E-Learning at it@ab – a Shortcut to Success

Individual Web and Computer Based Training Provides a Sound Basis for Current it@ab Programme

2004-04-27. Design large scale capacity building and qualification programmes less time consuming, less expensive, and tailor made for participants who have very different professional backgrounds – that was the objective for 21 LearnLine AG when planning the it@ab programme for InWEnt, the German Capacity Building International agency. A three months e-Learning phase up front classes and hands-on training proved an excellent means of knowledge transfer which eliminates shortcomings of traditional methods considerably. And, above all, the participants of the current course in the German city of Freiburg appreciate it.

Learners Become Multipliers:
Blended Learning Modules as a Ready Made and Customizable Product

E-Learning can, amongst other characteristics, properly be described as distance learning, which might stress the benefits it could offer in regions where learners are unable to attend formal educational institutions. Consequently, the “Blended Learning Programme Business Related IT-Training and Consulting” was designed as a ready made product that the participants of the it@ab programme can use, customize and make available online in their home countries after finishing the course. The licence policy of InWEnt to the best advantage of the participants makes it quite easy to adopt the Blended Learning product.

Thus, in the very tradition of capacity building in and not only for developing countries, advanced knowledge concerning information and communication technologies (ICT) can be made available in line with the findings and papers of the UNCTAD Commission on Science and Technology for Development. The expanded potentials of distance learning in terms of access, quality and support can, to a certain and growing degree, build a platform for a self-energizing process of the developing countries’ “catching up” in the ICT area.

The it@ab programme especially trains and encourages the participants to use and offer the e-Learning product in their respective countries to meet the challenges of building a reliable ICT infrastructure that is looked upon as a basis for general economic growth. Under this aspect, the investment for the development of the e-Learning product is believed to offer a good return in the South African developing countries.

A systematic approach to IT-consulting qualification programmes requires a high quality content and both sophisticated and efficient framework of media, methods and didactical settings to impart knowledge effectively and with a minimum of loss. In this context, computer and web based trainings have been widely accepted as a cost effective training method in the last years.

“However, the shortcomings of an unattended individual learning can rend the obvious advantages of a computer based learning environment pretty much useless”, reports Rainer K. Kasemir, responsible project manager of 21 LearnLine AG. “We learned that CBTs and web based learning can only reach their full potential when they are carefully embedded in a framework that both gives room for autonomous individual learning and at the same time offers incentives and the back up of an experienced coach and other participants”, Kasemir resumes.

Blended Learning – the Potentials of a Mix of Methods

The it@ab programme therefore adopted one of the latest and most promising trends in the training and education industry, the Blended Learning environment that combines traditional classroom face-to-face situations and internships with electronic media tele learning settings.

A kick-off meeting considerably facilitate the phase of familiarizing with the e-Learning modules for the participants, so that the initial difficulties are reduced to a good content. “The online-Modules were very good and interesting. But it took a little bit of time to get into the mode of online-Learning”, reports one of the participants, thus summing up what he and his programme colleagues found out during the three months e-Learning phase of the current course.

The mere transfer of knowledge and “hard facts” is an area where e-Learning provides certain advantages over more time consuming and too less individually paced traditional education methods. The dropout rate, always a problem with unattended tele learning situations, was further reduced by interactive components, an active telecoach who individually monitored and assisted each student, and a transparent measurement and rating of the progress of all participants.

Establishing a Common Basis for Classes with E-Learning

The e-Learning modules focused on the major subjects ZOPE, a powerful open source content management system and IT- Consulting and Project management, including a simulation of a typical project management situation in which the participants had to take over a management position.

Independently of the individual learning habits of the participants, time and locations, the e-Learning modules managed to provide crucial knowledge and, with the help of the project management simulation, even experience to a certain extent in the named fields.

At the beginning of the second phase of the programme, which includes classes in Freiburg and internships with German companies, all students reached a sound and common basis for further progress – and did so, thanks to the e-Learning modules, in an unmatched shortness of time.

Contact:
InWEnt gGmbH / Cologne
Frau Renate Finke
renate.finke@inwent.org

Contact:
21 LearnLine AG / Freiburg
Herr Rainer K. Kasemir
rainer.kasemir@21LL.com