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Impact of COVID-19 on open universities worldwide: case studies from Asia, Africa and Europe

Impact of COVID-19 on open universities worldwide: case studies from Asia, Africa and Europe Purpose – The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has had a profound impact on education institutions at all levels. Open universities, with their privileged delivery method, have been in an advantageous position. In the earlier stages of the pandemic, they made remarkable contributions to assuring learning continuity. However, with more and more conventional universities migrating online, great changes have taken place in the field of higher education, and it is imperative for open universities to adjust their strategies in order to maintain their leading role in a technology-enabled education context. This paper aims to examine what challenges have been faced by open universities during the pandemic and how they will transform in the future. Design/methodology/approach – Six open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe were selected as cases in this research to make a comparative study based on the papers in the volume beyond distance education [1]. Similarities and differences among the cases were analyzed in order to identify the developing trend for open universities in the international context. Findings – The results showed that (1) open universities in these regions demonstrated their resilience in the pandemic; examples were that new technologies have been leveraged to implement totally online delivery with short notice and huge amount of learning resources were offered to the society. (2) However, they encountered challenges of delivering fully online examination due to the lockdown and quarantine policies, and open universities in African and the sole private institution suffered financial pressure due to improving information and communication technology infrastructure and staff training. Another challenge was the fierce competition from conventional universities that open universities in Asia and Europe came across. (3) Four main areas were identified for future development in order to respond to the challenges: No.1 is that programs such as health care, psychology, epidemiology, virology, immunology, data analytics, biology and bio-informatics have stimulated interest for African open universities to develop in the future; No. 2 is that open universities were seeking to innovate their teaching formats; short courses, such as micro credentials, might be developed as agile and flexible offerings which are expected to be suitable to learners in the pandemic context; No 3 is that programs and courses for upskilling in the context of digitalization will be implemented; and No. 4 is that lifelong learning is given a higher priority in order for open universities to stand securely in the higher education sector. Originality/value – The study may give open university leaders a quick insight into their future development. Keywords Open universities, COVID-19, Impacts, Responses, Challenges, Developing trend Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has been ongoing for over two years and the pandemic has had a global impact. Nearly all educational institutions in the world had been suspended from mid-2020 to mid 2021 due to the lockdown and quarantine policies and a small number have maintained such closures recently in some countries due to new waves of the virus. © Songyan Hou. Published in the Asian Association of Open Universities Journal. Published by Emerald Asian Association of Open Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Universities Journal license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both pp. 92-102 commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and Emerald Publishing Limited e-ISSN: 2414-6994 authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ p-ISSN: 1858-3431 DOI 10.1108/AAOUJ-08-2022-0114 legalcode According to the statistics in UNESCO (2020a, b), about 1.6bn learners in over 190 countries COVID-19 and and regions had suspended their study and were unable to return to their schools or open universities in the darkest time. Taking conventional universities as an example, campus- universities based students and teachers were taken out of their classrooms with the aim of slowing the worldwide spread of infection and this was a universal phenomenon. However, all governments have taken various measures to assure learning continuity. Online delivery is widely considered the most suitable and effective way of fulfilling such a goal. Therefore, educational institutions at different levels were forced to migrate online overnight. For example, in the first half of 2020, 1.1m online courses in Chinese universities had been moved and taught online, accounting for 91% of all courses at that time, and 22.59m students had to participate in online learning (Jing, 2021). Open universities, with their privileged delivery method, have been in an advantageous position. However, their preserved advantages have been challenged as technology-enabled education was immediately and widely used as the only feasible solution to assure learning continuity. Online education providers have been increasing dramatically, with conventional universities and big corporations, included since the spread of the pandemic. Again, in mainland China, nearly all conventional universities have tested online delivery which operates the same way open universities do in the context of COVID-19. Another example is Google, which has fully played its role in facilitating education worldwide using its innovative, user-friendly and advanced technologies. As time goes by, these changes in fact have exacerbated the transformation of higher education. Notably, impacts have been placed on open universities, both positive and negative. With no doubt, these changes have garnered attention in the open university community around the world. An early example is the dialogue among open university leaders globally, initiated by the Open University of China (OUC). In mid 2020, the OUC research team headed by President Dr. Jing Degang initiated an internationally joint research project with the aim of discussing the governance of open universities, sharing best practices of open universities, understanding how open universities responded in such a disastrous context and examining their challenges and predictions of their future development. 16 educational institutions including open universities, conventional universities and international association joined this collaborative research project [1]. And all the participants are heads of each organization, either vice-chancellors, rectors, presidents, or pro-vice- chancellors, vice presidents. They contributed to the project by submitting a paper under the required framework proposed by the OUC. One of the outcomes of the collaborative project is to publish a volume with the aim of sharing views and ideas of each organization to the international academia. The volume has been disseminated around the world via International Conference of Distance Education (ICDE), official website of London University and university libraries of participant universities. The volume was selected as a key publication during the 14th-Year Plan in mid- 2021 in China. The second stage is to conduct comparative studies among these organizations to find similarities and disparities. This paper, for the purpose of fulfilling the goal at the second stage, selected six single-mode open universities in the volume as cases: University of South Africa (UNISA), Botswana Open University (BOU), Universitas Terbuka (UT) in Indonesia, Open University Malaysia (OUM), Fern Universitat in Hagen Germany (Fern Uni) and Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in Spain. Two open universities are from the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe respectively where single-mode open universities are densely distributed. This paper reports on similarities and disparities related to responses to COVID-19, and the challenges faced by open universities by comparing the six cases. The purpose of this small research is to portray a picture of the developing trends of open universities in the world. 2. Relevant studies AAOUJ According to Tony Bates (2010), the concept of universities is resilient and has remained 18,1 unchanged for more than 800 years. Here the universities refer to those conventional ones with no instability. In comparison, the concept of open universities in modern sense is very young. The University of London External Examinations system established in 1858, and the University of South Africa (UNISA), founded in 1948, regarded as the pioneers of open universities, are only about 160 years old (Tait, 2018). But the record for the first single- mode institute is only around 50 years old, represented by the Open University UK (OUUK) founded in 1969 which stimulated the creation of open universities worldwide. Since then, the open university movement has been popular all over the world. There was, until recently, over 120 open universities worldwide according to Commonwealth of Learning (2017), Contact North (2020) and ICDE (2020), among which Asia sees the largest numbers. Mega universities and hyper universities, named by Daniel (1996, 2007), are not uncommon in Asia, and famous examples are the OUC, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Anadolu University in Turkey. Open universities were regarded as the most significant innovation in higher education in the last three decades of the 20th century (Daniel, 2019), and the movement has made tremendous progress in the massification of higher education throughout the world. However, technologically delivered education by open universities has not been universally recognized (Latchem, 2014) though the advantages, achievements and contributions of open universities have been discussed by academics and researchers over the years (Daniel and Stroud, 1981; Daniel, 1996, 2017; Tait, 2008). People gradually expressed their concern about the quality and sustainability of open universities when technology was adopted by conventional universities since the late 1990s (Scott, 1995; Garrett, 2016; Paul, 2016; Commonwealth of Learning, 2017). Professor Asha Kanwar claimed that due to the emergence of online providers and campus institutions offering online programs, open and distance learning is no longer the draw of open universities (Commonwealth of Learning, 2017). In 2017, professor Alan Tait also conducted research for ICDE, with the aim of finding pathways for open universities in the next ten years (Tait, 2018). Until very recently, the COVID-19 pandemic provided a chance, albeit in a negative and disruptive way, for academics and researchers in open universities worldwide and international associations to demonstrate their enthusiasm and concerns about open and online learning and education. For example, researchers discussed the initiatives undertaken by open universities and the biggest challenges facing them, such as Grace (2021) in the Open University UK; researchers conducted a study on the impacts of COVID-19 on students’ mental health, such as Appleby et al. (2022), some open universities undertook an exploratory study focusing on the impacts on the student market (Open Universities Australia, 2021; Jing, 2021), just to mention a few. As above, though academics and researchers showed their concerns, the emphases are placed on either the individual open university, learner support, student behavior or recruitment, which are more prone to the micro level. No series of research has been found regarding the challenges and future development of open universities in international academia though a few well-known researchers and academics raised their voice some time ago, not to mention the comparisons of those in different regions. As previously mentioned, Asia is home to mega and hyper universities. Europe is the leader of single-mode open universities, and Africa is the birthplace of nowadays open universities, this paper selects six open universities in these three continents, with the aim of identifying the challenges and future development of open universities as a whole. 3. Research questions COVID-19 and The research reported in this paper was guided by three main questions. open (1) What measures do open universities take to respond to COVID-19? universities worldwide (2) What challenges do open universities encounter in the context of COVID-19? (3) What is the developing trend for open universities in the post COVID-19 era? 4. Methodology 4.1 Research approach A case study is used to describe, compare, evaluate and understand different aspects of a specific subject, such as a group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon (McCombes, 2022). This study adopted the case study research methodology, with an attempt to understand the different aspects of open universities in the COVID-19 pandemic. Six cases were compared based on a volume for the purpose of portraying a picture of open universities in the future. 4.2 Data collections As mentioned earlier, heads of institutions were invited to contribute a paper for the collaborative research project, and the titles of their contributions are listed in following Table 1. The papers are required in accordance with the below framework. 4.3 Required framework of the research project Please contribute a paper regarding the topic of development of Open Universities in the Post COVID-19, and the following main questions should be included. (1) Governance of open universities in the new era? (2) Sharing of best practices of open universities worldwide? (3) The developing paths of open universities in the context of COVID-19? (4) The developing directions of open universities: a predictive and strategic view. No. Continents Organizations Participants Title of each paper 1 Asia Universitas Terbuka Rector Optimizing Online Learning Services for (UT) in Indonesia Open and Distance Learners: Universitas Terbuka’s Opportunities during the Covid-19 Pandemic 2 Open University President Directions of Open and Online Education: Malaysia (OUM) Prediction and Strategies - A Case Study of Open University Malaysia 3 Africa University of South Vice- ODeL in Transition: Reorienting, Africa (UNISA) Chancellor Reprioritising and Restrategising in a Time of Covid-19 4 Botswana Open Chancellor Botswana Open University in the Post- University (BOU) COVID 19 Era 5 Europe Fern Universitat in Vice- More than distance learning! - New Hagen Germany (Fern President Challenges for FernUniversitat Uni) Table 1. 6 Open University of Rector The UOC: A Distanceless University Basic information Catalonia (UOC) in Spain about the cases 5. Findings AAOUJ 18,1 RQ1. What measures do open universities take to respond to COVID-19? When COVID-19 hit, education was disrupted due to the constraint of social distance, and this is more visible on campus-based educational institutions. However, open universities have demonstrated their resilience in the crisis in two ways, summarized below according to the report of each participant in the research project. 5.1 Leveraging technologies to run purely online within a short notice When governments put in place all the measures addressing the immediate challenges caused by the virus and the lockdown policies, open universities were found in a unique position because they can “conduct their business as usual” to the utmost degree. All open universities in the research project had mentioned that they used different technologies to implement purely online delivery. For example, UNISA moved assignment submissions, student support and feedback tutorials all online. Meetings were conducted through Microsoft Teams, and registration, administration and finance department could be all automated via Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Technologies such as Zoom, Google Meet, Google Drive, One Drive, and Microsoft teams were frequently and widely used in UT, OUM, and BOU. Apart from using technologies from those big corporations, Fern Uni, UT, OUM, BOU and UOC also developed their own platforms to offer their online courses to those with diverse needs in the pandemic. The results showed that open universities were better prepared to face COVID-19 because they were used to adopting technologies in delivering education, and in this sense, they were not seriously affected by the pandemic. 5.2 Offering free online learning resources to the public Some courses were provided to learners who were not registered to the institutions. At Fern Uni, students could register shorter learning units, such as individual courses or modules without dedicating to a full degree program. This gives students flexibility based on their own individual needs. At BOU, its online tertiary resources are open to students in public schools and universities with the assistance of the Ministry of Education. It also collaborated with Commonwealth of Learning/Coursera to provide employability courses for those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. UT has worked with many universities within Indonesia to provide student teaching material services. In Spain, UOC launched a web portal together with the Spanish Ministry of Universities for the purpose of supporting and training teachers and students with online resources. UOC also contributed resources to countries in Latin America. RQ2. What challenges do open universities encounter in the context of COVID-19? 5.3 Challenges of moving examination fully online for all participant open universities The results showed that all participating open universities had come across the same problem during the pandemic, and that was the challenge to move examination fully online. Before the crisis, some students, though not all students in the open universities, attended their exams in the classrooms of other conventional universities in different cities across each country, however, this had to be shifted online to assure learning continuity because of the lockdown policies and social distance constraints. Open universities were not well prepared for fully online examination within a short notice period and problems regarding electricity, ICT infrastructure, Internet connection, and plagiarism caused trouble. 5.4 Challenges of increasing financial pressure for African open universities and the COVID-19 and private one open Open universities in Africa reported their financial problems caused by the pandemic. Taking universities UNISA as an example, the uncertainty of its future enrollments would affect its future worldwide funding. Secondly, it also incurred significant unbudgeted expenses, such as the cost of using new technologies including renting laptops for teachers and staff to work from home, and decontaminating and sanitizing buildings. To create fully online working environment with paperless administration and staff training was also one of the most critical challenges in terms of finance. In BOU, COVID-19 posed a negative effect on second stream income, including rentals, and they were required to explore third-stream income sources. The University also needed to set aside extra funds to pay part-time tutors while on the internet with students. OUM, as a private open university, though not mentioning any financial burden, was reported to establish an Investment and Risk Management Committee to revisit their investment strategy, analyze and evaluate to what extent their investment would provide balanced return for the University. 5.5 Competition from conventional universities for open universities in Asia and Europe This was a critical challenge that was very well noted in UT, OUM, UOC and Fern Uni. In Indonesia, the Ministry of Education and Culture proclaimed that conventional universities should provide open distance education during the pandemic, which posed a threat to UT, and this was reported to accelerate its transformation process so as to maintain its pioneer position in ODE in Indonesia. In Malaysia, many conventional universities were forced to migrate online, adapting to the new norm of teaching and learning. OUM, though a leading ODE university in Malaysia, is switching to new technologies in delivering its programs in order to face stiff competition from conventional universities. UOC mentioned that even before COVID-19, organizations from different fields had seen online learning methodologies as an efficient and cost-effective tool to satisfy the growing education demand. The University called for a multilateral collaboration among universities. In Germany, conventional universities have adjusted their strategies to implement online and distance teaching as well in order to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic. These universities have experienced that ODE is a feasible alternative and creates new opportunities. To some extent, the pandemic has thus played a positive role to accelerate digitalization process in higher education sector. It is expected that after COVID-19 Fern Uni will definitely not be the only organization that can provide online offerings, and it will gradually lose its unique features in Germany. RQ3. What are the developing trends for open universities in the post COVID-19 era? 5.6 Open universities should develop new programs or courses in order to meet the social needs It is believed that COVID-19 is not the only crisis facing the world in the future, other crisis like epidemic virus, regional conflict and climate disaster will also possibly affect all countries in one way or another (Kanwar and Daniel, 2021). Open universities in Africa proposed that a variety of basic and scientific disciplines, such as epidemiology, virology, immunology, data analytics, biology, bioinformatics, psychology, mental health, public health and global health history should be developed. Open universities, as higher education institutions, should meet their social justice responsibility and accountability by helping the social needs of communities to live through future disasters as much as they can. COVID-19 disruption is recognized as an opportunity to improve open universities in developing programs and courses in the aforementioned fields. Besides, professions in social sciences, such as psychologists, social workers, health care workers, have noted a distinct upsurge, which were AAOUJ deemed to be second-class disciplines in a technology-oriented context. 18,1 5.7 Open universities should implement innovative teaching formats In recent years, micro credentials have played an important and increasing role in the field of online teaching, which can meet social needs because of its greater flexibility, particularly in 98 the context of the pandemic. In UNISA, more short learning programs were offered as they were more affordable for students who may lose their jobs due to the lockdown policies. Students can resume their upper-level learning when their financial situation improves based on the credentials of short learning programs. Thus, they will not have to shoulder the financial burden of paying a full degree program, such as a BA or MA program. Fern Uni has actually implemented such short courses, even before the crisis. It either created its own micro credential courses and MOOCs, or participated in European Short Learning Programs. This way, more learners’ needs will be catered for. In Malaysia, creating flexible learning pathways were encouraged by its government, one of which was to develop micro credentials. OUM has practiced this teaching format. Statistics in the University showed that the performance of applying micro credentials was not reduced by the effect of COVID-19, more and more students are applying for the study of such short-term programs instead. 5.8 Open universities should reskill labor force in the era of digitalization COVID-19 has accelerated the development of technology. The research results showed that nearly all the participant open universities noticed the necessity of reskilling and upskilling employees to address the issues brought by the application of technology in the era of digitalization. UNISIA and OUM are the two universities reporting training their own staff regarding the use of technology for the purpose of running paperless institutions. For example, they trained their staff on how to work in an online environment, how to use mobile apps, how to design and develop e-lessons, e-assessments, online examination questions and how to adopt open educational resources. Fern Uni, UOC and UT were slightly different from UNISA and OUM, they believed that the digitalization fueled by the pandemic is revolutionizing the labor market. Open universities should transform from knowledge transfer to skill nurture, in particular, future student demographics are those born in and after millennium who are familiar with technology. Open universities have to generate skill- oriented knowledge with the aim of equipping learners with innovative and contemporary skills needed in society. 5.9 Open universities will switch to lifelong learning Fern Uni and UOC, open universities in Europe, were reported to switch on lifelong learning for three main reasons. First of all, most universities offer classical degree programs, however, further training and continuing education play a stronger role, particularly in today’s labor market. In contemporary society, people’s ability to maintain a qualified job is continually changing and a finalistic conception of education no longer stands steadfastly. Therefore, open universities should develop diverse training programs to suit in-service learners’ needs along their professional journey, particularly in such a changing information society. Secondly, one of the ostensible features of open universities is the components of their student body which is filled with special and diverse groups, and they are different from traditional campus-based students in their life journey, educational and professional backgrounds, and educational goals. Open universities should implement new teaching formats in order to cater for diversity and inclusion with digital technology. Therefore, prior learning recognition has come into the center of open universities. In summary, open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe will focus on four areas in the COVID-19 and post COVID-19 era, and they need to develop programs and courses that are needed by open society; they need to implement innovative teaching format, such as micro credentials; they universities should cultivate human resources in the era of digitalization, and open universities should worldwide attach their importance to lifelong learning. 6. Discussions This study has showed the impacts of COVID-19 on open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe. Though the number of cases is limited, it still portrays a picture of what open universities have been experiencing in the context of the pandemic. Developing trends are analyzed based on regions from the research as follows. 6.1 Similarities of open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe The six responding open universities in this study have undertaken their responsibilities during the pandemic to assure learning continuity through leveraging new technology and offering free online courses to their society within a short notice. Compared with conventional universities, this process is relatively easy because of their preserved characteristics of delivering education through technology. Open universities, once again, demonstrated their resilience and mission in widening education in the context of crisis. According to this study, all responding open universities have encountered the same challenge in the aspect of delivering purely online exams, albeit in different regions in the context of COVID-19. Though open universities are good at providing education through technology, they had been managing their exams partly offline and they are not ready to move exams fully online with a limited time schedule. The unpreparedness was either from the adoption of new technology or the lockdown and quarantine policies from partner organizations. All responding open universities noticed the necessity of innovating their learning resources and teaching formats, but in different directions. In Asian open universities, they have realized the necessity of implementing micro credentials as a flexible and agile way of learning, particularly in the context of crisis and when people suffer from financial burden. While for African open universities, they realized that there is a lack of specific disciplines, programs or courses that can arm and facilitate people living through crisis. Therefore, in the post COVID-19 era, they will start to focus on constructing learning resources, implementing professional programs and courses, which aims to train professionals in some scientific disciplines. 6.2 Disparities of open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe The research findings showed that open universities in Asia and Europe enjoyed some similarities, but there are also some disparities between African open universities and the ones in Asia and Europe. The main challenges for open universities in Africa came from financial pressure on adopting new ICT infrastructure, and training their staff on digital skills in the context of COVID-19. They also need to restructure their financial streams to cope with the influence brought about by the pandemic. While for the ones in Asia and Europe, their key challenge was the competition from conventional universities. The slight difference between the two regions is that the former is impacted by government encouragement, while it does not mention any governmental involvement in the latter one. But open university leaders in the two regions believe that the advantageous position of using technology to deliver education may be threatened after the pandemic. Open universities in both Asia and Europe also realized it is necessary for them to upskill AAOUJ and reskill the labor force in the era of digitalization and they are ready to offer vocational, 18,1 technical and professional training programs to their potential learners to improve their digital literacy and skills in order to meet the needs from the digital society. 6.3 Reflections Based on the above discussions, reflections on three aspects could be noticed. First of all, there is still a problem for open universities to make full use of technologies expertly. Leveraging technology to deliver education is a unique feature of open universities. Taylor (2001) claims that the technological evolution of open universities has gone through five generations, though the truth, it still encounters difficulties in managing online teaching and learning, for example, plagiarism in purely online context is the main problem. With the development of science and technology, more and more cutting-edge technologies have been used in education, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, data analysis and so on and so forth. Open universities should accelerate their steps to use such advanced technologies to make themselves fully online. Only in this way, can they be truly resilient, and agility and flexibility can be their prominent features. Secondly, “open” should have new meaning in the new context. It has been well noted that open to people, places, methods and ideas are the mission of open universities (Open University UK, 2023). However, in reality, not all open universities are as open as they claim. For example, in the OUC, its programs are strictly structured. Students will have to complete either a diploma or a degree program once they register with the University. They cannot choose a single course to study, which may be designed to lead to a diploma or a degree through accumulating credits. Therefore, micro-credential short courses are the future developing trend to suit student’s need in the future in some regions. To offer a single course which can lead to a degree according to student’s pace is another developing trend for some open universities. Last but not least, this study demonstrates that there is a big difference regarding development among open universities worldwide because of different social and economic context. The ones in Europe and Asia are developing at a fast pace, and they are seeking to transform in order to build and improve their competitive capacity. However, open universities in Africa show a different picture. They have to struggle for fund with the purpose of improving ICT infrastructure and training their staff to adapt to technology- enhanced education, and these are some of the main challenges currently. The same situation goes to the private open universities. Though they have well-equipped facilities, taking OUM as an example, they have to place high priority on self-finance, especially in the context of COVID-19, the changes of student numbers could have great impacts on their survival. 6.4 Shortcomings of the research Though a framework was required in the research, not all participants followed the rule of writing their papers. This was possibly down to their full schedules as a result of their positions as heads in each institution. Therefore, structured or semi-structured interviews might be more suitable for such a group of participants instead of contributing to full papers in future research projects. 7. Conclusions The research shows the impact of COVID-19 on open universities, hence resumes the topic of the developing trend within open universities, taking cases from Asia, Africa and Europe in the context of COVID-19. Open universities in these regions have made a remarkable contribution in guiding their education system to face the severe challenge of the COVID-19 COVID-19 and pandemic. However, they also suffer challenges from the internal and external environment. open The challenges are different for open universities in different regions. These reasons are most universities probably a result of the different social and economic context and development. Both the worldwide pandemic and the challenges are the key driving force for open universities to review their strength and weakness. All responding open universities in the study have found their future way of development. In general, they will adjust their strategy and place more attention on their offerings. African open universities will implement degree programs in the field of special discipline with the aim of supporting people through difficulties and helping people to achieve better lives, whereas the ones in Asia and Europe will develop more short courses, such as micro-credential courses to provide agile and flexible learning resources and meet the needs of students with diverse backgrounds. The comparative study shows a rough picture of what open universities have done during COVID-19 and where to go in the post COVID-19 era. Note 1. During the pandemic, 16 international institutions including open universities, traditional universities and international association worldwide were invited to contribute a paper for the volume Beyond Distance Education: Cutting-edge Perspectives on the Future of Global Open Universities published by the Open University of China Press with the aim of discussing the governance of open universities, sharing best practices of open universities and examining their responses and challenges in the pandemic and predictions of their future development. Currently, the volume has been only published and disseminated in mainland China for copyright reasons. References Appleby, J.A., King, N., Saunders, K.E., Bast, A., Rivera, D., Byun, J., Cunningham, S., Khera, C. and Duffy, A.C. 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(2018), “Open Universities: the next phase”, Asian Association of Open Universities Journal, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 13-23, doi: 10.1108/AAOUJ-12-2017-0040. Taylor, J.C. (2001), “Fifth generation distance education”, Instructional Science and Technology, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 1-14. UNESCO (2020a), “COVID–19 impact on education”, [2021-02-23], available at: https://en.unesco.org/ covid19/educationresponse UNESCO (2020b), “COVID-19 and higher education: today and tomorrow-impact analysis, policy responses and recommendations”, available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/ pf0000375693 Corresponding author Songyan Hou can be contacted at: housongyan536@hotmail.com For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website: www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Association of Open Universities Journal Emerald Publishing

Impact of COVID-19 on open universities worldwide: case studies from Asia, Africa and Europe

Asian Association of Open Universities Journal , Volume 18 (1): 11 – May 31, 2023

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Emerald Publishing
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© Songyan Hou
ISSN
1858-3431
DOI
10.1108/aaouj-08-2022-0114
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Abstract

Purpose – The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has had a profound impact on education institutions at all levels. Open universities, with their privileged delivery method, have been in an advantageous position. In the earlier stages of the pandemic, they made remarkable contributions to assuring learning continuity. However, with more and more conventional universities migrating online, great changes have taken place in the field of higher education, and it is imperative for open universities to adjust their strategies in order to maintain their leading role in a technology-enabled education context. This paper aims to examine what challenges have been faced by open universities during the pandemic and how they will transform in the future. Design/methodology/approach – Six open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe were selected as cases in this research to make a comparative study based on the papers in the volume beyond distance education [1]. Similarities and differences among the cases were analyzed in order to identify the developing trend for open universities in the international context. Findings – The results showed that (1) open universities in these regions demonstrated their resilience in the pandemic; examples were that new technologies have been leveraged to implement totally online delivery with short notice and huge amount of learning resources were offered to the society. (2) However, they encountered challenges of delivering fully online examination due to the lockdown and quarantine policies, and open universities in African and the sole private institution suffered financial pressure due to improving information and communication technology infrastructure and staff training. Another challenge was the fierce competition from conventional universities that open universities in Asia and Europe came across. (3) Four main areas were identified for future development in order to respond to the challenges: No.1 is that programs such as health care, psychology, epidemiology, virology, immunology, data analytics, biology and bio-informatics have stimulated interest for African open universities to develop in the future; No. 2 is that open universities were seeking to innovate their teaching formats; short courses, such as micro credentials, might be developed as agile and flexible offerings which are expected to be suitable to learners in the pandemic context; No 3 is that programs and courses for upskilling in the context of digitalization will be implemented; and No. 4 is that lifelong learning is given a higher priority in order for open universities to stand securely in the higher education sector. Originality/value – The study may give open university leaders a quick insight into their future development. Keywords Open universities, COVID-19, Impacts, Responses, Challenges, Developing trend Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has been ongoing for over two years and the pandemic has had a global impact. Nearly all educational institutions in the world had been suspended from mid-2020 to mid 2021 due to the lockdown and quarantine policies and a small number have maintained such closures recently in some countries due to new waves of the virus. © Songyan Hou. Published in the Asian Association of Open Universities Journal. Published by Emerald Asian Association of Open Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Universities Journal license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both pp. 92-102 commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and Emerald Publishing Limited e-ISSN: 2414-6994 authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ p-ISSN: 1858-3431 DOI 10.1108/AAOUJ-08-2022-0114 legalcode According to the statistics in UNESCO (2020a, b), about 1.6bn learners in over 190 countries COVID-19 and and regions had suspended their study and were unable to return to their schools or open universities in the darkest time. Taking conventional universities as an example, campus- universities based students and teachers were taken out of their classrooms with the aim of slowing the worldwide spread of infection and this was a universal phenomenon. However, all governments have taken various measures to assure learning continuity. Online delivery is widely considered the most suitable and effective way of fulfilling such a goal. Therefore, educational institutions at different levels were forced to migrate online overnight. For example, in the first half of 2020, 1.1m online courses in Chinese universities had been moved and taught online, accounting for 91% of all courses at that time, and 22.59m students had to participate in online learning (Jing, 2021). Open universities, with their privileged delivery method, have been in an advantageous position. However, their preserved advantages have been challenged as technology-enabled education was immediately and widely used as the only feasible solution to assure learning continuity. Online education providers have been increasing dramatically, with conventional universities and big corporations, included since the spread of the pandemic. Again, in mainland China, nearly all conventional universities have tested online delivery which operates the same way open universities do in the context of COVID-19. Another example is Google, which has fully played its role in facilitating education worldwide using its innovative, user-friendly and advanced technologies. As time goes by, these changes in fact have exacerbated the transformation of higher education. Notably, impacts have been placed on open universities, both positive and negative. With no doubt, these changes have garnered attention in the open university community around the world. An early example is the dialogue among open university leaders globally, initiated by the Open University of China (OUC). In mid 2020, the OUC research team headed by President Dr. Jing Degang initiated an internationally joint research project with the aim of discussing the governance of open universities, sharing best practices of open universities, understanding how open universities responded in such a disastrous context and examining their challenges and predictions of their future development. 16 educational institutions including open universities, conventional universities and international association joined this collaborative research project [1]. And all the participants are heads of each organization, either vice-chancellors, rectors, presidents, or pro-vice- chancellors, vice presidents. They contributed to the project by submitting a paper under the required framework proposed by the OUC. One of the outcomes of the collaborative project is to publish a volume with the aim of sharing views and ideas of each organization to the international academia. The volume has been disseminated around the world via International Conference of Distance Education (ICDE), official website of London University and university libraries of participant universities. The volume was selected as a key publication during the 14th-Year Plan in mid- 2021 in China. The second stage is to conduct comparative studies among these organizations to find similarities and disparities. This paper, for the purpose of fulfilling the goal at the second stage, selected six single-mode open universities in the volume as cases: University of South Africa (UNISA), Botswana Open University (BOU), Universitas Terbuka (UT) in Indonesia, Open University Malaysia (OUM), Fern Universitat in Hagen Germany (Fern Uni) and Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in Spain. Two open universities are from the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe respectively where single-mode open universities are densely distributed. This paper reports on similarities and disparities related to responses to COVID-19, and the challenges faced by open universities by comparing the six cases. The purpose of this small research is to portray a picture of the developing trends of open universities in the world. 2. Relevant studies AAOUJ According to Tony Bates (2010), the concept of universities is resilient and has remained 18,1 unchanged for more than 800 years. Here the universities refer to those conventional ones with no instability. In comparison, the concept of open universities in modern sense is very young. The University of London External Examinations system established in 1858, and the University of South Africa (UNISA), founded in 1948, regarded as the pioneers of open universities, are only about 160 years old (Tait, 2018). But the record for the first single- mode institute is only around 50 years old, represented by the Open University UK (OUUK) founded in 1969 which stimulated the creation of open universities worldwide. Since then, the open university movement has been popular all over the world. There was, until recently, over 120 open universities worldwide according to Commonwealth of Learning (2017), Contact North (2020) and ICDE (2020), among which Asia sees the largest numbers. Mega universities and hyper universities, named by Daniel (1996, 2007), are not uncommon in Asia, and famous examples are the OUC, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Anadolu University in Turkey. Open universities were regarded as the most significant innovation in higher education in the last three decades of the 20th century (Daniel, 2019), and the movement has made tremendous progress in the massification of higher education throughout the world. However, technologically delivered education by open universities has not been universally recognized (Latchem, 2014) though the advantages, achievements and contributions of open universities have been discussed by academics and researchers over the years (Daniel and Stroud, 1981; Daniel, 1996, 2017; Tait, 2008). People gradually expressed their concern about the quality and sustainability of open universities when technology was adopted by conventional universities since the late 1990s (Scott, 1995; Garrett, 2016; Paul, 2016; Commonwealth of Learning, 2017). Professor Asha Kanwar claimed that due to the emergence of online providers and campus institutions offering online programs, open and distance learning is no longer the draw of open universities (Commonwealth of Learning, 2017). In 2017, professor Alan Tait also conducted research for ICDE, with the aim of finding pathways for open universities in the next ten years (Tait, 2018). Until very recently, the COVID-19 pandemic provided a chance, albeit in a negative and disruptive way, for academics and researchers in open universities worldwide and international associations to demonstrate their enthusiasm and concerns about open and online learning and education. For example, researchers discussed the initiatives undertaken by open universities and the biggest challenges facing them, such as Grace (2021) in the Open University UK; researchers conducted a study on the impacts of COVID-19 on students’ mental health, such as Appleby et al. (2022), some open universities undertook an exploratory study focusing on the impacts on the student market (Open Universities Australia, 2021; Jing, 2021), just to mention a few. As above, though academics and researchers showed their concerns, the emphases are placed on either the individual open university, learner support, student behavior or recruitment, which are more prone to the micro level. No series of research has been found regarding the challenges and future development of open universities in international academia though a few well-known researchers and academics raised their voice some time ago, not to mention the comparisons of those in different regions. As previously mentioned, Asia is home to mega and hyper universities. Europe is the leader of single-mode open universities, and Africa is the birthplace of nowadays open universities, this paper selects six open universities in these three continents, with the aim of identifying the challenges and future development of open universities as a whole. 3. Research questions COVID-19 and The research reported in this paper was guided by three main questions. open (1) What measures do open universities take to respond to COVID-19? universities worldwide (2) What challenges do open universities encounter in the context of COVID-19? (3) What is the developing trend for open universities in the post COVID-19 era? 4. Methodology 4.1 Research approach A case study is used to describe, compare, evaluate and understand different aspects of a specific subject, such as a group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon (McCombes, 2022). This study adopted the case study research methodology, with an attempt to understand the different aspects of open universities in the COVID-19 pandemic. Six cases were compared based on a volume for the purpose of portraying a picture of open universities in the future. 4.2 Data collections As mentioned earlier, heads of institutions were invited to contribute a paper for the collaborative research project, and the titles of their contributions are listed in following Table 1. The papers are required in accordance with the below framework. 4.3 Required framework of the research project Please contribute a paper regarding the topic of development of Open Universities in the Post COVID-19, and the following main questions should be included. (1) Governance of open universities in the new era? (2) Sharing of best practices of open universities worldwide? (3) The developing paths of open universities in the context of COVID-19? (4) The developing directions of open universities: a predictive and strategic view. No. Continents Organizations Participants Title of each paper 1 Asia Universitas Terbuka Rector Optimizing Online Learning Services for (UT) in Indonesia Open and Distance Learners: Universitas Terbuka’s Opportunities during the Covid-19 Pandemic 2 Open University President Directions of Open and Online Education: Malaysia (OUM) Prediction and Strategies - A Case Study of Open University Malaysia 3 Africa University of South Vice- ODeL in Transition: Reorienting, Africa (UNISA) Chancellor Reprioritising and Restrategising in a Time of Covid-19 4 Botswana Open Chancellor Botswana Open University in the Post- University (BOU) COVID 19 Era 5 Europe Fern Universitat in Vice- More than distance learning! - New Hagen Germany (Fern President Challenges for FernUniversitat Uni) Table 1. 6 Open University of Rector The UOC: A Distanceless University Basic information Catalonia (UOC) in Spain about the cases 5. Findings AAOUJ 18,1 RQ1. What measures do open universities take to respond to COVID-19? When COVID-19 hit, education was disrupted due to the constraint of social distance, and this is more visible on campus-based educational institutions. However, open universities have demonstrated their resilience in the crisis in two ways, summarized below according to the report of each participant in the research project. 5.1 Leveraging technologies to run purely online within a short notice When governments put in place all the measures addressing the immediate challenges caused by the virus and the lockdown policies, open universities were found in a unique position because they can “conduct their business as usual” to the utmost degree. All open universities in the research project had mentioned that they used different technologies to implement purely online delivery. For example, UNISA moved assignment submissions, student support and feedback tutorials all online. Meetings were conducted through Microsoft Teams, and registration, administration and finance department could be all automated via Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Technologies such as Zoom, Google Meet, Google Drive, One Drive, and Microsoft teams were frequently and widely used in UT, OUM, and BOU. Apart from using technologies from those big corporations, Fern Uni, UT, OUM, BOU and UOC also developed their own platforms to offer their online courses to those with diverse needs in the pandemic. The results showed that open universities were better prepared to face COVID-19 because they were used to adopting technologies in delivering education, and in this sense, they were not seriously affected by the pandemic. 5.2 Offering free online learning resources to the public Some courses were provided to learners who were not registered to the institutions. At Fern Uni, students could register shorter learning units, such as individual courses or modules without dedicating to a full degree program. This gives students flexibility based on their own individual needs. At BOU, its online tertiary resources are open to students in public schools and universities with the assistance of the Ministry of Education. It also collaborated with Commonwealth of Learning/Coursera to provide employability courses for those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. UT has worked with many universities within Indonesia to provide student teaching material services. In Spain, UOC launched a web portal together with the Spanish Ministry of Universities for the purpose of supporting and training teachers and students with online resources. UOC also contributed resources to countries in Latin America. RQ2. What challenges do open universities encounter in the context of COVID-19? 5.3 Challenges of moving examination fully online for all participant open universities The results showed that all participating open universities had come across the same problem during the pandemic, and that was the challenge to move examination fully online. Before the crisis, some students, though not all students in the open universities, attended their exams in the classrooms of other conventional universities in different cities across each country, however, this had to be shifted online to assure learning continuity because of the lockdown policies and social distance constraints. Open universities were not well prepared for fully online examination within a short notice period and problems regarding electricity, ICT infrastructure, Internet connection, and plagiarism caused trouble. 5.4 Challenges of increasing financial pressure for African open universities and the COVID-19 and private one open Open universities in Africa reported their financial problems caused by the pandemic. Taking universities UNISA as an example, the uncertainty of its future enrollments would affect its future worldwide funding. Secondly, it also incurred significant unbudgeted expenses, such as the cost of using new technologies including renting laptops for teachers and staff to work from home, and decontaminating and sanitizing buildings. To create fully online working environment with paperless administration and staff training was also one of the most critical challenges in terms of finance. In BOU, COVID-19 posed a negative effect on second stream income, including rentals, and they were required to explore third-stream income sources. The University also needed to set aside extra funds to pay part-time tutors while on the internet with students. OUM, as a private open university, though not mentioning any financial burden, was reported to establish an Investment and Risk Management Committee to revisit their investment strategy, analyze and evaluate to what extent their investment would provide balanced return for the University. 5.5 Competition from conventional universities for open universities in Asia and Europe This was a critical challenge that was very well noted in UT, OUM, UOC and Fern Uni. In Indonesia, the Ministry of Education and Culture proclaimed that conventional universities should provide open distance education during the pandemic, which posed a threat to UT, and this was reported to accelerate its transformation process so as to maintain its pioneer position in ODE in Indonesia. In Malaysia, many conventional universities were forced to migrate online, adapting to the new norm of teaching and learning. OUM, though a leading ODE university in Malaysia, is switching to new technologies in delivering its programs in order to face stiff competition from conventional universities. UOC mentioned that even before COVID-19, organizations from different fields had seen online learning methodologies as an efficient and cost-effective tool to satisfy the growing education demand. The University called for a multilateral collaboration among universities. In Germany, conventional universities have adjusted their strategies to implement online and distance teaching as well in order to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic. These universities have experienced that ODE is a feasible alternative and creates new opportunities. To some extent, the pandemic has thus played a positive role to accelerate digitalization process in higher education sector. It is expected that after COVID-19 Fern Uni will definitely not be the only organization that can provide online offerings, and it will gradually lose its unique features in Germany. RQ3. What are the developing trends for open universities in the post COVID-19 era? 5.6 Open universities should develop new programs or courses in order to meet the social needs It is believed that COVID-19 is not the only crisis facing the world in the future, other crisis like epidemic virus, regional conflict and climate disaster will also possibly affect all countries in one way or another (Kanwar and Daniel, 2021). Open universities in Africa proposed that a variety of basic and scientific disciplines, such as epidemiology, virology, immunology, data analytics, biology, bioinformatics, psychology, mental health, public health and global health history should be developed. Open universities, as higher education institutions, should meet their social justice responsibility and accountability by helping the social needs of communities to live through future disasters as much as they can. COVID-19 disruption is recognized as an opportunity to improve open universities in developing programs and courses in the aforementioned fields. Besides, professions in social sciences, such as psychologists, social workers, health care workers, have noted a distinct upsurge, which were AAOUJ deemed to be second-class disciplines in a technology-oriented context. 18,1 5.7 Open universities should implement innovative teaching formats In recent years, micro credentials have played an important and increasing role in the field of online teaching, which can meet social needs because of its greater flexibility, particularly in 98 the context of the pandemic. In UNISA, more short learning programs were offered as they were more affordable for students who may lose their jobs due to the lockdown policies. Students can resume their upper-level learning when their financial situation improves based on the credentials of short learning programs. Thus, they will not have to shoulder the financial burden of paying a full degree program, such as a BA or MA program. Fern Uni has actually implemented such short courses, even before the crisis. It either created its own micro credential courses and MOOCs, or participated in European Short Learning Programs. This way, more learners’ needs will be catered for. In Malaysia, creating flexible learning pathways were encouraged by its government, one of which was to develop micro credentials. OUM has practiced this teaching format. Statistics in the University showed that the performance of applying micro credentials was not reduced by the effect of COVID-19, more and more students are applying for the study of such short-term programs instead. 5.8 Open universities should reskill labor force in the era of digitalization COVID-19 has accelerated the development of technology. The research results showed that nearly all the participant open universities noticed the necessity of reskilling and upskilling employees to address the issues brought by the application of technology in the era of digitalization. UNISIA and OUM are the two universities reporting training their own staff regarding the use of technology for the purpose of running paperless institutions. For example, they trained their staff on how to work in an online environment, how to use mobile apps, how to design and develop e-lessons, e-assessments, online examination questions and how to adopt open educational resources. Fern Uni, UOC and UT were slightly different from UNISA and OUM, they believed that the digitalization fueled by the pandemic is revolutionizing the labor market. Open universities should transform from knowledge transfer to skill nurture, in particular, future student demographics are those born in and after millennium who are familiar with technology. Open universities have to generate skill- oriented knowledge with the aim of equipping learners with innovative and contemporary skills needed in society. 5.9 Open universities will switch to lifelong learning Fern Uni and UOC, open universities in Europe, were reported to switch on lifelong learning for three main reasons. First of all, most universities offer classical degree programs, however, further training and continuing education play a stronger role, particularly in today’s labor market. In contemporary society, people’s ability to maintain a qualified job is continually changing and a finalistic conception of education no longer stands steadfastly. Therefore, open universities should develop diverse training programs to suit in-service learners’ needs along their professional journey, particularly in such a changing information society. Secondly, one of the ostensible features of open universities is the components of their student body which is filled with special and diverse groups, and they are different from traditional campus-based students in their life journey, educational and professional backgrounds, and educational goals. Open universities should implement new teaching formats in order to cater for diversity and inclusion with digital technology. Therefore, prior learning recognition has come into the center of open universities. In summary, open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe will focus on four areas in the COVID-19 and post COVID-19 era, and they need to develop programs and courses that are needed by open society; they need to implement innovative teaching format, such as micro credentials; they universities should cultivate human resources in the era of digitalization, and open universities should worldwide attach their importance to lifelong learning. 6. Discussions This study has showed the impacts of COVID-19 on open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe. Though the number of cases is limited, it still portrays a picture of what open universities have been experiencing in the context of the pandemic. Developing trends are analyzed based on regions from the research as follows. 6.1 Similarities of open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe The six responding open universities in this study have undertaken their responsibilities during the pandemic to assure learning continuity through leveraging new technology and offering free online courses to their society within a short notice. Compared with conventional universities, this process is relatively easy because of their preserved characteristics of delivering education through technology. Open universities, once again, demonstrated their resilience and mission in widening education in the context of crisis. According to this study, all responding open universities have encountered the same challenge in the aspect of delivering purely online exams, albeit in different regions in the context of COVID-19. Though open universities are good at providing education through technology, they had been managing their exams partly offline and they are not ready to move exams fully online with a limited time schedule. The unpreparedness was either from the adoption of new technology or the lockdown and quarantine policies from partner organizations. All responding open universities noticed the necessity of innovating their learning resources and teaching formats, but in different directions. In Asian open universities, they have realized the necessity of implementing micro credentials as a flexible and agile way of learning, particularly in the context of crisis and when people suffer from financial burden. While for African open universities, they realized that there is a lack of specific disciplines, programs or courses that can arm and facilitate people living through crisis. Therefore, in the post COVID-19 era, they will start to focus on constructing learning resources, implementing professional programs and courses, which aims to train professionals in some scientific disciplines. 6.2 Disparities of open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe The research findings showed that open universities in Asia and Europe enjoyed some similarities, but there are also some disparities between African open universities and the ones in Asia and Europe. The main challenges for open universities in Africa came from financial pressure on adopting new ICT infrastructure, and training their staff on digital skills in the context of COVID-19. They also need to restructure their financial streams to cope with the influence brought about by the pandemic. While for the ones in Asia and Europe, their key challenge was the competition from conventional universities. The slight difference between the two regions is that the former is impacted by government encouragement, while it does not mention any governmental involvement in the latter one. But open university leaders in the two regions believe that the advantageous position of using technology to deliver education may be threatened after the pandemic. Open universities in both Asia and Europe also realized it is necessary for them to upskill AAOUJ and reskill the labor force in the era of digitalization and they are ready to offer vocational, 18,1 technical and professional training programs to their potential learners to improve their digital literacy and skills in order to meet the needs from the digital society. 6.3 Reflections Based on the above discussions, reflections on three aspects could be noticed. First of all, there is still a problem for open universities to make full use of technologies expertly. Leveraging technology to deliver education is a unique feature of open universities. Taylor (2001) claims that the technological evolution of open universities has gone through five generations, though the truth, it still encounters difficulties in managing online teaching and learning, for example, plagiarism in purely online context is the main problem. With the development of science and technology, more and more cutting-edge technologies have been used in education, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, data analysis and so on and so forth. Open universities should accelerate their steps to use such advanced technologies to make themselves fully online. Only in this way, can they be truly resilient, and agility and flexibility can be their prominent features. Secondly, “open” should have new meaning in the new context. It has been well noted that open to people, places, methods and ideas are the mission of open universities (Open University UK, 2023). However, in reality, not all open universities are as open as they claim. For example, in the OUC, its programs are strictly structured. Students will have to complete either a diploma or a degree program once they register with the University. They cannot choose a single course to study, which may be designed to lead to a diploma or a degree through accumulating credits. Therefore, micro-credential short courses are the future developing trend to suit student’s need in the future in some regions. To offer a single course which can lead to a degree according to student’s pace is another developing trend for some open universities. Last but not least, this study demonstrates that there is a big difference regarding development among open universities worldwide because of different social and economic context. The ones in Europe and Asia are developing at a fast pace, and they are seeking to transform in order to build and improve their competitive capacity. However, open universities in Africa show a different picture. They have to struggle for fund with the purpose of improving ICT infrastructure and training their staff to adapt to technology- enhanced education, and these are some of the main challenges currently. The same situation goes to the private open universities. Though they have well-equipped facilities, taking OUM as an example, they have to place high priority on self-finance, especially in the context of COVID-19, the changes of student numbers could have great impacts on their survival. 6.4 Shortcomings of the research Though a framework was required in the research, not all participants followed the rule of writing their papers. This was possibly down to their full schedules as a result of their positions as heads in each institution. Therefore, structured or semi-structured interviews might be more suitable for such a group of participants instead of contributing to full papers in future research projects. 7. Conclusions The research shows the impact of COVID-19 on open universities, hence resumes the topic of the developing trend within open universities, taking cases from Asia, Africa and Europe in the context of COVID-19. Open universities in these regions have made a remarkable contribution in guiding their education system to face the severe challenge of the COVID-19 COVID-19 and pandemic. However, they also suffer challenges from the internal and external environment. open The challenges are different for open universities in different regions. These reasons are most universities probably a result of the different social and economic context and development. Both the worldwide pandemic and the challenges are the key driving force for open universities to review their strength and weakness. All responding open universities in the study have found their future way of development. In general, they will adjust their strategy and place more attention on their offerings. African open universities will implement degree programs in the field of special discipline with the aim of supporting people through difficulties and helping people to achieve better lives, whereas the ones in Asia and Europe will develop more short courses, such as micro-credential courses to provide agile and flexible learning resources and meet the needs of students with diverse backgrounds. The comparative study shows a rough picture of what open universities have done during COVID-19 and where to go in the post COVID-19 era. Note 1. During the pandemic, 16 international institutions including open universities, traditional universities and international association worldwide were invited to contribute a paper for the volume Beyond Distance Education: Cutting-edge Perspectives on the Future of Global Open Universities published by the Open University of China Press with the aim of discussing the governance of open universities, sharing best practices of open universities and examining their responses and challenges in the pandemic and predictions of their future development. Currently, the volume has been only published and disseminated in mainland China for copyright reasons. References Appleby, J.A., King, N., Saunders, K.E., Bast, A., Rivera, D., Byun, J., Cunningham, S., Khera, C. and Duffy, A.C. (2022), “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the experience and mental health of university students studying in Canada and the UK: a cross-sectional study”, BMJ Open, Vol. 12, e050187, doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050187. Bates, T. (2010), “New challenges for universities: why they must change”, in Ehlers, U.-D. and Schneckenberg, D. (Eds), Changing Cultures in Higher Education, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-03582-1_2. Commonwealth of Learning (2017), “Open Universities in the commonwealth: at a glance”, Commonwealth of Learning, Burnaby, available at: http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2786 Contact North (2020), “Searchable directory of more than 65 open universities worldwide”, available at: https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/universities Daniel, J.S. (1996), Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media, Technology Strategies for Higher Education, Kogan Page, London. Daniel, J. 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Journal

Asian Association of Open Universities JournalEmerald Publishing

Published: May 31, 2023

Keywords: Open universities; COVID-19; Impacts; Responses; Challenges; Developing trend

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