learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Andrea Kelz
skills and competences for their future field of work. As most of the learning and teaching at Campus
Pinkafeld was based on behaviourist and cognitive assumptions when the first degree programme in
building engineering started in 1994, the pedagogy and curriculum of technical education in part-time
degree programmes implied a rethinking of how we determine, structure and deliver the content of
technical education and try to find ways to restructure the overall learning environment in which the
learning process itself has gained in importance. As far as curriculum design is concerned, each
programme is comprised of individual study modules, each consisting of a number of courses which
are split into face-to-face and blended learning modules. The modules and courses are defined in
terms of learning outcomes, i. e. what a student is expected to achieve in terms of knowledge,
understanding, skills and competencies. The (virtual) classroom should be a place for knowledge
construction and exchange of knowledge between members of the group, the teacher should be a
motivator, facilitator and guider of the individual learner progress rather than a transmitter of
knowledge and the student should interact with his group and learn in an autonomous way rather than
perceive contents passively (Kelz 2008). A lot of tantalising challenges which needed and partly still
need to be overcome.
From the very beginning of the implementation of a blended learning approach at Campus Pinkafeld a
strategic paper was written by an appointed blended learning coordinator and made available to all
part-time teachers. The paper is divided into two main sections, a theoretical part on the overall
organisational and pedagogic design of the new part-time programmes and a practical part which
outlines how to actually design and implement blended learning activities. The latter focuses on
student requirements, modularisation, learning and teaching strategies, practical approaches to
learning and teaching, ICT and learning management systems, student assessment, course
evaluation and teacher development. As we didn’t expect teachers to read the full 47-page strategic
paper a much shorter teacher manual was created and provided for download. The main contents
were also published as a learning module on our LMS, providing further information and links to
relevant pages. The strategic paper and teacher manual were presented and discussed in teacher
workshops alongside practical activities to plan and implement blended learning activities.
Furthermore, teacher workshops on pedagogic and didactic issues in general and blended learning
scenarios in particular have been offered on a regular basis for the last seven years. These
workshops are held by experienced blended learning trainers and are freely accessible to all
members of the teaching staff (full-time teachers, private tutors, freelancers etc.).
3. Learning management system
Currently there are two teachers responsible for the implementation of the blended learning strategy
pursued at Campus Pinkafeld. They spend up to half of their working hours to help teachers design
and implement blended learning activities, train students and teachers on how to use the information,
communication, and collaboration tools of the platform provided and give teacher workshops on how
to use its authoring tools to design online learning materials and activities.
The primary vehicle for the delivery of our blended learning activities is the open-source platform
ILIAS which has been in use at Campus Pinkafeld since 2005. It is an open learning management
system which serves as a knowledge and collaboration platform and supports a variety of uses and
methods and allows to efficiently create learning and teaching materials by both teachers and
students. As ILIAS is versatile, some more Austrian universities deploy it as a campus-wide blended
learning system in which online modules and courses complement classes (e. g. Pedagogical
University Vorarlberg and University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria). For further information
please got to http://www.ilias.de.
In order to fully utilize the advantages of ILIAS workshops to help lecturers use the online platform in
a meaningful and efficient way are offered at the beginning of each term. Besides, all lecturers of the
technical part-time degree programmes are encouraged to share resources and materials in an open
manner. For this purpose online workspaces particularly designed for the lecturers of technical parttime
programmes were designed which allow communication, exchange of information, and
collaboration between all members of the teaching staff.
4. Teacher and student training
Technology itself, however, doesn’t mean more efficient teaching and improved learning. Effective
blended learning settings proved to require a lot of commitment of the teaching staff and a lot more
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