Quality Education in ODL: Evidence from the Tracer Study

The impact of the many initiatives undertaken by OUM to provide learning accessibilities through various aspects must be assessed from the perspective of its learners. Feedback through the tracer study conducted to learners who will be graduating is appropriate because they have gone through the e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ramli Bahroom, Latifah Abdol Latif, Ahmad Izanee Awang
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/969/1/library-document-969.pdf
http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/969/
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Institution: Open University Malaysia
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Summary:The impact of the many initiatives undertaken by OUM to provide learning accessibilities through various aspects must be assessed from the perspective of its learners. Feedback through the tracer study conducted to learners who will be graduating is appropriate because they have gone through the entire cycle of learning. The feedback allows OUM to assess its performance in the provision of services to its learners. An online tracer study conducted by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Malaysia, in collaboration with all local universities, colleges and polytechnics was carried out via a set of standard questionnaire is, in part, to evaluate the responses from Malaysian graduates on the performance of their alma maters. This paper presents the results of the study conducted on a total of 4911 respondents of the 2013 batch of OUM graduates. It is gratifying to note that 2013 OUM graduates are generally satisfied with the services provided by the university and that the level of satisfaction in almost all aspects have improved over the past five years. The aspects covered in this study include: curriculum, assessment system, career guidance, teaching and learning, facilities, and knowledge and skills. In another aspect, the results showed that OUM study programmes have had a high impact on the holistic development of graduates, in terms of self-readiness such as maturity, reliance and teamwork. On comparing the 2013 data with that of the 2008 data, the result showed that there are significant improvements in the graduates’ satisfaction on all aspects, except for the English language skills. This implies that the many initiatives that have been instituted over the last five years towards improving the quality of education has paid off as evidenced by the positive differences in satisfaction in the items covered in this tracer study. (Abstract by authors)