A Virtual Campus Set Up
A group of seven European universities are developing a virtual campus that will allow them to do more than share lectures and seminars ‚Äì they also aim at increasing student mobility and teacher visibility. Not necessarily a story that immediately affects us here on Amelia Island but definitely a Pet Project of mine where it comes to pointing out the future structure and configuration of education. Especially the cost of education will be the main factor of future teaching. Cutting down traffic, limiting physical structures and their energy and maintenance needs, save on tuitions and boarding and increase exposure to different expertise exchanges. A virtual campus seems to be fitting perfectly into this scenario. All that is needed is high speed internet that allows real time interaction and an Amazon Kindle for storage of up to 1,500 educational books for reference. And that’s available today. Imagine what will be available next year and beyond.
A group of seven European universities has set up an electronic network that allows them to share lectures, seminars and other teaching material. More than simple distance learning, it is hoped that this new way of collaborating will encourage student virtual mobility and raise the international profiles of the participating institutions.
The seven – the universities of Helsinki, Leuven, Heidelberg, Geneva, Zurich, and Strasbourg, plus the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm – were among the 20 members of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a network which received EU funding to develop a virtual campus able to deliver on-line courses and lectures. By the time that project concluded in 2007, it had created a platform for sharing Рbut something was missing.
‚ÄúWithin the academic community there was nearly no knowledge of the possibilities for using this platform,‚Äù says Joern P√ºtz, who is the Strasbourg leader of the new co-operation project, known as e-LERU. His role is to ensure that the teaching potential is now realized. The project has gained momentum and is moving ahead using its members’ own resources rather than EU money.
Filmed lectures
Technical discussions dominated the initial phase of the project, while only a limited amount of content was developed – mainly filmed lectures by noted academics, on subjects ranging from Egyptology to organ development, and from the public policy of welfare states to tumor biology. The aim is now to move on to a more co-ordinated offer of lectures recorded at each institution and bundled together into thematic conferences.
Rather than sharing teaching on core subjects, the idea is that these ‚Äòe-modules’ would be complementary, drawing on specialist knowledge in one institution that is not present in the others.
While e-modules could be viewed in private, as in traditional models of distance learning, Pütz says that students would be encouraged to watch together in a lecture theatre or seminar room, in order to interact with their own teachers. “Contact is still very important,” he says, adding that the use of the internet will chalenge traditional teaching. “If students think that everything is on the net, will they still come to the lecture hall to listen to the professor?” is still a concern for now. It is also foreseen that students will be able to interact with lecturers delivering the e-modules, although probably not in real time for now.
Digital delivery
One of the keys to the future success of the project is finding academics willing to engage at this level and adapt their teaching to digital delivery. A further task is ensuring that the e-modules are recognized in each institution, and exploring options for students to earn credits for following them. This is important for the long-term aim of the project. “The final goal is to produce a European diploma constituted with modules from each partner,” says David Gauckler, global co-ordinator of the e-LERU project, also at Strasbourg.
Even though the students do not travel, Pütz thinks of the e-modules as a valuable initiation into virtual mobility. Listening to lectures by foreign professors, inevitably in English, will help demystify the international environment and make students aware of international links that could be pursued in mobility schemes and job markets. Some of the cross-cultural benefit that comes with mobility would also be realized. “Students gain a competency by adapting to the way that things are done abroad,” Pütz says. “Hundreds of students can follow this, which is not always possible for structured exchange programs.”
Marketing tool
For institutions such as the University of Strasbourg, the project promises to be a valuable marketing tool.
‚ÄúIt’s very important to attract students, and one way of doing that is to talk to them in a way they understand,‚Äù says P√ºtz. Having a heightened internet presence will also help, both in attracting new students and building relationships with other universities. ‚ÄúThis project will improve visibility and transparency of what we are doing, because we are giving our professors the opportunity to be seen,‚Äù he says.
My conclusion is that once the current generation of “messagers” and “hi tech competent kids” reach college age, there won’t be a choice anymore for the learning institutions and the Virtual Campus will be just step number 1¬† in the process of complete transformation of education.
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