The State of Practice of Mobile Learning in Universitas Terbuka Indonesia

Abstract

As a distance learning university, Universitas Terbuka (UT) uses mobile technology as an integral part of its online learning system. In addition to its mobile interface website, online tutorials are also made accessible through mobile as well as handheld devices. In other words, UT students can literally study through their mobile devices from the very first activity of registering for courses, paying the tuition fee, obtaining digital learning materials, accessing the digital library, reading online journals, as well as participating in online tutorials. With the continuous development of increasingly sophisticated smartphone technologies, it is important for UT to continuously improve its online learning system. The development of UT’s mobile learning, which was started in 2013, has gone through several phases. The first phase was the preparation of infrastructure, which includes the development of applications and frameworks. The second phase was the content development, which was done by the faculty using various media including text, audio, video, multimedia, and the utilisation of open education resources (OER). The last and third phase was the program delivery, which involves tutors, technical/IT assistants, and other support systems to allow students with seamless access to mobile learning using various mobile devices. This seems to be effective as shown by the data that demonstrates UT mobile learning is being accessed by students using different mobile devices with various operating systems. This chapter will give a glance on the state of practice of mobile learning in Indonesia as well as elaborate on the process and practice of mobile learning at Universitas Terbuka (The Indonesia Open University) as a dedicated distance learning university.