Programme Strategy

 

General trends in open and distance learning

More and more countries are offering open and distance learning and becoming an integral part of the landscape of the educational system. The growth has been stimulated in part by the new Internet-based and multimedia technologies and also by recognizing that traditional ways of learning need to be reinforced and supported by innovative methods if education for all is to be realized. The fact that more and more traditional universities are rapidly transforming themselves from single mode to dual mode universities in order to provide their students with the best and up-to-date educational resources is highly indicative of the trend towards open and distance learning (UNESCO, 2002).

The growing trend towards ODL is not without reasons. Many studies and documents have identified many benefits to be derived from implementing open and distance learning programmes on various aspects of education. As far as impact on the education system is concerned, it makes the education system more open and flexible towards a life-long learning society; increases independence and individuality of learning and makes both Education for All (EFA) and Education for Each (EFE) possible. Its effects on the teaching profession are also evident. It contributes to new patterns of teaching as it requires new competencies, skills, behaviour, working style and methodology of teaching and tutoring as well as contributes towards enhancing the status of the teaching profession. The impact on learner is manifested in the balance required between the increased independence, flexibility and self-control on the one hand and ethics in learning and teaching through on-line on the other. It promotes more learner-centred approach, and more enriched, higher quality and newer ways of interaction among learners. Moreover, it helps the learner in facing the complexity of planning a life-long learning event, the changes of career in life, and the changing social environment and working and living style, etc. (Wang Yibing, 2002)

Evidence has also demonstrated that it can lead to innovation in mainstream education and in the creation of a new global knowledge-based society. For governments, it increases the capacity and cost effectiveness of education and training systems as well as to reach target groups with limited access to conventional education and training. It supports and enhances the quality and relevance of existing educational structures; ensures the connection of educational institutions and curricula to the emerging networks and information resources; and promotes innovation and opportunities for learning (UNESCO 2002).

Definition and various typologies of open distance learning

To provide a more common understanding, consistency and standardization in the definition and scope of open and distance learning, some definitions and typologies of ODL are offered below (excerpted from a paper by Dr. Chaiyong Brahmawong, Thailand, 2003)

Distance education may be defined as an educational system where instructors and students are physically apart. It represents approaches that focus on opening access to education and training offerings, freeing learners from the constraints of time and place and offering flexible learning opportunities to individuals and groups of learners. Knowledge and experiences are imparted via multi media packages to help students learn effectively at their dwellings without attending regular classes. After completing all the requirements, they are awarded degrees or certificates of equal value to those from traditional, closed admission universities.

Distance education is characterized by seven key elements as follows:

1)  Separation of teacher and learner;
2)  Systematic educational organization to support self-learning; 3)  Borderless and timeless: learning anywhere, anytime by anyone;
4)  Using technological media to unite teacher and learner and carry the educational content and experience;
5)  Providing interactive two-way interactive communication among teachers and learners;
6)  Allowing occasional face-to-face meetings for both didactic and socialization purposes;
7)  Adopting an industrialized form of education with the emphasis on quality-assured mass production of learning packages so that all students get equally high quality of self-learning materials.  

Modes of Delivery

Below are the different modes of delivery of open and distance learning:  

External Study System: --Allowing students in an affiliated institution to pursue higher education by taking courses or programmes and completing the requirements for certificates or degrees. It began in 1836 at University of London where “external degrees” were granted to students in affiliated colleges and universities who passed the UL examinations and met all the requirements.  

 Extension Study System: --Providing special classes in the evening or weekend or opening special programmes for students inside or outside main campus at the local and regional levels. Students learn through the combination of self-learning and face-to-face instruction.

Extra-mural Study (On-Off Campus) System: --Providing parallel courses or programmes for both classroom-based (on-campus) students and home-based (off-campus) students. For off-campus students, distance learning materials, mostly in prints, audio visuals, and World Wide Web, are used.

Academic Market Place Systems: --A triple mode, allowing home-based, class-based, and mix groups of students through an open-admission programme to pursue their studies without attending classrooms. This was started in Thailand in 1933 at the University of Political and Moral Sciences (Thammasart University). Now it’s implemented at Ramkamhaeng University in Thailand.

Open Education System: --A single mode concept, providing education for home-based students only via distance learning materials with minimum face-to-face tutorial sessions and residential summer courses at study centres all over Great Britain [United Kingdom?]. It started at The Open University in England in 1969, now implemented world wide and also implemented at the elementary and secondary education levels. 

Open Learning System: --A triple mode of ODL, allowing home-based, class-based, and mix groups of students to pursue their study for certificate and degree programmes offered by both the ODL provider and other institutions. This was started at the Open Learning Institute (OLI) under Open Learning Agency in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Borderless Education System: --A triple mode of ODL, allowing home-based, class-based, and mix groups of students to get access to knowledge bases (KB) or knowledge centers (KC) via on-screen interactive instruction in the form of teleconferencing or off-line and on-line computer-aided instruction (CAI or web-based) enhanced by supplemental media such as prints, AV and limited face-to-face tutorials, seminars, and conferences where necessary. 

Borderless higher education also means transnational education (e.g. where the provider is from a country other than the country of provision, such as the Australian Monash University offering courses in Malaysia through their branch campus, Monash University Malaysia). It may be good to make reference to this. Another word used in relation to transnational education is 'crossboder providers.

Media Structure

The delivery system of ODL institutions fall into one of the three media structure: print-based, broadcast-based, and information and communication technology (ICT) or E-Learning-based. Each media structure employs one or two media and a set of supplementary media.

Print-Based: Under the print-based structure, prints in the forms of distance learning texts, study guides and or workbooks are used as core media and audiovisuals (AV), Radio/TV, CAI, tutorial, and on-screen teleconferencing are used as supplementary media.

Broadcast-Based: In the broadcast-based approach, knowledge and experiences are imparted to distance learners via Radio/TV programmes supplemented by prints, AV, tutorial, CAI, and on-screen interactive instruction using teleconferencing and the Internet.

ICT or E-Learning Based: The most innovative distance learning approach employs electronic learning (E-Learning)--a form of on-screen interactive instruction (OSI) in the form of CAI, teleconferencing, and the Internet supplemented by prints, AV, Radio/TV, and tutorial.

E-Education and E-Learning

Concept of E-Education: An ICT-based educational system of which major components are planned, prepared, implemented and evaluated electronically, on-line and off-line, using information and communication technology as the backbone for delivery.

Scope of E-Education: E-Education embraces three (3) areas of education: E-Management, E-Services, and E-learning

E-Educational Management: -- A electronic management system based on an effective management model such as POSDCARE Model.

• Planning-Planning via Internet
• Organizing-Virtual Organizations
• Staffing-Recruiting via Internet
• Directing-Controlling/Directing via e-mail, fax, phones, paging
• Coordinating-Networking of coordinators
• Allocation of Resources-E-banking, money transfer
• Reporting-Sending reports via e-mails
• Evaluation-Evaluation and monitoring via Internet

Examples of E-Management may be found in the following areas:

• On-line real time teleconferencing
• E-mailing and corresponding
• Project monitoring and follow-up
• E-Procurement and inventory
• E-Budget management
• E- Public relations such as newsletters, bulletin boards, e-journals
• E-Assignment and reporting

E-Services: --A service system where rendering and receiving services are processed via electronic means such as:

• Registration: new students, course registration;
• Information and documentation such as Library Services,Virtual Library or E-Library
• Counseling and guidance
• Work placement service on-line
• E--Laboratories (Virtual Labs and simulated Labs)

E-Learning: --Learning via Information and Communication Technology to support interactive two-way communication among learners and instructors using the combination of OSI and web-based instruction in the forms of digital and analog, synchronous and asynchronous, and on-line and off-line delivery systems. E-Learning may employ mainly digital, asynchronous, on-line, and broadcast or a combination of analog, synchronous, off-line, and narrowcast electronic media. E-Learning which imparts knowledge and information totally via the Internet is called “on-line learning”.

Role/Contribution of ICTs to ODL

The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the globalization of societies create new challenges and opportunities for the design and delivery of education. ICTs open up a new horizon for progress and the exchange of creativity and cultural dialogue. The emergence of the Internet has radically influenced the transformation of education and training in all sectors. The World Wide Web offers a forum and vehicle in which to teach courses that can be dynamically updated and where the learners have enormous range of resources available, free from limitations of time and space and free of charge most of the time.

Countries are at different stages as far as the use of ICT in open and distance learning is concerned. While countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, among others are becoming known for their virtual education and use of advanced technologies in their open and distance learning delivery, a small survey undertaken by UNESCO Bangkok revealed that print-based media is still most frequently used among the ODL providers in developing countries, with study guides or learning modules or workbooks serving as the most frequent learning materials in use. Consequently, the state of the facilities of the providers depends on their delivery methods. For example, those who are using IT-based methods more frequently tend to have better equipment for that purpose (Pentium computers, for example).

The UNESCO book entitled Open and Distance Learning: Trends, Policy and Strategy Considerations supports these survey findings. The Bangladesh Open University’s core instructional delivery media remain printed materials, radio and television broadcast, occasional face-to-face, and limited teleconferencing. The University of Terbuka (UT), the Indonesian Open Learning University, was established in 1984 and remains the only single mode distance education university in the country. Print materials developed by course teams remain the main medium of instruction while conventional examinations, self-tests, course practicums and micro-teaching make up the basis of student assessment. Despite the fact that 99% of higher institutions are wired in Japan, only 10% fully utilize ICTs for delivery of open and distance learning (with the use of correspondence, audio and video still dominant). Barriers to the use of ICTs include high installation and maintenance costs, the lack of organizational support, and experience and human resource issues. The open and distance learning delivery mode in Malaysia remains mostly printed lectures supplemented by face-to-face, audio, and videocassettes. In the Philippines, while more people and institutions are becoming connected to the Internet, raising the prospects for Internet-based education, printed material, radio, television and occasional face-to-face instruction remain dominant.

China on the other hand is more broadcast-based. With the establishment of the Radio and TV University system (RTVU) in 1960, China became the first country to use radio and television to provide single mode distance higher education with unified planning. Today its single mode distance RTVUs makes up one of the 11 world mega-universities. With Thailand’s comprehensive  communications  infrastructure,  its open  and  distance  learning  utilizes  current  technologies  for  instructional delivery.  Most  open  and  distance  learning  institutions  have  a  multimedia instructional delivery system and the existence of Internet systems has made it  possible  for  institutions  like  Suranaree University of Technology (SUT)  to  use  on-screen  interactive  and  web-based  Internet  media  as  core  instructional delivery systems supplemented by print, audio-visual media and telecommunications. In the Pacific, constrained by communication and geographical barriers, open and distance learning has relied on correspondence programmes and occasional face-to-face tutorials.

The UNESCO Bangkok survey has also shown that most of the countries in the region which are offering ODL acknowledged the usefulness of resources beyond the conventional library for their ODL needs, but some limits were cited as well. For example, virtual libraries were new to many institutions; CD-ROMs were costly; and funds for meetings and conferences were limited. One promising finding was the fact that all respondents have Internet connections, with about 40% using dial-up types of connection and the rest with leased lines or better technology.

As for the Internet, limited bandwidth was consistently pointed out as a problem. One respondent mentioned that information was “hard to find” in the Internet. To most respondents, the most serious obstacle posed by Internet to implementing ODL programmes was the speed of connection. However, some pointed out that this limitation often existed at the learners’ end who accessed the technology from their homes or elsewhere outside the providing institute.

Nevertheless, respondents were already using the Internet for their ODL needs. The following websites were listed to be useful:

Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration (ODL information)

UNESCO (for development in education policies)

Websites of Australian distance education institutions (for best practices and research information)

AAOU website (for conference information, publications)

ICDE website (for conference information, for collaborations, events, publications)

ACODE (for national events in Australia)

http://www.col.org (for national projects, conferences, publications, Canada)

http://www.edu.cn (for policy and laws in China)

http://www.crtvu.edu.cn (China)

http://www.cernet.edu.cn (China)

http://www.seamolec.or.id/ (Indonesia)

http://www.open.ac.uk (for student support services, UK)

http://www.keris.or.kr (Republic of Korea)

http://www.kedi.re.kr (Republic of Korea)

http://www.multicampus.co.kr (Republic of Korea)

http://www.learningtimes.net

http://www.eduventures.com

http://www.unescobkk.org/ips

http://www.jisc.ac.uk (for learning technologies and reports on technology and projects, UK)

In summary, an article entitled Virtual Education: Trends and Potential Uses (published in TechKnowLogia) pointed out that few institutions are able to use available technologies to carry out all functions related to the teaching process. Also, with rare exceptions like in South Korea, the development of virtual institutions is still experimental, unfocused and not necessarily matched to the learning needs of the clientele, but wherever decision-makers were able to develop and champion a clear vision for the educational system, the results were remarkable.

The paper entitled On-line Learning and Teaching in Post-Secondary and Higher Education by Wang Yibing (2002) poses a number of questions on the use of ICT in open and distance learning. These are:

1.   Does the use of better technology mean better or the best teaching and learning?

2.   Are first and second generation of technologies still useful?

3.   Could on-line learning and teaching be implemented independently? What are the changes required to be made accordingly?

4.   Are teachers still needed in a virtual learning and teaching environment?

5.   How do we control and ensure the quality of on-line learning and teaching?  Is it still valuable to use the same modality of quality assurance in conventional university education? How do we control and ensure the quality and mutually recognize the qualification of on-line learning and teaching across borders?

6.   Does on-line learning and teaching mean simply putting everything or copying the textbooks of conventional modality on-line?

Building the knowledge base

In order to build a most relevant and useful knowledge base in the Asia-Pacific region, the challenges and issues that confront ODL providers as well as their information needs should be the starting point. Below are a summary of issues and challenges as well as information needs identified by the respondents of the UNESCO survey.

Challenges and issues on ODL in Asia and the Pacific

The region of Asia and the Pacific are at different stages of development in their ODL programmes and are faced with various challenges and issues. For example, the more developed countries (as far as ODL is concerned) like Australia, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Thailand will be more concerned with issues dealing with how to make distance education provision more cost effective; better quality and acceptance of mutual recognition policy; best technologies for delivering ODL; factors that contribute to successful ODL; management practices and funding and external sourcing of resources. On the other hand countries just starting to get interested in offering ODL like Central Asia, Pacific Islands (except Fiji), Cambodia, Lao PDR, among others will required the very basic information that will assist them in formulating policies and setting up an ODL programme.

In a small survey conducted on the issues, challenges, and information needs on open and distance learning of selected countries in Asia and the Pacific, the most cited issues and challenges dealt with quality assurance and mutual recognition, among others. The need for quality assurance and mutual recognition was a cross-cutting issue, including the areas of policy, management, academic programmes, collaboration and e-learning recognition. Many respondents were in agreement on the lack of ODL training for teachers. Furthermore, the lack of specialists in this field and the need to train faculty and personnel in the use of ODL technology has been repeatedly mentioned.

Technology access and affordability issues for learners were also raised. Similarly, it was pointed out that funding or loan policies for ODL learners were often not readily available.

Many ODL providers recognized the importance of partnerships and networking. They mentioned the need for establishing collaborations at the national and international levels.

As far as policy and legislation aspects are concerned, the respondents identified the following issues: ODL role in the education system, ODL planning, quality, programmes and evaluation; equal treatment of ODL and traditional learners; international standards for electronic content management, classification and exchange; statutes/rules related to ODL staff recruitment; cross accreditation; and regulating e-learning.

With regard to implementation and management, the respondents felt that the following issues were important: cooperation from faculty; desire to decentralize all services, including ODL, to faculties in a large research university but lack of faculty skills, resources and interest hamper such move; boards approval; balancing academic requirement with business objective; small budget from government; and cost-effectiveness.

Information and communications technology-related issues cited include the following: inadequate technology; reliability of networking and server technologies; limited infrastructure; funding and access by students; bandwidth at student end and more use of Internet and on-line education; difficulties at having access to the infrastructure at study centres located in host colleges; lack of facilities for regional learning resource centres and communication problems with regional offices; lack of synchronous multipoint wideband facilities; digital divide in regions among higher education institutions; and more training needed for university staff.

Under teacher quality and training, the countries still acknowledge the unsatisfactory quality of teacher training and the lack of facilities for in-service teachers training and refresher courses. A matter of concerns are the weak design and delivery of interactive subject materials and the need to urgently train traditional teachers in ODL teaching. (Issues of faculty compensation and recognition, faculty responsibility/role, faculty training and support and  intellectual property rights were also pointed out).

As far as information resources are concerned, the respondents from the countries opined that there is limited access to information resources; slow feedback of information and lack of critical mass of information to tap. Furthermore, e-learning is still a new area for most of the countries. They all agreed that there is lack of expertise on e-learning in the region; there are no models to emulate; they are inhibited by the high cost of technology; and learners have poor access to technology related to e-learning.

More details are found in Profile and information needs of ODL.

Information needs

Faced by the many challenges and issues cited above, the ODL providers in Asia and the Pacific identified a set of knowledge and information needs that could help them address and respond to these challenges. Among these, the most cited information they required dealt with the following:

• Quality assurance and mutual recognition
• Country policies on ODL
• Policy issues
• Best practices on policy formulation
• Examples, best practices on ODL programmes
• Management issues and ODL strategies
• Research findings on effectiveness of delivery methods, ODL programmes and policy research
• Examples, best practices on international collaboration
• Collaborative programmes

Clearly, the respondents preferred to see more examples and best practices on all aspects of ODL.

More details are found in Profile and information needs of ODL providers.

Building the UNESCO ODL website

The proposed knowledge base that will help address the many issues and challenges raised as well as respond to the information needs of the ODL providers in Asia and the Pacific will be delivered through a web-based platform. For this purpose, UNESCO is building a website with the following objectives:

A.  To provide information to help Policy makers, administrators, and decision makers to make decisions, formulate policies, develop strategies, programmes and plans and manage or supervise ODL programmes;

B.  To provide up-to-date, state-of-the-art information on ODL in terms of concepts, development, modes of delivery, media structure, technology and research trends;

C.  To serve as a network for international collaboration by providing a platform for electronic exchange of information, ideas, experiences, lessons learned, best practices and innovative strategies related to legislation, policies, management, ODL technology, delivery systems and academic programmes;

D.  To provide a gateway access to ODL databases and knowledge resources

Target audiences

Primary Target Audiences: Policymakers, administrators and management personnel in the following institutions/organizations:

1) ODL institutions
2) E-Learning/On-Line institutions
3) Colleges and universities
4) Higher education institutions
5) Ministries of Education in charge of higher education
6) Information and communication technology organizations and institutions
7) ODL organizations and companies
8) Donor agencies for ODL
9) UN and international organizations engaged in ODL.

Secondary Target Audiences:

1)  Practitioners in ODL and ICT: instructors/teachers, resource persons, curriculum developers, educational technologists, media specialists, researchers, information specialists, ICT specialists, software programmers, instructional designers;
2)   Students and learners both on and off campuses;
3)   General public.

Contents of the open and distance learning knowledge base on higher education Website:

1) Information on UNESCO ODL- About Us

• Rationale, Objectives
• List of Contributors
• ODL FAQ/Glossary

2) Legislation:

• ODL agreements
• International
• National
• Institutional
• Intellectual property and copyright
• National
• Institutional
• ICT and Internet related laws

3) ODL Policies and Management

 3.1 National policies

• Examples by country
• Synthesis of national policies
• Guidelines in formulating comprehensive national policies

3.2 Institutional policies

• Examples from selected institutions
• Policy analysis framework

3.3 Policy research

3.4. Management

§  Administrative: fiscal, geographic, governance, labor-management, legal, student support services

§  Finance, accounting, budgeting

§  Regional and local study centres

§  Organizing supreme government council

§  Curricula

§  University politics

4) Academic Programmes

• Types of programmes: degrees, certificates
• Academic degree policies
• Curriculum structure and design
• Knowledge management and courseware production
• Team concept
• Evaluation: paper-based, electronic, practical work
• National and collaborative programmes

5) Technology and Delivery System

• ODL media structure: print-based, broadcast-based, Information and Communication Technology-Based (e-learning)
• Delivery systems (correspondence, online, face-to-face)
• Infrastructure (hardware)
• Media structure and production: systems and facilities
• e-learning (use of 1^st and 2^nd generation)
• Appropriate technology
• Instructional design
• System design
• Learning environments
• Techno-collaboration
• Institutional
• Teachers
• Learners
• Planning technology
• Training in the use of technology

6) International Networking and Collaboration:

• Examples, best practices of networking
• International events
• Staff exchanges
• Multilateral agreement
• Mutual recognition between institutions
• Regional and International (RGO, SEAMOLEC, NGO) networking
• Networking of ODL providers
• E-Learning cross border issues

7) Quality Assurance:

• Measures of quality assurance
• External accreditation
• Internal assessment and external review

8) Funding and Loans:

• Seeking funding sources for ODL programmes
• National strategies for funding ODL
• Student fees
• Endowment
• Bank policies for loans
• Income generation

9) ODL Knowledge Base and Resources:

• Searchable Databases
• ODL organizations and associations
• ODL research
• Bibliographic database
• ODL consultants
• Publications
• Online periodicals and journals
• Online ODL portals

10) Message Board

• Discussion forum
• Announcements
• Ask a peer, ask an expert

11) News and events

• News
• ODL events
• Archives
• Online submission by contributors

Profile and Information Needs of ODL Providers:

Summary of findings for UNESCO ODL-website survey

Introduction/Background

To develop the UNESCO ODL website, a survey was conducted among its target users – higher education policymakers, administrators and managers of ODL providers and government offices in the Asia Pacific region.

Questionnaires were sent out to more than 90 contacts, including higher education providers (about 60 percent) and government departments or ministries. Most were sent through email and a few, by fax. Out of the target, more than 20 respondents (representing a return rate of about 22 percent) filled up the questionnaires and returned it to UNESCO. This report summarizes the responses of the institutions listed below.

ODL Providers:

Profile of individual respondents

The individuals who responded to the questionnaires in behalf of their organizations were top-level officers, with an average age of 54. Respondents from ODL providers were much older (average age at 58) than those from the government sector (average age at 44). The respondents are relatively well exposed to information technology, with almost all of them using email and the Internet everyday.

Profile of ODL Providers

In terms of experience, almost all responding institutions belonged to countries which are well-developed in ODL. These institutions began implementing their ODL programmes as early as the 70s for a few and as late as the 90s for some. The oldest ODL provider among the respondents is the University of British Columbia, which started its programmes way back 1949.

The current student population of the ODL providers ranges from 1,000 + (PUP, Philippines) to 1.1 M (China Central Radio & TV University). The student-to-teacher ratio ranges from 5 (Allama Iqbal Open University) to a high 8000 (University of Mumbai, India).

Each provider offers anywhere from 7 to 1310 programmes in a wide range of subject areas including arts, business and management, languages, basic and applied sciences as well as social sciences. Most providers have an exchange or joint programme for students, teachers or resources at the national level. Few have similar programmes at the international level.

Print-based media is still most frequently used among the ODL providers, with study guides or learning modules or workbooks serving as the most frequent learning materials in use. Consequently, the state of the facilities of the providers depends on their delivery methods. For example, those who are using IT-based methods more frequently tend to have more equipment for that purpose (Pentium computers, for example). All respondents have Internet connections, about 40% with dial-up types of connection and the rest with leased lines or better technology.

 ODL issues cited

The respondents cited what they felt were limitations, needs and issues that have to be addressed under the ten areas given in the questionnaire. A list of their concerns follows:

1. Policy formulation and legislation

Policy aspects:

- ODL role in the education system, ODL planning, quality, programmes and evaluation - - Equal treatment of ODL and traditional learners

- International standards for electronic content management, classification and exchange

- Statutes/rules related to ODL staff recruitment

- Cross accreditation

- Regulating e-learning

Needs:

- Getting faculty/management to understand professional nature of ODL

- Understanding complicated implications before formulating policies

- How to coincide with the central government policy

- How to deal with regulatory bodies and government requirements

2. Implementation and management

Management issues:

- Cooperation from faculty

- Desire to decentralize all services including ODL to faculties in a large research university, but faculties do not have skills, resources or interest

- Boards approval

Needs:

- ODL specialists

- Monitoring system

- Statistical information as basis of management decisions

- Supervision of instructional process

- Quality assurance

- Best practices need to be shared

- Need to increase various experts and appropriate resources to improve ODL

Financial management issues:

- Balancing academic requirement with business objective

- Small budget from government

- How to become a more cost-effective institution

3. Technology

Limitations:

- Inadequate technology

- Reliability of networking and server technologies

- Limited infrastructure, funding and access by students

- Bandwidth at student end and more use of internet and online education

- There are constraints for lower income group/geographical factors

- Digital divide in regions among higher education institutions

- Though the university has been conducting training and retraining for enabling the employees in the use of technology, full satisfaction has not been achieved

- Need for specialists in the fields of ODL equipment and facilities

Use of technology:

- Optimum utilization of new technology

- How to make use of the digital technology for our teaching materials

- Choice of appropriate technology with the market

- Marketing of available e-learning courses with students who are mostly poor and without access to ICT

4. Infrastructure

Limitations:

- Bandwidth at student end

- Technological infrastructure required

- In a dependency model it is difficult to have access to the infrastructure at study centres located in host colleges.

- Lack of facilities for regional learning resource centre and communication problems with regional offices

- Lack of synchronous multipoint wideband facilities

Needs:

- Suitable site for campus.

- Strengthening of study centres

- Printing machine for the modules and more rooms

- Being able to scale up access to online services for remotely based students, staff and provide 24/7 support

- There is reasonable accessibility to various resources, centres and support services, but there is a need to upgrade and maintain services and resources.

5. Teacher quality and training

Limitations:

- Unsatisfactory teacher quality and training.

- Lack of facilities for in-service teachers training and refresher courses

- Lack of understanding of good practices even for trainers

- Lack of training of faculty in teaching

Needs:

- A large number of in-service teachers to be trained

- Regular training

- Chance for training is rare

- Skills

- Need to increase number of specialist and teachers and reduce dependency on teachers from public institutions. More training on various aspects of ODL is needed.

Training in non-conventional environment and IT:

- A matter of concern in the design and delivery of interactive subject materials

- Train lecturer/instructor as facilitator in non-conventional environment.

- Need to train traditional teachers in DE teaching (issues of faculty compensation and recognition faculty responsibility/role, faculty training and support, intellectual property rights)

6. Programme quality assurance

Limitations:

- It is sensitive and could easily be political (“No one wants to be the bad guy.”)

- No quality assurance in place within the institution

- The high cost of one-on-one tutoring

Needs:

- Establish unified and standardized quality assurance

- Establish quality assurance for institute

- Separate Quality Assurance Cell

- Indicators and criteria formulation

- Proactive QA program, referring to AAOU QA Framework and ICDE Standards

- Measures for quality assurance

- Monitored continuously but gaining and improvement can be difficult.

- Establish quality assurance for e-learning process

- Registered institutions providing ODL require approval and are subject to external quality audit. Issues of quality arise in e-learning from offshore providers.

- Training in assessment

Materials:

- Technology standardization of ODL contents

- Quality of printed material, regular revision of courses

- Whether to change the current system for creating our teaching materials

- Help of experts in curriculum development, learning materials production, etc.

7. Networking and collaboration

Needs:

- Collaboration with other open universities at national level

- Establishment of networking and collaboration

- Linkage between campus and study centres, inter-library exchange system

- How to promote international collaboration with other institutions

Issues:

- Insufficient, inconsistent, not sustainable

- Gaining partners’ trust in the e-learning approach

- Difficulty in looking for a partner who has the same commitment as the university (obstacles in establishing partnerships with business and industry)

- Credit/degree recognition, curriculum, course and test item development with partners

- Issues on mutual recognition of qualifications and off-shore quality assurance of foreign qualifications

8. Information resources

Limitations:

- Not reaching to the masses quickly

- Limited access to information resources

- Slow feedback of information

- Not available in many areas

- Need to build critical mass first (for cost-effective production)

Needs:

- Construction of tertiary level courseware, which is affordable and practical

- Inter-universities exchange of resources

- Development of sustained connectivity among state schools and appropriate

educational content based upon learners’ real and perceived needs and cultural values

- Promoting “best practices” in the distance delivery and exchange of knowledge and information through pilot projects, formal evaluation and scientific investigation

- Enough resources, but needs publicizing

9. Funding and loan policies

Limitations:

- No funding or loan policies for students

- Not available for students

- Lack of funding for exchange of knowledge and experience between ODL Universities

- Tight loan availability due to market downturn

- Funds from IDE should be utilised for the improvement of the institution only

- Educationally good approaches may not be financially viable

Government funding:

- None of government funding support mechanism

- No direct national government funding yet for ODL institutions

Needs:

- Fund raising from multiple channels

- Continued investment

10. E-learning recognition

Limitations to e-learning:

- No expertise

- No models to emulate

- High cost of technology

- Most of the learners have no ready access to technology related to e-learning

- Problems of access by learners

E-learning issues:

- Still some resistance from faculty

- Foreign provision of higher education through Internet – question of quality of education/lecturers

- Graduates from the cyber higher education institutions (university or two-year college level) can get bachelor or associate bachelor degrees

- QA and recognition of qualifications obtained via e-learning through transnational providers not registered in the country

Needs:

- Relates to teacher quality training above

- Accreditation of certificates and degrees from professional bodies

Highlight of issues

The need for quality assurance and mutual recognition was a recurring issue cited in many aspects of ODL, including the areas of policy, management, academic programmes, collaboration and e-learning recognition. It will be shown later that this ties up with the quantitative survey of the website topics preferred by the respondents

Many respondents were in agreement on the lack of ODL training for teachers. Furthermore, the lack of specialists in this field and the need to train faculty and personnel in the use of ODL technology have been repeatedly mentioned.

Technology access and affordability issues for learners were also raised. Similarly, it was pointed out that funding or loan policies for ODL learners are not readily available.

Many ODL providers recognized the importance of partnerships and networking. They mentioned the need for establishing collaborations at the national and international levels.

Limitations of current information sources and the Internet

Although respondents acknowledged the usefulness of resources beyond the conventional library for their ODL needs, some limits were cited as well. For example, virtual libraries were new to many institutions; CD-ROMs were costly; and funds for meetings and conferences were limited.

As for the Internet, limited bandwidth was consistently pointed out as a problem. One respondent mentioned that information was "hard to find" in the Internet. To most respondents, the most serious obstacle posed by Internet to implementing ODL programmes was the speed of connection. However, some pointed out that this limitation often existed at the learners' end who accessed the technology from their homes or elsewhere outside the providing institute.

Nevertheless, respondents were already using the Internet for their ODL needs. The following websites were listed to be useful:

Discussion and recommendations

With the small number of respondents to this survey, there is no guarantee that the findings are representative of the exact ODL needs of providers and higher education departments in the Asia Pacific region. However, the data collected may be used to confirm or refute the framework that has been prepared earlier for the UNESCO ODL website.

Content. Since most of the respondents came from ODL-experienced countries, it is not surprising that their areas of concerns and interests are beyond the basics of ODL. The importance of practical examples and actual practices rather than theories was quite evident. Thus, topics such as principles of ODL programme development and how to set up a ODL programme scored low in the survey. In contrast, quality assurance and best practices in various ODL aspects scored high among their interests. Since the need for quality assurance was repeatedly cited as an important ODL issue, it deserves a separate section in the website.

While many institutions are in the process of integrating IT into their ODL programmes, it is clear that most will continue using print-based media and delivery for a considerable time. However, the high score given by the respondents to the topic pertaining to research findings on the effectiveness of delivery methods indicates a strong interest and careful consideration of new technologies beyond the print-based system.

For some unknown reason, respondents seemed to perceive an electronic discussion forum as useless. If it is to be included in the ODL website, there has to be another system that will promote the use of this section, otherwise, it would be a waste of resources.

Existing websites. The three most commonly cited websites (AAOU, ICDE and COL) could be used as reference points. Their contents should be examined so as to avoid overlap in developing the UNESCO ODL site, and to identify areas that have not yet been covered sufficiently.

Website design considerations. The profile of the intended users of the ODL website should be reviewed and carefully considered when designing the site architecture and navigation tools. For example, users are already familiar with the Internet, so following the Internet conventions such as icons and navigation tools is recommended. Because most users are in their 50s or older, readability considerations come into play. The design must also try to minimize downloading time (for example, by sacrificing graphics for information) because connection speed has been repeatedly cited as an Internet limitation.

In terms of intended use, the top scorer is knowledge or information updating. This means the website must be designed to accommodate fresh content all the time. This also justifies the need to include the section on news and events even though the respondents did not perceive it to be very helpful.

Contributions. The willingness of many respondents to contribute to the website by writing relevant articles or in another way should be tapped. For example, website content reviewers or evaluators may be selected from these respondents.

Recommended outline. Based on the findings of the survey as well as the initial framework and the feedback from the UNESCO ODL consultants, the following website outline is recommended: