On 23 – 24 February 2024, the Open University of Japan (OUJ) had visitation to the main office of Universitas Terbuka (UT) in Pondok Cabe, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia. OUJ and UT have been in a long-time friendship and partnership in regard to providing distance education. Both OUJ and UT have been the active members of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU). UT received five delegates of OUJ who came along during the visitation:

1. Prof. IWANAGA Masaya (President)
2. Prof. TATSUMI Takeo (Informatics, Professor)
3. Ms. SATOMI Tomoka (Director-General)
4. Mr. YAMAMOTO Manabu (Councillor and Division Head of General Affairs Division)
5. Ms. KAJIWARA Kanako (Chief of the International Affairs Section)

After landing in Jakarta around 07.00 PM, delegations of OUJ were warmly welcomed during dinner time at Penang Bistro restaurant by the Vice Rector of Research, Innovation, Partnership and Business of UT, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rahmat Budiman, and the other International Office team members of UT. The short meeting was then adjourned by taking pictures together before they left to the hotel.

The agenda of Day 2 was mainly arranged to have a meeting with the Rector of UT and to visit UT’s Multimedia and Learning Content Production Centre and Learning Content Service Centre. The meeting was attended by 10 representatives from UT including the Rector as follows:

1. Prof. Drs. Ojat Darojat, M.Bus., Ph.D. (Rector of UT)
2. Prof. Dra. Dewi Artati Padmo Putri, M.A., Ph.D. (Chair of Research and Community Service)
3. Dr. Kartono, S.Pd., M.Si. (Head of Learning Management Center)
4. Candra Wibawa, S.Sn., M.Ds. (Representating the Head of Multimedia and Learning Content Production)
5. Drs. Timbul Pardede, M.Si. (Head of Testing Center)
6. Arief Rahman Susila, S.E., M.Si. (Head of Learning Content Services Center)
7. Dr. Maya Maria, S.E., M.M. (Representing the Director of Marketing & Partnership)
8. Hidayah, S.Pd., M.Pd. (Advisor to Rector)
9. Fauzy Rahman Kosasih, S.S., M.Pd. (Head of Partnership and International Office)
10. AAOU Secretariat

The Rector of UT, Prof. Drs. Ojat Darojat, M.Bus., Ph.D gave her welcoming remarks to the OUJ delegates and all the staff members who presented. During his speech, he explained to the guests about how UT has become a strategic ‘player’ that steers the continuity of learning in Indonesia due to its ability in giving provision and opportunities for working people to stay on learning which conventional campuses are not usually able to do. By integrating technology and providing different kinds of support services, UT has been able to increase quality of instruction for its students. Prof. Ojat Darojat mentioned since 2001, UT developed quality assurance centre to ensure all programmes run in good quality. This is strengthened by the fact that UT invited both national and international quality reviewer from accreditation services, such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) once every three years.

Following after Prof. Ojat Darojat’s welcoming remarks, the OUJ’s President, Prof. IWANAGA Masaya also gave his brief speech which emphasised on the introduction of how OUJ has actively become the member of Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU). This year OUJ is celebrating its 40th year anniversary. OUJ aims to improve in providing the distance education for its learners, hence also the reason why they came to UT to see and learn how UT is able to achieve certain goals in the practice of teaching.
After both speeches were delivered by the President of UT and OUJ, the session was then focused on to the questions raised by OUJ to UT which have been prepared far before their coming to UT. There were 9 questions pertaining to UT’s education system that were inquired by OUJ, which cover the following subtopics: Education System Overview, Examination Methods and Integrity, Impact of Covid19 Towards the Student Services, Internationalisation, Copyright and Data Protection, and Degree Purposes and Career Outcomes. The Rector of UT and the other representatives were taking charge in answering each question. Prof. Ojat Darojat introduced to OUJ in regard to how UT provides formal classes that come in various methods, such as online, face-to-face tutorial, and blended).
In terms of examination practice, which is a critical issue, Drs. Timbul Pardede, M.Si., the Head of Testing Centre of UT was taking control in explaining how UT manages to maintain the examination methods and integrity works well in their distance learning practices. He mentioned about how UT currently has implemented Online Proctoring to tackle the challenges relating to personal identification and preventing cheating in online examinations. This system is closely monitored by proctors. If any cheating behaviour is detected during the exam, it will be visible to proctors through their monitoring screens when students shift their gaze, leave the room, speak, or if there are other individuals present or excessive noise in the environment. It was also said that UT also utilises web proctoring equipped with advanced features for verifying student data and monitoring student activity during exams. Any instances of cheating are identified in real-time, allowing for immediate intervention.

One of the main inquiries which also raised by OUJ was regarding the use Copyrights and Data Protection in the learning materials. Mr. Candra Wibawa, S.Sn., M.Ds. who represented the Head of Multimedia and Learning Content Production of UT explained that UT selects Open Educational Resources (OER) over Copyright ones. He also mentioned that in terms of audio and video available online, e.g., YouTube videos, it is highly suggested to use only videos with Creative Common License. UT also has developed and launched MyUT as a new digital learning ecosystem application.

The meeting which lasted for approximately two hours was then ended by taking OUJ delegates to visit UT’s Multimedia and Learning Content Production Centre and Learning Content Service Centre. The last agenda of OUJ in Indonesia was then concluded by a lunch together with Prof. Dra. Dewi Artati Padmo Putri, M.A., Ph.D., the Chair of Research and Community Service of UT, who represents Prof. Ojat Darojat at Pagi Sore Restaurant. The International Office team members of UT also made sure to keep the OUJ delegates company until they reached Soekarno-Hatta airport and took their flight back to Japan.