E-learning in Norway:
Some important features,
projects and providers
Morten Flate Paulsen
NKI Nettstudier
Professor of Online Education
President of EDEN - the European Distance and E-Learning Network
Find the slides via:
http://home.nki.no/morten www.facebook.com/mfpaulsen
twitter.com/MFPaulsen www.slideshare.net/MortenFP
2
Presentation Abstract
The presentation focuses on online education in Norway. It includes facts and thoughts on regulations, markets as well as technological and pedagogical innovations. The presentation also focuses on some of the major players in Norwegian distance
education, including the Norwegian Association for Distance Education, Norway Opening Universities, Norwegian School of Management and NKS Distance Education. NKI Distance
Education, which is Scandinavia’s largest provider of online and distance education, is presented in more detail. Among the NKI services discussed are the award winning Learning Partner
Sources and further readings
The Megatrends project published the book: The Provision of e-learning in the European Union.It presents data gathered from Norway and the 25 members of the European Union as an introductory overview of the provision of e-learning in Europe
http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/Book1.pdf
Rekkedal, T.: eLearning in Norway. In: Demiray, U. (Ed.): e-LEARNING practices. Volume 2. pp. 515-542. Anadolu University-2010. Electronic ISBN 978-975-98590-8-4 (1.c) 78-975-98590-7-7 (tk.) http://www.midasebook.com/
4
Distance Education in Norway
• 4.8 million people live scattered in a large country.
• The first Norwegian distance education institution was established in 1914.
• Norway was the first country to regulate correspondence education by an act of Parliament in 1948.
• Today, 13 private institutions are approved by the ministry • Most distance education students have received
government grants to cover parts of the course fees. It has gradually been reduced from about 50% to nearly 0 during the last 35 years.
www.nade-nff.no
• The Norwegian Association for Distance Education and
Flexible Education (NADE) was established in 1968. Since then the organisation has played an active role in the
development of distance education in Norway.
• NADE is a membership organisation with about 30 members. They are both private distance education institutions and public institutions engaged in distance education, at all levels.
• NADE is a consultative and cooperating body for the Ministries in matters concerning distance education.
6
Norway Opening Universities
www.norgesuniversitetet.no
• A national initiative for change and
innovation in Norwegian higher education.
• Provide about 1,5 M Euro per year to R&D
Market competition
• There are no public institutions established to provide distance education, but public universities and colleges provide gradually more distance and flexible learning • Statistics Norway lists 12 independent distance teaching
institutions. In 2009 they reported 18 376 course
completions, 10 259 were women and 8 117 were men.
• More details in English are available at:
Governmental support: 2002: 3.5 M Euro
2006: 1.5 M Euro 2012: 0
Developments / difficulties
• The institutions rely on the Norwegian language
and face little competition from abroad.
• The position of private distance education in
Norway is difficult, primarily because of reduced
financial support and increased competition from
public institutions.
• The number of private DE schools and students
have declined steadily year by year.
10
Products and Markets
• Most students are adults
• Primarily courses and short programs from secondary school, vocational school and introductory college levels • Most courses lead to a diploma or a job qualification
• Most students pay the tuition themselves, but maybe about 25 percent of the students are supported by their employers • Distance learning establishments in Norway are entitled to
award diplomas. The Norwegian Agency for Quality
Assurance in Education (NOKUT) was established in 2002 for accrediting both distance and face-to-face education.
Teaching methods
• Online education, correspondence courses,
blended learning
• Virtually no educational TV or radio broadcasting
• Printed material is still important, but online
material is gradually more used
• Some mobile technology, some video
conferencing
• Most course authors and teachers are part-time
employed
12
European Megaproviders of Online Education in 2005 27 Nominated Institutions Sorted by Country
Bit media (Austria)
University of Liège (Belgium)
University of Hradec Kralove (Czechia) University of Tartu (Estonia)
Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern (Germany) Oncampus (Germany)
Hungarian Telecom (Hungary) Dennis Gabor College (Hungary) Scuola IaD (Italy)
Riga Technical University (Latvia)
Open Universiteit Nederland (Netherlands)
NKI (Norway) BI (Norway) NKS (Norway)
Sør-trøndelag University College (Norway)
Universitat de Barcelona Virtual (Spain) Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain) Universidad de Las Palmas (Spain)
CEPADE (Spain)
Lund University (Sweden) Learn Direct (UK)
Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) Staffordshire University (UK)
The Open University (UK)
The University of Leicester (UK) The University of Ulster (UK) An updated list with further information is available
Norwegian Megaproviders of Online Education
http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/workpackage4.html
Institution # enrollments # courses
NKI 12217 470 BI 8500 54 NKS 2200 104 Sør-trøndelag University College 2500 148
14
Norwegian School of
Management (BI)
www.bi.no
• BI is a non-profit private institution offering
courses at higher education (tertiary) level
and within vocational training.
• The Distance Education Centre has offered
online courses since 1989.
• Apollon, self-developed LMS
• 17 full-time and 50 part-time employees
• 8500 course enrolments and 54 courses.
NKS Nettstudier
www.nks.no
• NKS DE offers courses within higher
education, secondary level education and
vocational training. In 2005, NKS DE
offered 104 online courses. The number of
enrolments in the courses were 2200 in
16
Sør-Trøndelag University
College
www.hist.no
• Sør- Trøndelag University College offers
courses at higher education level. In 2005,
the institutions had about 2500 enrolments
in 148 online courses.
NKI Distance Education
• One of Europe’s largest providers of online distance education • More than 110 000 enrolments in online courses since 1987 • Broad range of subjects from secondary to master level
• About 400 distance education courses online (all in Norwegian) • About 11 000 online students in about 40 countries
• About 70 % women
• Revenue of 14 M Euros in 2007, 9.5 M of them from online education
• Individual progress plans/individual follow-up • Thousands of potential learning partners
• Global student catalogue with 1100 profiles • Always room for more students
• Exams at local schools and embassies
18
Online access available for the remaining
NKI’s Philosophy on Online Learning
We facilitate individual freedom
within a learning community
in which online students serve as mutual resources
without being dependent on each other.
We build on adult education principles and seek to foster benefits from both individual freedom and cooperation in online learning communities.
20
NKI Innovations
in Online Education
1986: First LMS
1987: First online distance education course 1996: First web-based courses
1998: First online journal for students (Nettskoleavisen)
2002: First m-learning courses
2003: Speech synthesis in all courses
2004: Individual planning system
2004: Continuous tracking of turn around time 2006: Learning partner system
2008: Global student profiles
2009: Individual progress reports Rosing Competency Award 2003
Baldic Award 2006 Tisip E-learning Award 2007
NKI students have individual progress plans
UA students have collective progress plans
NKI introduced the individual planning system in 2004
22
assignments that are completed
assignments that are delayed according to the plan assignments that are planned
Boldic Award 2006
NKI’s Learning Partners
• Innovative service for voluntary cooperation between students in a large online learning community
• International award for the Baltic and Nordic countries. • The jury stated that NKI’s Learning Partner Service:
"Furthers and develops the Nordic tradition in ODL. The learning partner concept adds a new, innovative dimension of student support to flexible distance education.“
24
1. Make your personal presentation
2. Decide who may access it (Closed, Limited, Open or Global)
3. Search for potential learning partners
4. Invite somebody to become your learning partner
NKI’s Learning
Partner System
Presentations May 2009
All 10102 users of NKI’s LMS have personal presentations which automatically list
relevant information about them and their courses as shown below.
5299 of them have added some personal
information, typically a photo and a description of previous education, work experience and personal interests as shown below.
NKI has 1600 global student
presentations
26
Other initiativ of interest in Norway
• ICDE – International Councilfor Open and Distance Education www.icde.org
– Supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research – Secretariat in Oslo
• www.globalskolen.no – Online primary school for Norwegian children abroad
• EDEN – European Distance and E-learning Network
www.eden-online.org
– Norwegian Presidents
Questions?
The presentation and more information will be available via:
http://home.nki.no/morten https://twitter.com/MFPaulsen http://www.slideshare.net/MortenFP
28
