Page 243 - 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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Academic Services
Academic services are given to the students who need assistance in
academic matters faced in studying the learning materials. They can get
academic services such as tutorials , academic counseling service, and library
service .
• Tutorial service
UT students are required to study on their own , in a study group or by
attending tutorial. Tutorial is expected to help students who have difficulty in
understanding the learning materials, but it is not expected to be like
teaching or lecturing activity as in the face-to-face higher education
institution. As a result, the proportion of self-study is bigger than that of
tutorial . Considering the varieties of students' ages, educational
backgrounds , jobs, and learning facilities they have , it can be assumed that
their learning ability and perception vary. Therefore, it can also be assumed
that there are some of them who need learning support in the form of tutorial.
Tutor is a content expert who has the mastery of certain subject and has
qualifications that are almost the same as conventional educational
institutions (Mclnnis-Ranklin and Brindley,1986). Tutorials at UT are given in
the form of face-to-face, written , and online tutorials . Every form of tutorial
has strengths and weaknesses. Tutors for face-to-face tutorials are academic
staff at UT or other lecturers from other universities. While tutors for written
or online tutorials are the UT own academic staff.
According to Race (1990), tutors' roles are (1) to give feedback to the
students, (2) to teach either face-to-face or through communication devices,
(3) to give support and guidance including how to motivate and help them
develop their learning skills. Ideally, each student has the right to get tutor
assistance , either it is related to the contents of the courses or it is in the
form of counseling . However, the UT tutorials are emphasized on giving
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