short history from the FU.NT report
	to the message  of the Federal Council
	the SVC and the future of higher education
	participation criteria and conditions for success
	necessary involvment of several institutions
	evaluation pedagogical design leadership
	common software tools
	support from home institutions
	important date
	conclusion

141.23 Encouragement des nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication en vue de créer un Campus virtuel suisse
...
"propose un programme de développement des NTIC, permettant à la Suisse grâce à un effort conjoint de la Confédération et des hautes écoles de se placer au niveau des pays ayant déjà effectué cette conversion pédagogique.

Ce programme prône à la fois la compétition et la collaboration, les projets retenus étant présentés par un consortium de plusieurs hautes écoles.

"Les projets, dont le but est de fournir des modules d'enseignement à distance s'appuyant sur les NTIC, devront adhérer aux principes du "campus virtuel suisse" et répondre aux cinq critères suivants:

 

favoriser la coopération entre les hautes écoles (Universités, EPF, HES);

 

mettre en valeur un objectif pédagogique clair;

 

viser au développement d'outils communs sur des plates-formes stables;

 

présenter un plan de réalisation avec des critères d'évaluation;

participer dès le début par une contribution indirecte de l'institution et prévoir l'intégration dans la planification courante au terme du projet.

• Hopefully, SVC will not be the only place where the NTIC will be used to help improve educational programs
• e-mail, forums, free software, Web resources
• more ambitious, technology based new projects
• see for example the International Working Conferences:

Building University Electronic Educational Environments
3-6 August 99, Irvine, California
2nd International Conference on New Learning Technologies
30.-31. August 1999, Berne, Switzerland
• SVC uses these new technologies to offer virtual mobility to students, hoping to enrich their learning experience.

 
• Material offered through SVC will have a quality label coming from a unique accreditation process

 
• This is what the course offering of my department could look like in 2003.

• for individual projects, the participation criteria will be based on the "Message", the amount of support depending on the workplan.
• the selection criteria are necessary for achieving the SVC label of quality;
• the projects will be part of  a coordinated effort to produce a significant amount of materials in different disciplines with reasonably uniform interfaces (basic tools).
• the success of the program will come from
• the number and quality of the projects
• the sustainability of the activity (beyond 2003)
• the future participation in a worldwide "market"

necessary involvment of several institutions

most projects of the past have never gone beyond the prototype stage because

funding stopped

nobody else wanted to use them

they did not correspond exactly to what potential partners were looking for

the SVC wants to avoid such pitfalls by associating future users from the design stage to the final evaluation.

evaluation (and accreditation)

learning modules produced by the virtual campus will be evaluated

by the original designers with the help of the students "debugging" the course

by the distance institutions who signed the project from the beginning. They will also evaluate the amount of presential tutoring and of remote help they deem necessary.

by the first institutions intending to let their students take the course for credit.

once a remote institution accepts that its students take a SVC course for credit, the course will receive its SVC accreditation

pedagogical design

in order to evaluate properly if a learning module fulfill its goals, it's important to know what was in the design;

 

hopefully, the interdisciplinary team that will work on the design will have a somewhat new approach to the discipline, in particular with regards to interactivity

 

a module is interactive if it involves some problem solving skills from the user - more than clicking to see the next page.

leadership

• the teams will be interdisciplinary and they will require 2 types of leaders

 
• an authority of the domain being taught to vouch for the quality of the pedagogical design (project leader)

 
• a slave driver (coordinator) who makes sure things are done according to the workplan, that coders produce their programs on time, that modules are ready for testing, etc. (S)he will also be responsible for the necessary accounting.

 
• a single person can do both, but the second role requires to be almost full-time to the project.

common software tools

Some functions will be common to all projects. The SVC wants them fulfilled  in a limited number of environments to ensure their long term adaptation to a changing technology.

Basic requirements are described in another document.

They have to cover:

• student management
• course management
• support of evaluation

they may also offer help in

• the development of pedagogical material
• support of learners' activities

the "best" environments can be chosen only by consensus; a small working group will start gathering information and do some testing after July 1st

support from home institution

• To lead the effort to produce a complete course needs an existing infrastructure and a willingness of one's own institution to help with the problems of project management. Every contribution of the home institution can be counted for matching funds to reach the 30% required for universities (the rules for FIT and FHS could be different).

 
• In addition, the teams should have readily access to specialists of the pedagogy of using the NTIC, to specialists of screen design, of software development (they can be students) and some experience in testing their material.

 
• Partners will offer their time which will be counted and compensated for according to the same rules and their unvaluable expertise. Testing time and evaluation should be properly accounted for and budgeted accordingly.

• Thanks to our authorities, the "Swiss Virtual Campus" is almost certain to get financial support.

 
• It will be successful if and only if it can mobilise the pioneering spirit and enthousiasm of some of the best teachers in the country.

 
• Choices will have to be made, some valuable projects may not get support but, no matter what happens, considering a participation in the CVS has positive effects in rethinking teaching goals and the role of technology.

 
• Let's hope we can go further than that!

 
• come to Bern if you are considering to be a project leader, we will try to help with the
• preparation of your local support (your rector or your president is a member of SHK)
• setting up of the necessary national collaborations
• meet interested colleagues (also from FIT and HES(?))
• see how the proposed course would fit in curricula with the credit system
• study of how your existing international collaborations could be handled to fit in the SVC concept

 
• come also to Bern if you wish to be associated to a project without leading it.
• you can consult www.edutech.ch which is trying to keep track of what is going on
• we will do our best to have you meet people in your discipline with the same goals, awaiting perhaps for someone to volunteer to lead a project.