IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical (PGDLAN): Introduction to Computers Lab Guide

Three places the IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical is scored

The IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical is the computer lab half of MLI-001 Introduction to Computers in the PGDLAN programme (Post Graduate Diploma in Library Automation and Networking, School of Social Sciences). It is marked twice on its own, once through a practical assignment done at your centre and once in a two-hour term-end practical exam, while the MLI-001 theory paper is marked separately.

Across practical courses, learners tell us the lab component worries them more than any theory paper, and many who write theory answers with ease stall at the computer. For MLIL-001 the stakes are printed on the paper: its term-end practical carries the same weightage as the MLI-001 theory paper.

In our records, 70 to 80 percent of learners only get moving in the final month before a due date. The 2026 booklet gives two last dates for the MLIL-001 assignment, 30 September 2026 for the January 2026 session and 31 March 2027 for the July 2026 session, and the work can only be done at the centre.

Where do the 40 compulsory MLIL-001 lab hours happen?

For the IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical, the PGDLAN Programme Guide (July 2022) and the lab manual both allot 40 hours of practical work, tied to Block 2 (Software) of MLI-001. The guide attaches every PGDLAN learner to a Tele Learning Centre or Study Centre for counselling and practical sessions, says there will be compulsory computer practical in all the courses, and describes a work centre that provides the equipment. The lab manual adds that learners work under the supervision of a lab instructor and that the manual is no alternative to that instructor.

PGDLAN itself is a one-year programme (three years maximum) for holders of a Bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science, taught in English, with year-wise exams, January and July admission and a programme fee of Rs 18,200 in the July 2026 Common Prospectus. Its coordinators are Prof. Archna Shukla (archana@ignou.ac.in, 011-29572743) and Dr. Ashok Kumar (ashokkr@ignou.ac.in, 011-29572759).

Most learners we deal with hold a job, run a home, or both, and theory counselling usually leaves room to skip a class; practical sessions generally do not, and a missed practical can cost a whole session. For MLIL-001, the programme guide makes the computer practical compulsory without printing an attendance percentage, so ask your centre how it records your 40 hours.

Lab days come on fixed dates, often long sessions across several days, sometimes far from home, and learners who do not check notices miss their batch and wait for the next cycle. The prospectus says practical schedules are provided by the Learner Support Centres, so that is where the MLIL-001 dates appear.

Learners often follow a friend at another centre and then find their own centre works differently. The MLIL-001 assignment itself says the counsellor or practical supervisor at your own Study Centre or TLC supplies the documents and data you work on.

The MLIL-001 lab manual teaches DOS, Windows 98 and Unix; the newer tasks reach further

The IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical part of the PGDLAN lab manual (copyright 2005, June 2010 reprint) has three sections. Section 1 covers MS-DOS commands such as DIR, MD, SORT, RD, DEL, FORMAT, COPY, REPLACE, REN, PATH, DISKCOPY, PRINT, MORE, DATE and TIME, then batch files. Section 2 covers Windows 98: files and folders, Control Panel, Calculator, Notepad and Paint. Section 3 covers Unix: logging in, the shell, files and directories, redirection, pipes and filters, process control and the file system.

Each section ends with exercises: three MS-DOS sessions (batch files, a Country.txt file to sort and search, prompt changes), four Windows sessions and eight Unix exercises. The manual’s own introduction says its exercises were divided into sessions to match the hours set for each course.

The gap matters. The 2026 practical assignment asks for MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access work, and the 2025 papers set PowerPoint, Excel and Access tasks, none of which the MLIL-001 part of the manual teaches; MLI-001 Block 2 lists Unit 6, Application Softwares, as the place this belongs. Several manual exercises also assume floppy disks and Windows 98 menus, so practise the same operations on the systems your centre actually uses.

We meet learners holding one set of instructions from the printed material, another from their counsellor and yet another from a senior, unsure which one counts. For MLIL-001, the current assignment booklet sets the tasks and your counsellor supplies the data; the manual teaches the commands behind them.

Plenty of learners discover a practical component only late in the session. The prospectus prints MLIL 1 on the line under MLI 1 with no credit figure of its own, which makes MLIL-001 easy to overlook.

IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical assignment for 2026: what the TMA-P asks

The IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical assignment is Assignment No. 2 for the course, the practical TMA, and the booklet for the January 2026 and July 2026 sessions sets it at 50 marks. You do it at the Study Centre or TLC, the counsellor or practical supervisor provides the documents, data and databases, you make screen captures of every answer and save them in one file, and the supervisor evaluates the work on the spot. All questions are compulsory. The tasks in the 2026 MLIL 001 assignment are:

• DOS: rename a directory, combine two text files and hide a file.
• Windows: create a desktop folder, paste at least four files into it, arrange desktop icons by name, create shortcuts for MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and convert two Word files from the folder to PDF.
• Unix: create a new user with a password and write a shell script that sorts names alphabetically.
• MS Word: one paragraph with WordArt and a table of four columns and ten rows in varied fonts.
• PowerPoint: ten slides with text and pictures, a different transition on each, and at least two chart types.
• Excel: marks of 20 students over three years of PGDLAN term-end exams, with a chart.
• Access: a database of about fifteen books with bibliographic details per AACR2R, from titles the counsellor supplies.

The booklet’s general rules apply too: each candidate must complete assignments to appear in the term-end examination, assignments are valid for one year, and the last dates are 30 September 2026 (January 2026 session) and 31 March 2027 (July 2026 session).

Many learners expect IGNOU to push every last date back by a month and plan around the second date. With MLIL-001 that bet is riskier than usual, because the booklet makes completed assignments a condition for sitting the term-end exam.

Learners often cannot tell whether their work belongs with the Study Centre or with the Regional Centre, and a few deliver it straight to the University headquarters, where it is turned away. The PGDLAN booklet names one place for MLIL-001: the concerned Study Centre or TLC, where practical TMAs are submitted or shown to the counsellors.

Some learners email their work instead of using the course’s own route. For the MLIL-001 practical TMA, the booklet expects the screen-capture file to be evaluated by the supervisor at the centre on the spot.

Which code and cover details go on the MLIL-001 assignment?

The booklet prescribes a header for answer sheets (enrolment number, name, address, course and assignment details, Study Centre or TLC code) and warns that assignments which do not follow this format will not be evaluated. Two printing slips are worth knowing before you copy the header. The 2026 booklet prints the MLIL-001 practical assignment code with TMA-T where the 2024 booklet printed TMA-P, and it lists Units 1 to 9 while the programme guide gives MLI-001 eight units. Ask your counsellor which code to write.

We see first pages with a wrong enrolment number, programme details or centre code. MLIL-001 asks for such details on the assignment header and, under the December 2025 paper’s instructions, on any exam printout, which must carry your roll number, study centre and the date of the exam.

When marks go missing, learners without any acknowledgement have nothing to show. Since the MLIL-001 assignment is handed in or shown at your Study Centre or TLC, ask the coordinator there for a dated acknowledgement.

Inside the two-hour IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical exam

The IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical exam paper (MLIL-001: Introduction to Computers, Term-End Practical Examination) gives two hours for 50 marks: practical work 40 and viva voce 10, weightage 40%. The June 2025 and December 2025 papers set four questions of 10 marks each. The December 2025 paper prints these general instructions, much as the December 2012 paper did:

1. Attempt all questions.
2. Show the output to the examiner.
3. Save the output on your system, where the examiner will check it.
4. Take any required printout on a sheet signed and stamped as the paper directs, with your roll number, study centre and exam date on it.
5. No manual or handbook is allowed while you work.

The programme guide sets a minimum of 40% in practicals for clearing the course. The prospectus adds that a practical exam need not be held at the centre where you had your practical sessions, so read the venue on your hall ticket carefully.

In computer practicals, the faults we notice are programs with no output, output that does not match the code, and code that does not run. The MLIL-001 paper checks exactly this, because the examiner reads your output on the screen and in the saved files.

Plenty of learners cannot say whether a viva applies to them. For MLIL-001 it does: the term-end practical paper prints viva voce at 10 of its 50 marks.

A viva is often treated as a formality, yet learners with tidy work still lose marks when they cannot explain what they did, while those who did the work themselves answer with confidence. In MLIL-001 that means being able to say why a batch file, a Unix command or an Excel formula gives the result it does.

What the MLIL 001 question paper has asked, 2012 to 2025

Every MLIL 001 question paper we read keeps the same frame (two hours, 50 marks, practical work 40 and viva voce 10, weightage 40%) while the software has moved from the command line toward MS Office. The 2019 rows come from papers filed under June 2019 and December 2019 on IGNOU’s question paper server; each is headed only “2019”.

Three causes keep surfacing across programmes: information reaches learners late and varies by centre, practicals assume time and presence that distance learners rarely have, and the work gets treated as formatting when it should show applied skill. MLIL-001 adds its own twist, since the printed lab manual is older than the Office tasks the recent papers set.

Your own batch files, scripts and screen captures

Every scored part of the IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical happens in front of someone: the counsellor evaluates the assignment on the spot from your screen captures, and the examiner watches your output and holds the viva. A copied file cannot stand in for that. The assignment booklet also says copied assignments will be rejected and work copied from study material earns zero marks.

Ready-made practical files circulate online and get handed in after just swapping in a new name and enrolment number; identical work from one centre stands out quickly, and the viva exposes it. MLIL-001 leaves even less room, because the 2026 practical assignment is done on data your own counsellor supplies.

Some learners hand in AI-written work unchanged, which is one reason identical answers keep turning up. In the MLIL-001 exam no manual or handbook is allowed, so a batch file or shell script you have only pasted from a chatbot has to be rebuilt from memory at the machine.

Learners from Hindi-medium schooling often find technical English the hardest part of a practical. PGDLAN is taught in English only, and the MLIL-001 manual, assignment and question papers are in English, so build the vocabulary as you practise.

How much is the MLIL-001 practical exam fee, and when are the sittings?

The IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical exam is entered through the online term-end examination form. The July 2026 Common Prospectus sets the practical examination fee, from the January 2023 admission cycle, at Rs 300 for a course of up to 4 credits and Rs 500 above 4 credits, paid with the exam form and not refundable, beside Rs 200 for each theory course. The Rs 150 per course in the PGDLAN Programme Guide is an older figure. Hall tickets are uploaded on the IGNOU website 7 to 10 days before the exams, and you need your IGNOU ID card at the centre. MLIL-001 papers exist for both the June and the December 2025 exams.

Many learners mix up the Rs 300 and Rs 500 fee amounts. The IGNOU documents we read print one 4-credit figure for the MLI-001 and MLIL-001 pair and no separate figure for MLIL-001, so on either reading it sits in the up-to-4-credit slab; check the amount the exam form shows.

Practical marks often reach the grade card after theory marks, and a pending status can hold up a job offer or another admission. For MLIL-001 marks that seem missing, the prospectus contact table lists practicalsed@ignou.ac.in and 011-29572212 against practical marks of all programmes.

MLI-001 reading for Block 2 and the viva

The lab work for the IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical sits on MLI-001 Block 2 (Software): Unit 5 on operating systems (DOS, Windows, Unix and Linux) and Unit 6 on application software. That theory is what the viva and the MLI-001 paper draw on. We print theory study guides for MLI-001; the practical itself is done by you at the centre.

MLIL-001 questions students search

Before your next IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical lab day

Bring your enrolment details, get the 2026 assignment tasks from the counsellor, practise the DOS, Unix and Office operations from the table above on a working computer, and keep every screen capture in one file. The IGNOU MLIL 001 Practical rewards learners who can repeat each step without a manual. When PGDLAN reaches the MLIP-008 project stage, our customised project service has a separate page for it.

The learners who do well begin early, check the rules with the centre they belong to, keep a dated record of each lab day, collect acknowledgements as they go, and know their work well enough to explain it unprompted. For MLIL-001 that habit covers each of the three scored parts, from the TMA-P to the viva.

shrichakradhar.com is an independent publisher run by Shri Chakradhar Publication Pvt. Ltd. and is not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by IGNOU. Our guides are study reference material, not for submission as your own work; your practical assignment, exam output and viva are your own.