Academic Counselling in Distance Education with Focus on Innovation: The Need and Expectations of IGNOU Learners.

Innovation is the driving force for the socio-economic development of a country and there is a/ways a need of human resource with an innovative attitude. Education can play an important role in developing the innovativeness of the human resource of a country, and the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system, with millions of leamers on its roils, can play an extremely important role. Efforts should therefore be made by the ODL system to develop an innovative outlook among its learners. Innovation, according to Dr. A.RJ Abdul Ka/am, the former President of India, centres around five key areas, namely inquiry, creativity, technological capabilities, and entrepreneurial and moral leadership. These five key attributes need to be built into the education process so that the learners can develop their inherent innovativeness and excel in their future endeavours. In the ODL system, academic counselling plays the most important role, wherein an environment of learning is created and the learners interact with the academic counsel/ors to develop their knowledge and ski/Is. Development of innovativeness in the learners is only possible when the academic counsellors possess, appreciate and transmit the five key attributes of innovation on to the learners. The key issue is whether the academic counsellors at present are equipped with the know how to impart these five competencies, taken together, on to the/eamers. To investigate the present status of these five competencies among the academic counsellors, the authors carried out a study, where the academic counsel/ors' perspective was presented. In continuation of the same study, this paper provides a learners' perspective on the present status of these five competencies among the academic counsellors. It a/so identifies important areas that need suitable intervention to foster these competencies among the academic counsellors to help the IGNOU learners develop into creative and innovative individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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