The Open University of Israel (Distance Learning)

INTRODUCTION

The Open University of Israel (OUI) is a distance education institution with open admissions that offers academic studies to students throughout Israel. Its home-study method allows its students to pursue higher education whenever and wherever convenient. The OUI offers over 500 courses in life sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, computer science, social sciences, management, Jewish studies, education, humanities, psychology, communications, music and art, and more, and has about 38,000 students all over Israel and abroad.

The OUI has traditionally taken advantage of existing technologies and has integrated state-of-the-art technology into its courses. For several years, the OUI has been integrating computer-mediated-communication (CMC) technologies into its course Web sites to improve its distance teaching. These new teaching methods expand and enrich the written textbooks that are the basis for teaching at the OUI. The incorporation of technological teaching methods is fully adapted to the written study materials that are prepared by experts in their fields.

Below, we will present the OUI and its distance learning methods, which include the integration of the CMC technologies.

BACKGROUND

The OUI, a distance education institution authorized by the Council for Higher Education of Israel, was established in 1976 to provide academic studies to students throughout the country. The OUI is characterized by open admissions and a flexible curriculum, method, and pace of study. The OUI’s uniqueness, as well as characteristics it has in common with other open universities, can be found in a comparative study of distance and campus universities (Guri-Rosenblit, 1999).

Since its establishment, the OUI has been growing steadily. In the past decade, student enrollment increased by more than 100% to more than 38,000 students, compared to about 18,000 students in 1993. Figure 1 depicts this growth. Today, every sixth student in Israel studies at the OUI, making it Israel’s largest university.

To better serve the growing number of students, the university has stepped up the development of new courses and new programs toward bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as the development of innovative teaching methods integrating a variety of advanced technologies such as computer-mediated communication, multimedia elements, and interactive broadband communication.

OPEN ADMISSIONS

The OUI is open to all those who wish to take a single course or a battery of courses, or to pursue a full program of studies toward a bachelor’s degree, and also offers master’s degrees for students with a bachelor’s degree. Students pay tuition for each course they choose to study rather than for a full-time, full-year program as is typical in other universities. The OUI combines its open-admissions policy with uncompromisingly high standards and exacting requirements in studies, and judges students on their achievements in demanding OUI studies rather than on their prior scholastic achieve -ments. Enrollment does not require matriculation or any other certificate from another educational institution to provide proof of prior scholastic achievements.

Applicants joining the OUI are not required to enroll in a faculty or department, but rather register for specific courses. The students select the courses that comprise their program of studies from a varied and wide-ranging selection. Students’ successful completion of the requirements of each course serves as the university’s sole criterion regarding their academic achievements.

In contrast to the open-admissions policy for undergraduate studies, admission to graduate studies is contingent on prior scholastic achievements including a bachelor’s degree.

CURRICULUM

The OUI curriculum is relatively flexible. The university offers over 40 programs of studies—single-, dual-, and multidisciplinary—and undergraduates can also design a personal program of studies based on internal logic and academic justification, accepted in the general university community and bound by rules that limit the multidisciplinary flexibility of the program.

The OUI offers over 500 academic courses in diverse fields on different levels and of varied scope, leading to BA, BSc, MBA, MA, and MSc degrees. The main disciplines and fields of study are listed in Table 1.

STUDENT PROFILE

The open time frame of studies at the OUI allows students to work at their own pace, keeping a balance between their studies, their jobs, and their home life. As lifelong learning has become a widespread phenomenon in Israel and in the international arena, many students begin studying at an early age and continue to update their knowledge throughout their lives.

Thanks to its flexibility and in light of its academic vision, the OUI serves a wide range of students, from gifted high-school students to pensioners, and from full-time students to working adults with families, business executives, soldiers on active duty, teachers, managers, employees in the public and private sectors, homebound parents of small children, and the physically handicapped. The vast majority of OUI students study part-time and most of them remain fully employed throughout their studies. There are students with no formal high-school education (5%), high-school graduates (70%), students who have completed some undergraduate studies, as well as university graduates (25%) who are interested in expanding their knowledge in other fields. Students of the OUI range in age from 13 to 86, with an average age of 28.7 (S.D.=7.9). Over 80% are between 21 and 35. In the current academic year, 625 high-school students, of whom 266 are new students, enrolled in OUI courses.

Figure 1. OUI growth in the last decade

Table 1. OUI disciplines and fields of study

Surveys have shown that 90% of the students chose to study at the OUI primarily because of their need and desire to combine work and studies. The unique and extremely flexible study method, which enables them to continue working while studying without having to move to a university location or disrupt their other obligations, appeals to more and more young students. Because they work during their studies, OUI students have the advantage of accumulating more professional experience than most of their counterparts in other universities who study without concurrently working.

The Open University does not compel its students to complete a uniform and prescribed program of study during a certain academic year. The individual rate of progress is determined by the students themselves based on their diligence and determination, as well as the amount of time available to them in light of their familial and work commitments. The rate of progress may change during the course of their studies—for example, a relaxed year followed by a hectic year. The only constraining time frame is the semester, as the duration of most OUI courses is one 15-week semester, and the students are required to meet the requirements of the course during the semester in which they are enrolled. Thus, there are students who study at a moderate rate, one course each semester, while others enroll in two or more courses simultaneously.

Another pattern of studies offered by the OUI is cooperation with colleges, technological and professional schools, and large private and public workplaces. This pattern involves groups of students who take OUI courses leading to a BA with intensive face-to-face tutorials given in their institution or workplace. About a third of OUI students study within this framework.

The OUI has more than 38,000 students taking some 5 00 courses in various fields: management and economics (27%); education and psychology (25%); sociology, political science, and communication (16%); computer science (10%); mathematics (8%); literature, languages, and the arts (5%); history, philosophy, and Judaic studies (4%); natural sciences (3%); and academic EFL (English as a foreign language) courses (2%).

Students Abroad

Hebrew-speaking students in over 60 countries throughout the world are studying at the OUI. Many of them are employees of Israeli embassies or Israeli companies who spend extended periods abroad. Most of these students begin their degree programs in Israel and continue studying abroad wherever they happen to be serving so as not to lose time or discontinue their studies.

METHOD OF STUDY

Distance education has been the OUI method of study from the outset. The OUI method of study is first and foremost flexible, allowing students to study anyplace and anytime. The pace of studies is determined by the student’s individual and professional needs and may change from semester to semester in accordance with circumstances. The students’ rate of progress is not measured in units of time (years or semesters), but rather in the number of accumulated credits. Thus, the OUI does not compel its students to complete a uniform and prescribed program of study during a certain academic year.

Studies at the OUI are based mainly on self-study of written materials, optional tutorial sessions, submission of assignments, and a final examination at the end of the course.

Written Materials

OUI courses cover a wide range of disciplines, and their textbooks are printed scholarly or scientific works written by renowned specialists in their fields and designed especially for self-study. These texts are so successful that fully half of the 800,000 books printed annually are used by students and faculty in other Israeli universities.

Some courses are based on existing textbooks, usually, but not always, translated into Hebrew. These are accompanied by a detailed study guide that contains the self-study tools characteristic of OUI textbooks. The guide directs the students in reading the textbook, expands, explains and clarifies sections or topics in the textbook if necessary, and provides questions and answers for independent drilling.

Assignments

Assignments are an additional component of OUI courses. Students submit assignments, exercises, or other types of tasks during the semester by mail, e-mail, or through the course Web sites. Students must also pass a final examination that is held at study centers near the students’ homes or at Israeli embassies and consulates in dozens of countries abroad. All students, regardless of study format, take the same final examination.

Group Tutorials

Each course includes optional face-to-face group meetings and activities—tutorials, laboratory work, or study excursions—in addition to periodic symposia. Group tutorials are usually offered in one of two formats: regular or intensive. Regular tutorials meet once every two or three weeks; intensive tutorials take place weekly. The sessions are held at the regional study centers. However, these components do not constitute the core of the course, and in some cases are not necessary for its successful completion. Students wishing to turn their studies into a personal campus can do so with utmost success based on the OUI’s primary self-study method.

The OUI operates four regional campuses and about 70 study centers throughout Israel. These study centers serve as a site for tutorial sessions in classrooms or laboratories and a meeting place for students. Attendance is not compulsory. The centers also provide libraries and other services such as television broadcasts, video films, and so forth.

Teaching Staff

Each course has a teaching staff that consists of an academic supervisor, a course coordinator, and a number of tutors. The course coordinator is responsible for supervising the tutoring and writing assignments and examinations. The main task of the tutors is to manage the tutorial group meetings, to review and evaluate the assignments, and to support the students throughout their studies. Contact between students and tutors are maintained through the tutorial sessions as well as by telephone conversations, correspondence, and e-mail.

Academic Counseling

The OUI provides an academic counseling and study guidance system that supplements the teaching system and accompanies the students throughout their studies. This system is intended to help the students choose a study track, select their first courses, plan and complete their program of study, transfer from one study track to another, as well as develop students’ learning skills. Among other services, it developed the Soft Landing program for new students.

The Soft Landing program is intended for new students first embarking on the path of OUI studies. It aims to make it easier for them to fit into the OUI’s self-learning and academic environment, and thus reduce preventable dropouts. Soft Landing is embedded in introductory courses, the first courses with which the students need to cope. As part of the program, the OUI integrates various elements such as learning skills into these courses; increases the accessibility of academic advisors, course coordinators, and tutors; and allows students to receive personal assistance to help them contend with the required skills and course materials.

Figure 2. A typical home page of an OUI course Web site

Evaluation and Feedback

The OUI carries out evaluation surveys of all its courses in order to help the academic staff identify problems and improve the courses. The Evaluation and Academic Staff Development Department is responsible for developing and carrying out these surveys, supplying the faculty with ongoing feedback and statistical data, and the training of academic staff.

TECHNOLOGIES AT THE OUI

In the last decade, distance education has undergone rapid change due to the proliferation of new information and communication technologies, which has resulted in the evolution of novel approaches to teaching and learning. In response, in 1995 the OUI established the Center for Information Technology in Distance Education (Shoham). The major focus of the center’s activities is on research and development of teaching methods based on state-of-the-art information technologies and their incorporation into course development and teaching procedures at the OUI.

One reason for integrating technologies, and the Internet in particular, into OUI courses was to provide a virtual campus that could serve as a substitute for a real campus to compensate students for what they miss when learning at a distance, and particularly to compensate for the lack of face-to-face tutorials for students who are unable to attend tutorial sessions for various personal reasons. Another objective was to take advantage of additional educational resources beyond what the university provides. These include electronic databases and all public-domain educational resources.

A wide range of technological and media tools have been developed to supplement written course materials in accordance with the specific needs of each course. The incorporation of technological teaching methods is fully adapted to the written study materials. The new teaching methods do not replace the written materials, but expand and enrich them. Among the technologies used in different courses are the transmission of live interactive lessons through broadband communication, courseware and multimedia especially developed for specific courses, cable TV broadcasts, telecourses, digital library services, and computer-mediated communication (Friedman & Beller, 1997). The pedagogical and social issues arising from their integration have been examined (Beller, 1996).

Computer-Mediated Communication

CMC state-of-the-art technologies have been incorporated into course development and teaching to improve the OUI’s distance education (Beller, 1997; Friedman & Beller, 1997; Gal-Ezer & Lupo, 2002; Lupo & Erlich, 2001). Today, CMC technologies are integrated in almost all the courses of the OUI through the course Web sites. The CMC teaching-learning environment includes the following.

• Interactive learning: The computerized teaching-learning environment provides for one-on-one and group interaction among all participants in the course: students, tutors, course coordinators, and guest lecturers. Interaction may be asynchronous or synchronous.

• Learning materials: Learning materials, based on multimedia and hypertext and access to databases on the Internet, include learning aids that increase the effectiveness of the learning process, such as animations, simulations, and multiple-choice exams with immediate feedback.

• Course Web sites: Almost all OUI courses have their own HTML (hypertext markup language) and Java-based Web sites that provide interactive learning materials including discussion forums, e-mail, and materials that students can download (Erlich, Gal-Ezer, & Lupo, 2002). The sites can be accessed by students in Israel or abroad through the Internet from any PC (personal computer). Although communication is currently mainly asynchronous, synchronous technologies are being examined, developed, and adapted so as to supplement the learning process with more interactive aspects (Moore, 1989).

All course Web sites are graphically and functionally similar. The learning materials on the sites are user friendly and easily updated by the course coordinators using an application that was specially developed at the OUI for this purpose. Figure 2 shows a typical course Web site.

In general, Web activities can be divided into two different aspects: the Web as a channel of communication and the Web as a study tool.

• The Web as a channel of communication: The Internet is used mainly to improve communication between the teaching staff and the students using methods that have been examined in various ways by a number of scholars (Beuschel, Bork, Hughes, McMahon, Serdiukov, & Stacey, 2000; Brooks, 1997; Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell, & Bannan Hag, 1995; Mason & Kaye, 1989; Sandell, Stewart, & Stewart, 1997; Verdejo, Rodriguez-Artacho, Mayorga, & Calero, 2000). The traditional distance education method allows for only limited contact between students and the teaching team. Via the Internet, communication between students and staff is more accessible, mutual, and continuous throughout the semester. In addition, the course Web sites include administrative information such as the course schedule and description, and lists of tutors and students in the course (including their e-mail addresses). A bulletin board on the Web site enables the course coordinator to post important messages to students, such as changes in meeting schedules, clarifications on deadlines for submitting assignments, and so forth.

In addition, the Web sites provide a virtual campus where students can get to know each other, form study groups, and maintain social contacts via a special virtual meeting place called “the course cafe.”

• The Web as a study tool: Many studies have examined the effectiveness of the Web as a study tool in terms of the various options it offers: asynchronous discussion forums, synchronous discussions (text, voice, and/or video), and animated illustrations and multimedia applications (Beuschel et al., 2000; Chan, Hue, Chou, & Tzeng, 2001; Cookson, 2000; Moore, 1989; Sajaniemi & Kuittinen, 1999; Sandell et al., 1997). All OUI course Web sites include four major components: discussion forums, opened by the course coordinator for each course topic; useful links to relevant Internet sites sorted by subject, including links to similar courses in other universities around the world and to Java-based visualizations of various topics covered in each course; files to download, posted by the coordinator, including exercises, solutions to exercises, sample exams, and so forth; and links to relevant sources in the OUI digital library.

The Virtual Library: “Biblio-Tech”

To make resources accessible to all OUI students and faculty, the university has been gradually developing its digital library. The digital library allows students and faculty to access, from their homes, bibliographic and other databanks, electronic journals,as well as the computerized catalog of the university library network in Israel. Bibliographic guidance for library use is offered to students in the main study centers. A compulsory noncredit online course in information literacy is being developed to ensure students’ efficient library and information-bank utilization.

SUMMARY AND FUTURE TRENDS

OUI courses have always taken advantage of technologies for enrichment on a wide range of topics. With the rapid development of information and communication technologies, it was clear that the integration of state-of-the-art technology into OUI courses would have a significant impact on distance teaching at the OUI. The interactive online learning environment via the Internet developed at the OUI forms an integral part of the teaching and learning process, using advanced information and communication technologies. A broad spectrum of technological and media supplements enhance the written course material in accordance with the needs of each course. This online learning environment benefits students and instructors in pedagogical and social aspects.

New technologies are constantly being developed, and the OUI continues to examine them and carefully considers integrating them into the online learning environment. Recently the OUI acquired a new system for distance learning based on videoconference technology. The system will be introduced into the teaching system gradually over the course of the coming year.Also, a new technology center to be established includes studios for broadcast via satellite, editing rooms, a videoconference hall, and facilities for Internet communication.

The OUI will continue its engagement in the research, development, and integration of distance learning and teaching methods, and will continue to make use of new and advanced information and communication technologies for the mutual benefit of both students and instructors.

KEY TERMS

Distance Education: A teaching method in which students do not have to come to a specific location in order to hear lectures or study. The learning materials reach them either by mail, through the Internet, or through other means (satellite, cable). The main component of the method is usually written material together with additional components such as assignments, face-to-face (or computer-mediated) tutorials, and examinations. It involves learning outside of the traditional avenues of attendance at educational institutions.

Distance Teaching University: A university in which instructors and students are separated by distance and interact mainly through communication technologies. It allows its students to study wherever convenient. It requires special methods of course and instructional design, as well as special organizational and administrative arrangements.

E-Learning: The use of electronic technologies and media, mainly the Internet and computer-based and networking technologies, to deliver, support, and enhance teaching and learning.

Open Admissions: Admission to a university with no formal entry requirements: It is open to everyone without the need for proof of prior scholastic achievements.

Open University: This term is used to refer to a distance teaching university that offers courses through distance learning, employing either traditional, technology-integrated, and sometimes entirely online methods. It is also used to refer to a university with open admissions. The term is not unequivocal. These universities usually allow for flexibility in curriculum and pace of studies. “Open University” can also be part of the name of an institution, often combined with the name of the country in which it operates, such as the OUI, OUUK (Open University of the United Kingdom), OUHK (Open University of Hong Kong), and AOU (Arab Open University).