The Future of Distance Education in Malaysia: The Role 0f Information Technology

This information is based on my experiences of nearly fourteen years in distance education, as a course manager, module writer and system administrator. As a course manager, I faced adult learners who have other commitments besides their learning materials. They study at their own pace, normally after they have fulfilled their job, social and family commitments. Sometimes I have to understand not only their academic problems but their personal and financial problems as well.

Therefore, in my module writing I have to imagine that I am a student taking the course which I am writing and I have to consider other factors beside the academic content. I tried to design a more interactive module by including self-assessment questions and other activities, and provided answers at the back or at the end of the chapters of the modules. However, as a student I felt that I would like to see the lecturer who has written the module, or at least listen to his or her voice.

1. The System
From my experience, the first year in a distance education system is the most critical year. The withdrawal rate is relatively high especially for the Science Foundation level which can reach up to 50% of the initial intake. Normally we know this figure after the compulsory residential intensive course on-campus. And the figures for the other programs are around 10-20%.  When they reach the third year, they are quite stable and we can expect them to successfully complete their studies.

How can we overcome this system schedule? The students are very familiar with face-to-face learning situation. That is why when a system is based on face-to-face such as off-shore programs, you can attract quite a large number of students. But this type of system is not distance education since the lecturer has to go to the center in order to deliver his/her lectures.

What I mean by distance education is separation of teachers and learners and in order to get learning effectiveness the learning materials should be suitable to adult learners and pedagogically sound. Normally we are trying to approximate the ‘face-to-face’ situation on campus. That is why the element of occasional face-to-face meeting for the distance learners is needed.

How do we overcome the problem of loneliness, isolatedness and the feeling of helplessness among distance learners? My answer is two-way communication and interaction. It does not matter so much on the degree of interactiveness but the audio and video two-way communication is certainly an innovation in distance education and together with other multimedia approach, now called "supported distance education"

2. Two-Way Communication

In 1988/89 academic sessions, we replaced the tutorial by the part-time tutors at the regional centre with audio teleconferencing. With this approach we could overcome some of the problems regarding the standardization and the quality of the tutorial done at the regional centres. Then the lecturers and the students felt that it was difficult to follow the sessions if the tutorial involved formula and solutions, especially for the mathematics and physics courses.

Then we introduced audio graphic teleconferencing which was implemented in the 1991/92 academic session. Actually, the students were quite comfortable with this technology. It is cost effective and pedagogically sound and not significantly different from the conventional face-to-face tutorials.

But during the planning of engineering programs to be offered at a distance in 1992/93, the former Vice Chancellor, the Honourable Tan Sri Musa Mohamad was very innovative and wanted to maintain the quality of the program to be at par with the on-campus. He was very ambitious and wanted to introduce full-motion video conferencing for the engineering program. Unfortunately, at that time the transmission available was 128 Kbps. He was very unhappy with the visual movement. In his own words, he commented it was like seeing a ‘Charlie Chaplin movie’. Then 1 had to shop around again in order to get good quality video and transmission cost effectiveness. With the introduction of various media into the distance education system the cost should not exceed 30% of the cost per student taking the same on-campus USM VideoNet programs. In 1994 we managed to get what we wanted and we launched the VideoNet in June 1995. Simultaneously the USM computer network, the USMNet was also launched.

3. System Administrator

As an administrator I want to deliver quality distance education which is at par with the conventional system on-campus. Actually, we are trying to approximate the on-campus system into the distance education system in order to maintain the on-campus quality. That is why in the early eighties we trained our staff in module writing and we introduced comprehensive self-instructional materials in 1983 and the students results improved tremendously compared to the previous system, especially in the sciences.

After we launched the USMNet and the VideoNet in 1995, we became familiar with virtual campus, virtual library and virtual university concepts. The role of IT is becoming more and more integrated with the distance education sytem. Education is now available at your doorstep and at your fingertips. You do not have to go to the classroom or lecture room in order to get education. What we need is an institution to gather the information available to formulate a course of a program or we could develop it on our own.

4. Information Technology

My next move is to develop a distance education support system as shown in (Figure 4) and strengthen and develop our existing system into a fully integrated IT for both course management and course delivery. It would be better if each member of the academic staff is equipped with the desktop videoconferencing facilities. I am told with 384 Kbps we could get a full motion video with 30 fps. It is useful for academic counseling as well as personal counseling purposes. In fact you can run your class or tutorial from your terminal wherever you are.

Use of IT in USM Distance Education Program

Our boardroom videoconferencing facilities can be connected to the internet. In principle, the lecturer can click the video on demand (VOD), or obtain other information from the internet while in session. Students can access the lecture through the internet from their own terminal.  They do not have to go to the regional centres.

Practicals and workshops can be conducted through simulation but I personally believe some of the practicals need real hands on experience. In fact the student can sit for the test or examination on line and they can get their results immediately after the test or exams, especially objective/multiple choice question or short answers type of exams. Although in principle they can sit for the tests from any learning terminals, but for accreditation purposes the test/exams must be conducted in a controlled situation like any other conventional exam, unless it is an ‘open book’ type of examination.

This scenario is based on what we have now and what we plan to have for the future. It can be done and we have the infrastructure (Figure 5). But the most important thing is the courseware. We are going to transform all our printed modules into the homepage available on the Internet. USM has the advantage where all the courses are already in the form of printed modules. We need to integrate all these into a multimedia form. It is relatively easier and faster compared to if we want to start from scratch because we already have our virtual library server six-months ago.

Theoretically a student can follow the course and get a certificate just through the Internet. Except for those courses that need hands-on experience and their physical presence for the face-to-face session. While we are developing and transforming our courseware, we are ready to export our educational services to our neighbouring countries (Figure 6). Of course we have to use the satellite. We are ready with the present system and the existing facilities to launch the IT integrated distance education delivery system.

USM DE Programme in Neighbouring Countries