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Andrea Kelz
system. Most other universities taking part in the survey also use open source solutions such as ILIAS
or some kind of combination of in-house and open source learning management systems.
While competence building in e-learning and blended learning at universities still mostly takes place
autonomously, the following universities are jointly offering a nationwide “E-Learning Certificate”: the
Universities of Innsbruck, Salzburg, Linz, Graz and Klagenfurt; the University of Business
Administration Vienna, the Medical University Graz, the University of Arts in Linz, the Universities of
Applied Sciences of Upper Austria, Salzburg, Vorarlberg and Kufstein, the University College Tyrol,
the Education Service Tyrol and the Management Centre Innsbruck. The course programme consists
of three modules which are offered at beginners’ and advanced levels. Module 1 comprises media
didactics in teaching at universities (use of media in teaching, installation and use of e-learning
courses in LMS systems and collaborative e-learning), module 2 focuses on media production (digital
photography, e-learning and law, e-learning and web 2.0) and module 3 covers questions such as
media organisation and e-moderation. If participants have completed all three modules at a minimum
of two course providers within 18 months they can apply for an e-learning certificate. The certificate
course is understood as a professional development instrument and is offered free of charge. For
further information please go to http://www.zertifikat-elearning.at/?home=1.
Finally, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture defined the pedagogical and
didactical use of IT (especially EPICT) as one of several innovative and integrative principles. Taking
account of the principle is demanded in all areas of further education and training and supported by
specific initiatives. EPICT – the European Pedagogical ICT Licence – is a comprehensive, flexible and
efficient in-service training course introducing a European quality standard for the continued
professional development of teachers in the pedagogical integration of information, media and
communication technologies (ICT) in education. The European Pedagogical ICT Licence can be
acquired after successful completion of a minimum of eight modules of which four are compulsory and
four can be chosen out of ten optional modules. The obligatory modules focus on understanding the
pedagogical role of ICT in teaching, acquiring basic ICT skills, searching and communicating with
internet tools, creating and sharing content, and understanding the requirements of bringing
innovation to schools and universities. For further information please go to http://www.epict.org/.
7. Conclusion
We have been witnessing a paradigm change in higher education for quite some time now and like in
most other universities ICT has become integrated into all courses of our degree programmes.
However, as ICT needs to be more than the technology itself and the content it carries, it is not
sufficient to provide technical support and technical training to both students and teachers. As
students and teachers act in both face-to-face and virtual classroom situations they have to build new
learning and teaching concepts. Students need to become more autonomous learners and teachers
need to develop the skills to teach blended learning courses effectively.
In view of the importance of a successful long-term, campus-wide, blended learning strategy we
constantly have to review and analyse the development of our own blended learning practices. The
factors critical to the success of blended learning approaches are definitely sufficient training and
continual support of the concerned students, teachers and administrators at all levels. Students and
teachers do not necessarily mind change but being made to change and become blended learning
students and teachers in a new learning and teaching environment turned out to be quite a challenge.
So far there has been no direct reward or motivation for members of the teaching staff to make the
effort to incorporate ICT and blended learning activities into their courses. The primary incentives
have been intrinsic rewards such as personal professional development in terms of teaching
techniques, positive student feedback and peer recognition. The main problems which still need to be
solved don’t concern the implementation of a blended learning approach in terms of ICT, changing
learning environments and roles of the students and teachers, but the impact of blended learning on
teacher workload. Compared to traditional teaching blended learning designs involve more time to
develop activities and proper course materials. So the next question to be tackled is how the teachers’
workload can be measured effectively when it comes to the preparation of online materials and
blended learning activities. With many teachers there’s still a sort of unwillingness to experiment with
innovation and the possibilities the use of ICT offers as they do not only lack time but also some sort
of extrinsic motivation. We have to find a way to encourage more faculty members and freelancers to
develop web-based activities. Financial incentives are being discussed at the moment, but so far we
haven’t found any real solution to the problem.
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