Page 92 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

local papers so that more students could utilize the materials. In relation to this,
the Regional Centers were expected to cooperate with local papers so that the

written tutorial materials could be published. Besides, the materials were also
disseminated through magazines or bulletins published by the students (Wardani,

2003).
Although correspondence tutorials were less attractive, the tutorial

packages have been continuously developed by the academic staffs at UT
Faculties under the coordination of Vice Rector for Student Affairs. In 2001 , 120

written tutorial manuscripts from 30 courses had been written and in 2002 , 20
manuscripts from 20 courses had been written as well. In 2003 , FMPA and FKIP

also conducted correspondence tutorials , especially for courses such as
mathematics and statistics. In fact, the third model of correspondence tutorials

which consisted "of explaining learning material and giving tasks were employed.
The materials and tasks were sent to the students directly or through the

Regional Centers. Students were expected to read it, do the tasks, and then sent
them back to the Faculties by mail for immediate feedback. This feedback was

sent back to the students by mail. This mode of tutorial was still in operation
until 2006. Furthermore, since 2005 correspondence tutorial contributes 15% to

the final mark (SK Rektor, 2004).
As a whole, the main limitation in carrying out correspondence tutorials was

time. The correspondence between tutor and students took plenty of time.
Considering the length of time needed to correspondence back and fort by mail ,

in average tutorial was conducted 2 sessions per semester. This was insufficient
in order to provide proper learning support to the students.

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