learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Gabriele Frankl and Sofie Bitter
As the results of study by Thompson and MacDonald (2005) suggest, structure and design are critical
quality features for eLearning courses. In transforming their courses, the eLearning service
department at the AAUK offers lecturers assistance for the conceptual design and the planning of
didactic blended learning courses, as well as support regarding the technical and organizational
implementation. Additionally, lecturers can apply at the eLearning service department for specially
trained e-tutors who accompany and support the lecturer for one or two terms.
Face-to-face teaching at the AAUK is still very important and should remain as significant as it is.
Results of recent brain research show that the strongest and the best ‘drug’ for people are other
people (Bauer 2008). Therefore, efforts target to optimally combine the benefits of face-to-face
teaching with the advantages of eLearning. Thus, a broad range of blended learning activities is
covered at the AAUK, starting from minor additions and extensions of face-to-face teaching to a few
teaching scenarios that are nearly completely based on eLearning. It has to be pinpointed that a vast
majority does use tailor-made concepts of blended learning with great contentedness.
1.1 The theoretical potential of eLearning and blended learning
One potential that we can derive from theory is that eLearning can bridge the technology gap in
education, but in the context of methodology (e.g. Luhmann and Schorr 1979). According to Luhmann
and Schorr (1979), education was based on the communication between teachers and students.
Traditionally, the lecture hall - under the control of the chair holding professor - is the only relevant
organizational unit for the production in higher education. This focus on the traditional classroom
setting is frequently reproduced in the eLearning literature while it might be helpful to consider other
educational contexts and settings as well (Frankl, Pfeffer, Zederbauer, Steinberger 2008). Learning
can only happen actively. However, in a traditional classroom setting, the active part was/is mainly the
lecturer. The learners play/ed the passive part. Due to costs, written homework was exclusively
addressed to the teacher and was not available to students for feedback. In the digital environment
these obstacles can easily be overcome through means of online peer-reviews. Additionally, it is also
possible to jointly work on wikis, ePortfolios or tools like Etherpad. The teacher was not only active
and autonomous, but also a lonesome fighter. The predominant oral culture of the traditional course
resulted in the interaction of the people present. Additionally, technology transfer (the transfer of the
‘how to’ of teaching) and hence the improvement of teaching was very difficult. Teachers normally did
not learn their profession from their peers or from formal training, but rather from past experiences as
students. (Frankl, Pfeffer, Zederbauer, Steinberger 2008)
The situation changed with the evolvement of new digital media in education. These new technologies
allow new forms of communication and cooperation fostering knowledge generation, exchange and
usage. In a blended learning environment, it is now possible that teachers share experience and invite
each other for a skype-conference to participate as co-lecturers or guest-lecturers. Further, it
becomes feasible to visit colleagues’ online learning courses and give feedback or to share literature,
methods or discuss ideas.
Web 2.0 does indeed show great potential also for higher education (Grosseck 2009). Furthermore,
as highlighted in a study by Lee and Tsai (2011), technology supported learning shows better
outcomes than traditional face-to-face learning. This holds true for the fields of collaboration, selfregulated
learning and information seeking. A detailed picture is provided by Dabbagh (2011),
focusing on the influences of online media tools and on self-regulated learning in higher education.
Another study by Cabero et al. (2010) also pinpoints the positive influence of blended learning on
students’ learning and lecturers’ teachings. Empirical results also reveal that more experienced
students (with online tools) were much more positive towards eLearning. However, the study also
reports that the overall trend was openness towards new tools and/or applications (Lam et al. 2011).
The aim at the AAUK is to establish “learning without walls”. To evaluate the status quo, to initiate
future developments and to design the future, we started a survey about eLearning and blended
learning at our university.
2. Survey methodology
In the summer term 2009, winter term 2009/10 and summer term 2010, we conducted online surveys
on eLearning and blended learning at the AAUK. The aim was to identify the status quo and recent
developments in the eLearning and blended learning sector at the university as well as potentials for
improvement. With the data gained through these surveys the eLearning department is in the position
275