Students' and tutors' perceptions of the quality of
course materials that are used in the Diploma II (D-II)
study program at the Indonesian Open Learning University,
or Universitas Terbuka, are evaluated in this study. Since
the introduction of this program of study, evaluations have
been infrequent. In order to assess the perceptions of
students and tutors, ten evaluation criteria were utilized
to construct the questionnaire and interview items.
Twenty three tutors and 216 students of two Diploma II
(D-II) programs, the D-II Project in Jakarta and the D-II
Self-funded program in Bandung, participated in this study.
Two packages of printed course materials, Social Science
Education 2 (PPDG2432) and Mathematics Education 3
(PPDG2431), were selected for evaluation. The selected
course material represented two different compulsory
subject areas, were relatively new releases at UT, and were
presented as tutorials. The students and tutors evaluated
the parts of the material that were currently being studied
by them.
Three sets of research findings were obtained in this
study. First, the students and tutors expressed positive
perceptions .toward course quality. Certain quality
criteria provided negative perceptions, a finding to which
special attention should be paid. Specific suggestions for
reconstruction of the design of course material were made
to improve quality. The students in the D-II Self-funded
program showed slightly higher levels of positive
perceptions of course quality than those of the students in
the D-II Project. Second, there was no relationship found
between the students' perceptions of course quality and
their achievement. Third, students revealed a relatively
higher and more positive perception of course quality than
did the tutors who expressed concern over some aspects of
course quality.