Best practice nätbaserade möten - en förstudie

Abstract

A preliminary study of the use of net-based meetings in learning across Sweden was carried out on behalf of the Swedish Net University Agency in co-operation with Sunet (Swedish University Computer Network). The goal of this study was to record, from a user perspective, the best practices in the area of net-based meetings from Sweden s universities and colleges. The preliminary study was undertaken during 2005 as a co-operation between The Centre for Distance-spanning technology at Luleå University of Technology (coordinator), Mid Sweden University, Umeå University and University of Trollhättan/Uddevalla. The starting point for the preliminary study was that existing learning management systems, often used by e.g. higher education, only support asynchronous communication. With today s computers and available broadband access it is much easier to provide support for real-time, synchronous communication. Each student can sit at home using her own computer and communicate over the Internet in real-time with teachers and other students. Until recently synchronous-tools for learning were not commonly used in higher education in Sweden, but there are good examples to be found. The preliminary study started with a questionnaire that was sent out to universities and colleges across Sweden. 124 replies were received and from these replies a number of teachers were chosen to be interviewed to gain a deeper insight into their use of net-based meetings in learning. It resulted in 13 interviews submitted to Sunet s service www.meetings.sunet.se, for management, updating and further development. The Sunet service for net-based meetings is focused on getting personnel and students who are connected to Sunet to use the net for meetings. Some examples of best-practices are: Without E-meetings we couldn't have held "remote labs" A complete teacher training course through distance learning English for the manufacturing industry Best-practice in details http://www.meetings.sunet.se/education.php?lang=en The preliminary study also resulted in the suggestion of four different development areas to increase the usage of net-based meetings for educational purposes: o Disseminate information on the usage of net-based meetings, o Stimulate the development of more good examples, o Establish a network of experts/interest within the Swedish Net University Agency and o Evaluate student-experience a workshop, to be arranged by the Swedish Net University Agency together with SUNET and the Swedish society for e-competence (REK) among others. http://media.csee.ltu.se/~johnny/sunetmeetings/bestpractice/workshop/ To summarize the study, we see that net-based meetings as a phenomenon driven by early adopters are becoming more and more used by the early and late majority 1. This should mean that we only have seen the beginning of many innovative and useful ways of the use of net-based meetings in higher education. We believe it is an absolute necessity to cooperate at both national and international level to better understand technology-supported learning and to strengthen the development of new methods and technical solutions to be used in higher education.