Sample

In May 1999 the questionnaires were sent to 214 participants who work in open universities in Asia and have attended the following international conferences: 1997 & 1998 Annual Conferences of AAOU, 1998 Shanghai International Open and Distance Education Symposium and 1999 Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in Brunei Darussalam.

122 completed questionnaires from 26 open universities of 12 countries/regions were received and the returned percentage is 57.0%. Amongst them, 77 are from 12 Radio and Television Universities in China (RTVUS), 12 from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in India, 6 from Kota Open University (KOU) in India, 1 from Yhashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) in India, 2 from Dr. B. A. Ambedkar Open University (DRBRAOU) in India, 6 from the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK), 1 from Korea National Open University (KNOU), 1 from Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in Pakistan, 4 from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) in Thailand, 1 from University of Philippines Open University (UPOU), 4 from the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL), 2 from Bangladesh Open University (BOU), 2 from Payame Noor University in Iran (PNU), 2 from University of Air in Japan (UAJ), 1 from National Open University (NOU) in Taiwan. SPSS is employed to analyse quantitative data from the returned copies of questionnaire.

Results

The major results of the survey in open universities in Asia could be classified into five parts:

1. The gender and age distribution of the students;
2. The leadership styles;
3. The teaching and delivery model;
4. The methods and forms of student assessment;
5. The importance of outcome indicators.

The gender and age distribution of the students

The results of table 1 indicate that the distribution of gender in different universities is extremely unbalanced. The ratio of male to female students is 3:1 in India. This has confirmed the concern of many researchers over the lack of gender equality in the access to education in India.

However, it is interesting to note that there are more female students than male students in Japan, Thailand and the Philippines.

Table 1 also shows that the age distribution of students in the open universities in Asia. In Mainland China, Sri Lanka and Iran, the average age of students is from 21 to 30. Many open university students in these countries are young people who have not performed satisfactory in university entrance examinations. How to help these young students, who have missed the chance to enter conventional universities, to attain the same academic level as their conventional university counterparts has become an important issue. At the University of Air in Japan, the number of female students doubles that of male students (987 males and 1,819 females). The average age of students is from 36 to 40, which is much older than the students in other countries. 41.2% of them aged above 40. The University of Air provides liberal arts programmes only and the courses do not lead to occupational licences while correspondence universities provide courses which lead to professional licences. Therefore many students at UAJ seem to study for their personal fulfilment. For example, about 23 % of students are housewives in UAJ and it is reported that they study for their self-fulfilment (Iwanaga, 1999; Yoshida, 1999).

Leadership styles in Asian open universities

Reardon (1995) classified leadership styles into four types: Commanding, Logical, Inspirational and Supportive. Leaders with a commanding style tend to ‘take charge and make rapid changes’. Logicals are more analytical, carefully formulate plans for incremental changes. Inspirationals are creative people who empower others by inviting them to share in their visions. They introduce radical ideas and persuade others by creating trust. Supportive leaders want to please other people. They facilitate work, encourage openness and seek staff consensus in decision-making. Reardon’s (1995) Leadership Style Inventory was employed in this questionnaire survey.

Table 2 shows that four types of leadership styles in Asian open universities spread fairly evenly in open universities in each country. It reflects the fact that the leadership styles should probably be mixed based on the distinctive characteristics of open universities. This has challenged the commanding style traditionally dominant in Asia.

The teaching and delivery model in open universities

The distance educators were asked to choose the most frequently used mode of teaching and course delivery employed in their universities. It has been found that there are three kinds of teaching and course delivery models, including distance teaching supplemented with face-to-face sessions, an equal distribution of distance and face-to-face teaching, and finally face-to-face teaching supplemented with distance teaching.

Table 3 shows that the majority of open universities in Asian employ distance teaching method supplemented with face-to-face sessions. KNOU in Korea utilises distance teaching and face-to-face sessions in an equal proportion. However, RTVUS in China use face-to-face teaching supplemented with distance teaching.

It could be seen from Table 4 that printed materials play a dominant role in distance education. The University of Philippines Open University and some open universities in India (e.g. KOU, YCMOU) use printed materials but nothing else for their correspondence courses. About 20% of instructional materials in Mainland China involve the use of television broadcasts or video tapes, which is related to the fact that China has adopted a national radio and television university system.

Online lessons have not been widely used in Asian counties. However, the majority of respondents state that their universities have started to develop and use online courses.

The methods and forms of student assessment

Open universities in Asia use assignments and examinations to assess students. The distance educators in this sample were asked to write down the distribution of assignments and examinations in assessment of students.

Table 5 reveals that the distribution of assignments and examinations in student assessment at Asian open universities. In most open universities, assignments account for 30 percent while examinations make up 70%. In Japan and Mainland China, examinations make up 100% and 80% respectively. In contrast, examinations only account for 50% of the student assessment at the Open University of Hong Kong.

The distance educators were also asked to choose the most common forms of assignments utilised in distance education among the choices of multiple-choice questions, short open questions, essay on a set topic and group project.

Table 6 shows that essay on a set topic and multiple-choice questions are used in most open universities. However, the form of group project, which could test students’ application of knowledge and develop students’ abilities to work in a team, is often ignored in most open universities.

 The importance of outcome indicators in open universities

The open universities in Asia have used a wide range of outcome indicators. All indicators could be classified into four categories: teaching activities, research activities, consultancy projects and related activities, and cultural and social outputs. Teaching activities include 6 sub-categories: number of graduates, completion rate, drop-out rate, persistence rate, graduation rate, and placement performance of students. Research activities include 5 items: number of referred publications, number of non-refereed publications, number of grants received, monetary amount of research grants received, and number of research awards. Consultancy projects and related activities include number of consultancy projects, monetary amount of consultancy projects and proposal acceptance ratio. Cultural and social outputs include practical use of knowledge in society, opportunity for access to education and further education, ethical issues, relevance to society’s needs, social recognition of the graduates, and knowledge and skill upgrade. All distance educators were asked to rank each item from 5 (most important) to 1 (least important). The results are reported in Table 7.

It has been found from Table 7 that cultural and social outputs are considered to be the most important indicator in almost all universities. It is interesting to note that distance educators’ perceptions of outcome indicators are in line with the philosophy of distance education. The majority of distance educators in open universities regard both teaching and research activities as very important indicators.