Moving Forward with E-learning: The Experience of Open University Malaysia

• Main Author: Anuwar Ali,
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: LC5201 Education extension. Adult education. Continuing education
• Online Access: http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/161/1/moving_forward.pdf; http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/161/

Higher education institutions are embracing e-learning to enhance their learning environment and to provide a range of benefits associated with e-learning. In institutions that offer open distance learning, e-learning has also become a necessity to enable the institutions to serve a greater number of students and to reach out to those who are spread out geographically over a wide area. In addition, e-learning not only supports learners from the pedagogical point of view but also from the administrative angle. At the Open University Malaysia, e-learning has played a key role since it opened its doors to its first batch of 753 learners in August 2001. As part of the university’s blended learning pedagogies, e-learning has been able to support an enrolment of over 65,000 learners from within and outside the country. OUM, hence, finds it imperative that the quality of the e-learning environment is ensured at all times. How OUM establishes and plans for an effective e-learning environment so as to satisfy the learners and other stakeholders will be described in the paper. The paper also includes a discussion on some of the challenges in providing quality e-learning and how OUM has overcome these challenges. (Author's abstract)