Page 204 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

in line with the maximum available examination schedule every semester. A

fundamental change related to the learning materials is that the students are not
obliged to buy the learning materials. The students can buy the learning

materiq.ls in groups, so that the tuition fees become relatively cheaper.
The change in the course offering system resulted in fundamental change in

the learning materials distribution system. The students no longer had to pick the
learning materials in the Post Offices, and instead the UT Head Office directly

sent the learning materials to the students' addresses according to the students'
order requests. UT has maintained cooperation with the Post Office in the

delivery of the learning materials to the students.
The students interested in buying the learning materials were requested to

make a purchase order by filling out the prescribed column in the registration
form. Payment for the purchase of the learning materials could be done in the

Post Office by special postal clearing for the learning materials which was
separated from the postal clearing for tuition fee payment. The receipts of the

postal clearing for the learning materials payment together with the registration
form were sent to the UT Headquarters for further processing. Once the

registration form was received and processed in the UT Headquarters, the
learning materials were then sent out to the students' individual addresses in

according to their purchase orders. With this new distribution system , there was
no longer piling of the learn ing materials in the Post Offices as happened in the

previous year. However, this did not mean that the problem was totally overcome,
as there appeared new problems beyond prediction .

The fundamental change of the operations system demanded readiness of
computer hardware and software and the human resources, including the

students' readiness in adapting to this new system . In the new operations
system , all registration forms and student identification number were modified

according to the new requirements for the student data computerization . The

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