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ABSTRACT
The paper discusses the issues and challenges of offering a pan-India MSW Programme through distance learning, the national accreditation and assessment council vis-à-vis open universities and Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) role in distance education in social work in India. In this light, the paper describes the IGNOU model of MSW curriculum, fieldwork components, evaluation, delivery mechanisms and the challenges and limitations faced by both students and open universities in India. The case study of IGNOU (which is the first national and largest open university in India) provides an understanding of different aspects of curriculum and fieldwork in social work education through open and distance learning.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
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Saumya
Dr. Saumya is an Associate Professor at School of Social Work, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi, India. She did her Bachelors in Sociology from Miranda House and Masters in Social Work at Department of Social Work, University of Delhi (was awarded University Gold Medal). She holds a Ph.D degree in Social Work from University of Delhi, India.
She has received Asian Association of Open University(AAOU) Inter University Staff Exchange Fellowship at Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL), Sri Lanka 2021, Visiting Fellowship to Shanghai Open University, China in 2014 and Commonwealth Fellowship in 2018 and 2021. She has won the 2018 Young Innovator Award for her paper at the 32nd Annual Conference of AAOU. Her academic and research interests include Fieldwork, Social work Education, Open and Distance Education, tribal issues and community organization.