The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has created ripples in the education sector by implementing and focusing on strengthening the education system rather than emphasizing on the exam system. Its free education initiatives to all the students, irrespective of them studying in IGNOU aims to foster the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in the country. Emerging as the world's largest digital educational resource repository, eGyan Kosh includes digitized and uploaded storage of over 95% of the IGNOU's self-instructional material. At present there are more than 60,000 active registered users of the repository. The site has been visited over 3 lakh times. The facilities of e-Gyankosh are now being extended with a FlexiLearn platform to offer 'open courses' free of cost with course-wise registration and assessment. Flexilearn provides free and easy access to IGNOU's courses. A modular approach is followed wherein a learner can combine course credits to obtain a degree or diploma of their choice. It integrates free learning resources with learning management systems for anyone who wants to learn, whatever their educational needs and experience. The platform provides an alternate way of awarding degrees and diplomas. It is not just the digital content which is popular among students, “The University through its Material Production and Distribution Division (MPDD) printed over 1,40,29,000 Blocks of study materials in the year 2010 and sold study material worth 2.57 crores inspite of the free material available online. This, in itself, illustrates the huge scale of operations in academic activity,” said Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor of the university.
