Interactive Radio for Supporting Distance Education: An Evaluation Study

Radio has a great potential to support learning at a distance. Being an easily accessible and cost effective medium, IGNOU started an interactive radio project for the students of Management and Bachelor Preparatory Programme. The objective of the project was to interact with the students in their own language and share experiences with them. The effectiveness (pedagogic, access and utilisation) of interactive radio instruction was evaluated and reported in this paper. The students appreciated interactive radio sessions as effective inputs for accomplishing their course objectives. Besides IGNOU students, the students enrolled with other institutions and enlightened public also participated in the sessions. The study revealed that students' participation in the interactive radio sessions was higher than the teleconferences and face to face personal contact sessions. The project can be replicated in other areas also, with systematic planning, implementation and monitoring.