The 4th Cyber Education Forum: Good Governance and Quality Assurance for Open and Distance Education

The 4th Cyber Education Forum (CEF) of Universitas Terbuka (UT) was held by Learning Development in Indonesian Network Unit or Unit Pengembangan Pembelajaran Dalam Jaringan Indonesia (UPPDJI) or popularly known as Indonesia Cyber Education Institute (ICE-I) on Thursday (29/07/2021). Bringing up the theme of “Open and Distance Education Governance and Quality Assurance”, this forum presented two speakers, namely CEO edX, Prof. Anant Agarwal and Lecturer of Faculty of Psychology of Universitas Pelita Harapan, Dr. Rijanto Purbojo, S.Psi., M.Sc. The event held virtually through Zoom application and on YouTube UT TV channel was attended by not only domestic participants, but also not only foreign participants.

Opened officially by the UT’s Vice Rector for Institutional Development and Partnership, Rahmat Budiman, M.Hum., Ph.D., he, in this opportunity, congratulated the commissioning of ICE-I which was organized on Wednesday (28/07/2021). In addition, he also expressed his gratitude to ICE-I which has organized the 4th CEF that invited two extraordinary speakers who brought up the theme relevant to the current condition, which is the migration from campus-based higher education to online-based higher education.

The Chairwoman of ICE-I Unit, Prof. Paulina Pannen, M.LS. expressed her thanks to the two speakers who were attending the 4th CEF at which they could convey their ideas in assisting the development of ICE-I. As a marketplace, ICE-I offers the courses which are not only from local universities but also from foreign universities, and one of which is edX. Throughout its development, ICE-I has conducted researches in order to improve the quality of its system as online learning is new in Indonesia.

CEO edX, Prof. Anant Agarwal, in his presentation, exposed the differences of the era prior to Covid and the era after the Covid. In the era prior to Covid, learning was not done online at all, and instead, classroom meeting was held. When Covid-19 emerged, all face-to-face learning systems were no longer existing and they are replaced by online system. Once Covid vaccination began, learning was done by a blended learning between face-to-face and online learning. According to Prof. Anant Agarwal, in the era after Covid, blended learning methods will be widely used as when Covid-19 occurred, there were new customs created and therefore, blended learning offers flexibility.

As the Lecturer of Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Dr. Rijanto Purbojo, S.Psi., M.Sc. explained on the framework of quality assurance and good governance in open and distance education. On ICE-I, universities in Indonesia collaborated in one portal. ICE-I will continue to grow and universities can have more opportunities on quality assurance and to collaborate in such universities network, they all must meet the requirements. He also added that today he is conducting today the research and until now, to perform the research based on a theme provided by the forum and this is the first time, which is “Open and Distance Education Governance and Quality Assurance” together with the lecturers from other universities.