RC and LSC operations

 

Empanelment of Academic Counsellors: The process of empanelment of academic counsellors is fully online. Prospective academic counsellors submit their applications for empanelment online, which are examined by the faculty of the School concerned. Upon approval of application, the letter of empanelment is generated online.

 

Transmission of evaluation data by RCs and LSCs: RCs and LSCs and have been provided with secure login accounts for online transmission of assignment evaluation data, project evaluation data, practical examination data etc. to the Headquarters.

 

Database Access: Regional Centres have been provided with secure login for accessing/ downloading student data of their Region from the Central database of the University.

 

Online Question Paper Delivery System (OQPDS): OQPDS is an in-house developed platform by COE for creation of Question Paper Bank and Printing and Delivery of Question Papers (QP) to the IGNOU exam centres. (https://oqpds.ignouonline.ac.in/. Due to security reasons, this Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) enabled link is made active only during the period of examination)

 

Web conferencing: Weekly meetings of all the Regional Centres are arranged with the Headquarters using the Adobe Connect web conferencing application (http://classroom.ignouonline.ac.in/system/login?domain=classroom.ignouonline.ac.in&next=%2Fadmin%3Fdomain%3Dclassroom.ignouonline.ac.in&setlang=

en).

 

 

 

C. Automation of Administrative and Financial Processes

 

ERP Implementation: An ERP software – ODLSOFT has been implemented at the Headquarters for automation of activities related to human resource and finance at and its use by various Schools, Divisions, Centres, Units and Cells. ODLSOFT supports the following processes:

 

HR: Workforce Administration, Position Management, Recruitment, General Administration, Leave Management, Global Payroll, Loans and Advances, Pension, Medical reimbursement, LTC, Children Education Allowance, etc.

 

Finance: General Ledger, Budgeting, Accounts Payable, accounts Receivable, Inventory, Purchasing, Asset Management, Project Costing, Investment, Bank Reconciliation, etc.

 

Recruitment Portal for Academic and Non-Academic positions: Cloud-based service is enabled through the SAMARTH project for IGNOU staff recruitment process of Academic and Non-Academic positions. Using this portal, the applicants can submit their application online and the review/ screening processes are done by the Divisions/Schools concerned as per application workflow.

https://ignount.samarth.edu.in/index.php/site/login