AIMA to offer management education through the Net

Our Marketing Bureau in New Delhi

In a planned shift from distance education to instant education, the All India Management Association (AIMA) is in the process of creating a ‘virtual campus’ offering its management education courses through the Net.

This would mark a paradigm shift from the current distance learning management programmes AIMA has been conducting through the Centre of Management Education (CME) since 1993, said Dr Dipak Kumar Bhattacharyya, director, CME, while presenting diplomas and certificates to 1,454 students at the sixth convocation of the AIMA-CME.

Several new courses would also be started from the next session. These include post-graduate programmes in insurance management, public systems management and technology management.

The initiative to create a ‘virtual campus’ has begun and students would soon be able to download information from the net. According to Maj Gen D N Khurana, director-general, AIMA, ‘‘the process of digitisation will be introduced in phases and by January 2002, hopefully the first of the four modules will be digitised. However, the pattern we intend to follow will be a print-and-digitised one, with online education being reinforced via text books.’’

AIMA has tied up with e-learning portal OpenLearningWorld.com and already offers a lot of activity online, like case studies, chat room facilities for interaction both between students and with faculty.

Delivering the convocation address, Prof H P Dixit, vice-chancellor, IGNOU, said in future, open and distance learning systems will be at the forefront of professional education. ‘‘The cumulative enrolment in open universities in 2000 registered an increase of 87 per cent, while enrolment in professional and technical programmes in management and computers saw an increase of 60 per cent,’’he said.

An open education system also gains importance in a fast changing world due to its flexible nature, which allows it to be modified and updated at short notice, to keep pace with innovations in management education, Prof S L Rao, chairman, Board of Studies, AIMA-CME pointed out. The challenge is to use technology effectively to enhance and widen the reach of education to the remotest areas. The use of technology-aided education will continue to characterise professional education in open learning institutions, many of which are combing several technologies very effectively.

In all, post-graduate diplomas in management were presented to 436 students, PG diplomas in IT and management (PGDITM) to 151, professional diplomas in various disciplines to 780 students and professional diplomas in programmes in collaboration with the American Management Association to 83. Four Fellowships were also awarded to Mr V P Chandan, president, Qualcomm India, Maj Gen K C Padha, VSM, commandant, College of Management, Secunderabad, Mr Anoop K Gogna, DG, Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation, Salem, and Lt Gen Sudhir Kumar, PVSM, (Retd), for ‘achievements and contribution in the field of professional management.’