Needs analysis of the Estonian E-University

Done in Estonian by: Mart Laanpere, Reelyka Läheb , Mari Plakk
Done in English by: Reelyka Läheb

Introduction

During the latest years, there have been many discussions about a need to have more cooperation and collaboration in the society. These are keywords for success in different settings. Yet there is a gap between ideal and reality. We can follow this gap in education as well. There have been long discussions about a need for collaboration, but status quo has remained.

The period of more serious collaboration between Estonian universities started with ideas concerning more distance education. In 1993 a first collaborative distance education project FEUCODE started. Yearly arranged distance education expert seminars, PHARE Multi-Country Project for Distance Education “Developing regional distance education centres”, creation of the Estonian Distance Education Union are some of the main road signs in development of distance education and e-learning.

With the establishment of Estonian e-University in 2003, new phase in collaboration between Estonian universities began. But instead of distance education, e-learning became a keyword. Due to rapid developments of ICT in recent years, computers and internet became part of not only distance education, but as well a part of ordinary, face-to-face education. Slowly the boundaries between stationary and distance education started to disappear. To step to the next stage of quality in e-learning, more finances and investments were needed. There has been a big favour in establishing the Estonian e-University consortium. To set priorities and develop plans for further investments, deeper research and analysis in following areas of e-learning are needed:

• Accessibility of e-learning; exchange of study materials and courses between universities,

• Staff training,

• Reaching different target groups,

• Quality assurance and accreditation,

• Establishment of thematic networks.

On each area, the following questions should be analysed:

• Support, training and infrastructure needed by university staff,

• Strategic priorities by partner universities connected with e-learning.

• Required supplementary agreements and regulations.

• Situation of e-learning infrastructure and plans/needs for development (incl. database, standards, software etc.)

• Financial questions.

Present research is concentrating on descriptive needs analysis solely in first three areas. All respondents belong to Estonian e-University partner institutions' staff. At the same time, e-University is conducting a comparative analysis of learning management systems; preparations have begun to conduct an analysis of database design. As a result, this should give answers for required software and infrastructure. On a daily basis, a special working group at the Consortium is dealing with juridical questions. Several working groups within the UNIVe project are dealing with the analysis of needs and experiences in different areas of e-learning around the world (and especially in Europe ).

Results of the research would be very valuable to the Estonian e-University, to set priorities and plans for further investments and to give feedback on developments in e-learning.