The paper traces the historical perspectives of open and distance education in India. It also discusses the various modalities and standards followed by various universities in offering social work education through open and distance learning (ODL) mode. It also highlights the achievements and challenges of social work education through ODL mode in India. The article will be extremely helpful to the academicians and policy makers in understanding the various dimensions of social work education through ODL mode in Indian context. The study recommends that Indira Gandhi National Open University model is one of the successful models of offering social work education through ODL mode.

This article explores the discoveries and disruptions of fieldwork in social work during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by obtaining information from the social work educators in India. By employing an exploratory online survey method, emerging experiences, growing challenges, implemented activities, engagement of learners and solid suggestions are drawn from the study and presented in this article. The findings of this article are useful for the fraternity of social work to adopt and implement online/offline/blended modes of fieldwork for their students in a systematic way and complete the fieldwork requirements during a pandemic situation.