Page 177 - Open and Distance Education In Asia : Good Practice From AAOU Members

Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) 157

4. The modern ICTs, specifically the MOOCs AND OTHER OPEN EDUCATION
Internet, also heralded the various PRACTICES
forms of open education practices and DE is a mode of instructional delivery which
as such further pushed the frontier of enables learners to study and complete
inclusive education. Initiatives in the a course or an academic degree without
form of OERs, MOOCs, open journal and having to be physically present in the campus
open books became major components or university. This is one barrier to access to
of delivering DE programs and courses education removed and can be considered
to all types of learners. This included as one step towards openness. Adopting the
mobile learning in consideration of the contextualization of open education by Bates
proliferation of mobile gadgets in the (2015), open education can take many forms
country. This necessitated the design of and formats which include education for all,
online courses to make them accessible open access to courses and programs, open
using mobile devices. educational resources, open textbooks, open
5. The mode of delivery system also research, and open data.
resulted in the convergence of the major
functions of the university such that The discourse about openness and attempts
the mode of instruction, especially the to offer open online courses started at UPOU
innovations being introduced, became at about the same time as online learning in
the subject of research to contribute to 2001. Following are the significant milestones
the continuous building of knowledge in UPOU’s journey towards openness which
on open and distance elearning. Public can probably simulate the Philippine DE
service, like training programs, is also journey towards openness.
being done through open online learning. • During the early 2000 (between 2001-
2004), a non-credit online course titled
Online Teaching and Learning was
offered by UPOU with the goal of training
faculty members on online teaching.
The course was initially offered to the
faculty members of the University of the
Philippines. It should be noted that it was
the period that UPOU initiated online
teaching and learning in its DE delivery
system and many of its faculty members
were based in the other Constituent
Units of the University of the Philippines,
hence the necessity of this training
program. The initial offering registered
more than 100 learners. Although it
was not completely open in the sense

University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU)