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the working of the institution. system of redressing grievances of the
students through email/phone/face to
In Open and Distance Learning (ODL)
institutions, grievance redressal and face interactions through help desks at
management are a very important regional centres. However, one of the
component as it critically supports the biggest limitations of such a system was
final learning outcome of the learners. that tracking of the grievance in terms
In ODL, learners do not get regular of its status, earlier reply given & its
opportunities to interact with their peer correlation was not possible. Besides this
group and tutors and learners perform the top management is also not able to
a major part of their studies themselves. track how many grievances are pending
In comparison, in conventional mode at different levels i.e. Regional Centres,
of higher education, students regularly Schools of Studies, Divisions along with
visit their institutions and they have the areas to which it relates, so as to
ample opportunities to get their take corrective measures on it. With
grievances resolved. the help of iGRAM university is able to
consolidate the different levels/areas in
IGNOU has an enrollment of more than where grievances are emerging, so that
3 million learners and the total fresh appropriate policy interventions could
intake of learners in 2019, was close be taken to minimize the grievances of
to 7.67 lakhs, spread across the 56 different stakeholders.
Regional Centers (RCs), 11 Recognized
Regional Centers (RRCs) of the Army, As per the National Education Policy
Navy & Assam Rifles and nearly 1800 2020, ODL must play a significant role in
Learner Support Centres (LSCs) located increasing Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER)
across different states of India at to 50percent by 2035. In order to support
various places. To address grievances it’s essential that the innovation and
of this huge number of learners, expansion of ODL must be encouraged,
IGNOU has various mechanisms like while ensuring quality at the same time.
e-mail, telephone, by post, social At the same time there is an urgent
media etc. However, to provide a one- need to institutionalize learner support
stop integrated IT solution for all types services at all institutions offering ODL.
of student grievances in an efficient, These must be as responsive, effective
effective and transparent manner a and relevant as the ones on offer for
learner friendly grievance redressal full time students of the same Higher
web portal named, 'IGNOU Grievance Educational Institution (HEI). These
Redress and Management” (iGRAM) was services will include: providing learning
launched by the university. After being material (e.g. hosting courseware,
on hold for a while for upgradation, repositories, Open Educational
it was relaunched with modification Resources or OERs, MOOCs), support
and addition of new features on 5th from help desk services, tutoring
September, 2018 (IGNOU Annual and counselling, conduct of classes
Report, 2018-19). Prior to the launch of (through webinars, discussion forums,
the integrated grievance management webcasting), library facilities, virtual labs,
system, iGRAM, the university has a e-learning modules, timely feedback

Indian Journal of Educational Technology 93
Volume 3, Issue 2, July 2021