Foreword
The ASEAN Cyber University (ACU) and its member states and institutions, strongly believe in creation, utilization and dissemination of quality online education. Sustainable development of the region depends largely on equal education opportunities and learning engagement. Open Educational Resources (OER) is increasingly seen as an effective tool for modern education. ACUS has therefore deeply integrated the OER in the second phase of ACU strategic planning and operation, between 20162019. At the 7th ACU Steering Committee meeting at Sripatum University (SPU), in Bangkok, Thailand in 2015, ACU Steering committee assigned SPU, the initiator of ACU-OER concept to conduct a preliminary research on ACU-OER project, in the light of providing possible suggestions for future process and development of the ACU-OER project, especially for the ACU second phase of operation. In February 2016, SPU conducted an ACU-OER Focus Group: in ASEAN Experts’ View. The focus group utilized primary study by ACUOER study by Dr. Kyungwon Chang (2015). The focus group reflected on strong need for ACUOER and deliberated three key strategies for the 2nd phase of ACU, which are 1) a recommended model on ACU-OER for ACU 2nd Phase of operation, 2) a list of priority to serve the recommended model, and 3) recommendation on possible Learning Management System (LMS) for the ACU-OER initiative.
Since ACU is now into 2nd phase of operation, it is therefore important to make a proper progress on ACU-OER implementation and management. Later in 2016, ACUS commissioned a group of researchers from Republic of Korea, The Philippines, and Thailand to jointly study on 1) Current Status for OER in ASEAN, 2) Method for Service and Circulation of ACU-OER, and 3) Method to link ACU-OER up with Korea Open CourseWare (KOCW) content. This was the very first collaborative research under the ACU operation. This tri-party study was also fully endorsed by ASEAN University Network (AUN). The outcome of this tri-party research is presented in the next chapters. The researchers wish to take this opportunity to thank the ACUS for their strong support in making this research possible. We wish to extend our sincere gratitude towards everyone involved, including our institutions, participating experts, survey participants, and all the supporting teams behind. We sincerely hope the findings will serve as an important stepping stone towards achieving the most effective ACU-OER ever.
Dr. Vorasuang Duangchinda Director of Office of Online Education at Sripatum University (SPU), Thailand As the research team leader vorasuang.du@spu.ac.th