EFFECTIVE PRACTICES DATABASE
title	e-class: implementing a [national] learning platform on the institutional level
background	The Network Operation Center (NOC) of the University of Athens (UoA) proposed the exploitation of the e-Class platform developed by the Greek Universities Network. UoA is a large university (3,000 teachers, 50,000 students, 30 departments in all disciplines). The rationale for a content management tool is the huge amount of existing educational material and the need for disseminating it to our students. The need of a platform, maintained centrally by NOC, is obvious since the departments a) save resources by using common infrastructure and b) do not have expertise in operating and administering such services. Before e-Class there was not any platform available. The GUnet's e-Class platform has been chosen because it was designed to support the exact needs of Greek Higher Educational Institutes, supporting the Greek language, was free of licences and there was a support development team that incorporated new functionality covering the users needs in a reasonable time period.
practice	The main challenges were the better e-management and diffusion of the educational material and the creation of a digital culture in using tools like e-Class. In those terms, the introduction of e-Class was successful, as shown by the usage statistics. The success is based on the diffusion and training activities carried out by the NOC to inform the academic staff (teachers) of UoA. The role of GUnet and the UoA/NOC are different. GUnet is responsible for the maintenance of the source code and the incorporation of new functionality and features in the e-Class platform. GUnet is also responsible for the source distribution and technical support, regarding the software installation and administration management, through its help-desk. UoA/NOC is responsible for the installation, operation and maintenance of e-learning services at the institutional level via the e-Class platform. Note that NOC is responsible not only for the network services but for e-learning support services as well. So, UoA/NOC is responsible for the training and technical support of the teachers in using e-Class. Specific seminars were carried-out and the strategy of NOC to promote the usage of e-Class provided a high-level of support to the teachers who chose to use it. It is an issue of the departments to force the teachers to use e-learning services. The Ministry of Education funds departments to use ICT and e-learning in their teaching process.
benefits	The main benefits are: A digital culture in using tools like e-Class has been well established at the UoA. The electronic diffusion of the courses' material to the students of UoA. A secondary benefit is that UoA made a first step toward the provision of distance learning, at least at the technical level, since the exclusive distance learning is not on the organisational target of HEI in Greece.
shortcomings	Regarding the functionality, a temporary shortcoming of the e-class platform is the non-support of learning objects and the absence of a learning management system (LMS). E-Class is not designed, at its very beginning, for supporting exclusive distance learning.
future plans	A second round of diffusion and training that will include not only the asynchronous e-learning services, but the usage of multimedia and video-communication services, as well.
other references
urls	http://eclass.uoa.gr
costs	Free of charge
replicability	5
effectiveness	4
notes
contact	Pantelis Balaouras, Costas Tsibanis, Technical Managers Lazaros Merakos, Professor University of Athens & Gunet  P.Balaouras@noc.uoa.gr k.tsibanis@noc.uoa.gr merakos@di.uoa.gr >P.Balaouras@noc.uoa.gr k.tsibanis@noc.uoa.gr merakos@di.uoa.gr

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