NIOS : The Way Forward - The National Institute of Open Schooling

NIOS: The Way Forward / 29
A basic feature of the ODL system is its flexibility and readiness to adapt to
suit the needs of the learner to the extent possible. In ODL system, emphasis
is given to open secondary and open senior secondary courses but also to
open elementary education and vocational education. ODL system should
also put great emphasis on life enrichment courses as well as on development
of life skills.
3.3 Spiral and Linear Organization
In the conventional system, Curriculum contents are generally organized in
linear and sequential manner, one learning point leading to another. This
sequence is built up from stage to stage and grade to grade. In modern practice,
instead of linear organization, it has been found to be better to organize the
contents spirally. The strength of the spiral approach is that it starts with the
core concept at the beginning and then gradually evolves it into finer details
and branches off, making the content deeper and wider at each stage. This
increases the level of understanding and as a result, students are more
empowered to make practical applications in life.
Curricular Contents become meaningful when they are organized contextually.
Knowledge remains bookish and verbal and cannot be fully assimilated, unless
it is concretized and connected to life contexts. Similarly abstract knowledge
can easily be assimilated if concrete examples are given and contextualized
with social reality. It is therefore, very essential that the content of learning
should be contextualized, concretized and illustrated. These concerns are
kept in mind, when NIOS develops its curriculum and course material.
Open Education has been a green house of educational innovations. The
flexible scheme of studies and evaluation which emerged with ODL system
has now been recognized by face-to-face conventional system also. The
modular approach of ODL system was also seen as an advance over the
normal textbook lessons. The contents of ODL system have always followed
a stage-wise approach. In open basic education curriculum contents are not
divided class wise. This approach has been duly recognized in NCF 2005.
3.4 Curriculum Development Design
Course planning-design-development-despatch is a long process, and the
long time taken between the initiation and the production of the printed material
is because of the several stages that the course units pass through (See Fig.
3.1)