You have been sent this email because we believe the information contained may be of value to you. If you do not wish to receive further MISSION email newsletters, please email mission@opendrum.utt.ro <mailto:mission@opendrum.utt.ro> and write UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field. The HTML version of this Newsletetr can be found at http://ldrum.opendrum.utt.ro/mission/newsletter1.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MISSION (Multi-Integrated System Support for Improved ODL Networking) is a 2 years project developed under Socrates - MINERVA European Union Program. The project intends to strengthen the relationship and co-operations in PHARE ODL study center network: inside - between centers and outside -between center and ODL institution and universities in EU. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Content About the project Editorial - The ICT Skills and Learning Preferences of Europeans ODL in Romania ODL in Lithuania ODL in France New courses News Conferences Issue 1, May 2003 Contact MISSION Web-site ( http://mission.pu.acad.bg/en/index.html <http://mission.pu.acad.bg/en/index.html%C2%A0> ) Course catalogue of tasters ( http://www.dec.pg.gda.pl/pro/socrates/prometheus/manager/mission/index.php ) Counseling service on-line ( http://www.dec.pg.gda.pl/pro/socrates/prometheus/manager/mission/index.php ) Database on existing ODL staff training programmes ( http://www.dec.pg.gda.pl/pro/socrates/prometheus/manager/mission/index.php ) ODL Glossary ( http://stoner.phys.uaic.ro/idesc/glossary/ ) HR-Development Programme for ODL Centres Newsletters Editor Diana Andone diana@mail.opendrum.utt.ro <mailto:diana@mail.opendrum.utt.ro> About the project Mission project aims to strengthen the links between the CEE PHARE ODL Centres - recently established by the support of the PHARE Multi-Country Programme for Distance Education. At the same time it aims to improve the effectiveness and long-term stability of collaboration between EuroStudy Centres (coordinated by European Association of Distance Teaching Universities - EADTU) and PHARE ODL Centres. As a more generic objective, it focuses on enhancing the awareness of ODL as the most effective, innovative and flexible methodology for supporting the European dimension of Life-Long Learning. The typical beneficiaries of the MISSION project are expected to be: HRD policy makers and decision makers, ODL providers, course developers, ICT application developers, management staff and academics of universities working in dual/mixed mode education systems, staff developers and advisers, evaluators, distance learners all over Europe. Establishing a central, multi-lingual (13 languages) WEB portal and electronic network based on ICT (e-newsletter, discussion groups, course catalogue, staff development and mentoring, etc.) is a core activity of the project. In addition to the advanced electronic tools and resources that will be available for a global audience . Specific staff development programmes for ODL Centres and Strategic plans for the sustainability of ODL networking in Europe will also be major outcomes Products: . Web-site http://mission.pu.acad.bg/en/index.html <http://mission.pu.acad.bg/en/index.html%C2%A0> . Course catalogue of tasters http://www.dec.pg.gda.pl/pro/socrates/prometheus/manager/mission/index.php . Counseling service on-line http://www.dec.pg.gda.pl/pro/socrates/prometheus/manager/mission/index.php . Database on existing ODL staff training programmes http://www.dec.pg.gda.pl/pro/socrates/prometheus/manager/mission/index.php . ODL Glossary http://stoner.phys.uaic.ro/idesc/glossary/ . HR-Development Programme for ODL Centres (URL link) . Newsletters - link la arhiva . Publications Editorial The ICT Skills and Learning Preferences of Europeans Nine in ten Europeans think lifelong learning is important. But only 58% said they are able to use a computer, and very few think on open and distance learning to improve their skills. These are some of the results of a recent Eurobarometer Survey describing the learning patterns of Europeans. The survey, called "Lifelong learning: a citizen's view" , ( http://www.cedefop.eu.int/download/current_act/4025_en.pdf <http://www.cedefop.eu.int/download/current_act/4025_en.pdf%C2%A0> was commissioned by the Directorate General Education and Culture with the assistance of CEDEFOP http://www.cedefop.eu.int /. It was carried out between 15 January and 28 February 2003 in the 15 Member States, Norway and Iceland, and entailed more than 18,000 face-to-face interviews. ICT and scientific/technological skills are not high on citizen's agenda Almost everybody (over 90%) agrees that reading, writing and arithmetic are the most useful skills in all areas of life. At the same time, under half consider that using the internet (48%), foreign languages (45%) or scientific - technological tools are important skills in personal life, although these ICT skills are judged to be more important in working life. People think they need a broader range of skills in working life than in personal life, and this is specially the case for using ICT skills. Some 50% of people does not feel confident on key ICT skills Almost everyone in the European Union thinks that they can read, write and do arithmetic, but only 58% of respondents said they could use a computer while half of them said they could not use Internet and 60% said they could not use foreign languages. The lack of ICT skills is especially marked in Greece and Portugal with two-thirds of respondents claiming they could not use a computer. Around 70% of respondents from Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom said they could not use foreign languages. On the other hand, people from Nordic countries and Luxembourg are much more likely to think that they possess knowledge and skills across the full range. Gender differences are more marked for felt competence in using computers (65% of male and 52% of female respondents) and in using scientific/technological tools and equipment (53% and 28%respectively). These results suggest that many citizens are aware there is room for knowledge & skills development of their part. The majority of citizens think they learn best in informal settings European citizens consider that their learning experiences are most profitable in non-formal contexts, for example doing activities at home (69%), getting together with other people (63%), during leisure time, (51%) learning informally on the job or in local learning centres/libraries. Formal learning settings (such as schools, universities and colleges) as a recent and relevant learning context were mentioned by only 17% of respondents. It is also worth noting that distance learning channels and learning experience abroad (as part of exchange programmes) are among the least-favoured learning settings. Few people think about open and distance learning to improve their skills When people think about how to improve or update their professional skills, only 12% of respondents think about open and distance learning and related channel, and a mere 5% choose secondment or excahnge abroad. Why people consider learning in future? Social and personal reasons outweigh work-related motives The main reasons for future learning are to achieve more personal satisfaction, increase general knowledge (31% each), do a job better (27%) and obtain a qualification (20%). Again, a hard kernel of 14% spontaneously reply that they would never want to take up learning again - but not a single Danish respondent said this, as opposed to at least 20% in Belgium, Greece, France and Austria. Main obstacles to lifelong learning: time and money Although people recognise the personal and social benefits of learning, they underline that lack of time due to job and family commitments is an important obstacle. In general, money represents a major obstacle: half of the respondents said that they would pay nothing under any circumstances. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that people are ready to make a financial contribution if they judge the benefit to be an exclusively personal one. They do not see work-related learning as only their responsibility. Individualised and flexible learning options could be effective incentives. People mention diverse incentives, but most common are flexible working hours (21%), individualised programmes of study and personal choice of methods of study (20% each). This suggests that implementing lifelong learning effectively must find ways to enable people to combine activities in ways that suit them practically and personally. This article is inspired from the article 'About E-learning' at http://www.elearningeuropa.info/ . OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN ROMANIA The most significant factor in the development of ODL technologies in Romania is the PHARE Multi-country Programme for Distance Education, running in the period 1997-1998. Within the program, a network of seven ODL Study Centres (DESC = Distance Education Study Centres) and a National Contact Point (NCP) at the Ministry of National Education were established. The centres were founded in the main Romanian cities: Bucharest (2 centres), Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timis,oara, Sibiu, Bras,ov. The staff involved in the development and organization of these centres was trained in ODL technologies, the centres received financial support for equipment purchase and funding to develop original ODL courses. In a final stage of the Phare programme, 70 students were trained with a high quality ODL course, LOLA (Learning about Distance Learning). At the same time, the European Commission financed many other ODL programmes within the TEMPUS scheme, targeted especially to Continuous Education. Organisation In 1998, the Ministry of National Education has accredited the NCP, the seven Phare DESCs and the DESC established later at the Babes,-Bolyai University, and started to elaborate decisions to implement the new educational system in Romania. The Ministry allowed the ODL educational programmes for initial formation (faculty level), for Continuing Education, and for any kind of short term training, establishing a number of quality rules. Many ODL programmes have been started since 1998, but the relaxed system of quality certification of these programmes was quite controversial. Partially, the problem was solved at the end of year 2000, by a decision of the Romanian Government concerned with the quality of the ODL programmes in the universities. A new Commission was created within the National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation: the Distance Education Commission. The commission elaborated Quality Standards for Distance Education Programmes offered by the Romanian Universities in March 2001 and, since then, all the ODL programmes dedicated to the initial formation at the university level were authorized only by this Commission. ODL programmes in Romania Since 2001, the mentioned ODL Commission analysed some 150 ODL complex programmes and authorized about 70% of them. All the authorizations were given only with an annual monitoring procedure. Recently, the concrete procedure was approved by the Council of the Romanian National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation. We estimate that, in Romania, at the beginning of the year 2003, there were about 50,000 students enrolled in about 100 ODL programmes organized by some 20 Universities (both State and Private Universities). Most of the ODL students are interested in training in Economics, Law, Foreign Languages, Geography, History, Public Relations, Communication, Journalism, Psychology, Pedagogy. The ODL programmes are in an unwelcome competition with a new educational system which is allowed by the Romanian Law of Education, named Reduced Frequency System (RFS). Although RFS is defined as a system derived from the ODL technology, it allows an organisation of studies much more alike the traditional ones than the ODL system. The National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation and the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research (new name of the Ministry since 2001) decided that the ODL Commission should evaluate the RFS programmes as well. New criteria have been elaborated for these programmes and the evaluation will start in March 2003. Permanent and Continuous Education using ODL technology ODL programs are organized by Universities at graduate level, as well. Recently, the Teacher Training National Programme was re-organized and is also allowing the use of ODL technology. However, although ODL technology is best suited at this level, the number of students is significantly smaller than those mentioned in the previous section. This is mainly due to the financial aspect. At the post-university level, the number of students is much smaller and consequently these programmes are not financially efficient. Since all the programmes should finance the costs from student's taxes, the small scale ODL programmes are not encouraged. This might not be the case though with the new teacher training programmes which are financed by the state and promise an excellent future. One should also mention that many ODL centres developed within the TEMPUS and PHARE programmes have organized an association (ASTEC) that planned to be involved in the development of high-quality ODL programmes, mainly at the graduate level and continuing training.

From dLearning to eLearning A substantial debate within the Romanian ODL community is focused now on the subject of the use of new IT technologies in the existing and new ODL programmes. This could be formulated as the evolution of the ODL programmes from the traditional distance education system (that could be named dLearning) to ODL programmes that are using extensively the new educational technologies based on computers linked to the Internet, known as eLearning. The ODL Commission has recently elaborated the minimal rules for the use of eLearning in ODL programmes. The standards and recommendations of the Commission are concentrated on the use of electronic Learning Management Systems (LMS), but references are also made to the Content Creation Tools (CCT), Student Management Systems (SMS) and in a smaller degree on the Accounting Systems (AS). When using the eLearning technology, the organisers of the ODL programmes are required to fulfill a number of minimal criteria, such as, equal access for all the students to the technology in the study centres, training in the new technologies both for students and staff, proper guidance when using the facilities of a LMS. The web-based courses should be, from the pedagogical point of view, at least of the same quality as the printed study material, but they should include as much as possible the facilities offered by the technology, as hypertext and multimedia. When the student is a beneficiary of an eLearning environment he/she should clearly see a quality improvement of the services offered by the organizing institution. However, although there is a strong will to implement at least LMS platforms, yet there is no clear strategy at the national level on this issue. Some universities are developing their own LMS platforms and other are willing to use commercial LMS, like the well known WebCT and BlackBoard. As we see it now, the future of ODL in Romania, as in all other countries, will be more and more based on eLearning technology. The accessibility to computers and Internet is rapidly improving, which makes this prevision more likely. The most important obstacle will be with high probability the limited capacity to produce high-quality eLearning materials.

OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN LITHUANIA Lithuania has been making significant progress in its efforts to reform its economy and society. There is a wide spread agreement that the development of its human resources through the expansion and innovation of the education system using information technologies is a cornerstone for further economic and social transformation and the attainment of a primary economic policy goal of integration into the European Union. Within this context, the upgrading of the skills and knowledge is essential. The government and educational sector have determined that distance education has enormous potential to meet this challenge and significant policy groundwork has been laid for the development of an advanced and comprehensive distance learning system. ICT in higher education in the context of life long learning is one of the main research and development priorities in every country. The encouragement of life long learning and the successful use of ICT in the learning process should expand all the time if its aimed on the ground of collaboration and dissemination of good practice. Higher education institutions should also join, stimulate and recognize ICT based educational initiatives. Hopefully higher education institutions will participate actively in life long learning while employing modern ICT not only as a part of a context in various subjects/programmes but also for the dissemination of education and teaching. Moreover, it is expected that higher education institutions would train future researchers and experts and act as mass training institutions. The education itself became quite an important good and new technologies allow choosing a place for learning despite of time and pace. Besides the improved accessibility of education and training, ICT could also improve the quality of education. Thus why it is so important that higher education institutions would pay a huge attention to the quality while creating ICT based education. Institutions should take more pains for the use of possibilities provided by new technologies - not only to ensure that education would become independent from time and place but also that the content would be provided in such ways that stimulate students' motivation. ICT enrich education with new methods. We mean learning not teaching. We have in mind active, participating learner. And as it was already mentioned, technology is for the satisfaction of requirements that aims are accomplished. In the learning process the technologies themselves should become an impulsive force. As new technologies have been employed in education only recently there are not many researches analyzing how those technologies could be used for the improvement of education quality. So it is very important that higher education institutions would expand research activity about the use of ICT in education. Those researches must be spread widely along with good cases and the best practice. Traditional research universities are in the period of transition and can create a new environment for higher education. Universities have to become 'service universities'. The main goal of such universities is to be recognized as providers of knowledge-based services to their regions and the whole society. Considering the traditional teaching process in Lithuania ODL should be designed on a basis of the present infrastructure of universities and colleges while accumulating academic potential and evaluating real needs for ODL courses. ODL provides the possibility to organise a more flexible study process, and this provides the possibility for students to manage their time in the most effective way. Kaunas University of Technology (more information http://www.ktu.lt ) is using the advanced computer technology and related opportunities while taking part in the ODL development project, as well as initiating new projects. To create an ODL system, we need to establish: 1. The system of training and professional development for organizers, lecturers, consultants and tutors of contemporary distance education programmes. 2. The system of encouragement for developing and re-establishing distance education programmes and formal distance studies modules. 3. The system of quality evaluation and quality assurance for distance education programmes. 4. The support system for the participants of distance education programmes. 5. Developed computer network and other means of telecommunication adjusted to distance education. 6. Legal basis for distance education. 7. Effective funding mechanism for the ODL system. KTU Rectorate, the Senate and the whole academic community pay much attention to the implementation of these objectives. OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN FRANCE Paradoxically enough in a centralised country as France, there is no open university as such but every university or institution of higher education has its own activity with respect of the Technologies of information and communication linked with distance education. We have to distinguish between "old" centres of distance education which started in a correspondence way in the sixties and new ones which appeared after a call for tender of the French government named "digital campuses. 1. Centres of distance learning. Created to supply the need of education in the different subject (humanities, law, sciences) 27 centres located in traditional universities are organised in a consortium named FIED ( Fédération interuniversitaire des enseignements à distance).( www.telesup.univ-mrs.fr <http://www.telesup.univ-mrs.fr> ). They share both a web radio ( http://audiosup.net.u-paris10.fr ) and a T.V. on line ( www.canal-u.education.fr <http://www.canal-u.education.fr> ). The number of registered students is 38,000.Teachers and tutors are working on a overtime basis paid by hours done. This is of course a very difficult situation as the Ministry has not yet decided what would be the counterpart in terms of services of an "on line" work. Most of the courses are paper based or linked with audioor video cassettes but are slowly put on line 2. CNED :National centre for distance education. CNED was created during the second world war for pupils who were not able to attend classes at elementary level. After the war, it enlarged its scope in offering college level as well as training at higher education level for the teachers who were preparing competitive exams for a better position. Then CNED offered courses in name of universities which wanted not to have the task of managing the dispatching of the documents to the students. CNED entered different digital campuses as an operator and a facilitator because of its internal multimedia resources As such, CNED is a partner of many a campus at higher education level. CNED has 350,000 registered students from elementary school to university level (with 150,000 students in joint cooperation with traditional universities) ( www.cned.fr <http://www.cned.fr> ) 3. CNAM : National conservatory for art and handicraft. This foundation goes back to the French Revolution and was designed to save the know-how in all handicraft and art available at the end of the French "Ancien regime". This institution is now offering a whole set of vocational training for technicians to become engineers. The lectures are given outside the working hours, at night or during week ends. There is a centre of CNAM in each region , each being autonomous regarding its own way of teaching but the diplomas are given by the Paris centre and are recognised as national diplomas. CNAM is offering more and more on line courses through its own learning content management system named "pleiade". 80,000 adults are currently registered in a life long learning process. ( www.cnam.fr <http://www.cnam.fr> ) 4. Digital campuses The French government initiated a call for tender two years ago to promote on line courses which were available within the different universities. Up to now 67 campuses are running as described below( see the site: www.formasup.education.fr <http://www.formasup.education.fr> ): Sciences and techniques : 18 projects Medicine and health : 15 projects Humanities and social sciences: 9 projects Training techniques and methodology in information and communication : 8 projects Law, economy and business administration : 8 projects Interdisciplinary : 7 projects Most of them linked a small number of universities and the CNED as a technical facilitator. They are designed to offer on line courses ending with a diploma. They are modularised and are credited according to the ECTS system. 5. Other. Most of the institutions of higher education are linked with the government through a contract in which a component of e-learning is visible. The commitment of the different actors is variable and some are well ahead like the technical university of Compiegne ( www.utc.fr <http://www.utc.fr> ). Others are re-organising their multimedia centres in a service offered to the students for a personal training. It's a sort of extension of the old computer based training through the use of the net. Interactivity can be both on campus or on line with tutors. A network of those centres is organised and is named RUCA ( www.ruca.univ-lille1.fr <http://www.ruca.univ-lille1.fr> ) New courses Politehnica" University of Timisoara - Timisoara Distance Education Study Centre (link la www.utt.ro <http://www.utt.ro> ) is running 2 college level degrees in "Audio-Video and Multimedia Technologies' and "Applied Informatics" using Open and Distance Learning methodology. The courses in Romanian are for 3 years and they count for college engineer degree. News 1. The new name of EDEN - EUROPEAN DISTANCE AND E-LEARNING NETWORK At the Annual General Meeting held at Rhodes, Greece, on 18 June 2003, a special resolution was passed by the members that the name of the Association be changed to EUROPEAN DISTANCE AND E-LEARNING NETWORK. The new name intends to reflect the response of EDEN to the emergence and consolidation of eLearning and its flexible integration in the activities of the Association. It is in the meantime also emphasizing the continuity of experience with the professional background of open and distance learning. The change will at the same time safeguard the existing corporate image and identity, but also carry important message about accommodating in EDEN the ongoing innovation. The new name is also shifting in the wording the focus from education to learning, which is a very contemporary message, and without the change of the well branded abbreviated name, introduce the information and communication technology dimension. http://www.eden.bme.hu/ 2. EDEN New President and Executive Committee members elected at the AGM 2003 In view of the expiry of his term of office in the EDEN Executive Committee, Dr. Erwin Wagner has retired and gave over the presidency at the Annual General Meeting on 18 June 2003. The AGM has unanimously endorsed the nomination of Ingeborg Bo as the next President of EDEN from June 2003. As their term of office expired, the following members of the Executive Committee completed their serving in the Board: Erwin Wagner, Universität Hildesheim, Germany, EDEN President , Sarolta Zárda, Számalk Education Ltd. Co., Hungary. Based on nominations for the vacancies received from members, Dr. Ulrich Bernath from Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Center for Distance Education, Germany and Dr. Albert Sangra from UOC - EduLab, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Spain had been elected as new members of the EDEN Executive Committee by the AGM. http://www.eden.bme.hu/ Conferences EDEN 2003 ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 15-18 June 2003, Rodos Palace Hotel, Rhodes, Greece THE QUALITY DIALOGUE -Integrating Quality Cultures in Flexible, Distance and eLearning http://www.eden.bme.hu/contents/conferences/annual/Rhodes/rhodes0.html IASTED International Conference COMPUTERS AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION (CATE-2003) IASTED International Symposium on WEB-BASED EDUCATION (WBE-2003) June 30 - July 2, 2003, Rodos Palace Resort, Rhodes, Greece http://www.iasted.com/conferences/2003/greece/c402.htm 4-th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON E-COMMERCE / E-WORK / E-LEARNING / E-HEALTH / E-BANKING / E-BUSINESS, ON-LINE SERVICES, VIRTUAL INSTITUTES, AND THEIR INFLUENCES ON THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT E-COMM-LINE 2003, September 25-26, 2003, Bucharest, ROMANIA http://www.ipa.ro/ ICETA-2003: 2nd "International Conference on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies and Applications" and the 4th Conference on Virtual University, Kos(ice, Slovakia, 11 - 13 September 2003 http://www.elfa.sk/ICETA-2003 EADTU Annual Conference Madrid "E-Bologna" progressing the European Learning Space Madrid, 6 - 8 November 2003 http://www.eadtu.nl European Conference on e-Learning, Glasgow, Scotland, 6 -7 November 2003 http://www.mcil.co.uk/2p-ecel2003-home.htm Online Educa Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 3 - 5 December 2003 http://www.online-educa.com/en/ "Supporting the Learner in Distance Education and E-Learning" The Third EDEN Research Workshop jointly offered by EDEN - European Distance and E-Learning Network and the Centre for Distance Education at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 4-6 March 2004, Oldenburg, Germany http://www.eden.bme.hu/contents/r-net/Oldenburg/oldenburg0.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This newsletter is edited by the team of Politehnica" University of Timisoara - Timisoara Distance Education Study Centre (link la www.utt.ro <http://www.utt.ro> ) through a MISSION Socrates - MINERVA EU Program. More news is available at our website, where you can also find archive news, course catalogue, a glossary, and information about ODL in CEE. Go to ( http://mission.pu.acad.bg/en/index.html <http://mission.pu.acad.bg/en/index.html%C2%A0> ) If you no longer wish to receive information about MISSION and ODL, please send an email to mission@opendrum.utt.ro <mailto:mission@opendrum.utt.ro%C2%A0> with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line. If you have received this mail through a friend and would like to subscribe for future editions, please send an email to mission@opendrum.utt.ro <mailto:mission@opendrum.utt.ro> with "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject line.