There is a vast variety of courses being offered which not only include serious industries like engineering or business studies, in fact all kinds of fun interactive courses like Social Media Marketing, Baking and Cake Decorating and many other ingenious courses are also offered.
The number of institutes and centers offering these courses in India has doubled in the past few years along with the strength of students, young professionals and entrepreneurs opting for these courses.
Many private and public institutions are now offering a wide range of distance learning courses from the highest level of degree and doctorate programs to the basic, fun and interactive ones. Online courses include regular, corporate and MDP courses comprising many subjects like Law, Psychology, Business Studies, Nursing, Food Science, Online Marketing, Interior Designing, Gardening and others.
Under strict guidelines, the sole distance education regulating body in India, Distance Education Council (DEC) has granted approval to many universities to offer such courses. Some of the most popular and renowned Distance Learning centers in India are:
Indra Gandhi National Open University – New Delhi
IGNOU was named after the former Prime Minister of India, Indra Gandhi and was established in 1985 with the sole purpose of imparting education by means of distance learning and providing better education opportunities to the lower segment of society in India.
Yashwantrao Maharashtra Open university – Nasik
Established in 1989, YCMOU offers a wide range of Certificate Programmes, Diplomas and Degrees along with Free online courses. With an interactive audio-visual learning format, students here enroll from all over the world.
Sikkim Manipal University – Gangtok
A public-private partnership venture, SMU – DE was established in 1995 and has been awarded the ‘Students most preferred Distance Education University’. Their focus is on professional courses like MBA, MCA, BCA, BBA and others.
Annamalai University – Tamil Nadu
One of Asia’s largest public residential universities, the Annamalai University offers more than 500 online courses in various fields like Fashion Design, Hotel Management, Retail Management, Yoga, Music and many others.
IMT Distance and open Learning Institute – Ghaziabad
IMT-CDL is known for its wide range of online Management and IT program mes offered and is rated as one of the Top 10 B-schools for management in India.
There has been a steady growth in enrollments for distance learning courses in India with lakhs enrolling every year. More than 40% of enrollments in such courses are women as compared to approximately 30% in the conventional system. Distance Education in India has been a boon for people residing in remote places, for working people and especially for Indian women.
IEIMT is a leading name in distance learning service providers in India. IEIMT has achieved some new dimensions for better communication between students and teachers in the verticals of MBA Distance Learning by introducing real time or offline study material.