UNIVe: Consortium-based e-university
Executive Summary and Conclusions
Aune Valk, with contributions from George Ubach, Piet Henderikx, Karin Ruul, Duncan Timms, Anne Villems, Lehti Pilt, Reelyka Läheb, Cathrine Gladh, Maiki Udam, Mart Laanpere and Rolf Dalin

When planning the UNIVe project in the autumn of 2002, Estonian e-University was making its very first steps. It was officially launched only in February next year. Estonian universities decided to cooperate in order to achieve critical mass for several initiatives needed for development of e-learning.

Six key issues

Besides the questions, what kind of consortium to build, what its legal status should be etc, we also tried to find good solutions for several joint activities. The areas that were very important for us and seemed to have also wider relevance were finally selected as workpackages of this project.

These were:

•  Accessibility of information and exchange of study materials (learning objects)

•  Reaching different target groups

•  Staff Training

•  Quality Assurance

•  Virtual mobility and problems related to it: recognition and accreditation of the studies

•  Thematic networks

All these topics have their own relationship to e-learning.

•  Accessibility of study related information (course data, learning materials) across institutions within one country but also internationally became possible in the Internet-era. Joint database of courses is the centre of Finnish Virtual University and NetUniversity in Sweden . Shall we create a new database or rather use existing solutions? How to make it interact with existing databases at universities, e-learning environments and other databases in the world?

•  E-universities have different aims but most of them use e-tools to get closer to new target groups, be it the students abroad, people in remote areas, adult learners or people with disabilities. E-learning makes it possible but how to use the opportunities and which solutions are good for the target groups, were the questions for us.

•  Staff training is an issue for all institutions but mainly for the smaller ones with no department/faculty of education. In a consortium, staff training can be planned and done together.

•  Evaluating and supporting the quality of the method: using e-tools in technologically and pedagogically sound ways. Who can do that if most teachers are beginners and are learning the best ways themselves. People who are experts in their subject are often not experts in e-learning pedagogy. Can method and technical opportunities be separated from the content? How to share quality assurance between the institution and the consortium?

•  When creating a consortium, more virtual mobility is often expected between its members. It could be even the main aim of creating a consortium. But there are financial, technical and content-related problems that one needs to overcome. The solutions differ across countries as the financial systems do as well.

•  Enhancing quality via synergy that should arise from the cooperation between different institutions is the main idea of a consortium. How to create permanent links between institutions and people was the question for thematic networks workpackage.