abstract

1. introduction

2. conceptualisation & rationale

3. e-learning academic model
access & level of technology adoption
language proficiency
cost
speed
institutional & national issues
courseware
course management system
virtual library
study centre
call centre

4. issues and challenges
apprehension in technology
changing technology
competition with other providers of education

5. conclusion

abstract

distance learning in malaysia has been in vogue for the last four decades or so. it started with the external degree programmes offered by established universities in uk such as the university of london. such programmes were popular among the working individuals who were looking for opportunities to improve themselves. this was later followed by off-campus programmes offered by a local university, namely universiti sains malaysia. a considerable number of private colleges provided special tuition for those preparing for both the external degrees and off-campus programmes. the mode of delivery was naturally print-based because of the absence of the internet at that time and most of the tuition were conducted face-to-face.

as the demand for education increased by leaps and bounds, because of the acute shortage of university places in the public institutions, and the considerable hike in tuition fees particularly in uk and usa, the country witnessed a proliferation of private institutions, especially in the early 1980’s. twinning programmes offering degrees frfom various foreign universities became very popular because of the high value accorded to such qualifications.

the advent of internet in the early 1980’s did not however, attract e-learning instantaneously. two reasons may be suggested for such lack of enthusiasm in e-learning. firstly, the internet was still not very stable and its lack of penetration would not attract the critical mass required. secondly, face-to-face teaching and learning is still very much preferred for lack of confidence in independent study. although the second reason contradicts the off-campus and external degree programmes that have been successfully conducted all this while, it still remains to be true even after e-learning has been introduced in the last two years.

e-learning was introduced by universiti tun abdul razak (unitar) in september 1998. only 162 students registered for the two undergraduate degree programmes namely bachelor of business administration (bba) and bachelor of information technology (bit). at least half of that number who registered were from working individuals who have either failed to get a place in other universities or who have had some post secondary qualification and intended to improve themselves. they were strongly encouraged by the flexibility offered by unitar through its e-leaning programme.

being the first university in the country (in fact in the region) that offers e-learning, unitar experience has been both conceptually and operationally challenging. unlike most of the institutions, particularly in usa, that depends heavily on the internet to deliver materials and provide active interaction between students and faculty, unitar offers a hybrid model that combines three important components. the three components are the interactive, multimedia content on cd’s, the face-to-face meetings and the internet-based support system that provides continuous interaction between the students and faculty.

the production of interactive, multimedia content are now available both on cd and the web, thanks to the advancement of technology, particularly in the wireless broad band technology that will be available in a few moth’s time. the web-based interactive, multimedia content is often cheaper to produced and easy to modify or update. a special outfit has been established by unitar to develop all its contents. this outfit is now able to develop contents for other clients as well.

the face-to-face meetings are important, especially for those coming straight from high schools as a means of building confidence in them and for those who are still sceptical of the e-learning mode. this requires physical space, although not in the form of a huge campus. however, unitar has managed to establish eleven centres throughout the country to cater for the widely distributed population of its students, who now number more than 4,200.

the biggest challenge is still the internet-based interactive support system that we have called virtual online instruction support system (voiss). voiss consists of a series of functions such as e-mail, forum, faq, on-line tutorial, bulletin board, virtual library, announcements, etc. that have been painstakingly developed to provide various kinds of support to our students. we have learnt that there is a great need for proper set up and management of this system in order to reduce dissatisfaction among students and faculty alike.

unitar now has at least seven approved programmes from bachelors to ph.d. at least seven other programmes are in the pipeline. we have also managed to tie up with a few universities in u.s.a. and australia whereby our students could register for on-line courses offered by these collaborating universities. we are looking forward to tie up with other institutions of repute to jointly offer programmes for the benefit of malaysians as well as for those in the neighbouring countries.

1. introduction

distance learning is not a recent phenomenon to malaysia. many individuals, especially those in employment who aspire to be successful in their career development have painstakingly worked for external degrees offered by universities of repute such as the university of london, u.k. as early as the 1960’s or earlier. many professional bodies, such as the city and guild in u.k. also offered various certificates and diplomas in differentfields through correspondence programmes. in principle, these programmes were conducted by supplying to their registered students, reading and reference materials and assignments in print form by ordinary mail. students will have to sit for the scheduled examinations at different recognised centres in the country. face-to-face teaching were not common, but educational entrepreneurs normally took the opportunity to provide some form of tuition to students to prepare for their examinations. in certain cases, there were no interaction at all between students and faculty.

the first local university that started distance learning which is popularly known as off-campus programmes was the universiti sains malaysia (usm) in penang. usm which was established in 1967/8 which started operations in 1969 initiated the off-campus programmes in the early 1970’s. students received print-based materials in modular form and are required to attend regular face-to-face tutorials at different centres conducted by lecturers from qualified academics employed by the university on part-time basis. such students need to be registered for four years as off-campus students to complete the first two years of a three-year undergraduate programme. the final year has to be completed on-campus with the other regular students.

off-campus or distance learning programmes have become very popular only in the 1990’s when almost all the established local public universities jumped into the bandwagon. this proliferation of distance learning programme is the result of very high demand for higher education due to shortage of university places in the country. it has also attracted foreign universities to offer their academic programmes, especially the mba, that are being offered to malaysians by universities in u.k. not more than 30% of the teaching is done by the faculty from u.k. and the rest by malaysians. the fees charged by these universities are very high compared to fees charged by local universities. in other words, the premium for reputation is rather high.

the advent of internet in the early 1980’s did not however, attract e-learning instantaneously. both the lack of internet penetration and its instability hindered the enthusiasm for on-line learning. providers of e-learning could not afford to venture into the business because of the difficulty in obtaining the critical mass required to make it a profitable enterprise. the second more important reason for the lack of enthusiasm in e-learning is the much preferred method of face-to-face teaching and learning. although distance education has already taken root in the country where little or no student-faculty interaction takes place, there is still the strong lack of confidence among students and more so their parents that e-learning could be effective. the age-old methodology of teaching and learning is still strongly believed by both the society at large and professional educators to be the most effective way of imparting knowledge. so much so, it becomes a great challenge to institutions like unitar to introduce e-learning that is evidently growing to be an important business, especially in u.s.a. unitar experience in introducing e-learning in malaysia is, i believe, very significant, especially to societies of the same nature and socio-economic status as malaysia.

2. conceptualisation and rationale

unitar is not the only private higher institute of learning, providing tertiary education in the country. there are over 600 private colleges and at least 6 fully operating private universities in the country. the private colleges offer various non-degree qualifications leading to certificates, diplomas and advanced diplomas in professional and academic disciplines. only those approved private universities are allowed by the authorities to offer undergraduate and higher degree programmes. the private colleges do offer degree programmes by twinning with foreign universities particularly those in u.k., australia, u.s.a. and canada.

the government has also approved a number of foreign universities to establish branch campuses in malaysia. notably among them are monash university, australia, university of nottingham, u.k., university of sheffield, u.k. and curtin university, western australia. these foreign universities offer selected degree programmes that would cost slightly cheaper to students who otherwise would have to be abroad to receive the same qualification. all the private institutions adopt the traditional, age-old method of face-to-face teaching requiring physical campuses and a considerable number of teaching personnel.

the increasing demand for higher education, especially since the early 1980’s after margaret thatcher’s british government decided to implement full-cost fees to all foreign students in 1980 has resulted in the proliferation of private colleges that conducted twinning programmes. the small number of public universities (only 6 those days) could not cater for the rapidly increasing demand for higher education. the government has increased the public universities to eleven (11) now and intends to establish four (4) more in the next few years for a population of nearly 23 million. private education has been looked upon as a very lucrative business.