Open and distance learning – Access and success

As the world conference of the International Council for Open and Distance Education approaches, ICDE President Tian Belawati – rector of Indonesia’s enormous open institution Universitas Terbuka – says that the twin messages of open, distance and flexible learning are “access and success”.

“Open and distance learning is important for providing greater access to education, but it has also proved time and again to be a successful mode of higher education, although not necessarily recognised by students and governments around the world,” Tian told University World News.

It is “effective, it helps, it works – if successful, it can be even better than face-to-face higher education”.

Tian was speaking ahead of the 26th ICDE World Conference being held at the mega-resort Sun City north of Johannesburg from 14-16 October. The conference is being hosted by the University of South Africa under the theme “Growing capacities for sustainable distance e-learning provision”.

Pushing for recognition

The ICDE is pushing for recognition regionally and globally, according to Tian, and to ensure that policies enhance this type of learning experience. Government regulations, in particular, are not necessarily geared towards open learning.

“Open and distance learning is strong and growing around the world, which is why an organisation such as ICDE is necessary,” she says. “Advocacy has to be at a global level.”

“We are the only global organisation involving different kinds of players in open, flexible and distance learning.” Some organisations provide online only courses, some traditional universities are also playing a role in distance education, and others blend the approaches.

But all are at different stages of technological development, between and within countries. “We can learn from each other.” Developed countries can learn from developing countries and vice versa.

This is where ICDE steps in.

“For distance learning institutions to be effectively serving a population, institutions need some national policies and regulations,” says Tian.

“We did a survey some years ago and distance learning is growing regardless of whether there are policies. The practitioners are doing it already and doing really well.

“The most important issue is acknowledgement that graduates of open and online and distance universities are on a par in terms of quality with traditional universities,” she adds.

Clear policies from ICDE members’ governments could enhance open and distance learning even more. The ICDE is trying to assist with advocacy policy briefs to inform members of recent developments, so that they can lobby governments and “open their eyes”.

Access

“Open and distance learning is still about access to university,” Tian notes.

“High school students and graduates who are working are still not being reached because of lack of higher education capacity in countries like Indonesia, elsewhere in Asia and in Africa, and open and distance learning plays a vital role.”

“In my country, Indonesia, higher education participation is only around 28%. The other 72% [of the age cohort] have not yet been provided with access. Of the 28% that have access, my university alone contributes 12% of the participation rate – this shows the power of open and distance learning in providing access.”

Universitas Terbuka has some 450,000 students compared to the largest of Indonesia’s traditional universities, Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, which has some 80,000 students.

But Tian adds that the need for open and distance learning is increasing beyond access, and it has not diminished even with a larger cohort going to bricks-and-mortar universities in developing and developed countries.

“In my own university engineers are coming back when they are in management positions, and they want to upgrade their management skills,” she says. “Everything changes in the blink of an eye. Many professionals still have to upgrade their skills. And with the new flexibility provided by technology, open and distance learning is an important option.

“Policy-makers tend to focus on access through conventional universities. They know open universities have a chance to be more successful but when it comes to universities they always allocate [open universities] much less money.”

In part, she argues, this is because people in ministries almost always come from traditional face-to-face universities and do not fully understand open and distance learning.

Regulations

“It is important that governments recognise the needs of open and distance learning in regulations and when they evaluate institutions,” says Tian.

This is where ICDE members’ efforts come in. For example, student-lecturer ratios and classroom sizes as a measure of quality may not be appropriate in a system that has a large amount of self-directed learning.

“Some things are not relevant to open and distance learning. In the beginning it was very difficult to get away from such regulations,” Tian explains.

“When governments come up with laws it is only for face-to-face universities and we have to read the draft [laws] carefully and ask for exemptions. And then when revisions are made we have to check again. It’s a never-ending job.

“So far our government in Indonesia has been very supportive. They give us space to provide inputs.” But it is a constant effort to gain recognition from government. “I am always yelling,” she laughs.

It is in this kind of regulatory environment that the networking and collaboration aspects of ICDE become important. “We do not want to reinvent the wheel,” Tian says. ICDE is a forum to showcase best practices and exchange views. Even failures can provide important lessons.

“Members can find out first hand from other members about the latest technologies.” The organisation facilitates access to more developed institutions, which members can visit and where they can learn about certain aspects of open learning.

Developed countries can learn from developing countries, she notes. Developing countries can be creative: “We need not to forget that everything is not online, and just because it is not online does not mean it is not open learning,” she says.

“Developing countries managed to make this mode of education effective in their own contexts and be very creative in how they collaborate with other resources.”

One of the new developments that members are learning from more developed countries is learning analytics, which can help attract students to online learning and aid retention.

It is mostly adopted by universities in developed countries and universities that are relying wholly on online teaching and learning. “We’re still experimenting with it in my university,” Tian adds.

Technology

One of the major, shared challenges of open universities around the world is keeping up with technology.

“We have to serve all kinds of people, from the richest to the poorest, from rural areas to the capital Jakarta, those who do not have access to the latest technologies and sometimes don’t even have electricity. We have to provide people with equal quality,” Tian explains. This is a problem shared by open universities around the world.

“The challenge is to balance the latest technology with not leaving behind those without it. That is the hardest part – students who have the technology are constantly telling us they want to use it but if we use it fully we would be discriminating against those who do not have it.”

“The standard must be the same even if the medium is different,” she stresses.

The speed of change requires constant innovation. “It is easier for a small car to turn around than a long train with many different carriages,” she says. “Yes, there is much pressure from technology."

MOOCs

Tian admits that the hype around massive open online courses, or MOOCs, has been helpful for distance education generally. “MOOCs have made it easier for us to educate policy-makers on what we do.”

With universities such as Stanford, Harvard and Yale running MOOCs, policy-makers have become aware that online education can be prestigious and high quality. “Before they would think we were second-class.”

But MOOCs cannot replace distance learning, and they are currently mostly in English. Universities have to develop distance and online learning in their own languages.

“Within Asia I don’t think MOOCs have any direct effect on distance learning. Many universities are offering MOOCs as a supplementary. Universities here are still experimenting with MOOCs."

MOOCs are not a panacea, Tian adds. “Some people thought MOOCS would replace conventional distance education, but we have to distinguish between distance education, which is formal education, and MOOCs, which is non-formal education and does not grant credits for courses. It is mainly marketing and branding.”

The MOOCs movement has its own place in education for the sake of knowledge, if people are not seeking credentials. But for open and distance learning for credentials “there is still a long way to go”.

But Tian warns that with so much focus on MOOCs “there is the risk that non-online distance learning could become the new second-class”.