Role of Library Professionals in Content Development: A Study With Reference to e-PG Pathshala (A Gateway to PG Courses)

Introduction

The content in digital format while addressing the requirement of students and teachers, should also act as a catalyst to cultivate the ability in an aspirant to learn, unlearn, relearn and acquire newer abilities. As such, high-quality curriculum-based content should address the requirement of a diverse group of stakeholders for tasks such as:

• 1.

  Complementing the traditional class-room learning of the students. Students could access and use the digital content outside the class-rooms in a self-paced manner. It would also help address the issues of quality and teacher shortage.

• 2.

  Supplemental usage of digital content by the teachers in the ICT enabled smart class rooms and/or labs while teaching.

• 3.

  Professional self-development by teachers using the digital content to upgrade their own knowledge and for capacity building for new pedagogy.

• 4.

  organize and present course material to enable students to learn at their own pace.

Effective mechanisms, policies and processes need to be set up to ensure success of initiative. The critical factors which need to be addressed are:

• 1.

  Defining the standards, templates, content creation methodologies and frameworks; for content creation.

• 2.

  Design of frame work to evaluate content, its quality, accuracy, scope, correctness and interactivity and conformity to standards and specifications.

• 3.

  Deployment of the digital content using national academic cloud, ICT infrastructure and LMS.

• 4.

  Accreditation of the e-education content. There is a need for common curricular structure.

• 5.

  Digital preservation methodologies including periodic migration of content from one format to another, from one platform to another and from old hardware to new.