Page 94 - 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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Tutorial  by  Television

                   TV  is  effective  and  potential  media  in  its  capability  to  present  audio-visual

             information   with   wide   range   of  accessibility  (Verduin ,  1991 ).  These
             characteristics  are  useful  for delivering  learning  materials for distance  education .

             However, considering  the  cost  for  developing  TV  program  is  quite  expensive , and
             the  process  and  time  needed  to  develop  the  program  is  long ,  many  distance

             education  institutions  use  TV  media  only  as  supplementary  media.  In  addition ,
             the  dependence  on  TV  station  has  made  many  distance  education  institutions
             used  TV  as  limited  supplementary  media.  Th is condition  is  also  experienced  by

             UT.  UT  was  given  small  allotment  to  TV  media  which  was  inappropriate  for

             broadcasting  its  programs .  In  the  past,  UT  TV  programs  were  broadcasted  by
             National  Television  Station  (TVRI)  and  Indonesian  Educational  TV  (TPI).  On
             TVRI,  the  program  was  broadcasted  once  a month  at  3.30pm , while  on  TPI  it was

             broadcasted  four times  a month  at  11.00pm.

                  In  February  1998  the  broadcasting  frequency  was  cut  down  drastically as  a
             result  of  TPI  policy  of  no  longer  broadcasting  educational  programs  anymore.
             This  was  regrettable  because  TPI  was  supposed  to  provide  educational  service

             through  its  programs , therefore  it  was  not  in  line  with  its  previous  mission. This

             ironic  fact  actually  was  pragmatic  because  running  educational  TV  programs
             requires  idealism  which  means  willingness  to  provide  fund  that  sometimes  is  not
             aligned  with  commercial  aspects  of  TV  broadcasting.  Special  channel  for

             education  is  definitely needed  and  this  should  relate  to  national  education  policy.

             Considering  this  high  potential  media  as  a  means  of  widening  educational
             opportunities  in  Indonesia,  it  is  realistic  if  the  government  and  private  sectors
             care  about the  existence of TV  station  especially designed for education .

                  With  the  rising  educationalist  and  educators  concern  with  poor  educational

             TV  programs,  there  was  an  offer  to  use  direct  broadcast  satellite,  called  Cakra
             Warta  belonging  to  lndovision  Broadcasting  Corporation  in  October  1997,


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