AAOU Exchange Fellowship Program 2018

To improve the quality of teaching, research, and cooperation among the members of Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), in 2018 Indonesia Open University or Universitas Terbuka (UT) hosted AAOU Staff Exchange Fellowship Program again. After a series of selection processes, the committee selected Dr. Naveed Sultana of Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan and Mr. Meraz Ahmed of Bangladesh Open University as the awardees of the Fellowship Program.

In the opening ceremony (Monday, 8/10/2018) held at the Meeting Room of LPPM Building, 3^rd Floor, Rahmat Budiman, M.Hum., Ph.D, as the Officer in Charge of Protocols and International Affairs, briefly talked about Indonesia Open University (UT). In the meeting, Dr. Naveed Sultana and Mr. Meraz Ahmed presented their research plans in front of the lectures from four faculties at UT. At such opportunity, their counterparts were appointed to accompany the two visiting lecturers in UT.

Dr. Naveed Sultana presented his proposal, titled “A Comparative Study of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and University of Terbuka Indonesia (UT) to Utilize MOOCs for the Professional Development of University Teachers” with the objectives to analyze and compare the awareness of AIOU and UT lecturers toward the use of MOOCs. In this research, it is expected that the use of MOOCs for the professional development of AIOU and UT lecturers can be analyzed as well as the behaviors and readiness of AIOU and UT lecturers can be investigated for their future professional training.

The second presenter, Mr. Meraz Ahmed, explained his research proposal on “MOOCs and Entrepreneurship Development: A Comparative Study on Bangladesh and Indonesia Perspective”. The objective of his research is to further elaborate the importance of MOOCs for the Entrepreneurship development both in Bangladesh and in Indonesia. Other objectives are to identify the lecturers’ perception toward open and distance learning, as well as to identify effective strategic approach for the development of Entrepreneurship by using MOOCs. Through this program, it is expected that useful distance learning can be developed for UT, AIOU and BOU.