| This study used an instrumental case study to understand the major issues encountered by administrators and how they were addressed in order to successfully implement online learning at YCMOU.;Using semi-structured interviews, discussions, observations, official documents and survey data were gathered from February 2002 to June 2004. The analysis was an ongoing process. Based on the issues four themes emerged from the inductive analysis of the issues related by the administrators at YCMOU, regional centers and the study centers. They were Sustainability, Quality, Organization and Learner Support system.;Sustainability for YCMOU involved balancing its activities in developing and strengthening its mission, planning its implementation, and working with the environmental pressures of state and national politics Quality involves the presence of quality in the mission statement and the ongoing objectives of the schools and its actual implementation through quality assurance activities in some schools. Organization includes issues of structure, coordination and partnerships. Learner support systems require a holistic approach to this essential service. It involves most of the people in the organization in some capacity from course development and production to registration and accounting as well as counselling and handling student problems. Students' concerns.;Recommendations include orientation to new faculty, avoidance of single blue print system, expansion of partnerships, and streamlining of processes that encourage better communication among schools, regional centres and study centres. Lastly to ensure greater student success, more training should be provided to teacher counsellors.;YCMOU is a mega open university with eight schools: education, agricultural science, computer science, health science, humanities and social science, continuing education, commerce and management, and science and technology. Eight regional centers, 1500 study centers, about 4500 teacher counsellors and about 600,000 students. Its mission is 'Reaching the unreached'.;Since this study is about a large-scale distance education institution, there is a great amount of relevance with Peter's (1998) Industrialization process, where Peters suggestion for administrators to make a shift from the hierarchical form of functioning to the horizontal model. He further asserts to consider Gestalts view on Whole-Part Whole method, where each department work in developing specialized skills in a holistic manner in order to be effective. In short a specialist should be aware of the learner needs and develop course material likewise. Peters message to the administrators of large scale distance educational institutions to balance the teaching-learning process in the post industrialized age is pertinent for this study. |
