Page 9 - Open and Distance Education In Asia : Good Practice From AAOU Members

Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) vii

the current human capital force needs reached $43,790 million (Asia E-Learning
constant up- and re-skilling. Countries must Market Statistics 2030, 2022). The massive
work to develop an educational system that growth of online learning is both the cause
will increase their capacity to expand access and the effect of Internet penetration in
to education while simultaneously improving Asia. InternetWorldStats estimates that
the standard for instruction. Since facts Asia’s Internet penetration increased by over
and literature demonstrate that distance 2,500 percent between 2000 and 2022. With
education (DE) has been shown beneficial to a total of 2,772,013,116 internet users, the
increase access to and equity in education, penetration rate in 2022 will be around 67
particularly at the higher education level, percent (InternetWorldStats, 2022). Figure 1
many nations have adopted the DE system compares the growth of Internet penetration
and method. Asia thus emerges as one in Asia to that of the rest of the world from
of DE’s major beneficiaries and players. 2009 to 2021.
The benefit of DE for Asian people can be
represented by the enormous number of Figure 1
student enrolment. In India and China alone, Growth of Internet Penetration 2009-2021
over 10 million students are enjoying higher
education through DE (Qayyum & Zawacki-
Richter, 2019)

Even though the majority of DE programs
in universities across Asia were developed
before the advent of the internet and thus
relied on the use of printed and multimedia
learning materials, broadcast radio, and
television, in addition to in-person tutorial
sessions; the current DE were starting to be
dominated by online learning mode, which
has generated a sizable online learning
market on a regional level. According to
Allied Market Research, e-learning (which
is another term used for online learning)
market in Asia valued at $38,257 million in
2020 and is estimated to reach a value of
$162,158 million by 2030 (Asia E-Learning
Market Statistics 2030, 2022). Furthermore,
the occurrence of COVID-19 Pandemic
which limits people’s physical mobility, has
accentuated the need for online learning and
the size of the Asia e-learning market in 2021

Introduction