Distance Education Research: A Scandinavian Perspective

1
Distance Education ResearchA Scandinavian
Perspective

• Morten Flate Paulsen
• Professor of Online Education
• NKI Distance Education
• The presentation is available via
• http//home.nettskolen.com/morten/
• Contribution to a panel discussion on Research
  ViewsCIDER research seminar in Vancouver Canada,
  08.05.05.

2
The Focus is on Technology andFlexible Learning

• ICT, LMS, Online education, E-learning
• Flexible learning, online education with
  face-to-face sessions
• Development and evaluation

3
Many Scandinavian sources for development,
evaluation and research

• Several national sources
• Some sources for Nordic and Baltic cooperation
• Many European research programs and projects
• http//www.cordis.lu/
• http//europa.eu.int/comm/research/index_en.cfm
• www.elearningeuropa.info/
• The Leiv Eiriksson mobility programme is intended
  to enhance mobility and research cooperation
  between Norway and North-America.www.emb-norway.c
  a/education/FoU/news/cooperation.htm

4
NKI-projects funded by EU-programs

• M-learning The Next Generation Of Learning,
  (2003-2005)
• Student Support Services in e-Learning
  (2003-2004)
• BOLDIC a network of organizations from Baltic
  and Nordic countries (2003-2004)
• Delphi a study of innovation in European
  E-learning projects (2003-2004)
• Web-edu A Study of Learning Management Systems
  for Online Education (2001-2002)
• M-learning From e-learning to m-learning
  (2001-2002)
• CISAER Courses on the Internet - Survey,
  Analysis, Evaluation and Recommendation
  (2000-2001)
• Mediaweb Multimedia Courseware on the World Wide
  Web (1999-2000)
• MMWWWK Multimedia WWW Kernel for Distance
  Education (1998-1999)

5
Other important projects at NKI

• Accessibility and speech synthesis
• Development and evaluation of a system for
  individual progress planning
• Development and evaluation of a system that uses
  learner profiles to find and match students who
  wish to cooperate.

6
Many sources are ephemeral and fragmented

• Changing governmental initiatives
• Few sustainable sources
• Many sources, but few are directed directly
  towards DE research

7
We need sustainability

• Successful online education should be
  sustainable. It is therefore of great concern
  that much of the online education that has been
  offered so far has been transient, unsuccessful
  and far from sustainable. A lot of it has been
  supported by external funding and ended when the
  external funding stopped. It is also disturbing
  to observe that there are many online education
  projects supported by Scandinavian councils and
  agencies that have come up with high quality
  products that are not used after the project
  period. Enormous amounts of money have more or
  less been wasted.
• A quote from my article Online Education
  Obituaries www.studymentor.com/studymentor/Obituar
  ies.pdf