| Institution Name | Open University of Malaysia |
| Contact details | Main Campus Open University Malaysia Jalan Tun Ismail 50480 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia |
| Website/URL | www.oum.edu.my |
| Brief Overview |
The Open University of Malaysia (OUM) is the seventh private university in Malaysia. Although incorporated as a private university under the Private Higher Education Institutions Act 1996, the University leverages on the quality, prestige and capabilities of its strategic partners - a consortium of the 11 public universities. OUM adopts the motto "University for All" which is consistent with its philosophy on democratisation of education. This philosophy underlies the belief that education should be made available to all, regardless of time, place, age and social economic background. The open and distance learning (ODL) mode is specifically targeted at working adults who need to take care of their families as well as manage their careers while pursuing higher education. Under the able stewardship of the then founder and President/Vice-Chancellor, the late Tan Sri Dr. Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad, OUM has positioned itself as an alternative avenue for the public to gain quality tertiary and lifelong education. As an open learning institution, OUM subscribes to the following principles:
OUM's strengths span a wide range of disciplines, from IT and Engineering to the Arts and Social Sciences, Business and Science. Employing the latest approaches in the teaching-learning process, it offers academic programmes that cater to the demands of industry and the marketplace in general. Initially opening its doors to 753 learners in 2001, OUM has over 79,000 students in 70 academic programmes in its eighth year of operations, a record of some sort. Through OUM, working adults can upgrade their knowledge and skills for the purpose of career progression, career transition or pursuing lifelong learning ambitions, all within the comfort of their homes. |
| Distance Education History | In Malaysia, the provision for education is the biggest challenge for the government as the nation strives to become a fully developed country by the year 2020. One solution is to use technology as an enabler to bring education to the masses. Universities are taking up the challenge by updating the content of their programmes but more importantly, utilising the latest technologies to improve the delivery systems. One of the emerging delivery systems much talked about is Open and Distance Education which is fast becoming the way of providing education to the masses. As a result of this new phenomenon, in August 1999, the Minister of Education invited Multimedia Technology Enhancement Operations Sdn. Bhd. (METEOR), a consortium of 11 public universities in the country, to set up an open university. The move by the Minister led to the establishment of Open University Malaysia (OUM) in August 2000 followed by its official launching on 26 August 2002 by the then Prime Minister of Malaysia YAB Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. |
Teaching and Learning Profile
| Degree level focus | Bachelor degree |
| Expenditure on teaching | 30% of yearly budget |
| Orientation of degrees | general formative 100% |
| Range of subjects | comprehensive 11 disciplines |
Student Profile
| Distance learning students | 31,692 |
| Mature students | predominant 80% |
| Part-time students | predominant 100% |
| Size of student body | not reported |
Research Involvement
| Doctorate production | not reported |
| Expenditure on research | 1% of yearly budget |
| Peer reviewed publications | not reported |
Involvement in Knowledge Exchange
| Cultural activities | some 2 |
| Income | not reported |
| Patent applications | not reported |
| Start-up firms | not reported |
Regional Engagement
| 1st year bachelor from region | not reported |
| Graduates working in region | not reported |
| Importance of local/regional income sources | some |
International Orientation
| Foreign degree seeking students | not reported |
| Importance of int'l income | some |
| Incoming students | not reported |
| International academic staff | some 7 |
| Outgoing on exchange | not reported |
DE-related Institutional Information
| Number of Students | not reported |
| Number of Students by DE mode | 31,962 |
| Number of Academic Staff | 4821 (Full-time staff + tutors) |
| Summary of External Quality Assurance Processes | OUM is legally established and all programmes are accredited by Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA). A few departments are
certified with MS ISO 9001:2008.
|
| Summary of Quality Procedures |
The following are examples of QA processes adopted by the University:
|
| Percentage of resources that are OER | 2% |
| Intellectual Property Rights Position | unclear or disputed IPR position |
| Expected changes for DE from the current strategy |
|
| Any future considerations for DE | OUM organises dialogues and forums with its learners and tutors frequently to identify their perception and satisfaction level. The findings are used as benchmarks to initiate new plans and development to bridge the gap. The digital library has a vast collection of printed and online learning and reference materials to aid in the learning process. The collection of e-books, journals and novels (English and Malay) are increased steadily to cater to the learning needs of the learner population that is on the rise. |
| Summary of the impact of technology on distance education | Technology is very important to OUM
|
Technologies
| Technologies currently in use | |
| ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION | |
| Blogs | |
| ✔ | |
| Microblogging (e.g. Twitter) | ✔ |
| Online Forums / Threaded discussions | ✔ |
| Personal Portals (e.g. iGoogle) | |
| Podcasts | ✔ |
| RSS feeds | ✔ |
| Shared Calendars / Meeting Scheduling (e.g. Doodle) | |
| SMS / MMS | ✔ |
| Social Networking Utilities (e.g. Facebook, MySpace) | ✔ |
| Vidcasts | |
| Voicemail | ✔ |
| Webinars | |
| Website | |
| Wikis | |
| SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION | |
| Chatrooms | |
| Instant messaging (e.g. ICQ, MSN) | ✔ |
| Online forums (eg Eluminate) | ✔ |
| Shared Whiteboards | |
| Teleconferencing | ✔ |
| Telephone | ✔ |
| Video Conferencing | ✔ |
| Virtual workspaces | |
| Voice-over IP (e.g. Skype) | |
| RESEARCH TOOLS | |
| Citations/References (e.g. Endnote, Zotero) | ✔ |
| News Sharing (e.g. DIGG) | |
| Notification Services (e.g. Google Reader) | ✔ |
| Online databases or directories | ✔ |
| Search Engines (e.g. Google) | ✔ |
| Social Bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us) | |
| Web Annotations (e.g. Diigo) | ✔ |
| DOCUMENT SHARING & MANAGEMENT | |
| Document Repositories / Management Systems | |
| Document Sharing (e.g. Google Docs, Google Apps) | ✔ |
| Grid/Cloud Computing | |
| Learning Management System | ✔ |
| Sharing Geographic Content (e.g. GoogleMaps) | ✔ |
| Sharing Image Content (e.g. Flickr) | |
| Sharing Presentation Content (e.g. Slideshare) | ✔ |
| Sharing Textual Documents (e.g. GoogleDocs) | ✔ |
| Video Sharing (e.g. YouTube, TeacherTube) | ✔ |
| OTHER | |
| Password Management (e.g. OpenID) | ✔ |
