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Evaluation of the Swiss Virtual Campus - Schweizerische ...

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SVC Final <strong>Evaluation</strong>. Background Report Lepori and Probst<br />

8.1.9 E-Learning Center der Universität Zürich (ELC)<br />

General description and organisation<br />

There are three e-learning contact points for teachers at UZH: ELC and MELS and e-learning coordinators. They are<br />

organised in a ‘e-learning competence network’. There is collaboration, but also rivalry. Clarification <strong>of</strong> mandates and<br />

core competencies is planned.<br />

Website http://www.elc.unizh.ch<br />

Mission and strategy<br />

Mission: ELC promotes and coordinates <strong>the</strong> development and implementation <strong>of</strong> elearning in higher education at UZH.<br />

The university strategy contains a commitment to Bologna and elearning. The elearning strategy mentions university<br />

goals (Bologna, quality <strong>of</strong> teaching, more interactivity for big classes, international reputation), <strong>the</strong> new IT-strategy aligns<br />

with <strong>the</strong> goals <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> elearning strategy (strategic platform policy, use <strong>of</strong> open source). Excellent quality in teaching is<br />

aspired and supported.<br />

Activities<br />

SVC projects: 23 projects as leading house: 4 first call (DOIT, eCorporate Finance, Mesosworld, Basic course in<br />

Medicine and Pharmacology), 4 second call (ALPECOLe, GITTA, Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, AD Learn), 8 third<br />

call (PRO, eFeed, GPS, Foundations <strong>of</strong> Information Systems, Press, DIGIREP, Core IT Ma<strong>the</strong>matics, E-GONE), 7<br />

fourth call (GLOPP, DEVIL, CasIS, SVAP, BIOSYM, Democratic Processes and Political Behaviour, ESO). The degree<br />

<strong>of</strong> involvement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> CCSP varies a lot.<br />

Mainly blended learning. Two projects finalists in Medidaprix 2006 contest, eCorporate Finance wins.<br />

Support and o<strong>the</strong>r activities besides SVC projects:<br />

o Support <strong>of</strong> creation and implementation <strong>of</strong> learning management system OLAT (implemented by IT services):<br />

18,000 registered students at UZH<br />

o E-learning projects financed by university: ELC controls alignment with strategy and quality <strong>of</strong> proposals and<br />

provides instruments for evaluation<br />

o Actually more than 80 e-learning projects are about to be developed at UZH (smaller scale projects than SVC)<br />

o ELC and MELS provide information, support, hands-on help, content production, faculty development programmes<br />

for teaching staff and project teams<br />

o MELS: periodical reviews with user groups, feedback <strong>of</strong> project coordinators<br />

o ELC: workshops, presentations and events on e-learning<br />

o Quality management<br />

o Consulting <strong>of</strong> chairs <strong>of</strong> SVC projects and projects in continuing education, <strong>of</strong> whole institutions (UZH-ETH<br />

Sprachenzentrum and Department for Continuing Education, Prorektorat Lehre), <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> university leaders by<br />

bringing in new concepts and proposals for development<br />

o Direct consulting with single chairs and institutes is done by <strong>the</strong> elearning coordinators <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> faculties and by<br />

MELS in matters <strong>of</strong> OLAT and multimedia production<br />

o MELS: podcasting and streaming <strong>of</strong> lectures (10 per week)<br />

o Production <strong>of</strong> multimedia products<br />

Competences: MELS: multimedia competencies - MELS <strong>of</strong>fers <strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> OLAT to o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>Swiss</strong> universities, service<br />

agreement. ELC: models for organizational development, course programmes for teaching staff, information, events.<br />

Experiences in teleteaching and online teletransmission <strong>of</strong> didactical units.<br />

Resources<br />

Collaborators: ELC: 1 leader, 1 leader substitute, 2 management assistants, 4 scientific collaborators: media<br />

pedagogues, psychologists, social scientists, administrators. MELS: engineers, multimedia producers, developers,<br />

graphic artists, etc.<br />

FTEs: ELC: 5,9 + 0,45 financed by SVC; MELS: total 25; 2,5 financed by SVC.<br />

Future perspectives<br />

elearning resources are part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bologna curricula. SVC funds will not be substituted. University funding is expected<br />

to remain <strong>the</strong> same, services should continue as before, with a focus on better organisation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> services.<br />

Collaboration in elearning projects <strong>of</strong> LERU (League <strong>of</strong> European Research Universities) is foreseen.<br />

Remarks and comments<br />

It seems that <strong>the</strong> combination <strong>of</strong> a service and a network between coordinators in <strong>the</strong> faculties is a good solution for<br />

such a big university with so many projects going on. The ELC website provides a lot <strong>of</strong> useful information on elearning<br />

(including examples <strong>of</strong> best practices) that can help for example teachers wanting to implement elearning in <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

classes. The performance report praises <strong>the</strong> CCSP and also its collaboration with <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r tertiary education institutes<br />

in <strong>the</strong> canton <strong>of</strong> Zurich.<br />

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