Development of first full online courses at the open university of japan

• Autores: Kumiko Aoki
• Localización: Proceedings of Ikasnabar-Guide 2016 International Conference / Gorka J. Palacio Arko (ed. lit.), 2016, ISBN 978-84-9082-489-4, págs. 268-280
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro
• Resumen

  • The Open University of Japan (OUJ) has been offering higher education for the last 33 years through television and radio broadcasting, print materials, and face-to-face classes at 50 study centers nationwide. However, the recent decline in student enrollment and the reduction in its governmental subsidy have been forcing the university to reconsider its system of teaching and learning and to innovate its operation. In order to increase the student enrollment, to increase the number of courses the university can offer, and to improve the educational model from a teachercentered to a student-centered, OUJ developed its first full online courses in the fiscal year of 2015 and began offering the courses in April 2016. The first eight full online courses offered at OUJ marked the university’s history; however, the online teaching is still considered as experimental and the university is now facing a number of issues ranging from budgetary constraints to differing images of online education held by its teachers and students. The major challenge is to shift its long-standing organizational culture based on the educational model of broadcasting pre-recorded lecture programs to a more dynamic and interactive educational model. The author has been heavily involved in developing the online courses at OUJ as the leader in the team of instructional designers as well as the principal instructor of one of the online courses. In this paper, the author will recount the experiences of developing and running first full online courses at OUJ and describe the challenges OUJ are now facing in making use of the interactivity afforded by the learning management system.