Higher education in Asian countries and the role of international ...

5.1.2.7 Open Distant Education (ODL)
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Human capital development leads to quantitative increase in the trained manpower and as well as
qualitative improvement of the working conditions and the society also. Today national higher
education systems in Asia-Pacific countries are faced with dual pressure; on the one hand it is
forced to support rapid technological and economic development and on the other hand it is
forced to meet the ever increasing demand of higher education.
In majority of Asian-Pacific countries basic education is under-invested what to speak higher
education because of this there is an imbalance between demand and supply of education at all
levels particularly at post secondary or higher or further education level. Due to the scarcity of
resources an inequity in the opportunity to access arises. Such inequality can be reduced
significantly only by democratization of education.
In the developing countries human development is of crucial importance. Open Distant education
is the new form of higher education, which is of increasing interest to countries throughout the
world (UNESCO 1983). In this context Open Distant education model is the most apposite and
appropriate; viable and workable to make higher education available and accessible with greater
equity by bringing education of the students‟ doorsteps. Above of all Open Distant Education
(ODE) demands less human and financial resources as compared to regular university education
model, which require buildings, laboratories, libraries and also a large faculty. A university
engaged in ODE is, usually, virtual in nature, which relies on modern developments of
innovative technologies. These modern technologies not only make quality distance education
possible but also offer new possibilities in the domain of distant learning and teaching. These
innovative approaches of utilizing Information and communication technology (ICT) include;
internet, multimedia, Tele-monitoring, online-meetings, Fax, SMS, MMS, LMS, e-library, e-
books, e-mail, voice-chatting, video-conferencing. The low cost and high speed are the biggest
advantages of these modern technologies. In the developing countries of Asia-Pacific region still
these technologies are not available to majority of the persons particularly in the rural areas (UIS
2009). So there are other channels of communication that are in use for the last many decades in
the democratization, development and promotion of higher education all over the world, it
include printed text materials, specially designed text books, workbooks, learning guides,
learning kits, postal service, telephone, mobile phone, radio broadcasts, television programs,