Page 205 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

registration forms filled out by the students were processed using the computer
scanning system centrally managed by the Registration Division. In this new
processing system, for those students requesting purchase order of the learning

materials, UT would issue the learning materials package label containing
student identification number, address , and the ordered learning materials.

Based on this learning materials label, the Distribution Center would prepare and
pack the learning materials and send them out to the students' individual

addresses in all over islands of Indonesia via postal service.
With the support of the Post Office, which has branch offices in almost all

sub-districts (Kecamatan) in Indonesia, UT was optimistic that the distribution
system could run well. In fact, the distribution of the learning materials did not

run smoothly as expected. The complexity of the new operations system with a
very short time of preparation along with the limited availability of computer

facilities and human resource abilities owned by UT during that time caused the
new system not to operate well as already planned . The short period of time for

preparation also had impact on the lack of socialization of the new system to the
Regional Offices and particularly to the students. Many students were not yet

ready to adapt to the new computer-based operations system . This could be seen
from the incidence of the students' mistakes when they filled out the registration

forms. Filling the scan able registration form using the 28 type pencils was a new
experience to many of the students, so that there were a lot of incidences of

mistakes in filling out the registration form . As the result, the students'
registration data could not be processed quickly. The lack of readiness on the

part of UT in anticipating the students' incidences of mistakes, in an unimagined
number, had consequences on the timeliness of the delivery of the learning

materials to the students.
Some constraints in the delivery of the learning materials to the students

were also due to the incomplete addresses of the students and the limited ability

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