Cari Lara

OMDE 601 Section 9040

22November2015
Essay Assignment 2
Distance Education in Pakistan and Japan
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) uses the Human Development Index
(HDI) to rank developing countries in its annual Human Development Report. The HDI takes in
to account a countrys life expectancy, per capita income, and education (UNDP, 2014). In the
2014 report, Japan was ranked 17th while Pakistan was ranked a very low 146th (UNDP). This
essay will compare the Open University of Japan and the Virtual University of Pakistan with
regards to the history of each institution, the population served and mission, their organizational
structure, what model of teaching and learning is used, and what technologies each institution
utilizes.
VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY OF PAKISTAN
According to the World Bank (2014), Pakistan is a developing country that has poor
government spending on education. The World Bank goes on to write that in 2013 public
spending on education was 2.1% of GDP which reflects on the quality, poor teaching and
learning outcomes and inadequate infrastructure, (2014). The country is working to reverse that
trend and opened up The Virtual University of Pakistan in 2002. The Virtual University of
Pakistan, or VU as they are referred to on their website, was established by the Government as a
public sector, not-for-profit institution with a clear mission: to provide extremely affordable

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world class education to aspiring students all over the country (Virtual University of Pakistan,
2015). One published study by Dr. Irshad Hussain concluded that students saw VU as an
alternate to the formal system of education (2007). One key point of the study was that many
students saw distance education as something that integrates the nation by extending the
opportunities of higher education, uniform curricula, technology based instructional
methodology and equal opportunities of higher education (Hussain, 2007).
Virtual University of Pakistan has succeeded in developing and publishing Open
Educational Resource (OER) content. In Dhanarajan, G., & Porter, D. (2013), Naveed Malik
writes that VU addresses the issues of education institutions at full capacity, the extreme shortage
of qualified professors, and the very high cost of education at centers mainly located in the larger
cities only by offering free courses. She further writes that VU was created largely due to the
UNDP to help further develop Pakistan (Malik as cited in Dhanarajan & Porter, 2013). In a 2013
study, Dr. Hussain writes that VU employs a learner-centered instructional paradigm through
the use of its Virtual Television Network supplemented by Internet for online instructional
delivery.
OPEN UNIVERSITY OF JAPAN
While Pakistan has a developing infrastructure, Japan is a very developed country with a
focus on education. In 1983 the University of the Air was founded, later renamed the Open
University of Japan (The Open University of Japan, 2015). The University of Japan values
lifelong learning, as evidenced by the Open University of Japan being directly supported by the
Bureau for Lifelong Learning Policies, which is ultimately under the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (Tsueno Yamada as cited in Dhanarajan, G., & Porter,
D. 2013). It has a community relations model where they believe access to education betters the

DISTANCE EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN AND JAPAN

community. According to Otto Peters (2001) it was established with three specific goals which
are to establish a university where those in full time employment and housewives would have
access to higher education, allow those who failed to gain admission to existing universities an
opportunity to study, and also develop a system with the latest advances in research and
instruction technologies (p. 218). Dr. Kumiko Aoki wrote in a 2010 report that 80% of students
working enrolled in undergraduate degree programs and 85% of students pursuing graduate
degrees are over 30. The website for the Open University of Japan gives information concerning
their system of teaching and learning. They posted that two types of courses are offered which
are broadcast lecture courses over television, radio and the internet with the aid of university
published textbooks, and also face to face courses called schooling (2015). The webpage also
notes that full online courses were offered for the first time in 2015 (Open University of
Japan, 2015).
COMPARISON
What is interesting about both of these institutions is that they rely heavily on technology
available in the first wave and second waves of education. The Open University of Japan relies
most heavily on print materials, similar to the first wave and the early correspondence schools.
The Virtual University of Pakistan does most of its education through the use of their four
dedicated television channels, which is in line with the second wave of education, similar to what
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting did in the 1970s, (Moore & Kearsley, 2012, p. 30).
Both school are integrating the internet more and more however, with Japan to begin online only
instruction. Due to internet limitations in Pakistan, that is so far not a reliable or feasible option,
which is why internet use is limited to a basic Learning Management System (LMS).
Additionally, where Pakistan has seen the benefits and fully participates in programs for open

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educational resources (OER) similar to , Japan has been slow to fully implement such programs.
Yamada writes that one roadblock is that invested government education officials have not
sufficiently understood the significance of OER (as cited in Dhanarajan G. & Porter D., 2013).
Conversely, Pakistan became a member of the OpenCourse are Consortium (OCWC) in 2010
and has since made available over 130 undergraduate and graduate level courses, and went on to
be awarded the Outstanding New Site Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence from the OCWC
(Malik as cited in Dhanarajan G. & Porter D., 2013). In Japan, Yamada writes that OER is very
difficult due to course ware only having copyright clearance for use by students or solely
broadcast. Yamada goes on to say even if the university produces its own programs, the cost
associated with copyright clearance is too costly to be widely used (as cited in Dhanarajan G. &
Porter D., 2013). Additionally, both universities operate through the use of education centers that
are spread out throughout the country. At these centers, students have access to educational
resources such as required texts, internet, and also take assessments while there. Japan currently
has 50 study centers, seven satellites spaces and 70 audio-visual rooms (The Open University of
Japan, 2015). According to their official website, Pakistan has over 170 campuses across the
country (2015).
CONCLUSION
While these two countries vary greatly on their level of economic, social, and human
development, they have remarkably similar distance education approaches, through the use of
television broadcasts, text based materials, and education centers. Both universities are also
utilizing the internet more, to the extent they are able. However, distance education in both
institutions is still widely asynchronous, with little student-teacher interaction. More efforts are
being made to correct this and offer more student-teacher and/or student-tutor interactions

DISTANCE EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN AND JAPAN

through the use of teleconferencing, video conferencing, and at study centers. While they differ
on many things, it is clear that both the Virtual University of Pakistan and the Open University of
Japan have sustainable and functional models for continuing distance education into the future.

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References
Aoki, K. (2010). The use of ICT and e-Learning in higher education in Japan. World Academy of
Science, Engineering and Technology, 42, 854858. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.294.2184&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Dhanarajan, G., & Porter, D. (Eds). (2013). The genesis of OER at the Virtual University of
Pakistan. In Open educational resources: An Asian perspective. (pp. 135-141).
Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning and OER Asia.
Dhanarajan, G., & Porter, D. (Eds). (2013). Open educational resources in Japan. In Open
educational resources: An Asian perspective. (pp. 87-107). Vancouver:
Commonwealth

of Learning and OER Asia.

Hussain, I. (2007). A study of students attitude towards virtual education in Pakistan. The
Journal of Distance Education- TOJDE, 8(2), 6979. Retrieved from
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED496537
Hussain, I. (2012). Study on instructional paradigms of virtual education in Pakistan: A Learners'
Perspective. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology - TOJET, 11(2), 178186. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ989026
Moore, M. G. & Kearsley, G. (2012). Distance education: A systems view of online learning.
USA: Wadsworth-Cengage Learning.
Peters, O. (2001). Learning & teaching in distance education. New York & London: Routledge.
The Open University of Japan. (2015). System of teaching and learning. Retrieved from
http://www.ouj.ac.jp/eng/model/system.html

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The World Bank. (2015, April 17). Pakistan. Retrieved from

http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/pakistan/overview
United Nations Development Program. (2014). Human development report 2014. Washington,
D.C: Author.
Virtual University of Pakistan. (2015). About. Retrieved from
http://vu.edu.pk/AboutUs/AboutVU.aspx