Page 216 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

The delivery of the course materials from the UT Head Office to the
Regional Offices used the UT own vehicles, especially for those located on the

islands of Java, Bali , Lombok, and in South Sumatra . While for other regions , the
delivery used the Post Office services. Based on the considerations of delivery

cost and timeliness , the delivery of the learning materials gradually handed over
to private freight-forwarder services.

All the delivery steps, starting from creating the DO until delivering the
course materials recorded in the computer, so the stock of the course materials

in the UT Headquarters Center could be identified every time it was needed. The
stock of the course materials in Regional Offices could be identified from the

monthly reports received by the UT Headquarters from the Regional Offices. With
the application of the computerized system in the management of learning

materials in the Regional Offices, the ordering and reporting of stock of the
course materials could be done automatically.

The computerization in the management of the course materials required
regular updating of data immediately after every transaction of activities . Delay

in updating of the data would cause inconsistency between the data stored in the
computer and the real stock available in the warehouse. Updating the computer

programs and improving the human resource competencies were carried out
continuously.

Beginning in 2004, improvement of the application system for the course
materials distribution was conducted. The outdated distribution application based

on the FoxPro Database System was changed into Sybase Database System .
The advantage of this new system was that the Sybase had larger capacities so

that the processing of the course material distribution services could be
conducted faster and more reliable. The migration into the new application

system for the course materials distribution began in 2004, starting with the
regular course materials (non-elementary education) and then followed by course

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