My Profile

My name is Tian Belawati. I am working in the field of open and distance education/learning (ODE/L), and since 2001 I am serving as the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at Universitas Terbuka (Indonesia Open University), Indonesia. Universitas Terbuka (UT) is one of the mega universities serving more than 350 thousand students throughout the country and abroad. And, over its 23 years of operation, it has graduated more than 600 thousand students, over 50% of which are teachers.

I am also actively involved in researches. My research interests include those in the area of learning support system for ODE/L, the use of ICT in ODE/L, and institutional management of ODE/L. My research findings and conceptual thoughts have been presented and published in various national, regional, as well as international conferences and academic journals.

From 2005 to 2008, I am also the Deputy Coordinator of a collaborative research funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) through its Pan Asia Networking (PAN) region. The collaborative research project comprises of eight inter-countries sub-projects in Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. The projects emphasise information and communication technologies (ICT) appropriate to Asian DE, and cover a wide range of practical and policy topics, including the use of open-source software (OSS), mobile technologies, learning object materials (LOM), and online assessment methods. The PAN projects’ networking approach is designed to build on the strengths of individual Asian research teams, and to avoid overlap and duplication between projects and nations. The initiative runs from 2005-2008, and has been named PANdora, representing ‘PAN Asia Networking Distance and Open Resource Access’. Early PANdora project reports are presented in the current edition of Distance Education.