Open and Distance Learning in Asia

Abstract

Universitas Terbuka (UT) is committed to making higher education open to all Indonesians. All efforts are directed to address and maintain UT’s openness, flexibility, and accessibility. As a result, UT successfully provides higher education to about 600,000 students who come from various social and economic backgrounds. Due to limited ICT infrastructure in Indonesia, UT still uses printed materials as the main learning media, supplemented with various non-printed materials. UT also provides learning support in the form of face-to-face and online tutorials, digital libraries, and other online resources. The advancement of ICT and greater public access to the Internet has allowed students to have easier access to UT’s programs and services. The remaining challenge for UT is balancing the quality of materials and learning supports for different students with different learning circumstances. It is very important for UT that no potential students are marginalized due to their lack of access to certain technologies. Nevertheless, it is envisioned that UT will increase the utilization of ICT in its future system.