FVU Newsletter May - June 2009
- University networks adopt the Joopas system in management of mobility
- The Joopas System is well suited to various mobility processes
- The FVU Consortium to be dissolved at the end of 2010 – new solutions explored for maintaining the services
- The Executive Board wants to maintain the services produced within the consortium and retain its know-how
- Online working more efficient and meaningful thanks to the virtual campus
- Worldwide inventory on Virtual Campus initiatives – Finnish case included
- The Annual Virtual University Event in November
- EFQUEL Innovation Forum 2009
- Publications
Forthcoming international conferences in the Nordic countries
8-10 June, 10-14 August ECSE 16th International Summer School in Novel Computing Joensuu, Finland | Consisting of three courses: Scientific writing (in June), Speaker and Language Recognition (in August), Platforms for Stories-based Learning in Future Schools (in August). Early registration deadline for the courses in August is June 15, 2009.
01-04 July ISATT 2009 Conference - Navigating in Educational Contexts: Identities and Cultures in Dialogue Rovaniemi, Finland | The 14th Biennial ISATT conference is focusing on vital present and future issues and challenges of education. The scope of topics is even wider this year as the meeting of Network-Based Education is integrated with the ISATT conference.
24-25 September The EFQUEL Innovation Forum 2009: Fostering Quality through Creative Learnscapes Espoo, Finland | Lifelong Learning Institute Dipoli (TKK Dipoli) are co-organizing a seminar on quality and international e-learning. More information below.
University networks adopt the Joopas system in management of mobility
Originally designed for the management of flexible study right applications across university boundaries, the FVU’s Joopas system has been further developed to respond to the needs of university networks and to make it easier for students to enter various types of flexible studies. The TerveysNet and Co-op Network Studies networks are set to use the system for course enrolment and as a marketing channel for their study provision from June onwards.
Elina Häkkinen from the Co-op Network Studies is satisfied with the Joopas enrollment system and believes the system will make it easier for students to find different courses.
“We substituted paper-based administration with the Joopas system because we felt that it would make our work easier both when receiving applications and when it’s necessary to limit the number of students admitted. We felt that online enrolment reflects today’s world and makes it easier for students to take part in our study modules,” explains Project Secretary Elina Häkkinen of the Ruralia Institute at the University of Helsinki. The Institute coordinates the Co-op Network Studies network of nine universities, which offers multidisciplinary studies in rural expertise, organic food chains and co-operative entrepreneurship for the students of the member universities.
“We believe that Joopas will make it easier to market study modules: when students enrol for one study module, they can use the study database integrated in the system to view information in other study modules, which may inspire them to enrol for them also,” Häkkinen concludes. Students can already use the Joopas system when enrolling for next autumn’s study modules.
The course database integrated in the application system shows students a view of those study modules offered by the network for which applications are currently invited. Students can pick up courses and add them in the ‘My courses’ shopping basket. They can then transfer courses for which they want to enrol directly to the application system. Teaching providers can enter study modules in the database, for which students of other universities can also apply. In the future, the study database will be updated automatically using the universities’ data systems.
Ari Haaranen, the coordinator of the TerveysNet, believes that the Joopas system will improve transparency and quality of the enrolling process.
“We decided to adopt the Joopas system because our administration and enrolment for courses needed standardisation,” explains Ari Haaranen, coordinator of TerveysNet at the Department of Nursing Science of the University of Kuopio. The TerveysNet network covers ten departments in six universities offering studies in nursing science at undergraduate, post-graduate and doctorate levels. The number of students has grown year by year. “In the next academic year, the number of users is estimated at 800 students and 25 staff members. In three years the situation may be very different, depending on many factors, but a conservative estimate would be up to one thousand users,” Haaranen adds.
“The system seemed easy to use. Initially it will standardise the enrolment practices of the TerveysNet member departments, and later on it will facilitate reporting and the compilation of statistics, among other things,” Haaranen describes the benefits of the system. “The system will also make the enrolment process transparent to students, coordinating teachers and lecturers in charge of study modules. The number of human errors will probably decrease, which will improve the quality of the enrolment process.”
The network offers mainly online teaching and Haaranen considers online enrolment to be a natural continuum in the development of the network.
The Joopas System is well suited to various mobility processes
“The Joopas system was originally designed to be used when applying for flexible study rights. Its functionalities have been developed in such a way that the system can now handle various processes involving applications, granting of study rights, and enrolments,” explains Development Manager Julian Lindberg of the system administrators, FVU Service Unit.
“A traditional flexible study right process includes a recommendation process at the home university and a study right process at the target university, and the online application system was developed to cater for this process. The revamped Joopas system also serves other mobility processes, for example ones where no recommendation from the home university is needed and the applicant can enrol for studies directly. This kind of enrolment process may apply for instance to studies offered by networks, master’s degree studies and minor subject studies.”
“The electronic services standardise the management of study rights and the entire mobility process in universities. Study rights are recorded in the universities’ study administration data systems, which also supports monitoring of mobility. The universities know who their students are and where the university’s teaching takes place,” Lindberg describes the benefits of the system.
The Studying in Tampere Region network (SITR), which consists of the four universities in the Tampere region, adopted the Joopas application system as early as at the beginning of last year to cater the needs of their international exchange students. A course database integrated in the application system contains the English-language teaching that is available for international exchange students at the universities of the region. The cooperation between the SITR project and the FVU Service Unit also functioned as the first pilot case of an extended use of the Joopas services as an information service of flexible studies and a service related to study applications.
The Joopas system has been further developed to respond to the needs of university networks and to make it easier for students to enter flexible studies. “The TerveysNet and Co-op Network Studies networks will be adopting the system in June, and we are currently making preparations for three other networks to join as users of the system next autumn. In addition, there are plans to adopt the Joopas system in the management of internal mobility of new emerging university consortiums and in the granting processes of minor subject study rights within these consortiums,” Lindberg says.
The FVU Consortium to be dissolved at the end of 2010 – new solutions explored for maintaining the services
The activities of the Finnish Virtual University (FVU) consortium are to be discontinued at the end of 2010, if the Advisory Board in their meeting on 17 September approves the proposal of the Executive Board to dissolve the consortium. Next year, new solutions will be explored for maintaining the universities’ joint services that have been developed during the consortium’s active existence. The FVU’s Executive Board discussed the proposal to dissolve the consortium in their 9 June meeting.
The contents and services of the FVU’s virtualuniversity.fi portal (virtuaaliyliopisto.fi in Finnish) and the Joopas.fi flexible study service portal will be available for the use of the universities until the end of 2010 in the scope that they will be at the end of 2009.
According to the proposal, the FVU’s Service Unit, established by a mutual agreement between the universities, will continue as a separate unit of the Helsinki University of Technology at least until the end of 2010. The original agreement was to continue the arrangement until the end of 2012. Different alternatives will be explored, and the aim is to find a solution during 2010 for the maintenance of the FVU’s services from 2011 onwards.
The proposal sets the duties of the FVU’s Service Unit next year as follows:
- Maintenance of flexible mobility services
- Duties related to the activities and future planning of the consortium
- Coordination, planning and organisation of expert services in the use of ICT in teaching
According to the proposal, the activities will be funded by a consortium fee that remains unchanged (165,000 euros a year) and by service fees that will be collected for forms entered in the Joopas application system (20 euros/form). These collecting methods have been estimated to generate around 237,000 euros. The budget should cover maintenance, and thus ensure the usability of the services, and provide for minor repair tasks, but it will not cover any kind of development work.
The joint funding of the consortium is not sufficient for year-round employment of the FVU’s Service Unit staff, and therefore extra funding is being sourced. Possible sources of funding include project funding, income from contract services and service fees collected from outside the universities. If the employer obligations of the universities employing the FVU’s Service Unit staff, the Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Turku, end up being unreasonably taxing, this must be separately discussed between all the universities within the consortium at the time of making the decision to dissolve the consortium.
The Executive Board wants to maintain the services produced within the consortium and retain its know-how
The FVU’s Executive Board considers that universities continue to have the need for cooperation where it is necessary to utilise the know-how and expertise gained in the virtual university activities.
The Executive Board even went on to discuss whether it is necessary to start a plan of action concerning flexible studies that would make it easier for students to obtain minor subject study rights at universities other than their own. This would make it easier for new students to enter universities: As it is currently difficult to obtain minor subject study rights at universities other than your own, students apply for degree courses at the second university in order to be able to study the subjects they are interested in. In this way, student places end up unnecessarily occupied by students taking secondary subjects, while new students are often left without a study place.
The Executive Board also considers that discipline specific or multidiscipline networks cooperating over teaching arrangements between universities should adopt the Joopas system in the management of mobility within their networks. The Joopas system can be integrated in study administration data systems of the universities, which makes it possible to eliminate overlapping in study administration.
Online working more efficient and meaningful thanks to the virtual campus
Nina Venhe, Katja Koppinen, Sari Tervonen and Timo Hartikainen brainstorming for the Virtukampus environment. Photo: Pekka Ranta.
How and for what purpose do we use computer networks? Who do we meet in these networks? Why do we need to network, and is it even possible? Administered by the Learning Centre of the University of Kuopio, the Virtukampus project looks for best practices and solutions when using networks and social media.
“We work with people who use computer networks, such as adult students, line managers, researchers, enterprise representatives, coordinators and students studying for a higher degree in polytechnics,” explains Project Manager Sari Tervonen of the Virtukampus project.
The project offers comprehensive education for a large target group in cooperation with the University of Joensuu and the Savonia Polytechnics. In addition to the University of Joensuu, the University of Kuopio and the Savonia Polytechnics, Virtukampus courses are arranged for teachers of the City of Kuopio secondary schools. Teachers and staff are trained to use social media tools and other network resources. The project also includes designing an electronic operational environment where it is easy for teachers and students to work.
Teachers who have taken part in the courses have considered the two-hour workshops efficient information packages on social media tools, such as blogs, wikis and online communities. The workshops have given the teachers an extensive overview of the various alternatives. After the workshops, teachers can deepen their know-how by taking expanded study modules.
In order to map the know-how of teachers and other participants and to take their wishes and needs into consideration, the Virtukampus project contains five pilot cases. “The pilot cases approach network and social media solutions from very different angles. This will provide us with a wide spectrum of information on how network resources are currently utilised and what needs different actors have. We can utilise this information when designing an operational environment that will serve all user groups,” explains Development Manager Ilkka Kukkonen, who is in charge of developing the operational environment.
Coordinators Tiina Pyrstöjärvi and Ensio Lappalainen from the University of Kuopio Open University are extremely interested in the possible uses of social media tools and environments in adult education. As the person in charge of the pilot case ‘Virtual information, counselling and guidance services supporting adult students’, Pyrstöjärvi has familiarised herself with the tools in social media workshops and in Second Life training, she will acquaint herself better with the possibilities of the virtual world. Ensio Lappalainen has, for example, attended seminars using remote access, and he assesses their possible uses in his pilot case ‘Working as a line manager in a virtual team’.
The Virtukampus project (2008–2010) is funded by the European Social Fund and the County Administrative Board of Eastern Finland.
Worldwide inventory on Virtual Campus initiatives – Finnish case included
EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme funded project Reviewing (Traces of) European Virtual Campuses (Re.ViCa) has set up a wiki-based inventory on higher education Virtual Campus initiatives in the past decade throughout the world. The aim is to identify measures of success, best practices and generic parameters that influence the outcome of a Virtual Campus initiative, which can be used as replicable solutions for the set-up of a cross-institutional Virtual Campus.
The Re.ViCa wiki provides a list of more than 300 Programmes, all of which have been categorised based on the interesting or innovative eLearning approach they have taken. The initiatives vary greatly in terms of size, type of student, country of origin etc. The wiki also provides Country reports including Finland, and describing the educational context and ways in which decision-makers in these countries have taken steps to address changes brought about due to the emergence of the Information Society.
In addition the wiki contains 9 in-depth Institutional reports one of which is the University of Eastern Finland and a large number of related Resources. Relevant research projects, outputs, and publications have also been collected and described, and a list of experts in the field of Virtual Campuses is provided. Some pages are protected, but most are open and awaiting visitors’ contributions.
The Annual Virtual University Event in November
The Annual Virtual University Event will be organized this year together with the Finnish Virtual University and the Finnish Online University of Applied Sciences. The VKK’09 seminar (Virtual University Days) will be held on 18–19 November 2009 in the Dipoli congress centre in Espoo, Finland.
The seminar theme is pressure for change in university teaching and new opportunities generated by change:
- How should the diversifying use of ICT and social media be taken into account in university teaching?
- Are open media and expanding teaching cooperation part of the future for university teaching?
- What requirements are set and what opportunities opened by regional, national and international student mobility to the system of higher education, which is undergoing a structural reform?
In parallel sessions, representatives of universities and universities of applied science will have an opportunity to present best practices for utilising ICT. The presentations will be selected through a Call for Papers which is open until 15 September.
The seminar programme will be published and the enrolment will start on 12 October 2009.
VKK'09 website (in Finnish).
EFQUEL Innovation Forum 2009
European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (EFQUEL) and Lifelong Learning Institute Dipoli (TKK Dipoli) are co-organizing a seminar on quality and international e-learning. The seminar takes place in September 24-25 in Espoo under the topic “Fostering Quality through Creative Learnscapes”.
Learnscapes are the ecosystems for informal learning. They are viewed as a major factor for releasing creativity, providing the space for learners to design their own “learning landscape”, and thus innovation educational practices and organisations. The EFQUEL Innovation Forum 2009 recognises the important role of informal learning for individual, organisational, and regional learning, and focuses on how creative learnscapes can foster quality and innovation.
More details and registration at the seminar website.
Publications
Strategy for the Internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions in Finland 2009-2015 (pdf, 122 kB) | The guidelines for the internationalisation of Finnish higher education institutions for 2009–2015 are laid down in a strategy for the internationalisation of Finnish higher education institutions. The aim is to create a strong and attractive higher education and research community which will enhance Finland's capacity for international action, support a balanced development of multicultural society and assume responsibility for resolving global problems.