International Panel Discussion Advancement of International Distance Education:

1. Content and Technology in ICT-Supported Cross-Cultural Educational Exchange e-Learning Practices in the Open Education System of Anadolu University Asst. Prof. M.Emin MUTLU International Panel Discussion Advancement of International Distance Education: Towards Japan-Turkey Collaboration 23 Feb.2006

2. Open Education System in Turkey Anadolu University Open Education System, which began teaching in 1982 with 29,000 students, is among the 10 mega universities with more than 1million students today.

3. The Development of e-Learning Services in the Open Education System • 1999-2000 • internet-based trial exams • 2000-2001 • Open Education Multi-Media CD ROMs • Anadolu University online courses(cevrimici.aof.edu.tr) • 2001-2002 • Internet-based Information Management Associate Degree Program • 2002-2003 • Internet-based practice software

4. The Development of e-learning Services in the Open Education System • 2003-2004 • Internet-based course books • 2004-2005 • Internet-based TV programs • On-line courses for the 3rd and 4th year of the English Language Teaching Program • Open Education e-learning portal • Academic Facilitator Service in the internet environment • e-audiobooks • 2004-2005 • Graduate programs on the internet • 2005-2006 • On-line courses for the Pre-School Children Education Program

5. Internet-Based Information Management Associate Degree Program (2001-present) Information Management Program aims to train computer literate students who are furnished with the skills to solve information management problems. http://www.bilgi.aof.edu.tr

6. Internet-Based Information Management Associate Degree Program (2001-present) The on-line courses are supplementedwith • textbooks, • licensed software, • virtual company practices, • videos of applications on CD ROMs, • on-line tutorials, • assignments, • communication-access services, • support service, • and examinations.

7. Internet-Based Information Management Associate Degree Program (2001-present) Online Academic Facilitator Services • Students are provided with tutorials synchronous with the instruction of the 12 of the practical courses. • 60 faculty members, each with an expertise in his/her field, take an active role in these synchronized tutorials. • Each practical course has a 4 hour synchronized tutorial per day, 20 hours per week. • Thus, a total of 240 hours of synchronized tutorials are realized each week for the 1st and 2nd year students.

8. Internet Based Practice Software (2002-present) • The internet-based practice software began as a one-course pilot study in the 2002-2003 Academic Year. • It turned into a service encompassing 10 courses in the 2003-2004 Academic Year. • 24 courses were published in the 2004-2005 Academic Year. • In the 2005-2006 Academic Year, practice software of 50 courses are publishing on the internet.

9. Number Of Visitors To The İnternet-based Practice Software Per Month The number of visitors has reached over 180,000 between the months of February and March 2005. It is expected that the demand for this services increase gradually as more and more courses are published.

10. Open Education Faculty English Language Teacher Training Online Courses (2004-present) • The first two years of the program are delivered face-to-face and the last two years are taught using the distance education methods. • Totally, 9455 students are enrolled in the ELTT program. http://iolp.aof.edu.tr/

11. ELTT Online Courses • Online instructing environment for 10 courses in the 3rd and 4th years have been prepared and published.

12. ELTT Facilitator Services • Academic facilitators respond to discussion groups within 24 hours and to student letters within 48 hours. • 35 facilitators conducted the tutorials in the 2004-2005 Academic Year, and this number increased to 45 in the 2005-2006 academic year. • In the 2004-2005 Academic Year, 4200 of the students enrolled in the program used this service. The goal for the 2005-2006 Academic Year is to reach to 6800 students.

13. Open Education e-Learning Portal(2005-present) http://eogrenme.anadolu.edu.tr http://eogrenme.aof.edu.tr

14. Open Education e-Learning Portal The e-learning services have been gathered in a portal and they are offered via this portal. • e-Book • e-Television • e-Practise • e-Exam • e-Facilitator • e-AudioBook The open education students can access this portal by using their Turkish Republic Identity Number.

15. Publishing and Usage Statistics of e-Learning Content *Between May 2005 and January 2006

16. e-Learning Portal: e-AudioBook The e-Audio book service, which was put into practice in August 2005, is the newest service being presented to students in the open education e-Learning system. In the period between August 2005 and January 2006, 23,938 students benefited from this service 78,361 times.

17. Total Number Of Visitors To The E-learning Portal On A Daily And MonthlyBasis From May 2005 where the e-Learning Portal was published to January 2006, the Open Education e-Learning Portal has received over 146 million hits, a total of 1,941,000 visits and an information transfer of over 22 TeraByte were reached. 212,692different students login this portal3,090,046 times between May 2005 and January 2006.

18. Distance Education Graduate Programs of Anadolu University • Anadolu-SUNY, Empire State College, e-MBA Program • Hospitality Management Non-Thesis Masters Program • Education of Developmentally Disabled Children Non-Thesis Masters Program • The software, equipment and technical support for those programs are provided by the OEF.

19. Anadolu-SUNNY, ESC, e-MBA Program • A dual diploma e-MBA Program with the colloboration of Anadolu University and the State University of New York, approved by the Higher Education Council, is the first and unique Business Administration masters program based on distance education techniques and accessed on the Internet.

20. Hospitality Management Non-Thesis Masters Program • HospitalityManagement masters program aims to train qualified workforce in the tourism sector and to furnish those in managerial positions with the skills and expertise required by the sector. The program is a distance education program that can be reached via the Internet.

21. Education of DevelopmentallyDisabled Children Non-Thesis Masters Program Aims of Program • To train those teachers who already work in schools and centers around Turkey but do not have the necessary training in teaching developmentally disabled children. • To increase the knowledge and skills of teachers with a formal education in this field.

22. Conclusions • Anadolu University Open Education System is a modern distance education model that is equipped with a very flexible structure and a strong organization to meet the educational needs of Turkey. With its advanced infrastructure in technology and qualified and productive human resources, Anadolu University constantly improves and renews its distance education model and it has contributed to the higher education in Turkey. • The open education model, which has been conceived as “education through television” by the community since its establishment, has begun to be conceived as “internet-based education” due to the advancements in the 2000s.

23. Conclusions • Anadolu University Open Education System is one of the largest distance education programs in the world in terms of the number of registered students. With the transfer of the traditional distance education course materials onto the internet, it has become one of the few e-learning programs in terms of the number of students benefiting from the e-learning services. • In the 2004-2005 Academic Year, over 150,000 of the 1 million students regularly used the e-learning services. The number of students benefiting from open education services is expected to increase as the number of internet-based courses and e-learning services increase and as the Internet infrastructure of Turkey develops.