Address : AAOU Secretariat, Wawasan Open University, 54, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, 10050 Penang, Malaysia

AAOU (AAOU: Asian Association of Open Universities) is a non-profit organization of higher learning institutions that are primarily concerned with education at a distance, namely, education in which the systematic teaching and the communication between student and teacher or institution take place mainly by a variety of media. AAOU was founded in 1987 by a number of open universities in the Asian region who realized the significant contribution of distance education in democratizing the provision of learning opportunities to mankind.

The objectives of the Association shall be:

(a) to widen the educational opportunities available to all the people of the region
and to improve the costof member institutions by exchanging management information, teaching materials and research;

(b) to help promote education by distance teaching systems, and develop its potentialities;

(c) to help promote professional and ethical standards amongst distance educators;

(d) to cowith official bodies and others directly or indirectly interested in education at a distance;

(e) to facilitate cooperation with other similar regional and international bodies in all the above objectives; and

(f) to do all other things incidenta1 or conducive to the attainment of the above objectives.

Degrees obtained online are becoming more and more acceptable in the international job market and the quality of online education continues to increase.

Online learning (E-education) is a fast growing industry that currently enrolls more than twenty percent of all higher education students in the United States alone.

Several highly commendable universities worldwide have opened their courses online, allowing international students to complete their degrees from overseas schools, through Internet technology, without needing to leave their home countries.

The advantages of online education are :
1) students incur less expenses in overseas travel;
2) communication or language barrier becomes less of an issue;
3) the duration of study, is shortened with equal results in learning.

Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) is a non-profit organization of higher learning institutions. An influential academic organization for distance education and open learning in Asia.

Members of the AAOU take turns in hosting the Annual Conference as a focal point for updating on issues, ideas and developments in the field of Open Distance Learning (ODL) in the Asia and Pacific region.