Supporting students to succeed in open and distance learning in the Open University of Sri Lanka and Universitas Terbuka Indonesia

Student support services

Student support in ODL has been a fundamental question to address since ODL system has existed. Despite the transformation of ODL into a technology-based system, the principles of support services for distance learners remain the same, in which students are engaged in learning and motivated to learn independently and autonomously. Recent research highlights the importance of academic and non-academic support and the roles of technologies to enable the development of more flexible, interactive and personalized learning environments that require new ways of providing learning support for open, distance and online students (Sánchez-Elvira Paniagua and Simpson, 2018). Earlier, Tait (2003) explained that distance students need support for three reasons, namely the needs for support, the reduction of dropout and the nature of learning. The primary functions of student support in ODL can be viewed as being related to the cognitive, affective, and systemic aspects, and the framework for the development of planning student support services is founded upon six core elements, namely student characteristics, course or program demands, geography, technology, scale and management systems (Tait, 2000). Tait (2014) evaluates the impact of digital technologies on student support in distance and e-learning, and further proposes that student support should now be understood as integrated with teaching and assessment. Tait (2014) further calls for reforming student support in the digital age taking into accounts both internal and external factors to the students and integrating student support with teaching. Further questions arise as regards to the kinds of effective support to students, how they are designed to meet the needs of ODL students, and how student support is integrated with teaching and learning.

Student engagement and motivation in open distance education

Educators have given increasing attention to engaging students in learning and motivating them to learn and how it is conducted in different learning and teaching contexts. Student engagement involves the interaction between the time, effort and resources invested by students and the institutions to optimize learning experience, enhance learning outcomes, and develop the students’ performance and the institution’s reputation (Trowler, 2010). Engaging students in learning is important to ensure persistence and improves academic achievement (Everett, 2015). Research has been conducted on various aspects of engagement of open and distance students in learning and findings confirm the importance of engagement of students in learning to ensure success in learning (Senior et al., 2018; Messias et al., 2015; Khe et al., 2018). There are questions to address as regards to what activities are designed and implemented to engage students in distance learning, how these activities are monitored and evaluated, and how distance students take advantage of learning engagement activities.

Instructional design and development in open and distance learning

The application of instructional design and development has evolved in line with the findings of research in education and psychology of learning and advances in technologies for teaching and learning. The role of instructional design is critical in open and distance education as distance learners are physically or geographically separate from their teachers. The instructional design process involves the identification the learners’ needs, definition of instructional objectives, design of assessment, and design teaching and learning activities to ensure quality instruction (Educational Technology, 2019). Distance students are prepared to develop independent learning capability, motivate themselves to learn and engage themselves in learning activities that make them persistent and successful in learning. Open and distance education institutions are further challenged to transform themselves into the digitalization of learning and teaching, taking into accounts the learning needs and the technology supports required for learning. It is the task of distance educators to support learning and make distance learning experience enjoyable to students. Further questions are then which instructional design and development is suitable in distance learning, how media are incorporated into the learning experience of distance students, and how distance learning activities are designed and developed to motivate students to learn.

Policy and strategy to reduce dropouts

Dropout poses a critical challenge to prevent in higher education and it affects individuals, institutions, governments and stakeholders (Kim and Kim, 2018; European Commission, 2015; Stiburek et al., 2017). Research findings on factors affecting dropout in higher education have been conducted in different regions across different cultural contexts and addressed dropout as a serious issue that deserves specific attention and prevention (Bozkurt and Akbulut, 2019; Willging and Johnson, 2004; Kotsiantis et al., 2003). Findings of research conducted by Kim and Kim (2018) focusing on four categories on students, resources, faculty, and university characteristics indicate significant effects of those categories on university dropout. Earlier research conducted by Park and Choi (2009) has indicated that factors related to family support, organizational support, satisfaction and relevance in addition to individual characteristics is able to predict learners’ decision to drop out or persist. The findings of the study imply that lower dropout rates can be achieved if online program developers or instructors find ways to enhance the relevance of the course, and that adult learners need to be supported by their organizations for them to finish online courses (Park and Choi, 2009). These findings provide insights into how dropout is to be understood and how interventions in distance learning is to be implemented to prevent dropout. Intervention supports distance students (Simpson, 2004), and proactive interventions and motivating learners in open and distance education is critical to successful learning accomplishments (Simpson, 2004, 2008). Further questions then how dropouts can be prevented, what learning activities are designed and developed to reduce dropouts, and what are the roles of the distance educators and media.

OER/MOOCs

OER is a new concept introduced thanks to advances in the use of internet and new technology that has enabled open knowledge resources accessible in easier modes. Illustrated by OECD (2007) as “giving knowledge for free,” the important point of OER is that knowledge should be made available to facilitate learning. The emergence of OERs is transforming the landscape of teaching and learning at different levels and modes of education (Berti, 2018; Blomgren, 2018; Miao et al., 2016). Researchers have elaborated the potential benefits of OER from the different perspectives of government, institution, educator, and learner, and further put forwards some critical challenges of utilizing OERs related to the technical, economic, social and legal domains (Berti, 2018; Hatzipanagos and Gregson, 2015). Guidelines have been published to provide higher education institutions with reference in the use OER in the teaching and learning (UNESCO and COL, 2015). The sustainability of OER will remain to be challenged in terms of its effectiveness in ensuring student learning to take place (Wiley, 2007). Open universities have critical roles in the widening of participation in higher education through innovations and taking advantage of the integration of OER in teaching and learning, and thus new policies and practices are required at all levels in the higher education system to address issues of openness and the role that OERs can play in increasing and widening engagement and participation in learning (Lane and Van Dorp, 2011).

MOOCs are new trends in higher education, and open universities are the natural practitioners of massive open online learning courses, as the name open university suggests. From the beginning open universities enroll massive number of students studying ODL and later online courses. The open universities themselves have gone through stages of transitions from the printed correspondence, multimedia broadcast and more recently new technology and online supported distance learning. Some questions regards to how open universities take advantage of OER/MOOCs, integrate OER/MOOCs into supporting learning, and select OER/MOOCs to benefit student learning have been addressed by Karunanayaka and Naidu, 2014, 2016).

Quality assurance in ODL

Quality assurance has been driven by the motive for continuous improvement and pressures for accountability, accreditation and external recognition. Distance education institutions have implemented quality assurance system to ensure certain level of quality can be achieved and continuously improved. Internal and external quality reviews are conducted in open and distance education institutions to meet quality requirements and stakeholders’ expectations. Assuring quality of open and distance education is a complex effort, involving investment in time, resources, and multiple activities covering both academic processes and administrative services. Further questions emerge as regards what quality assurance system is implemented, how do the institutions establish quality assurance cultures across different levels and functions of the organization, and how quality assessment is conducted internally and externally.

Good practices of the institution

Despite the similarities of both open universities, the findings of this study reveal the unique characters of each of the institutions in response to the specific needs and contexts each of which has been established. Both OUSL and UT are academic institutions sharing common characteristics, core values and missions although each institution differs in the ways it provides academic services to addresses the specific needs of their respective clients. They are different in terms of institutional cultures and the way each institution provides services to students, due to geographic, demographic and other conditions. The way they address the needs of the society is further reflected in the kinds and variety of study programs each institution offers to the clientele. It is interesting to observe that OUSL charges student fees while its respective conventional counterparts are fully funded by the government through the Sri Lanka’s University Grants Commission. Fees charged to UT students, on the other hand, are considered as the lowest among state higher education institutions that also rely on government funding. Table 1 presents a summary of findings in good practices of OUSL and UT, revealing aspects related to academic service provision, institution culture, core value, programs offered, mission and tuition fees.

Challenges of institution

Both OUSL and UT are confronted with challenges to address, and each would have to respond in ways that are unique depending on their respective contexts, needs, and certain conditions that allow them for effective implementation. New technology offers both challenges and opportunities for open universities and higher education through potential uses of online learning to improve access and quality. Higher education institutions including open universities are challenged to open its doors to a variety of backgrounds of student population and provide quality higher education using the best available technology within easy and flexible access by students. New technology has reoriented higher education institutions and open universities to shifting their paradigm to become more technology enhanced in teaching and learning as well in management. These paradigm shifts into integration of new technology have put pressures on the needs for continuous training and careful reviews of teaching workloads of staff. There are also demands by governments and stakeholders for open and higher education institutions to accommodate larger numbers of students so that institutions must explore and invent new methods and ways to meet these growing demands for access and quality. Table 2 presents detail challenges of both OUSL and UT as open universities in aspects relating to number of students, integration of online learning, access to a variety of services, new technology, staff training needs, academic staff workload and resources needed, admission policy and period of study.

Rooms for improvement for institution

OUSL and UT have rooms for improvement to respond to stakeholders’ needs and expectations. Both institutions share common areas for improvements in aspects related to strengthening of student support system, improving participation rate in higher education, promoting lifelong learning, and establishing partnership and diversity of programs. Both OUSL and UT are under pressures by the Government to widen access, improve participation rates in higher education, and expand lifelong learning programs. Partnership can be one instrument to accommodate more students and diversify programs in response to the needs of stakeholders and in anticipation to the 4.0 industry for new skilled workforce. Alongside common opportunities for improvement of both institutions, there can be differences in emphases depending upon the priorities and intensities in which those challenges are confronted by each of the institutions. Table 3 elaborates rooms for improvement to be considered by OUSL and UT.

Good practices in student support

Student support plays key roles in ODL, and open universities have designed various methods and ways of learning supporting to respond to the specific needs of students. Student support covers a broad range of services, including academic, administrative, and other services to ensure successful learning process of distance students. Both OUSL and UT focus on the students at the center of attention to support services. A variety of modes for student support are employed involving the use of media, face-to-face interaction, and recently online support. One key point is continuous support provided by both institutions to ensure that students get the right support by the right persons during their studies. These student support services are provided centrally by the Head Office as well as distributed through OUSL RC and Study Centers (SC) as well UT Regional Offices (RO). Table 4 illustrates findings of the study in terms of good practices of OUSL and UT in student support in aspects related to focus on students, modes of support, interactive support, delivery of support, online support, continuous support and responsibilities of relevant units and staff to provide student support.

Challenges in student support

Both OUSL and UT are confronted with challenges in the provision of effective support. Advances in technology have shifted the paradigm of open universities from its traditional format of open and distance education into integrating online support in both academic and administrative services. Table 5 indicates findings in challenges of student support confronted by OUSL and UT, with emphases on aspects related to online support for all students, management of support, sharing methods of support and development of online cultures in student support.

Rooms for improvement in student support

Despite the challenges ahead, there are rooms to improve student support system for consideration into implementation by OUSL and UT, in which ways and means of improvement may vary because of the cultures of each institution, scale of operation, and kinds of program each offers to students. Both institutions have attempted specific attention to address individual learning needs of students. Table 6 indicates details of rooms for improvement in student support for OUSL and UT in aspects related to access to learning resources and addressing needs of students, partnerships and emphasis on zero defects, addressing diverse groups of students, and admission and monitoring of student learning progress.

Good practice in instructional design and development

Both OUSL and UT have existed and will continue to exist to provide well-designed and well-developed open and distance education programs. Both institutions share commonalities in instructional design and development principles, although they may have differences in terms of their ways and procedures for instructional design and development. Table 7 presents detail findings of OUSL and UT good practices in instructional design and development in aspects related to new student orientation and study skills development, independent learning skills, peer learning, online interaction, course team approach, design for online learning, and roles of course coordinator or manager.

Challenges instructional design and development

OUSL and UT share common challenges to have instructional design and development able to meet the changing needs of ODL and the paradigm shift to online learning. The instructional design and development aim to engage and motivate students to learn independently and autonomously and meet certain criteria for ODL. Table 8 presents challenges in instructional design and development in aspects relating to design for engagement and motivation to learn; quality assurance in the design, development, and delivery process; and instructional design for online and fully online courses.

Rooms for improvement instructional design and development

Both OUSL and UT share common areas for improvement in terms of expanding and improving the quality of their online courses, except for the scale that is larger for UT than that of OUSL. Use of OER to enrich student learning experience and MOOCs to promote lifelong learning is one area that both institutions have attempted to do more and encourage staff to provide better delivery for the online courses and tutorials. Research in the area of online instructional design and development is one area in which both need to focus for continuous improvement. Research in instructional design and development is the basis for improving the quality of distance and online learning process that eventually results in success in achieving learning objectives. As illustrated in Table 9 below, both OUSL and UT share common areas in instructional design and development for improvement in aspects related to online courses, OER, MOOCs and research in instructional design and development.

Good practices in engagement and motivation to learn

Both OUSL and UT share common good practices to engage and motivate learners, taking seriously the business of new student orientation and the development of student distance learning skills and independent study skills, tutorial support, practical components and online learning activities. Intervention in learning and notifications for continuous studies are delivered to students as parts of the effort to motivate students to learn. Eligibility criteria are set for OUSL to ensure students take distance studies seriously in order to pass eligibility criteria prior to taking the final exam for the course. For UT, students are motivated to study and pass certain criteria for the minimum score of the semester examination. These good practices may be relevant to share and consider for other open, distance, and online education system. Table 10 presents good practices of both OUSL and UT in engagement and motivation to learn, particularly in aspects related to new student orientation, tutorial support, practical components, eligibility criteria, intervention in learning, notifications and reminders sent out to students, and online components of teaching and learning.

Challenges in engagement and motivation to learn

There are common challenges in engagement and motivation to learn confronted by OUSL and UT, in which both start to emphasize the importance of learning and teaching in online environment and its continuous improvement. In the case of the quality improvement of online teaching-learning and other services, the stakeholders’ involvement becomes critical as the quality of online access will highly depend upon the telecommunication infrastructure and facilities on the parts of the institution and access by students. Government policies on information communication and technology will play important roles in ensuring a conducive online learning environment. As indicated in Table 11, these challenges include aspects related to online teaching responsibilities of academic staff, increased use of e-learning platform by students and academic staff, online teaching competence, student learning engagement and stakeholders’ involvement to facilitate ODL.

Rooms for improvement in engagement and motivation to learn

There are rooms for improvement in engagement and motivation to learn in online learning environment, in terms of the quality of initiations, interactions, feedbacks and instructor to student ratio. Staff and students need to be encouraged to use online learning platform to enhance and improve the quality learning and teaching experience. Table 12 indicates needed improvements in aspects related to active engagement in learning, engagement of staff in online learning, and encouragement to use of online learning.

Good practices in policy and strategies to reduce dropouts

Retaining students is a challenge faced by open and distance education system, including online learning system. There are ways and means of reducing dropouts as implemented by OUSL and UT. Prevention is one key effort to reduce dropouts, although it may not always be easy from the beginning for educators and the institutions to identify and predict which students may not continue and may eventually drop out from their distance studies. New student orientation and development of distance learning skills is perceived by both institutions as one key step for prevention, followed by continuous assessment, assignments, and provision of continuous support for the students during their studies. Table 13 indicates good practices in strategies to reduce dropouts in aspects related to prevention of dropouts, strengthening of new student orientation and study skills development, advice to students on taking courses appropriately, assessment and assignments, and continuous support to student learning.

Challenges in policies and strategies to reduce dropouts

Open universities also share common challenges in strategies to reduce dropouts, particularly for first year students. Special effort needs to be designed to identify students’ strengths and weakness so that certain groups of students can be supported to continue their studies. Further challenges are effective implementation of such a prevention design mechanism for large number of students. Table 14 indicates strategies to reduce dropouts implemented by OUSL and UT in aspects related to supporting learning process for first year students and identification of “weak” students.

Rooms for improvement in policy and strategies to reduce dropouts

Improvement in strategies to reduce dropouts will be effective when the problems of dropouts and reasons for students’ dropouts can be well understood earlier identified. This may not easily be mapped as open and distance students may have flexibility in terms of choices of courses, time spent for studying, and duration of study. Some key points may be considered for implementation, namely strengthening of student support; improved communication, interaction and feedbacks to students; and start using learning analytics in online learning. Table 15 indicates rooms for improvement in strategies to reduce dropouts in aspects related to strengthening student support, improved communication and interaction, and use of learning analytics.

Good practices in OER and MOOCs

It is observed that both OUSL and UT have experimented with the use of OER/MOOCs to enrich the students’ learning experiences. Table 16 illustrates good practices of OUSL and UT in OER and MOOCs in aspects related to needs for staff training in OER and MOOCs, training of teachers in OER and MOOCs, OER integration into courses, establishing policies on OER, implementation and evaluation MOOCs, and trends in duration of MOOCs.

Challenges in OER and MOOCs

There are common challenges in the use of OER and MOOCs to enrich student learning experience in OUSL and UT. Effective use new technology and ideas normally begin with awareness training then integration into the learning and teaching practices. There are external factors worth considering as regards IT infrastructure and facilities that are usually beyond the control of the institutions and students. Many OER and MOOCs are offered in English language. English language poses specific challenge for OUSL in which courses may be offered in Sinhalese, Tamil, and English languages. And particularly there are further challenges for UT as Bahasa Indonesia is used as the medium of instruction; whilst lots of OER/MOOCs are available in the English language. It will take a little while for the availability of good translation and transcription software so that OER/MOOCs in the English language can be more readily adopted for Indonesian users. OER and MOOCs take significant time commitment to find the right materials and to design specific online courses for certain clients. Table 17 indicates OUSL and UT challenges in OER and MOOCs in aspects related to awareness and training, integration into teaching and learning, needs for information technology infrastructure and facility, use of English language in most OER and MOOCs, time commitment to making selection of OER and MOOCs, and possible declining trends in enrollments of MOOCs.

Rooms for improvement in OER and MOOCs

There are common rooms for improvement in OER and MOOCs for both OUSL and UT to consider. Effective implementation of OER and MOOCs begin with policies, so that adoption and wider uses can be effectively implemented. It will a while for new initiatives to be fully understood and effectively implemented, supported with good online connectivity. There are also external aspects for consideration, particularly online connectivity on the parts of the institution and the students. Table 18 indicates those rooms for improvement in aspects related to policies, adoption, and connectivity to ensure effective uses of OER and MOOCs.

Good practices in quality assurance

Both OUSL and UT take quality assurance seriously and have implemented quality assurance framework for open and distance education. Quality assurance embraces comprehensive aspects of academic, administrative, and operational activities of open and distance education system. For UT, the large scale of operations to provide services to a large number of students have encouraged UT to adopt the implementation of ISO 9001 and 27001 that are common in business management and information technology industries, as well attention to the academic quality and open and distance education practice. Table 19 below presents findings of OUSL and UT good practices in quality assurance in aspects related to cycle and scope of quality reviews, framework and implementation, quality assurance reference, establishment of unit in charge of quality, quality assessment of academic activities, mechanism of quality assessment, continuous improvement, and quality as value.

Challenges in quality assurance

QA system has been effectively implemented in both OUSL and UT. There remain challenges to address by OUSL and UT in quality assurance, as quality is a dynamic value and quality assurance is a creative process. Both institutions emphasize the importance of establishing quality work culture, and quality assurance as vehicle to achieve certain quality criteria and implement continuous improvement. One common issue in many countries including Sri Lanka and Indonesia is the fact that an open university system is generally a sole player in the national higher education system so that accreditation instruments are designed by and quality assessors come mostly from the face-to-face universities with little understanding of the principles and good practices open university system. Table 20 illustrates OUSL ad UT challenges in quality assurance in aspects related to quality review instrument used by external accreditation agency, establishment of quality work culture and value, and the belief in quality audit and review as instrument not as objective.

Rooms for improvement in quality assurance

As continuous improvement process, there remain rooms for improvement in implementation of a quality assurance system in open and distance education institutions. Quality assurance is a continuous process involving significant commitments in spirit, time, resources, and reference to benchmark and good practices. External benchmarks and reviews are important components of quality assurance, in which external experts and assessors provide feedbacks for continuous improvement of practices for the institutions. Table 21 indicates rooms for improvement in quality assurance in aspects related to continuous improvement of implementation, benchmarking with acknowledged best practices in open and distance education, and enhancement of quality as value, culture, ad ethics.

Regional centers

To support student learning OUSL has 9 RC and 19 SC; while UT operates 39 RO plus 1 Center specifically dedicated to providing services to students residing overseas. OUSL SC are developed under the responsibilities of RC to provide easier access to services by students. Both OUSL RC and UT RO are the points of contacts for students that provide academic and administrative services to students in areas related to academic programs, counseling, guidance to find suitable academic programs, administrative support and training for students and tutors.

Academic staff in RCs

Both OUSL and UT employ academic staff in RC or Offices. For OUSL, some academic staff in RCs express their views that face-to-face sessions are generally more interesting to students than other modes of student support such as online. It is the duty of academic staff to develop students’ commitment to learning and monitor their progress. Distance education methods are no easy for students and lecturers alike. Developing the capacities of self-learning is one specific challenge that may be more easily conceptualized than done. In recent times, there are increasing needs for online learning support for students.

For many UT students, face-to-face interactions among peers and with the tutors take place during face-to-face tutorial sessions in tutorial locations. UT students live mostly at a far distance from the ROs. Contacts between UT students and the institution are facilitated to mediated Contact Center, and students are welcome to visit the RO or Head Office if they wish. UT academic staff have supervisory and monitoring functions and assure the quality of services provided to students.

OUSL students’ profile

OUSL students have the advantage of easy access to RCs in terms of time and transportation. Many OUSL students live within the convenient range to visit RC, or students may opt to find accommodation close to RCs to attend learning support services and activities and utilize learning resources available in RCs. Students get the academic support directly from lecturers on any learning matters that they come across during their studies. OUSL students enroll in online courses every year with access to digital learning materials and resources. OUSL applies selection criteria for admissions into its Programs. Students unable to meet admission will have to take Foundation courses in OUSL to be admitted to an OUSL degree program.

Views of OUSL students on learning support

Learning support for OUSL students cover a broad range of activities that students must follow to get the most benefits of the learning support. Students are engaged in learning through various means of support to engage and motivate them in learning, such as face-to-face sessions, library and online support, student projects, and peer learning activities. There are also increasing interests in online support and the use of OER in OUSL courses. In views of the students, addressing learning needs and activities are important to enrich learning experience through online learning process. The online component of the OUSL course includes downloadable papers and presentations, online assignments, peer learning, development of online learning habits and feedbacks form the lecturers.

Retention of students

Students acknowledge that there are peers who do not re-register in the following semester, or dropout from the course of program. In the students’ views, reasons for dropout include the conditions related to financial reasons; work, family, other commitments; and health and other personal problems. OUSL students also express their views based on experiences of interaction with fellow students of those of conventional face-to-face universities. The students expect to have more activities like the traditional students’ such as bootcamps, student exchange program, and face-to-face lectures. A specific issue has been raised as regards to tuition fees charged by OUSL, as conventional universities in Sri Lanka charge no tuition fees.

Alumni

OUSL alumni express their satisfactions with OUSL academic experience and administrative services, and they have favorable assessment of OUSL as regards to updated learning materials, quality of academics as specialized experts, and positive acknowledgment by employers. OUSL graduates have expectations for students to get benefits from advances in the use of new technologies for open, distance, and online learning. In view of alumni, support for current OUSL students need to enhance the use of technology, online resources, the internet, and practical aspects of student learning. OUSL alumni as professionals and employers have roles in strengthening OUSL programs through feedbacks to Faculty members, involving students in projects and partnerships, contributing to curriculum development to enrich student learning experience, informing academics on recent updates in the workplace, and development of alumni network.