proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING

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Figure 1: Performance Indicators for Phase 1 in 2006 & 2007 (Averages: 1 – 10)
Discussion & Conclusion
The focus of this article was to provide an overview of an e-learning phase, which was provided
for adult learners of an international IO. In terms of a methodological framework it has been argued that the
most promising setup should be based on the notion of Communities of Learning (CoL) that build up on
possibly already existing Communities of Practice (CoP). Departing from this finding, and building up on
an ‘Online Remedial Teaching Model’, six aspects have been promoted that have a high potential of
stimulating an effective and successful implementation of a CoP. First, they should stimulate an open
dialogue between all participating parties. Second, adult learners are likely to exhibit fluctuating levels of
participation, due to their busy work schedules. An effective CoP should cater for this. Third, participants
should be subject to both, public and private spaces, as this will foster fruitful communication flows.
Fourth, participants require spaces for informal discussions, in order to create a sense of belonging and
trust, necessary to actively share information and contribute to the CoP. Fifth, based on the notion of
‘situated learning’, adult learners will highly benefit from real-life and current problems to which they can
relate to. Finally, so as to assist participants in fitting the activities of the CoP into their regular working
schedules, clear and pre-defined timeline should be provided before the actual start of the activities.
The participants end evaluations of the e-learning phase, indicate that the implementation of this
framework has been successfully accomplished. Especially the predominant role of asynchronous online
discussions and the collaborative work on real-life tasks received considerable appreciation. In contrast,
two broad topics have been identified to necessitate some critical adjustments. Firstly, the factual workload
and the estimated time to complete all required activities have, according to the participants, been
underestimated, which created difficulties in preparing the activities and always finding the time to actively
contribute to the discussions. One possible solution to this problem can be to better inform the employer
about the dimension of the program, possibly allowing for a more flexible time planning. The other broad
topic is related to the facilitation of the discussion forums. Although online facilitators are awarded
acceptable scores, they are criticized for being too passive to effectively stimulate the discussions and
assisting the participants. One possible solution to counteract this perception is to better prepare facilitators
via additional preparatory trainings, introducing didactical tools and mechanisms that have proven to be
effective in fostering online discussions.
In terms of the cognitive outcomes and factual learning effects of the program, the results remain
mixed at best. For 2006, the preliminary results only suggest an insignificant effect on the learning
outcomes, whereas in 2007, the results are more supportive. However, in order to better estimate the actual
effects, more research is required on a number of activities and variables. More specifically, this article
suggests to investigate the extent with which the different component parts of the e-learning phase have
contributed to the final result. Additionally, given its central role in the CoP, a thorough analysis of the
Conference proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING overcome barriers of Life-Long learning?” 32
2006
2007