Re-designing the Traditional University: an Answer to learning-on-demand for

employees

[ED+ict]

Education and ICT, Research Unit

Sebastiaan Jans (sebastiaan.jans@khlim.be)

Valère Awouters (valere.awouters@khlim.be)

Who is our student?

• Not only the regular ones between 18 and 22 years.

• But still more and more adults (22-…)

• They have speciaal status:–Working conditions–Family …–Other formations, diploma’s–Learning not for diploma’s, but just

for interests

How about cost-effectiveness?

• Existing offered courses at traditional universities are often not personalized enough for learners, while individual designed courses are too expensive.

• Individual learners need – as is already known – just in time and to-the-point learning.

• Research showed that the highest cost for learning for employee’s is not the cost of the learning activities, but the cost of being absent and non-productive.

• Otherwise didn’t e-learning, in the meaning of offering content through the internet – not the desired solutions. Personal contact, discussing, socializing, … are even as important as knowledge transfer.

How to open knowledge in a traditional

university college?• Research – project: 3 years• Financed by the Flemish government• Experiences with e-learning didn’t

meet expectations!– If libraries could do the job, why

would we need universities?– If content is king, then context is

queen!–Context is king, content is just

another part of the learning environment!

Goettingen catalogue of instructional models

• Instructional Models in eLearning and Blended Learning

• A Toolbox for Knowledge-Organization and Design-Support

(Hans-Dieter Haller, University of Göttingen in cooperation with Jutta List, Leena Freitag, Tim Scholze, BUPNET-Team and blinc based on the works of Karl-Heinz Flechsig)

The didactic method is the key point in learning

Test cases

• 5 departements:–Teacher training–Industrial engineering–Health Care–Spanish language–Accountancy

• Learning at the workplace–In service employees–Students with special status

Learning materials

• For some formations learning materials, offered by teachers, are essential. In case there is a surplus value: it is offered online: e.g. flash-movies

• For some formations, students construct together their learning materials: WEB 2.0, as wiki’s, online office applications are worked out.

Learning support

• Support – when it is needed – will be offered as much as possible.

• In this case blended learning scenario’s will be offered. Blended learning will not be the interpretation of blended teaching.

Business Model

• Cost effectiveness!• Learning cost in relation with

being as much as possible at the workplace.

Lecturers

• Formation for lecturers• Postgraduate e-learning: 4

modules:– Innovation in education– Technology– How to deal with resistance– Project with implementation and results

Conclusion

• Key-issue in opening knowledge within university for the region is ‘didactics’.

• Resistance is a reality, dealing with resistance is the challenge.

• Formations for lecturers are necessary.