Page 133 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)
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Challenges and Opportunities
As stated above, an institution that has the ability to utilize the results of
ICT development will have greater opportunities to enhance its competitive
ability. One of the advantages of using ICT development in education is
opportunities to present flexible learning activities in various dimensions, i.e.,
place of study, time of study, means of communication with experts, seeking
resources, kinds of media used in studying. This flexibility , then, can make the
limitation between distance education and face-to-face education has blurring
boundaries through the use of ICT. Such flexibility has so much attraction and
has been sought by any individuals so that educational institutions which can
offer flexibility in learning activities should have greater competitive ability and
more appealing power to students .
The challenges will be clearer if the institutions are not just applying ICT to
increase internal organization efficiencies, but they should also achieve the
strategy of increasing the range capacity and competitive ability in its
educational process which is reflected in its academic rules.
Earlier, it has been discussed the opportunities as the result of ICT
application. The critical question that has to be answered is how far the
opportun ities can be efficiently and effectively utilized by the institution in
increasing internal competitive ability of the institution. If there is no such a
question, another question that could be put forward is how far the institution has
made effort to take the opportunities. This question can be answered by noting
how far the policy is directed, especially to respond to the opportunities. Then ,
the policy can be tested by means of looking at the investment as an effort to
realize it. Investment in this case can be seen in the areas of infrastructure,
human resources development, cooperation with other capable institutions, as
shown in the following Table 3.
111
