Distance Learning

Ladies and gentlemen, as we already noted, education is the most vital and influential factors for the development of a nation. IN THIS OCCASION, I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER YOU A DISCOURSE OF DISTANCE LEARNING.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, EDUCATION IS OUR PROBLEMS. Not only those developing countries like Indonesia, but also those modern and developed countries, the problems of education have been the most crucial interest of their government.

There are many problems and dilemmas encountered by Indonesian government lately. Many experts suspect that those problems come from the educational system that are lacking of patent and weak in their implementation. This suspicion may be right in some degree to the progress and development of a nation can be measured by the system and infrastructure that support their educational system. The better the educational system, the better the outcome and achievement of the students and the alumni of that educational system. IN MORE DETAIL, I WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS HOW DISTANCE LEARNING SHOULD BE AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL OF EDUCATING PEOPLE AND INCREASING THE ROLE OF INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE TEACHING LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN GANESHA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION.

My dear friends, colleague and seniors,

If we are talking about problems of education, it is a broad topic. So that let us SEE the problem from internal and external factors related to the education. Internal problems of education can be seen from the demand and supply. The more people asking for education the more supply and variation of education is available. How if the resources and infrastructure are limited? Can it be school and university contents and curriculums maintained up to standard? High standard of education need high level of skills, competencies, infrastructure, good will of parents and community and undeniably it is so expensive. It is not advisable to build more and more building of schools and universities. Is there any innovative approach that is not alarming the existing educational system? It there any approach that can be used to develop the existing resources and available milieu?

The external problems related to education are the vast growing of ICT, information, communication and technology. This globalization aspect of information influences all aspect of life including educational system. Technology is not only related to the available television, radio, computer, mobile phone and other electronic devices but also to the way people use these technology. The most important characteristic of technology is they have the procedure, which are rational, efficient, and effective, and having value added. This characteristic can be an important solution for educating people. As Ashby comment in 1972 that telecommunication technology has been a revolutionary progress for education.

Ladies and gentlemen,
In the future, the old fashioned educational system has to be replaced. Why it has to be replaced? Internally, the government and leading universities in Indonesia have to be aware of the policy and better strategy of teaching and learning in increasing the role of higher degree to be more innovative and up to date.

For example, UNDIKSHA and other universities in Indonesia in general still utilize the traditional method of teaching. The students come in the class on time and they have to register manually before the lecturer gives the subject. This model of education is monotonously repeated year by year. The rule is apparent, every one has to be showed up in the class and the more boring the lecturer to teach the class, the less students showing up. Lack of competent teaching and managing the class has been an important factor for student to feel lazy and miss the class.

Michael A. Caruso is an expert of administration and leadership of distance education programs. He presented his paper entitled: Examining the Role of Administrators in Distance Education and he introduced it as an e-learning which is a visible alternative to traditional classroom-based education. He used Lolly’s (1996) theory of transformative leadership development to create better distance learning administrators. The ten principles are:
1. Let us go of things others can do.
2. Encourage initiative, ideas and risk taking.
3. Ensure that people have goals and know how they are doing.
4. Delegate to challenge, develop and empower.
5. Coach to ensure success.
6. Reinforce good work and good attempts.
7. Share information, knowledge, and skills.
8. Value, trust, and respect each individual.
9. Provide support without taking over.
10. Practice what you preach. (Caruso, July 2004).

As an alternative model of teaching, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, distance learning is not an alien to us, we hear this method from time to time to give a better view of education paradigm instead of conventional method of “face to face” teaching and learning. More over, distance learning can be a solution of penetrating all variation of administrative and bureaucratic dimension by cutting off the time and make it easy to access.

Distance learning method usually done by sending all the modules, books or even the video compact disk (CD or DVD) directly to the address of the student who enrolled in this distance learning activities. In the home page, it has to have the up dating information of the University, the administrative side of payment and schedule and all lively activities of the students.

People who are disabled, people in the remote area or other part of the island or even come from different country or those ageing people who do not dare to show up to the university can be reach by this method. We solve the problem of space and time with distance learning. Therefore, the boring teaching and lecturing can be avoided and strictly amount of 75% presentation in the class is no longer a prerequisite. Nor it makes those lecturer and teacher angry or become a threat for refusing the student to sit for final examination. Poor students who do not have transportation as long as they have access to the home page or those who work during the day can be a member of distance learning as a philosophical “life long education” creates by John Dewey.

Please bear with me dear friends, colleagues and seniors,

As the result of this distance learning concept, we need a more sophisticated lecturers who can make an interactive moduls in its variation including the CD interactive. It makes the students more free and comfortable and avoid any boring activities that sometimes are so costly.

Instead of those striking figure and benefits of distance learning activities, there are some weaknesses on distance learning. How to measure the intellectual capability of the distance learner participants, how can we trust the measurement without any interaction between students and lecturer? These weaknesses has been discussed by Ramadhan Kurnia Nusa dan Onno W. Purbo (tahun???) with their books on “Pendidikan Jarak Jauh Berbasis Web”. They advice us to create interesting web based distance learning by providing:

• Center of student activities.
In this center, all the students have to log in to get to know each other and they have to discuss more “learning materials” in order to understand the subject. They have to get access to the journals and other web site in order to broaden their knowledge.

• Group interaction
In a group and layers of group, they should be able to interact to each other and discuss the learning subject with appointed moderator for each group. The lecturer has to know the progress and the discussion for each subject.

• Personal administrative supporting system
All the students entitled to re-enrol or review their membership for each course. This administrative supporting system responsible for the course and all the needy materials for the students to utilize. For instance, the result of every single distance learning test, the general progress of the course and other generated information that students entitled to have.
• General information
This page in the web has to widely inform the distance learner on general information of the course and the institution.

• Tutorial and test
Usually, the lecturer gives the distance learner students the quiz or simulation and home work to help the tutor keep the course intact and deeply thougt. Partial test and other tests have to be accessible for different kind of fast learners or slow learner. Final test can be individual but preferably by group.

• Digital library
The available information in the form of digital library has to be the priority. This can be accessible in the low cost. The provider of that digital library can display the whole set of reading materials with the legal agreement within the digital library manager, the course provider and the user.

• Other online materials
For the smooth process of distance teaching and learning, other online materials should be available. Students and lecturer can exchange the materials via web.

Clearly, the quality of distance learning can be as good as face to face interaction when the monitoring and evaluation system are properly made. There are several universities in Indonesia have this distance learning as a complimentary to the Open University. How about UNDIKSHA? We can solve particular problem of limited space and room for teaching via Distance learning. We can make lecturer and students’ mumble jumble of lateness and unavailable room for teaching are solved.

The switch from conventional to web design of teaching and learning paradigm
can be paramount as long as the young and old generations be ready to open their mind on this method. I believe that UNDIKSHA as a university with particular interest in education will utilize this source of knowledge instead of stick with conventional method of teaching. This DISTANCE LEARNING IN THE FORM OF E-LEARNING can be part of the role of UNDIKSHA to develop human resources and make knowledge accessible. Therefore the ICT, information, communication and technology in UNDIKSHA can be part of the new system by making distance learning is available. Thank you.