Good Practice case: Mittuniversitetet, Sweden

Mittuniversitetet is a Swedish university that offers distance education online courses (159 e-based distance education programmes of a mixed type) in cooperation with the Swedish Net University. Students can either choose a mix of online and traditional components, or they can obtain their entire course degree online. 50% of the students engage in some form of distance education.

Case summary

Mittuniversitetet is a Swedish university that offers distance education online courses in cooperation with the Swedish Net University. The online courses are the result of the merger of two colleges situated in different cities and the emerging need to develop distance-independent techniques in order to have the same course supply at both campuses.

Mittuniversitetet offers 159 e-based distance education programmes of a mixed type, thus students can either choose a mix of online and traditional components, or they can obtain their entire course degree online. Moreover, the vast majority of traditional courses offered at the Mittuniversitetet contain one or more eLearning components. Participation in the e-courses is among the highest in the country, with 50% of students engaging in some form of distance education. The Mittuniversitetet strives to make it as easy as possible for all to participate in its e-courses, providing all the necessary equipment, in cooperation with municipalities, at local learning centres.

Background and context

Brief background

Mittuniversitetet is one of the top Swedish universities regarding the supply of distance courses and the share of students participating in them.

The development towards more e-based education is a process that started during the 1990s, following an affiliation of two colleges, and today more than half of the courses are e-based. The objective is to make all education at the university as flexible as possible in order to increase the possibilities to study for groups that 'traditionally' do not study.

E-based distance learning is a well-integrated part of the entire university's offering and most courses at Mittuniversitetet contain some e-based learning. Mittuniversitetet offers 159 e-based distance education courses on various subjects, and as a part of different forms of education. Each faculty at the university is responsible for deciding what kind of eLearning is required for the course. Most courses contain a mix of several ways of using the internet. Some courses include synchronous shared learning, for example videoconferences. Asynchronous shared learning is rather frequently used, as is blended learning - it is quite common that an e-based course contains a few face-to-face meetings.

Nearly 50% of the students at Mittuniversitetet are enrolled in distance education. Mittuniversitetet offers both single courses and university programs, thus one can complete one's entire university degree online. Mittuniversitetet offers 65% of its distance courses in co-operation with the Net University. Mittuniversitetet is a part of the SNH - a network for e-based university distance learning that develops e-based courses.

A major success factor has been the training courses for the teachers, and it is important to work with the staff in order to get them to think in partly new ways about how to organise their teaching - i.e. teamwork has become more important.

Contextual factors that prompted the case

The Mittuniversitetet's e-based courses started as a response to the merger of two different colleges situated in different cities. The geographical distance between these cities is great. Therefore, a prerequisite for being able to offer students the same courses on both campuses was to develop ways of what Mittuniversitetet calls flexible learning.

The development towards more e-based education is a process that started during the 1990s when the two colleges merged.

Objectives

Central concepts in MittUniversitetet are that learning policy needs to be independent of distances, and that learning has to be flexible - time and place should be irrelevant. This means that technology such as ICTs will be used more and more.

The aim is to make all courses flexible (that is to say, that all courses the University offers can be converted into e-courses in principle) - i.e. independent of time and place. Today about 60% of all courses are e-courses and nearly all courses have some kind of e-based learning involved.

Another objective is to reach groups of students that normally or traditionally do not participate in university studies. Distance courses normally attract people living in remote areas, people with working class background, people that have families, and people that combine studies and work; these groups are not traditional students.

Implementation

ICT and other resources

Investments have been made in computers, computer platforms (first class and WebCT) and videoconference equipment etc. However, as the co-ordinator at the Centre for Flexible Learning at Mittuniversitetet points out, these investments have been rather small since this kind of equipment is not expensive.

The large investments are the costs for skills and knowledge upgrading, i.e. education of the staff. The Mittuniversitetet has focused its efforts on education, seminars and support to teachers.

This is administered by the Centre for Flexible Learning. The Centre works as a co-ordinator and initiator of education for university teachers. The tasks of the Centre are the following:

• Initiate and carry out education for teachers.
• Promote the introduction of more flexible learning.
• Give teachers involved in flexible learning technical and pedagogical support.
• Co-ordinate the activities with the Net University.
• Co-operate with the IT department in order to assure that the required ICT equipment is available.

Training programs for the university teachers have been necessary in order to improve their understanding of what flexible learning is and how it is carried out. These courses are often e-based so that the teachers will get a better understanding of what it is like to teach in e-based studies.

Partnering with the Net University has been successful in terms of reaching students, and co-operation with local Lärcentra (study centres) has been successful for enabling students without ICT equipment to be able to participate in e-based education. This co-operation is enabling the Mittuniversitetet to reach its objective in reaching non-traditional students.

ELearning platforms are tested for general user friendliness within the process of purchase. The user friendliness is already tested when the platforms are bought. However, in addition to that, some in-house guidelines are in place in order to ensure that all e-courses are designed in a user-friendly way in a broad sense. Thus the lecturers and relevant faculties are encouraged to structure their course content with a due regard to the context of users - paying attention to the issues such as for example technical limitations on their part, mainly in terms of not having broadband connections. It is considered important that the course material is easy and fast to download. 

Degree of user orientation

eLearning Visibility / findability

Mittuniversitetet regards 'traditional' and distance courses as two sides of the same coin in terms of its offering. As a consequence, all information about studies at Mittuniversitetet also contain information about distance education.

Furthermore, since a large part (65%) of the distance courses are offered in co-operation with the Net University, the information campaigns carried out by the Net University (internet, radio advertisements, TV commercials, advertisements in newspapers, information meetings with the press, and handing out brochures at strategically important places such as libraries, job search centres and learning centres) also benefits Mittuniversitetet. Apart from this, the university has made its own publicity campaigns, and has information available at the local lärcentra - study centres. 

eLearning Utility (usefulness)

The utility of the courses is proved by the large participation rates. This is especially important for those persons for whom it would have been otherwise impossible to attain third level qualifications. The uptake of eLearning is impressive both by the University's "traditional" students, who choose some online components to complement their courses, and by distance education students, many of who complete their entire degree online. Besides, the courses offered online are equivalent to their offline counterparts and for this reason prerequisites for an online course are established in the same way as in the traditional education system, and naturally the University offers the same accreditation for its e-courses as for the traditional ones. 

eLearning Access / usability / accessibility

Access

According to the Manager of the Centre for High School Pedagogical Education and Flexible Learning at Mittuniversitetet, lack of equipment is not a significant hindering factor for participating in education. This is because Mittuniversitetet co-operates with local learning centres (lärcentra), which are run by municipalities. At these local learning centres, computers and other technical equipment, necessary for participating in e-based distance courses, are available. Students without access to the required technological equipment can use the equipment in the learning centres.

The University also tries to make the e-based courses accessible through rather simple technological solutions so that students without advanced technological equipment can participate. For example, the design of the platform for the online courses is simple so that students without broadband will be able to download them quickly.

It is a necessary qualification for all students at all Swedish universities to be fluent in Swedish and English. More and more courses are taught in English, although English is not a minority language in Sweden. Other languages are very uncommon at Mittuniversitetet and thus are not supported by the e-based courses.

Accessibility

There is no specific policy stipulating how to design the courses to take account of disabled people, but all disabled students can get individual help in order to facilitate their studies. Very often, disabled people have their own assistive technology that makes it possible for this group to participate in education. In addition to this, there may well be some advantages of online courses for this group of people - thus persons with dyslexia are often satisfied with online studies, since it is easier to read and study at a slower pace. 

eLearning service quality

Concerning the content quality, the course contents are developed at the University by the lecturers responsible for the courses. As all Swedish universities, Mittuniversitetet is monitored by the National Agency for Higher Education, which both monitors courses and course contents, ensuring that the universities comply with the relevant standards and follow the laws regulating their activities.

Treatment of personal data online is regulated by the law on personal data (personuppgiftslagen, PUL). 

Results and impact

Accomplishment of objectives

All the main objectives of the Mittuniversitetet University have been addressed successfully, as an inspection of the University's achievements reveals. To begin with, the University has managed to successfully integrate and apply ICTs in education, to a degree that the whole of education process can be carried out online. In fact, more than half of its courses are delivered online at present, some fully and some through an online/offline mix. Thus, with the development of the needed infrastructure and the design of the eLearning material, the learning process has been freed from constraints of time and place, giving learners the opportunity to fit their studies to their own schedule, instead of having to organise their lives according to their studies. This last feature has been extremely useful to persons who would not otherwise participate in such courses due to personal constraints, such as limited time availability or lack of nearby educational facilities.

Impact stemming from user oriented methods

Since most people participating in distance studies are people who do not belong to the traditional groups of students, the university finds it especially important to make its courses as user friendly as possible. The University has managed to attract and eventually gain the confidence of persons whose profile makes them more demanding than the typical university student. Examples of these are older people, those with considerable time constraints, those with professional and family obligations, people who have not participated in educational activities for some time and who wish to further their qualifications with a view of their further professional advancement. For the above reasons, the course material needs to be of excellent quality and the eLearning components need to be intuitive and simple to grasp. In addition, the user friendliness is evaluated for all courses, and complaints about the usability are very uncommon. In fact, one of the most appreciated features of the online courses is their user friendliness. In addition, the online courses have been appreciated by persons with dyslexia, since they were better placed to read and study at their own pace. Finally, the University has greatly benefited from implementing a training programme for its own staff, educating teachers on how to organise their work and co-operate to reach better results.

Learning points and conclusions

The Mittuniversitetet University began delivering online courses in the 90s in co-operation with the Net University and since then, eLearning has become an integral part of its curriculum. The variety of its courses (the university offers 159 e-courses), the flexible and mixed system of delivery (various combinations of online/offline delivery), the user friendliness of the materials and tools for learning, have resulted in high participation rates for the eLearning courses. The University makes no distinction between traditionally delivered and online courses, and this is evident from the first time prospective students access the informative material on the University.

During its 15-year operation as an eLearning provider the University has learnt some important lessons. To begin with, it is important to work with the staff in order to create a well functioning e-based university. It is important that the staff embraces team work - a single lecturer cannot run the entire course; for example, it is important that the lecturers co-operate with all relevant players in providing the course online, such as the library, the Centre for flexible learning, IT-support etc., in order to create a well functioning e-based course. Moreover, long term planning is important since it is hard to change the course when it has started - students wish to organise their study time according to their own pace in advance, and alterations are not popular. Therefore, the course should be given its final shape before it starts. 

Document Characteristics Keywords Learning Geographic classification SVERIGE (Sweden) How this document fits the knowledge map of Domains, Perspectives and Issues How this case fits the eUSER Knowledge map. Domain: eLearning Perspective: eLearning user orientation Issue eLearning Visibility / findability Document relevance  Issue eLearning Utility (usefulness) Document relevance  Issue eLearning Access / usability / accessibility Document relevance  Issue eLearning service quality Document relevance