What is the difference between online mode and open and distance learning mode?
Checked against
Verified
- Authority
- University Grants Commission — Distance Education Bureau
- Regulation
- 2020 UGC ODL and Online Programmes Regulations, regs 2(f), 2(u) and 2(v). English gazette https://deb.ugc.ac.in/pdf/20200906.pdf
- Applies to
- Standing definitions. Approval is checked per session.
- Last checked
- 28 October 2026
- Official source
- https://deb.ugc.ac.in/pdf/20200906.pdf
Short answer
The 2020 regulations define the modes separately. Conventional mode is face-to-face interaction between teacher and learner in a regular classroom, and it does not exclude supplementary online instruction. Online mode provides flexible learning by overcoming the separation of teacher and learner using the internet, e-learning materials, and full programme delivery through the internet using technology-assisted mechanisms and resources. Open and distance learning mode overcomes that separation with a variety of media, including print, electronic, online, and occasional interactive face-to-face meetings or learner support services, including practical or work experiences. Recognition in one mode is a separate fact from recognition in another.
Three definitions in the 2020 regulations
Regulation 2 of the gazette defines the terms. The quotations here follow the English text, with line-break spaces from the PDF extraction removed:
Conventional mode means a mode of providing learning opportunities through face-to-face interaction between the teacher and learner in a regular classroom environment, but does not exclude supplementary instructions, if any, for the learner through use of online.
Online mode means a mode of providing flexible learning opportunities by overcoming separation of teacher and learner using the internet, e-learning materials, and full-fledged programme delivery through the internet using technology-assisted mechanisms and resources.
Open and distance learning mode means a mode of providing flexible learning opportunities by overcoming separation of teacher and learner using a variety of media, including print, electronic, online, and occasional interactive face-to-face meetings with the learners or learner support services to deliver teaching-learning experiences, including practical or work experiences.
The live DEB FAQ, read on 28 October 2026, does not define these three terms. A brochure label is editorial material from the institution. The regulatory meaning is the gazette definition, and the mode that matters for a particular programme is the mode named on that programme's recognition record.
What the study-modes page is doing beside this
/study-modes describes what regular, online, and distance study tend to involve from day to day. This question sits underneath that comparison and gives the regulatory meanings of the three names. The checklist asks the visitor to name a mode. This question is the meaning of the name.
What the definitions leave open
The definitions do not say that every programme may be offered in every mode. Programmes prohibited in open and distance learning or online mode stay outside those modes. A university's presence on the general UGC list is a different fact from approval to offer a named programme online or at a distance. The definitions also do not decide how an employer, a professional council, or another university will treat the award. That later use is outside regulation 2.
Verify
What you should check yourself
- The mode named on the DEB record for this institution, programme, and session.
- Whether the programme is in a discipline the current DEB material prohibits in that mode.
- Whether classroom teaching is the programme itself, or only occasional contact inside a distance programme.
- Whether "online" on the institution's site matches "Online mode" in the regulations, rather than extra material inside a regular programme.
A common misconception
A regular programme that uploads notes or holds some classes online has become an online programme. Regulation 2(f) keeps supplementary online instruction inside conventional mode. Online mode is a separately defined way of delivering the whole programme, and it has its own recognition.
Optional guidance
Need this applied to your situation?
A verified answer is not the whole decision. It does not know your family, your budget, or the specific programme in front of you. A session here is Clarity or Guided Journey.