IGNOU MJML 221 Practical (Audiovisual) for MAJMC and PGJMC Learners

What the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical asks of a MAJMC learner

The July 2026 Common Prospectus prints three first-year practicals for MAJMC, PGJMC and MAJEM: MJML 220 Practical: Print, MJML 221 Practical: Audiovisual and MJML 023 Practical: Digital Media. You choose any two of them, at 6 credits each. The MJML-221 manual says there are no face-to-face classes for this course, so attendance does not arise; it points you instead to sessions on Gyan Darshan (TV), Gyan Vani (radio), Gyandhara (internet radio), Google Classroom and Facebook, and to the Facebook page of the School of Journalism and New Media Studies for updates.

At our desk, the practical part of a programme brings far more worry than any theory paper, even for learners who sail through their term-end exams. MJML-221 leaves no written paper to lean on: the manual puts the full 100 marks on the production portfolio.

A good number of learners discover only late in the session that a practical sits inside their programme. In MAJMC year one the choice of two practicals is your own, and MJML-221 is the option with four recorded items (5, 7, 8 and 9) that each need recording time.

Learners often arrive holding three sets of rules: the manual, a counsellor’s version and a senior’s old sample. For this course an old sample may follow the MJML-121 Audio-Visual manual of 2023, with its 70 portfolio marks and 30 viva marks. The MJML-221 manual linked from the IGNOU MAJMC programme page is the one that governs your portfolio.

Does the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical have a viva?

The IGNOU MJML 221 Practical manual answers this question two ways inside the same 10-page file. Its evaluation page reads “No viva-voce component in the evaluation”: maximum marks 100, every one of them for the production portfolio. Yet instruction iv for preparing the portfolio still tells you to keep all your audio and video files ready to show at the time of viva voce.

Read together, the marks scheme gives a viva no marks, while your study centre may still ask to see the files play. The older MJML-121 manual did carry a viva, worth 30 of 100 marks and taken by an external examiner beside 70 marks for the portfolio. Preparation is the same under either reading: keep every submitted file, in item order, on a device you can open at the study centre.

Plenty of learners who come to us cannot say whether a viva applies to them, and MJML-221 shows why: its manual prints a viva instruction beside a no-viva marks scheme. Put the question to your study centre before the last date, and carry your drive when you go.

Some learners take a friend’s advice from another study centre and later find their own centre works differently. The MJML-221 manual sends the portfolio to your own study centre for evaluation and points you to the Regional Centre only if a problem comes up there, so the answer that counts is your centre’s.

MJML 221 production portfolio: ten activities and 100 marks

The MJML 221 production portfolio is the whole of the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical. Each of the ten activities has a quantity, a length or running time and fixed marks, and item 1 alone asks for two pieces.

Add the columns and a split appears that the manual never states in words. The six written items (1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 10) carry 40 marks; the four recorded items (5, 7, 8 and 9) carry 60, and items 7 and 9 alone carry 40 of the 100.

We see synopses and reports come back for running past the length their course sets. MJML-221 sets a limit for each activity, from 150 words for each announcement to a documentary script that stops after its first five minutes, so time each recording and count each script against its row above.

“Do I have to use one of the printed topics?” is a question we hear often. For item 5 of MJML-221 the manual names family values, water conservation, education of the girl child and the public health system, then adds “etc.”, so these are examples and any contemporary issue qualifies.

Learners tell us that picking a topic is where they feel most lost, and many say no class ever showed them how. MJML-221 has no face-to-face classes, so the issue for item 9, a story pertinent to your area, is a choice to settle before the camera comes out.

Ask which MAJMC guide covers these items

Where the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical portfolio is submitted

The IGNOU MJML 221 Practical portfolio goes to your own study centre for evaluation. If you face a problem at the study centre, the manual tells you to contact your Regional Centre. Learners of an online programme submit the production portfolio through the LMS. On either route, keep a copy of the practical work with you.

Learners are often unsure whether their work belongs with the Regional Centre or the study centre, and a few carry it straight to Maidan Garhi, which leads to rejection. MJML-221 names the study centre as the place of submission and the Regional Centre as the office to approach when the study centre gives trouble.

Now and then a learner emails the work in place of using the course’s route. The MJML-221 manual names two routes only, the study centre and the LMS for online programmes, and email is neither.

Online uploads go wrong in familiar ways: missing parts, a scatter of separate files where one was wanted, and a first page with wrong details; an incomplete upload is generally not evaluated and waits for the next session. The manual gives MJML-221 learners on the LMS no separate list, so the five parts in the next section are the safest checklist for an upload too.

The MJML 221 practical manual’s five-part submission file

When you hand over practical work, the MJML 221 practical manual asks for these five items in this order:

1. A cover page with your name, enrolment number, programme code, course code, study centre code, Regional Centre name and code, email id, phone number and address.
2. Your IGNOU Identity Card. The manual does not say whether a photocopy will do, so ask the study centre which it wants.
3. The examination fee receipt of MJML 221, paid with your term-end examination form.
4. The table of the 10 activities of the production portfolio, as printed in the manual.
5. All 10 activities together in one file, along with the CD, DVD or pen drive.

Practical work is usually read in a fixed sequence, and a missing part costs marks. For MJML-221 that sequence is the five-item list above, cover first and the drive travelling with item 5.

Page order puzzles many of the learners we meet. Inside item 5 the MJML-221 manual fixes no order, so we suggest filing the written pieces in the table’s numbering, 1 to 10, which lets the evaluator tick each one against the table you attach.

Work comes back when learners do not know which documents it must carry. MJML-221 keeps the list short, cover page, identity card and MJML 221 fee receipt, and asks for no certificate or signature from anyone else.

Folder, front page and the CD, DVD or pen drive

All written work for the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical goes into a folder with your details on the front page: name, enrolment number, programme code, course code, study centre code, Regional Centre code, email id, phone number and address. Audio and video files go on a CD, DVD or pen drive, attached properly to the portfolio and marked with your details as well. The folder list asks for the Regional Centre code, while the cover-page list in the submission section asks for the Regional Centre name and code, so write both.

A file name that carries the item number, such as item-07-video-story, lets the evaluator match each recording to the table. That naming is our suggestion; the manual sets none.

Title pages with a wrong enrolment number or study centre code turn up regularly. MJML-221 wants those details in two places, the folder’s front page and the drive itself, so check both against your identity card and registration details.

Some learners hand in their work spiral bound. The MJML-221 manual asks only that the written work be compiled in a folder, and it names no binding.

How many copies, and where? Many learners ask us. MJML-221 sets no copy count for the study centre and twice tells you to keep a copy yourself; for the recordings, a second drive serves that purpose.

30 June, 31 December, the one-year rule and the Rs 500 fee

Dates for the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical follow the term-end cycle. The manual prints two last dates for submission of practical work each year: 30 June for the June term-end examination and 31 December for the December one. It also asks you to stay in touch with your study centre and Regional Centre for updated information on last dates.

You can appear in the MJML-221 term-end examination only one year after your registration. The manual’s examples: admission in the January 2025 cycle allows the December 2025 examination, and admission in the July 2025 cycle allows June 2026, not earlier. At the other end, the course must be completed within the maximum duration, three years for the PG Diploma and four years for the Master’s degree.

Practical Audiovisual has no written question paper, yet you still fill the term-end examination form for MJML-221 like any other course of the programme. At 6 credits, its practical examination fee is Rs 500: the July 2026 Common Prospectus sets Rs 300 up to 4 credits and Rs 500 above 4 credits, submitted with the examination form. The manual adds that the fee is valid only for the examination it was paid for, so pay once your portfolio is ready.

Our records show that 70 to 80 percent of students get going only in the final month before a submission date. For MJML-221 that month is June or December, and four of the ten items have to be recorded before the last date for submission of practical work arrives.

A common belief is that IGNOU pushes each last date back by a month, so some learners wait for an extended date. The MJML-221 manual prints 30 June and 31 December; whether any extension comes is IGNOU’s decision, and a plan built on the printed date carries no such risk.

The two practical amounts, Rs 300 and Rs 500, confuse many learners. MJML-221 sits in the above-4-credits row, so its figure is Rs 500.

What MJML-221 learners ask before submitting

Your own camera and your own voice: copying and MJML-221

For the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical the manual is direct: make your own production portfolio and do not copy it from anywhere, because portfolios may be rejected where evidence of copying or other malpractice is found. Item 7 adds that the still photographs must be taken by you, and item 8 that you conduct and record the interview yourself.

Ready-made practical files circulate online, and some get handed in with nothing changed beyond the name and enrolment number; when several learners at one centre submit the same content, it is easy to spot. The MJML-221 manual allows a portfolio to be rejected on evidence of copying.

Some learners hand in AI-written text unchanged, one more reason identical pieces keep appearing. The written items of MJML-221 ask for your view of a film, an anchor and a documentary you chose, and your own handwriting on the page.

Many learners lift internet material and hand it in with no plagiarism check. Item 10 of MJML-221 asks for research on an Indian freedom fighter or a great Indian scientist, so put that research in your own words and note where each fact came from.

Handwritten scripts and phone recordings, item by item

All written work for the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical must be in your own handwriting. That covers items 1 to 4, 6 and 10, and the script for item 5, which the manual lists as “write script and record a video file”. The recorded items carry these conditions in the manual:

• Item 5: an opening piece to camera through a mobile phone, for an informative TV news feature, with a suitable title, about 2 minutes.
• Item 7: still photographs taken by you on a topic related to Indian culture, suitable background music, no voice-over, a title, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Item 8: an interview for radio or TV that you conduct and record, 7 to 8 minutes, as an audio or video file.
• Item 9: a standard, finally edited television news package on an issue pertinent to your area, about 2 minutes.

Before copying anything to the drive, play every file on a second computer. Then keep the same files ready to show, as instruction iv asks.

Across practical courses, the written part loses the most marks and is also the easiest part to put right. In MJML-221 the six written items are worth 40 of the 100 marks, so the handwritten set deserves as much care as the footage.

Evaluators look for each piece to link what you did with a concept from the course, and pieces that only describe miss it. The MJML-221 manual asks you to apply what you learnt in the theory courses: item 4 wants a documentary’s strengths and weaknesses, and item 3 your reasons for liking an anchor, which a plot summary or a list of shows does not give.

The learners who do well start early, confirm with their own centre what the rules are, date their work as they go and can explain each page in their own words. For MJML-221 that means fixing the item 8 interview and shooting item 9 weeks before 30 June or 31 December.

Theory books behind the audiovisual portfolio

The manual opens by asking you to go through the study material of all the theory courses, because MJML-221 applies them. For the radio bulletin, the piece to camera, the interview and the news package, the matching first-year theory course is MJM 023 Broadcast and Online Journalism. Watch the code: MJM 023 is that 4-credit theory course, while MJML 023 is Practical: Digital Media. Our MJM 23 book is a study guide for that theory course, not for the practical.

Three causes keep recurring across programmes: rules reach learners late and differ by centre, practical work assumes time many distance learners do not have, and the file gets treated as formatting when it should show learning applied. MJML-221 asks you to apply your theory courses, which is why the reading comes before the recording.

Check the MJM 23 medium and edition with us

Every rule on this page for the IGNOU MJML 221 Practical comes from the documents listed below; where your study centre issues something more specific, its notice decides for your centre. If you later choose the second-year MJMP 120 dissertation option, see our MJMP 120 project guide.

Where the MJML-221 facts come from

shrichakradhar.com is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by IGNOU. The books and papers linked here are study material; we do not prepare, record or sell MJML-221 portfolios, scripts or files for submission.