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This paper attempts to explain why and how open universities accomplish their educational purposes. The research explores the use of the Agency Framework as a theoretical anchor for examining and explaining how education/learning is possible at a distance. The paper illustrates how digital media are agents that participate in the accomplishment of teaching and learning research online. The study employs the ventriloqual approach that involves a three-step process of: (1) collecting archived/recorded online interactions; (2) identifying markers through which digital media appear to recurrently and iteratively express themselves in the recorded interactions; and (3) understanding or hearing what the markers are made to say. Using this approach, the paper shows how digital media afford the creation of interactive activities in a graduate level research course in an open university, enabling students to go through designing and implementing research using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Surfacingthe agentive roles of digital media stagedat teacher-students interactions provides insights into why education can be accomplished at a distance.

Quality assurance (QA) in open and distance learning (ODL) has always become universal concerns of stakeholders. The quality of ODL has been confronted with challenges in terms of the diversity of inputs, processes, the complex supply chain management of ODL and recent paradigm shift into online learning. Assuring the quality of ODL are daunting tasks at individual, institution and system levels. Completed before the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, this study aims to better understand the implementation of QA system in three Asian open universities (OUs), namely University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), Universitas Terbuka (UT), Indonesia and Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Pakistan.

A qualitative method was employed involving analysis of documents of the three Asian OUs and focus group discussions and interviews with management and staff. Data collected were then analyzed to draw conclusions and possible recommendations.

Findings of this study presented good practices, challenges and rooms for improvement of the QA system in the three Asian OUs. Focusing on students and stakeholders in their QA effort, this study has revealed that quality begins with inner self and is multidimensional. QA is principally viewed as continuous improvement, as mechanism and assessment and as effort at exceeding expectations of students and stakeholders. The recent challenge for QA is to embrace a delicate process of ODL transformation into online digital system. The recent COVID-19 outbreak has further implications and challenged QA implementation in ODL in higher education into the next level of complexity.

This study revealed the diversities in how OUs met the societal needs of their respective stakeholders and addressed the challenges ahead for QA in ODL.

These findings were expected to enhance the understanding of the theory and practice of QA in ODL and to contribute to quality improvement of ODL programs.