Overzicht van alle postinitiele masteropleidingen in Nederland en België

New Learning Environments

The demand among learners to re-equip themselves with new skills and knowledge shows little sign of diminishing as they seek to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world. Such complexity demands a highly flexible education system – a system that is able to cope with increasingly busy learners who expect to be able to study when, where and how they wish. The pioneers in distance learning, which has successfully met these demands in the past, are themselves adapting their already effective methods. Students seeking to update their skills and knowledge are benefitting from continuing innovation in learning methods, especially in the supported open learning arena, where new technology is being used to great effect to enhance the learning experience.

E-learning

E-learning helps providers to personalise and tailor courses to particular groups and markets. E-technologies also allow students from diverse backgrounds to communicate more easily with each other, thus opening up access to education for increasing numbers. Such access to global markets also makes the e-learning variants of distance learning an attractive option for education providers. As the number of distance learning providers – many using e-learning tools – increases, so the quality of the courses and support they are offering increases. It is this quality that becomes a key differentiator as students choose their distance learning provider. The issue of quality extends to type and range of e-learning tools, the course material, and extent of student support.

New technologies and environments

Technology changes rapidly, and often unexpectedly. The most effective providers are those that future-proof their systems. Monitoring of the external environment and ongoing research within the university ensures that future-proofing. Extensive research is being undertaken to adapt wider technological developments – in the consumer environment - in the delivery of course material and student interaction and support. At The Open University, for example, its Knowledge Media Institute is a purpose-built showcase lab that houses over 90 researchers, technologists and designers. It creates and studies near-term future technologies for the ultimate benefit of Open University students, staff, industrial sponsors and a mixture of local and global learning communities.

Elsewhere in the university, a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) was created. It provides an integrated, high quality online learning experience for all students. VLEs include forums (conferences), blogs and wikis which allow people to participate at times which suit them. Tools such as video conferencing, audio conferencing and instant messaging are also used. VLEs allow students to interact with the computer using simulations or assessment with automated feedback.

Examples of e-learning tools currently being used by Open University students include Lyceum, the OU’s own voice conferencing system, which allows for more interactive and collaborative working among students and tutors. Users log-in to hold real-time conversations via their PCs and take part in on-screen group work featuring graphics and text. The combination of visual tools such as on-screen whiteboards, concept maps and documents, and the ability to talk to colleagues over the internet replicates (and can even have some advantages over) face-to-face conferences. Some students can feel isolated when working from home; this isolation can be reduced dramatically when they are able to interact with their tutor and other students on their course from across the world via e-learning tools. Computer-mediated conferencing can provide a valuable academic discussion environment and also a social intercourse which can build the sense of academic and social community. Electronic environments can also integrate simulations, streamed video and links to additional remote resources, which can demonstrate and illustrate concepts in a much more lively and thought-provoking way than a written description and  wodimensional diagram.

Vital to the success of the e-learning environment in the wider distance learning arena is its appropriate use. A lack of careful design and robust  implementation can lead to problems with the technology; in turn, they are likely to detract from the content of the course and the learning experience. Work to ensure those issues are minimised is a central part of The Open University’s activity in e-learning.

The university has also exploited technology to make some of its material available to all with web access. It launched OpenLearn, its open content initiative, in October 2006, where a selection of learning materials was made available free of charge via the web to educators and learners around the world. The provision of course materials reflects the university’s mission of promoting fairness for all. The university draws on its experience in supported open learning to provide an environment which contains both high quality learning materials and a range of learning support and informal community building tools. One site, LearningSpace, is aimed primarily at learners and offers material with suggested learning pathways. A second site, LabSpace, is primarily for other course creators and fosters the concept of sharing and re-use of materials.

In 2008 the University announced that course materials are also available for free download via Open University on iTunes U. More than 300 video and audio files drawn from current courses across the University’s broad curriculum can now be downloaded for playing on a Mac, PC, iPod or iPhone.

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