IGNOU MADE Project (MDEP-520): Three Streams, Synopsis, Proforma and Report Format

Research note. Built from the STRIDE MDEP-420 Project Work Handbook (revision 2010, printed April 2011; eGyanKosh copy opened in October 2026), the official MADE and MADEOL programme pages on ignou.ac.in read on 6 October 2026, the IGNOU Common Prospectus July 2026, and STRIDE’s MADE assignment files for 2026. Where an address or contact in the Handbook has changed, this page says so.

• 8 creditsMDEP-520 Project Work, year 2 (Prospectus July 2026, MADE page)
• 3 streamsResearch, Training, Material Development (Handbook 3.1)
• About 500words in the project proposal (Handbook 3.2.2)
• 4 or fewerobjectives the Handbook asks you to set
• 15,000 to 18,000words in the report, around 60 to 70 pages (Handbook 4.4)
• Rs 500project evaluation fee above 4 credits, with the TEE form (Prospectus p. 27)

IGNOU MADE Project Code: MDEP-520 Still Runs on the MDEP-420 Handbook

The current project course of the IGNOU Master of Arts (Distance Education) is MDEP-520 Project Work, 8 credits, placed in the second year. The Common Prospectus July 2026 lists it with MDE-415, MDE-416, MDE-417 and MDE-419 in year 2, and notes that MADE was revised from 60 to 64 credits from July 2020.

Students who search for an MDEP-520 guideline usually find nothing, and that matches what we found: no MDEP-520 handbook on eGyanKosh or ignou.ac.in in October 2026. The official MDEP-520 course introduction on the MADE programme page uses the same purpose statement and the same three objectives as the MDEP-420 Project Work Handbook, and it still points learners back to MDE-415 for research methodology. So the MDEP-420 Handbook is the working document for MDEP-520, with two cautions: its course code and its postal addresses are older than the course you are registered in.

Learners who completed the first year of MADE or the PGDDE before July 2020 and re-register for the second year by lateral entry take the 2-credit bridge course MDE-521, as the Prospectus notes. Exam fees are not part of the programme fee. If you were looking for the DECE-4 project of the Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education, that is a different programme: see our DECE-4 project guide.

Five Official Documents, Two Study Files

Keep these two groups apart. The left column is what IGNOU published and what your work is judged against. The right column is study reference we made for this page: useful for seeing the layout, never for submission.

Purpose of the MDEP-520 Project in the IGNOU MADE Programme

The MDEP-520 project exists to put you in contact with the realities and practices of distance education systems: their particular problems, the demands made on them and the possibilities in them. Both the Handbook and the current MDEP-520 course page say this, and both add that the project is a chance to look critically at a problem you faced, or face now, as a learner in the open and distance learning system.

The official objectives are three, and they are the same in both documents:

• to develop research skills, training skills and learning material development skills;
• to identify solutions for local problems through the scientific method of investigation;
• to create new knowledge in the area of distance education.

The first objective is why the project has three streams. A learner who works in a study centre may be better placed to run and report a training programme than to survey learners, and a learner with media skills may produce a learning material. The course page also assumes most MADE learners are in-service teachers or staff inside distance education, so a problem from your own institution is the natural starting point.

Scope of the IGNOU MADE Project

The scope of the IGNOU MADE project is any theme or topic related to distance education, carried out in one of three streams. The Handbook’s themes are suggestions; it says you may take a distance education topic that is not listed. What you cannot do is mix streams or share a project: two students cannot work together on one project, though they may work independently on the same topic with different samples.

Suggested Topics for IGNOU MADE Project (MDEP 520)

Suggested topics for the IGNOU MADE project come from eleven themes in Part B of the Handbook. The useful part is the last column: for many themes the Handbook says what access you need before you start, and a topic you cannot get data for is the one to drop first.

The sample synopsis in the document map uses Theme 3 (critical analysis of assignment responses). For a topic in your own workplace, check access first, then frame the title so that it states the variable, the group and the place, as the template’s first field asks.

IGNOU MADE MDEP-520 Project Proposal (Synopsis)

The IGNOU MADE MDEP-520 project proposal is a document of about 500 words that you send to STRIDE for approval before starting the project. For the Research stream the Handbook gives a nine-field template, with a second column headed “Specific comments from the supervisor”. It also sets four rules: limit objectives to four or fewer; a hypothesis is optional and may be written as research questions; the methodology must say how you will conduct the study and which tools and techniques you will use; and implications can be stated in general terms at this stage.

Training and Material Development proposals have different contents, listed in the stream table above. Once the proposal is approved you may start; if suggestions come back, you incorporate them first. See also our general notes on writing project objectives.

How it decides. The tool lists the proposal components the Handbook names for your stream (nine template fields for Research, six items for Training, five for Material Development) and reports any you have not ticked. Hypotheses are never flagged, because the Handbook says not all studies need them. Population and sample are flagged as required when you say there is field work. More than four objectives is flagged, because the Handbook asks you to limit objectives to four or fewer. If you enter a word count, it is compared with the Handbook’s “about 500 words” without any pass or fail line, since the Handbook sets none. Proforma entries are checked against Appendix 3, whose note (i) asks for all entries to be filled in. It does not predict approval; the Project Proposal Evaluator decides.

Appendix 3 Proforma, Box by Box

The proforma that travels with your proposal is Appendix 3 of the Handbook, “Proforma for Approval of M.A. (DE) Project Proposal”, on page 81. It is short, and it contains no box for a guide’s signature or bio-data: the Handbook says STRIDE faculty guide MADE learners from the proposal stage to the report. Here is every box, who fills it and what to watch.

Because the proforma asks for no guide bio-data, there is no bio-data checklist for MADE. If STRIDE or your study centre asks for anything extra in writing, follow that instruction.

Research Methodology for the MDEP 520 Project

Research methodology for the MDEP-520 project has to be matched to your objectives, with a reason for each choice, the instruments named and the way each will be administered. That is what field 5 of the proposal template asks. The methods themselves come from MDE-415 Research Methods for Distance Education, which the Handbook and the MDEP-520 course page both send you back to. MDE-415 covers philosophical, historical, naturalistic, case study, descriptive, experimental and action research; population, sample and sampling methods; the characteristics of a good research tool; and data analysis with statistical packages.

Part B of the Handbook goes further than most guidance by describing how particular themes are usually studied. Use it to choose your design before you write the proposal.

Part D of the Handbook prints three example instruments you may adapt: a questionnaire on learners’ perspectives on IGNOU’s student support services, a Training of Trainers instrument on self-learning material development, and one from an exploratory study of how distance learners use the activities in self-instructional materials. Appendices 4 to 7 add a training design, trainer and workshop evaluation forms and a student satisfaction survey. If you adapt one, say so in your methodology and cite it.

Structure of the IGNOU MADE Project Report

The structure of the IGNOU MADE project report depends on your stream. For the Research stream, section 4.1 of the Handbook lists six chapters and the items that must accompany them. The Training and Material Development chapter lists are in the stream table in the Scope section.

Alongside the chapters, every stream’s report must carry a cover page in the Appendix 1 format, the Appendix 2 Certificate of Originality, a contents page with chapter-wise titles and page numbers, a list of abbreviations, a copy of the approved project proposal, and the supporting material for your stream (questionnaires for Research, training resources for Training, resources and technology for Material Development). The bibliography lists books, journals and other sources in alphabetical order, in one reference style only.

The certificate for the project is the Certificate of Originality. You declare that the report is your original work and has not been submitted earlier to any institution, and sign it with your name, enrolment number and address; the supervisor signs it, with date and place. In the Training stream the Handbook allows it to be authenticated by the supervisor or the Regional Centre Director. The report format template lays out this page order with empty tables. For general dissertation conventions across programmes, see our project report format guide.

Formatting Guidelines for the IGNOU MDEP-520 Project

The IGNOU MDEP-520 project report should be 15,000 to 18,000 words, around 60 to 70 pages, typed in double space on one side of A4 paper, with every page numbered and the volume properly bound so that no pages come loose. Annexures and bibliography are not counted in the length. The earlier version of this page gave 8,000 to 12,000 words, 1.5 spacing and Times New Roman; none of that is in the Handbook, and this version corrects it.

The Handbook says typed. For the general question across programmes, see whether an IGNOU project can be handwritten.

How it decides. Pages are estimated at 250 words per double-spaced A4 page, the ratio implied by the Handbook’s own figures (15,000 words for about 60 pages). Your total is compared with the Handbook range of 15,000 to 18,000 words, and the planner tells you how many words you are short of 15,000 or over 18,000. Annexures and bibliography are left out because the Handbook does not count them. Chapter shares are shown as percentages only; the Handbook sets no word split between chapters. For Training it checks at least five session reports (section 4.2) and two training resources (Theme 10). For Material Development it compares running time with the Theme 11 suggestions of about 20 minutes for audio and 10 to 15 minutes for video. Every result ends with the copy rule: prepare three, keep one, submit two to SED.

Submission Procedure for the MADE Project

The MADE project is submitted in two places, neither of them your Regional Centre: the proposal and proforma go to the Course Coordinator of the project course at STRIDE, and two bound copies of the report go to the Student Evaluation Division (SED), IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi 110068. The Handbook adds that you can submit the proposal and the report at any time of the year.

Steps, in order

1. Choose your stream and a topic you have access to.
2. Write the proposal (about 500 words, four or fewer objectives) and fill every box of the Appendix 3 proforma.
3. Confirm the current STRIDE address, then send the proposal and proforma to the Course Coordinator for MDEP-520.
4. If suggestions come back, rework the proposal and send it again. Start the project once it is approved.
5. Write the report in your stream’s chapter order, within 15,000 to 18,000 words.
6. Attach the Certificate of Originality and a copy of the approved proposal, then bind three copies.
7. Submit two copies to SED, keep one, and pay the project evaluation fee with your Term-End Examination form.
8. Track the result. To read project status messages, use our project status guide.

For the general process that applies to all programmes, see our IGNOU project submission guide.

Evaluation Criteria for the MADE Project

The MADE project is evaluated on the report, using a 25, 50 and 25 per cent split that differs by stream (see the Scope section). The report then receives a letter grade.

Your result is announced only after the report has been evaluated. The Handbook describes no viva for MADE, and a third-party copy of an old IGNOU project table also marks the viva column for MADE as not applicable. If STRIDE or your Regional Centre ever calls you for one in writing, follow that notice.

For the theory courses, STRIDE’s 2026 assignment files set the completion standard as at least D in each assignment, at least C in the Term-End Examination, and at least C as the final course grade. Those standards are for assignments and examinations, not for the project, whose grades are above.

FAQs in IGNOU MADE Project (MDEP-520)

Official Sources Read for This Page

1. STRIDE, IGNOU. MDEP-420 Project Work: Handbook on Project Work. Revision 2010, printed April 2011. eGyanKosh item dated 2018, handle 123456789/42131, opened 6 October 2026. Read in full: Part A (pp. 5 to 16) and Appendices 1 to 3 (pp. 79 to 81); Parts B, C and D read for themes, resources and tools.
2. IGNOU. MADE: Master of Arts in Distance Education (ODL), programme page, read 6 October 2026.
3. IGNOU. MADEOL: Master of Arts in Distance Education (Online), programme page, read 6 October 2026.
4. IGNOU. Common Prospectus July 2026: MADE entry (course list, July 2020 revision, fee) and page 27 (project evaluation fee).
5. STRIDE, IGNOU. MADE assignments, January and July 2026 sessions, second year (address and completion standards), read 6 October 2026.

BK Sahni, founder of Shri Chakradhar Publication Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.

Serving IGNOU distance learners since 2010 with an in-house editorial team and our own printing press; publisher of IGNOU help books and guess papers. This page was rebuilt from the STRIDE Handbook and IGNOU’s own programme pages, and every procedural statement on it names its source.

ignouproject.com is an independent service. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by IGNOU or STRIDE. Rules, addresses and fees can change; confirm them with STRIDE or on ignou.ac.in before you submit. Related reading: all IGNOU project guides, IGNOU synopsis format, IGNOU project guidelines by programme, the MADE programme at STRIDE.