Page 201 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

students according to the schedule. The timeliness of receiving the materials by
the students will ascertain the success of the UT students in their studies.

The timeline for the distance students to receive the learning materials
must be carefully calculated to allow students to have enough time to study so

that the students will have better learning achievement.
The main constraint in the distribution of the learning materials is the

students' address , which is separately located in all over Indonesia. The
distribution of the learning materials must involve the use of different kinds of

transportations, such as by land, sea, and air. Not all means of transportation
can be relied on in sending the learning materials quickly to reach each of the

students' addresses . Furthermore, there are a large number of learning materials
and other supporting materials that have to be managed (accepted and sent)

carefully. Confronted with such constraints and challenges UT has always
attempted continually improve the learning materials distribution system and try

to implement the best and most efficient system in order to ensure that the
students can get the learning materials on time and in accordance with the

courses they take .
Since it was founded in September 1984, the UT learning materials

distribution system has gone through several changes or improvement. These
changes were in accordance with meeting the changing requirements of the UT

operational system.

F luctuating P e riod (1984-1989)

The period of 1984-1.989 was highly dynamic for UT, because its

operational system has underwent a lot of changes , and so did the learning
materials distribution system. The first five year period of UT operation was
critical for the future development of UT. That period constituted a period of

179