Newsletter of the European eCompetence Initiative

NETWORK NEWS

Second Edition
January - March 2005

EDITORIAL

by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Johannes Wildt

Dear eCompetence and eLearning actors,

More and more the term eLearning threatens to vanish into the archives of history. Even the pioneering eLearning guru Elliot Masie recently stated that he will no longer use the term eLearning. That reminds me of quite regular discussions that have taken place in our consortium on the "e" in eLearning and in eCompetence. Common redefinitions of the e tends towards education, excellence in learning or even enhancing learning as these notions fit the wide innovative process much better than focusing on the narrow electronic definition. Recently however, a new term is becoming popular. The term eBologna will assure that we won't lose our connection to the "e" in the near future. This approach will be partially examined in our second newsletter.

In this edition, our new Irish colleague Andrew will give you some hints on new contents and information update in our eCompetence website. Have a look inside!

Dirk Schneckenberg outlines the focus of the upcoming Dortmund coordinator meeting. In addition to the preparation of the Galway Symposium we will also have to take care of the interim report to the Commission.

Elisa Mancinelli from SCIENTER and Noelia Cantero from the COIMBRA Group give a brief summary on the main outcomes of the project HECTIC or Higher Education Consultation in Technologies of Information and Communication. The reflections on creating links between eLearning and the Bologna Process in the HECTIC recommendations are probably a pioneer activity that the HECTIC project members achieved.

Jef Van Den Branden from AV-net K.U.Leuven presents an article on the basis of two EU funded eLearning projects, in his piece on the importance of enhancing European training activities with specific ICT applications. The Netcampus and cEVU projects were both led by euroPACE, which has now successfully applied for funding for an eBologna-related project called REVE (Real Virtual Erasmus), that aims at enhancing the impact and efficiency of the Erasmus programme through the set-up of and support for a virtual Erasmus action.

We also include two reviews on eLearning publications that our Swiss partners SCIL have published in the elearning-reviews.org platform. In this edition the reviews focus on change management models for ICT integration.

Finally Helle Baeklund from Aalborg University gives a short perspective on the upcoming eCompetence case studies that we plan to undertake as the next major survey activity.

Best regards,

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Johannes Wildt

SUBSCRIPTION

recommend
subscribe
unsubscribe
feedback

IMPRINT

Publisher:
European eCompetence Initiative

Editors:
Dirk Schneckenberg
Andrew Hamilton
Jenny Booth

TRANSNATIONAL TRAINING IN NETWORKED eLEARNING

by Jef Van den Branden, AV-net K.U.Leuven, Belgium

Since the early days of the Comett and Delta programmes, some 20 years ago, the European Community has recognised and consequently promoted the use of learning technology and transnational networking for education and training. Their importance in the European Commission programmes has only increased with growing globalisation and the expansion of the European Union. It is therefore relatively strange that the development of eCompetences of teachers and trainers are mostly bypassing the peculiarities of transnational networked eLearning. Two EuroPACE-coordinated projects pay specific attention to this type of learning and teaching: Netcampus (Socrates-Minerva, 2000-2003) and cEVU (e-learning, 2001-2003).

Netcampus
The Netcampus project aimed at the improvement of Open and Distance Learning in a network, by developing solutions for its practical and attitudinal obstacles. On the basis of a study of these obstacles through concrete examples of ODL in various network environments, some modules of a training course were developed in which teachers/trainers were made aware of obstacles in their own experiences and attitudes, and helped to overcome them. In particular three situations were piloted:

a university offers a course that is followed by students from other universities
joint development by various universities of teaching and learning materials for ODL
joint development by universities and corporate organizations of ODL.

The list of obstacles and possible problems that threaten the realisation of the full potential of transnational networked learning/teaching, as it was found in literature and experiences of the project partners, is long. To begin with there are the obstacles that are direct consequences of technology use itself, e.g.

lack of sufficient infrastructure and equipment
resistance of actors against the use of technology or against changing roles and responsibilities within the technology based/supported teaching/learning situation
lack of mastering of the necessary technical skills

On top of that, however, there are also those that are directly linked to the networking aspect. These include

the different backgrounds of the participants (both learners and teachers/tutors) with respect to the learning platforms one is familiar with
the language and cultural background (including the use of terminology within the subject area)
the pedagogical models that one is used to
perception of quality of learning materials and learning situation
the extra workload (and lack of compensation/reward) that is generated by the additional students
and the need for technology based support and the lack of direct personal contact and the cost of transnational technology use.

With these experiences in mind, a teacher training model was set up to further develop eCompetences by making teachers aware of the potential of networked learning/teaching in general, and teaching them to identify obstacles in their own networked teaching situations in particular. This was achieved by helping them to optimise their networked teaching through the exchange of good practices and working solutions for the obstacles. Practically, the group of trainees was divided into smaller working groups. Blocks of similar activities were organised: a synchronous discussion through Netmeeting (Microsoft) in combination with audio conferencing to introduce new block topics and/or wrap up the results of the former block through a full group discussion of the small reports that were produced by each working group as the result of asynchronous communication and collaborative work on the assignment of that block. The last block ended with an evaluation of the training.

Diagram showing structure of Netcampus training module
(click to view)

The project's pilots revealed

the necessity of creating and animating (learning/teaching) communities
the importance of cross-border collaborative learning/teaching and the availability in the learning platform of adapted supporting tools for this purpose
the need for a mutual respect and trust between involved teachers
the need for strict organisation of the process on the basis of good agreements that are communicated, accepted and respected by all people involved.

cEVU
The collaborative European Virtual University or cEVU studied various issues relating to the creation and running of a European virtual university within the setting of networked collaboration between existing institutions. It built on what was learned in previous projects like the Netcampus one, and studied important aspects of networked collaboration, such as creditation, intellectual property rights, reuse of materials and its implications for pedagogical models and technological platforms.

As teachers have limited time resources, and a training course comes on top of their already overloaded agendas, it was decided to design a course with a total workload of about 20 hours, running over about 9 or 10 weeks. The course should help the participants to efficiently and effectively:

collaborate via the internet: through discussion and collaboration create a common “product” (teaching or learning material with limited scope and size)
solve problems connected to a networked learning and teaching environment, its requirements and possible obstacles (cf. Netcampus)
provide hands-on experience with useful software tools for the purpose

Also in this training, participants would work in small groups of 3 members on tasks (small projects or case studies) that are chosen out of various possibilities. These possibilities are connected to a problem-based learning environment (PBL), or a goal-based scenario (GBS - Schank ), or a PBL with GBS elements. Considered cases are

dealing with the (online) organisation of a workshop; the support of discussion groups
the initiation and support of collaborative research by students
design and support of a teleteaching (lecturing) situation;
design of a joint online course

The training itself would have 3 parts:

an introductory Part to build a learning community, to familiarise the participants with the software tools of the course and to set up the small workgroups
a main part that runs within the various workgroups and consists in elaboration of the concrete tasks mentioned above
and a final part for exchange over the workgroups of information on the outcomes and experiences with the different tasks, including reflection (i.e. meta-analysis) about pro and cons of networked e-learning in the context of Virtual Universities.

The course was designed to make use of synchronous as well as asynchronous communication and meetings. Both kick-off and final wrap-up would be organised in a synchronous virtual conference.
In between, several “meetings”, both synchronous and asynchronous, of the small workgroups should take place.

The designed course was not piloted within the project. It is now being further elaborated and adapted (use of some originally planned software tools are no longer possible as the are no longer available on the market) and will get its pilot during a Virtual Erasmus Week that is planned in March 2005 by the EUNITE network universities.