You are now about to enter the course "PiODL - Pedagogy in Open and Distributed Learning". This is part of an international collaborative project, MECPOL, under the EU based Socrates programme, where 8 partners around Europe join forces in the development of Open and Distributed (or Distance) Learning, ODL.
Socrates is the European Community action programme for cooperation in the field of education, adopted in March 1995, spanning the period until the end of 1999. Included in Socrates are the previous programmes on higher education (ERASMUS), on school education (Comenius) and a series of horizontal measures, among these Action 3 - Open and Distance Learning, ODL.
When ODL is chosen as a separate horizontal measure in the priorities of the Commission, it is because ODL is considered a key factor enabling citizens of the EU to take advantage of an open area of educational cooperation in Europe. - - - ODL involves the use of new methods - technical and/or non-technical - to improve the flexibility of learning in terms of space, time, choice of content, or teaching resources and/or to improve access to educational terms from a distance.
Based on previous experiences from national and international projects on ODL, 8 institutions from 3 countries decided to propose a project that focused on collaboration between institutions and on the pedagogy and structure of IT based ODL. MECPOL (Models of European Collaboration and Pedagogy in Open Learning) was accepted by the Commission in November '95, started officially on December 1, and is so far funded until end of August 1997. Central in the MECPOL activities are the 'User Trials', where some of the models are tested and evaluated. We are now starting the 'Second User Trials' in February '97, and PiODL is one of the major elements in this activity.
PiODL is an example of collaboration between 5 partner institutions, where we are contributing with different lessons on issues that we have found relevant and important in the development of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) based ODL. It is in no way intended to be an exhaustive presentation of all international knowledge related to ODL, but merely a summary of the experiences obtained by the partners during some years of work in the field. After a short introduction to the vocabulary and terms applied in the course in lesson 1, three lessons will spell out some practical, organisational and technical findings, the following four lessons will handle the topics of hyper structures, while the remaining part of the course will take up central, pedagogical issues like learning styles, course structures, cooperative learning etc. Finally, the students will be allowed to present 'collaborative lessons' on topics of their own choice.
From the student side of the learning process we expect that you all are active throughout the course. An electronic learning environment is one of the major goals within the ICT based ODL system. You are urged to start with a brief presentation of yourself in the class list In the first lesson you will have exercises for activating your own thoughts and experiences in the field. Although these are not compulsory or due for 'acceptance' by the teacher, they may well be presented on the conference forum for discussion and sharing of experiences. Don't forget to comment on your co-students' inputs! In other lessons you will be presented with different kinds of exercises that are more or less suited for activities on the web based discussion forum General discussions about ODL
This term the PiODL forum for discussion and distribution will be open to the international groups of MECPOL and Do ODL students as well as to Norwegian NITOL students. Our intention is that this will create an even more interesting and diverse discussion arena. English will be the common language. If you prefer to stick to a different national tongue, please try to give a few key words in English. Remember: we are not judging your proficiency in English, but rather your activity in the electronic learning environment as part of the PiODL course.
(For more info about MECPOL, partners involved, the user trials and other courses offered, have a look at http:/www.idb.hist.no/mecpol/)
Welcome to the course and to the activities related to it!
Harald Haugen
project leader MECPOL & NITOL