Page 144 - Open and Distance Education In Asia : Good Practice From AAOU Members

124 OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATON IN ASIA
Good Practices from AAOU Members

The Open University of Sri Lanka as the Asian Development Bank to significantly
ODE-Based Institution increase the resources for modern
The OUSL was ceremonially launched on June technology use in distance education in
19, 1980, at a function held in Bandaranaike Sri Lanka, with greater emphasis to online
Memorial International Conference Hall education. Through the development of
(BMICH) in Colombo under the patronization distance education technologies, especially
of the then President of Sri Lanka HE Late online education, the project aimed to
J R Jayawardana. However, it was legally increase access to post-secondary education
instituted as a University on July 22, 1980, in Sri Lanka while improving the quality and
through a government gazette notification relevance of learning by introducing both
and came into being from this day. blended learning programmes and fully
online programmes. Though this project
As the OUSL launched its operations, it took immensely helped the OUSL to expand
over two existing institutes, namely the and develop online capabilities, one of the
Sri Lanka Institute of Distance Education objectives of attracting other state and non-
(SLIDE) and the External Services Agency state sector higher educational institutes to
(ESA) along with some of the programs embark on distance learning did not have the
which were already offered by these expected results.
institutes: Postgraduate Diploma in
Education, Postgraduate Certificate in Pre- Another significant development in offering
School Education, Certificate in Professional distance education programs in Sri Lanka
English, Diploma in Management, Diploma was the circular issued by the University
in Science, Diploma in Mathematics, and Grants Commission in 2010 requiring all the
Diploma in Technology. The challenge given conventional universities to transform their
to the OUSL was to convert these programs existing external examination units into fully
which were conducted as external programs fledged Open and Distance Learning Units and
to pure distance mode and offer them. renaming their External Degree Programmes
This challenge was taken up by the staff of and Extension Courses Units (EDECU)
the OUSL, and in the year 1981, the first to either Centre for Open and Distance
purely distance education program, the Learning (CODL) and Centre for Distance
Post Graduate Diploma in Education, with and Continuing Education (CDCE). This was
an annual enrolment of 1,000 students was followed up by issuing a Manual for Quality
launched by the new university. In the same Assurance of External Degree Programmes
year, another program, the Certificate in Pre- and Extension Courses in 2014, to provide
School Education with an annual intake of guidance to conventional universities, and
400 students, was also launched. higher educational institutions/institutes
offering external degree programmes
Later in the year 2003, the Government of and extension courses through Open and
Sri Lanka launched the Distance Education Distance Learning (ODL).
Modernization Project (DEMP), aided by

The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL)