Keynote Speakers



Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Anuwar Ali
President/Vice-Chancellor
Open University/ Malaysia

ABSTRACT
In a rapidly globalised world scenario, technology utilisation in higher education institutions is certainly an important component of progress and enhancement. Seen as a panacea, institutions have been adopting new and state-of-the-art technologies including online and m-Learning to engage its learners in new ways of learning. However, the success of its implementation varies from institution to institution. As a result of the need to ensure the democratisation of education, many developing countries have adopted the open and distance learning (ODL) approach to reach out to learners who are geographically and academically challenged by leveraging on information and communication technologies.

One example of such an ODL institution is Open University Malaysia (OUM). With about 90,000 learners enrolled over a period of eight years throughout the country, OUM is continuously faced with the challenge of providing quality education. The latter is indeed a critical component of OUMs strategic thrust in promoting lifelong learning in Malaysia. Primarily, the University delivers its education through a blend of pedagogies involving print and electronic media. The latter includes the use of online and mobile learning. Like all ODL institutions, OUM needs to ensure the success of both online learning and mobile learning implementation.

The keynote presentation will describe the development and implementation of some of the online and mobile learning initiatives that have been initiated by ODL institutions such as OUM in the last few years, highlighting the major challenges, and thereby presenting, as we look forward to the future, new ways and initiatives in ensuring the sustainability of quality education.


Keywords: online learning, m-learning, development, implementation, challenges.