Page 135 - Open and Distance Education In Asia : Good Practice From AAOU Members

Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) 115

Figure 2 To maintain the relative advantage of
An example of the metadata description studying at OUJ under such circumstances,
embedded in an OUJ-AOBA digital badge it is necessary to restructure the curriculum,
improve lessons, and reform the organization
with the aim to further improving the
efficiency and quality of the education.
Reforms are also indispensable for responding
to the new normal, which is the new societal
conditions that are expected after the
COVID-19 pandemic ends. The expected and
anticipated near-future image of OUJ can be
summarized as follows.

1. Promotion of recurrent education
Enhancing the quality and quantity of
OUJ practical recurrent education in
accordance with the national government
and especially the MEXT’s “Adult Re-
learning and Career Advancement”
policy. For this, OUJ will increase the
number of vocational qualification-
related courses by actively utilizing
various courses such as television, radio,
Prospects and online. In particular, courses related
The state of Japanese university education to data science, AI, nursing, and teaching
has also been greatly influenced by the will be important points. This will strongly
COVID-19 pandemic. Remote learning similar attract students in their teens and 20s
to OUJ is being conducted on a daily basis to 40s, whose student numbers are
even at general universities. As a result, the increasing (see Figure 3).
boundary between remote higher education
institutions such as OUJ and general
universities is also becoming extremely
vague. Even general universities, which have
traditionally conducted only face-to-face
lessons, have begun to incorporate online
lectures into their classes and conduct entire
courses online.

The Open University of Japan (OUJ)