Global Tendencies in Open and Distance Learning

Today, the important facts such as the globalization, the changes in population movements, the transformation into an information society, the increasing competition in economics, the changes and progresses in information and communication technologies have an ongoing impact on all fields of life, including higher education. The areas that these factors affect in higher education range from the administration of higher education institutions to institutional structuring, from the diversity of services offered to financing structure, and from R&D activities to international cooperation. In this regard, in order to eliminate deficiencies, develop strategies and policies for the future of open and distance learning, it is of particular importance to have knowledge about the different approaches, applications and experiences of the universities from different countries which provide open and distance learning services. These will also allow institutions to find new stakeholders and to develop academic studies and programs. Better understanding the different approaches and experiences of the other higher education institutions will serve as guidance and assist in the remedy of the deficiencies and solution of the problems for open and distance education institutions. This study aims to describe and analyze the global tendencies in the administration, education and R&D processes of mega universities. For this purpose, by carrying out a research project, mega universities offering open and distance learning services in 6 countries (Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, People’s Republic of China) were determined and analyzed as the sample of the study. The examined institutions reflect current tendencies in open and distance education, which are governed by the socioeconomic and socio cultural characteristics of their countries, and also offer some practices that set examples. We also compare our findings with the corresponding applications and preferences of the Anadolu University and suggest that some remarkable practices are worth to be considered as valuable perspectives.