6 am Pacific time in USA
9 am EST in USA
8 pm Jakarta, Bangkok
9 pm China, Manila, Penang
In Episode #28, we will talk to experts from Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia about new models of education that are emerging during the pandemic. We will also discuss progress and initiatives made regarding MOOCs and open education courses and programs. New developments in each of these four countries in southeast Asia is detailed below (below the video).
Malaysia. Professor Zoraini Wati Abas, Deputy Vice Chancellor at the Wawasan Open University in Penang, Malaysia will offer insights into how the Covid-19 pandemic has created a disruption of sorts that has now prompted conventional universities to consider offering more online courses and to re-design some of their existing programs as Open and Distance Learning programs. There is also a strong interest among many universities to offer courses with microcredential awards so as to attract enrolments among members of the public (as part of Life Long Learning) and, in particular, to attract potential students who may enrol as students in the universities that offer them. Life-Long learning (LLL) will probably be the next focus as the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education has commissioned the National Higher Education Research Institute (NaHERI) at the University of Science Malaysia to examine the impact of LLL based on Malaysia’s blueprint over the last ten years. Recommendations are being made by NaHERI to the government on how to further drive LLL in Malaysia. MOOCs will continue to thrive and offer opportunities for credit transfers for successful completion of courses from one institution to another.
Indonesia. According to Tian Belawati from the Universitas Terbuka (Indonesia Open University), despite the many concerns regarding their underlying business model, MOOCs continue to grow and are being adopted worldwide. In effect, they have become accepted as the new practice of opening access to quality education. Every day there are new MOOCs and MOOC-like or MOOC-inspired online courses being developed and offered by many educational institutions and organizations in all parts of the world, including in Indonesia. Many initiatives, mostly initiated by individual institutions, have also endorsed and then jumped on to the MOOC bandwagon. The first MOOC in Indonesia was offered by a private university known as the Ciputra University in 2013, followed by Universitas Terbuka in 2014. Even though several universities and organizations such as SEAMEO-SEAMOLEC (i.e., the South East Asian Ministry of Education Organization Regional Center for Open Learning), IndonesiaX, and SPADA have followed the initiative, the road for Indonesia to fully take advantage of ample MOOC resources is still a long way off. According to Belawati, Indonesia needs a systematic campaign and an awareness raising effort to make MOOCs beneficial to the greater part of Indonesian society. As someone who initially started working at the UT in 1985 just after its inception and has twice been its rector, Dr. Belawati has a highly unique lens in which to view the emergence of MOOCs and open education in her country.
The Philippines. According to Melinda dela Pena Bandalaria, Chancellor and Professor of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Open University, developing countries are often perceived as resource-poor and on the receiving end or recipients of initiatives by developed countries. The same perspective is usually applied to education and is usually concretized in the outbound internationalization especially among higher education institutions (HEIs). When massive open online courses (MOOCs) and open educational resources (OERs) were initially introduced, there seemed to be no reason why developing countries would have to “reinvent the wheel” and think of developing their own MOOCs and OERs. The Philippines provides a case study wherein MOOCs and OERs were developed, produced, and offered by a developing country under the framework Open Educational Resources for Development (OERs4D). The framework provided the imperatives and considerations for the development of original OERs and MOOCs within the Philippines. It also fostered the redefinition of MOOCs as practiced and contextualized in the country, the MOOCs as OERs model, and the integration of Universal Design for Learning principles to both MOOCs and OERs. This model addresses the challenge of sustaining the initiative and ensuring that both MOOCs and OERs will be fully utilized. Initial implementation of the OERs4D Framework shows promising results while unraveling key areas in need of improvement and refinements.
Thailand. Jintavee Khlaisang and Thapanee Thammetar from the Thailand Cyber University Project created by the Ministry of Education in Bangkok will discuss Thailand 4.0 which is an economic model that will modernize the country and increase people’s income equally. In response to the role of education in Thailand 4.0 era, there is increasing focus on the opportunities for Thai people to learn continuously throughout their lives by using ICT that improves access to educational services equally and efficiently in formal, non-formal, and informal contexts. For instance, Thailand Cyber University Project (TCU) has developed a strategic plan related to open education that will lead to a learning society and promote lifelong learning via ICT. TCU’s flagship project over the past three years has been Thai MOOC, which is a national MOOC platform of Thailand. Using a research-based design approach, these two TCU leaders, Khlaisang and Thammetar, describe their analysis of the current conditions relating to open education in Thailand. They also discuss the results of a gap analysis and SWOT analysis of open educational operation and presents the TCU 2018-2022 strategic plan on open education via ICT of higher education institutions. Finally, a Thai MOOC will be presented as a case study for promoting open education and MOOCs in Thailand.
Professor Zoraini Wati Abas is Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and Educational Technology) at the Wawasan Open University in Penang. She had, previously, served as the Founding Director of the Center for Learning, Teaching and Curriculum Development and the Acting Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affair at the Sampoerna University in Jakarta. Zoraini is Malaysia’s eLearning pioneer and helped design the first online postgraduate program when she was Professor at the Open University Malaysia. Prior to this, she set up the Centre for Medical Education and Media at the International Medical University (1999-2003). She had also served the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya (1987-1997) where she introduced the Master of Education program (Computers in Education) in 1991. She was consultant to the Malaysian Ministry of Education, National Center for e-Learning and Distance Education in Saudi Arabia and Telekom Malaysia. She is Malaysia’s first MOOC contributor in 2011. As a weekly columnist, with about 800 articles published in The Star, New Straits Times, and Utusan Malaysia. She was named second among 14 influential higher education leaders in Southeast Asia and received an Education Leadership Award from the World Corporate Universities Congress in 2014. Today she is an Honorary Fellow with the Commonwealth of Learning in Canada.
Professor Tian Belawati has been working in the field of open and distance education (ODE) for over 30 years. She has had extensive experiences in research, teaching, and administration of a large-scale open university system. She has also been involved in many international ODE movements that has led her appointments as President of the Asian Association of Open Universities or AAOU (2009-2010) and of the International Council for Open and Distance Education or ICDE (2012-2015). She is also a member of ICDE Board of Trustees (2017-present), and as a member of Board of Directors of the Open Education Consortium (2017-present). Notably, Professor Belawati also served as Rector of Universitas Terbuka in Indonesia from 2009-2017 where she mobilized unique partnerships and introduced innovations and sound practices in the use of new technology for the delivery of ODL.
Melinda Bandalaria is Chancellor and Professor at the University of the Philippines Open University. Previously, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies. Dr Bandalaria has developed and handled distance elearning courses both at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as massive open online courses (MOOCs). She has also been actively involved in research and community development projects. From 2017-2019 Professor Bandalaria served as President of the Asian Association of Open Universities. She has also been chairing the Asian Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) steering committee since 2016. In these capacities, Mel has helped coordinate international conferences on open education and written extensively on e-learning in the Philippines.
Jintavee Khlaisang is the Associate Professor at the Department of Educational Technology and Communications, and the member of Educational Invention and Innovation research unit within the Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Jintavee is also the deputy director of Thailand Cyber University Project, Office of the Higher Education Commission in the Ministry of Education in Thailand. She recent book is titled, Ubiquitous Technology Enhanced Learning: The Outcome-based Learning Design for 21st Century Learners (2018). Her latest research project is the Development of Gamified Self-Regulated Learning System in Ubiquitous Learning Environments to enhance Achievement Motivation for Thai MOOCs (2018-present). Her research interests include ubiquitous learning, flipped learning, blended learning, virtual learning environments, open education, and MOOCs.
Thapanee Thammetar is the director of Thailand Cyber University Project, Office of the Higher Education Commission in the Ministry of Education in Bangkok, Thailand. Thapanee is also an Associate Professor at the Department of Educational Technology in the Faculty of Education at Silpakorn University. Currently, she also serves as a member of the institute council and a member of academic senate of the Institute of Community Colleges in the Ministry of Education in Thailand. Her latest research projects are the competency-based online professional development system for higher education officers (2018). Her on-going research projects include strategic plans and faculty development guidelines for MOOC Teaching in Higher Education Institutes (2018-present). Her research interests include e-learning, quality assurance for online learning, open education, and MOOCs.