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E-learning in Norway: Some important features,

projects and providers

Morten Flate PaulsenNKI Nettstudier

Professor of Online EducationPresident of EDEN - the European Distance and E-Learning Network

Find the slides via:

http://home.nki.no/mortenwww.facebook.com/mfpaulsen

twitter.com/MFPaulsen

www.slideshare.net/MortenFP

A 15-minut presentation at the eLearning Baltics conference in Rostock, Germany , July 1 2010

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Presentation AbstractThe 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 system and the individual planning system.

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/ 

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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.

See: www.nettskolen.com/forskning/23/deos2-19.htm

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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.

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Norway Opening Universitieswww.norgesuniversitetet.no

• A national initiative for change and innovation in Norwegian higher education.

• Provide about 1,5 M Euro per year to R&D within online education

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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:• www.ssb.no/english/subjects/04/02/50/fjernund_en/

Governmental support:

2002: 3.5 M Euro

2006: 1.5 M Euro

2012: 0

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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.

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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.

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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

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European Megaproviders of Online Education in 200527 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 at:http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/nominated.html

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Norwegian Megaproviders of Online Educationhttp://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

Three private and one public institutions

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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.

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NKS Nettstudierwww.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 2005.

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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.

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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• Online students get better grades

September 2009

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Online access available for the remaining correspondence students in July 2009

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NKI’s Philosophy on Online Learning

We facilitate individual freedomwithin a learning communityin 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.

Cooperative learning is based on voluntary participation in a learning community

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NKI Innovationsin Online Education

1986: First LMS1987: First online distance education course1996: First web-based courses1998: First online journal for students (Nettskoleavisen)2002: First m-learning courses2003: Speech synthesis in all courses2004: Individual planning system2004: Continuous tracking of turn around time2006: Learning partner system2008: Global student profiles2009: Individual progress reports

Rosing Competency Award 2003Baldic Award 2006

Tisip E-learning Award 2007

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NKI students have individual progress plans

UA students have collective progress plans

Copyright Atle Løkken

NKI introduced the individual planning system in 2004

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assignments that are completed

assignments that are delayed according to the plan

assignments that are planned

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Boldic Award 2006NKI’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.“

Learning partner - opportunities for cooperation in distance learningwww.elearningeuropa.info/directory/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=8294&doclng=6

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1. Make your personal presentation2. Decide who may access it (Closed, Limited, Open or

Global)

3. Search for potential learning partners4. Invite somebody to become your learning

partner

NKI’s Learning Partner System

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Presentations May 2009All 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.

www.nki.no/pp/fagerbergtr

NKI has 1600 global student presentations

26www.youtube.com/MortenFP#p/a/u/0/gyQ1u977iwk

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

• Multimediejournalistikk http://nb-no.facebook.com/pages/Multimediejournalistikk/115487248477879

– Skandinavian online program in multimediajournalism

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Questions?

The presentation and more information will be available via:

http://home.nki.no/morten

https://twitter.com/MFPaulsen

http://www.slideshare.net/MortenFP

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http://www.eden-online.org/blog