Proposal for financial support, submitted to the Federal Office for Education and Science, Berne.

(Submission prepared by the Swiss Virtual Campus Steering Committee and adapted following consultations organized by the SUC)

Background

Information networking technology will continue to impact many aspects of society in the coming decade. Changes under way in the fields of communication, teaching, learning and behavioural patterns will also continue, while networked computers have the potential to redefine important aspects of universities. Educational technologies have always presented a challenge for these institutions – defined as centres for research and the teaching of universal knowledge – but as yet, new technology has only changed earlier versions of certain functions, without globally replacing them. New educational technologies have evolved, with time, from being accessible to only the privileged few, to being a widely used tool that is now an integral part of everyday life.

Today, virtually all text and audio-visual material used in teaching and learning has been digitally recorded, meaning it can be stored, transmitted, searched, analysed and reproduced anywhere, any time. Since digital data electronically transcends physical boundaries – through applications such as e-mail, web browsers, teleconferencing, web-casting, and others – users can easily connect interactively to remote networks, produce powerful hypermedia documents and create collaborative work environments.

While some conservative academics still debate the value of information networking technology and applications, millions of users around the world now take advantage of direct digital access to this gigantic library. The virtual presence of these information spaces impacts the student’s perception and experience of educational higher education institutions, since it allows for more student-oriented learning to be acquired online; teachers or knowledge providers also become less isolated and more accessible and are therefore better able to convey their knowledge. Finally, it is of note that all these applications appear to be economical in terms of both human and material resources. The university of the future, powered by information networking technology, will be able to remedy some of the shortcomings of the present-day institution. However, the main challenge is to find the optimum balance between online and classroom education, to encourage students to strive for excellence.

Online Learning

There are various ways in which online education could be developed, but relatively few concrete examples of how best to accomplish the task. Switzerland, however, has no other choice than to pursue the development of online education, if it is to stay abreast of advances in educational technology.

Research in educational science and an assessment of web-related educational experiments indicate that online courses are generally as effective as on-campus lectures, and they are gradually becoming an integral part of modern university programmes. Furthermore, online education structures offer the (lifelong) learner a good deal of autonomy with respect to the choice of what, when and where to learn. This autonomy in turn requires a high degree of self-discipline, proficiency at communicating via the computer, and a real ability to adapt and modify the way one learns. Motivation can be stimulated by a well-organized environment that encourages collaboration and favours problem-based learning.

Online education is different from classroom education. The online teacher’s profile requires new skills – facilitating, animating, guidance and providing feedback – which are best acquired through special training courses.

Faculty members are specialists in course content but not necessarily developers of online courses. To produce high quality courses would require the creation of interdisciplinary teams consisting, for example, of an instructional designer (leader), a new-media professional, a programmer and a system support specialist. An instructor-coordinator should act as the interface between the knowledge provider and the professional production team. Quality issues comprise aspects such as content relevance, type of teaching methods, user-friendliness, learner assessment and online assistance.

Asynchronous (HTML, WebCT, BlackBoard) or synchronous (RealMedia, Window media player, Quicktime) software can be used to develop online education courses, and both can be supported by open platforms such as ARIADNE, for example. Equally as important as the initial development of online course material is the need to keep it relevant and updated (maintenance).

Finally, networking and online education require changes at the institutional level. Rules, mission statements, objectives and procedures must be adapted and upgraded, and accreditation and certification policies are required. In many cases, these issues are so broad they require the involvement of larger entities, such as government agencies, professional associations or coordinating bodies. The success of online education depends as much on a solution to these problems as it does on the development of course material. Ultimately, the outcome of such extensive changes also relies on the support of motivated, well-organized educators and strategists with international connections to similar institutions.
 

Swiss Virtual Campus – Impulse Programme

The objective of the present Swiss Virtual Campus – Impulse Programme is to encourage and focus expertise in order to develop and use internet-based, interactive, online learning modules in higher education institutions in Switzerland. Federal funding, to the tune of CHF 30 million for universities, approximately CHF 2 million for Swiss federal institutes of technology (FIT) and approximately CHF 9 million for universities of applied science (UAS), plus so-called matching funds from the higher education institutions involved, are available to support the 50 projects approved during 2000-2003 (27 Phase I projects and 23 Phase II projects). The average cost per project is approximately CHF 1 million, with projects covering all major academic disciplines, i.e. physics and mathematics, arts and humanities, medicine, environmental and life sciences, economics, finance, business administration, law, engineering and information technology, and education sciences.

The Swiss University Conference has overall responsibility for the programme, and a steering committee, consisting of a panel of eight experts, is responsible for implementing objectives, the most important of which are:

• Three or more faculty members from different higher education institutions are jointly to develop and offer online course modules. Students from each participating institution can take the online course modules for credit. The major advantage of this approach is that it allows three or more institutions to pool resources to develop and deliver online courses, while learners can use this institutional interaction to enhance their own exchanges.
• Online course modules must be accessible to the greatest number of students possible, follow clear teaching objectives, qualify under the European Credit Transfer System, use state-of-the-art conceptual approaches and tools, and encourage multilingualism where appropriate.
• Online course modules developed by universities of applied science may also address aspects of continuing education, practical creation of online courses and organization in general.

Status

The Swiss Virtual Campus – Impulse Programme is on schedule.

The main stages are:

• 2001: On-site visits, and educational and teaching support for projects
• 2002:    Testing developed online course modules
• 2003:    Field-testing developed online course modules

Programme assessment

Remarks

+    Swiss Virtual Campus project well received in the academic community
+    Received good press inside and outside higher education institutions
+    Increased awareness of the potential of online education amongst teachers
+    Much better than expected communication amongst project partners
+    Willingness to cooperate between different higher education institutions

– Occasional difficulties to reach content and content structure agreements
– Professionalism of some ad-hoc development teams could be improved
– Recruitment of skilled personnel poses serious problems
– Realization costs seem rather high
– Absence of online education culture

Sustainability

The Swiss Virtual Campus – Impulse Programme has received substantial financing from various sources, and concentrates a remarkable group of players. Anticipated results can only be secured by continued support, and the Swiss Virtual Campus needs long-term policies and competent future management to ensure that:

• online courses are used and maintained,
• learners familiarize themselves with and adapt to the new course structures,
• information networking bodies provide adequate services,
• the Swiss Virtual Campus community continues to develop,
• discussions among professionals continue,
• online educators are guaranteed proper training,
• adequate technical support is provided for upgraded products,
• technological/programme monitoring is organized,
• web visibility is secured.

Conclusions

Information networking technologies will provide the basis for new online education applications. These applications lead to new forms of use, which themselves create new demands and behaviour that are usually difficult to quantify. The initial results of the Swiss Virtual Campus - Impulse Programme will no doubt be available by the time the project ends, but we also need to follow through on these results. The element of continuity is extremely important, since it takes time to become familiar with a complex matter, create interactive courseware, train tutors and administrators, and get students used to this changing environment. There will be new ideas on how to use online education technologies in Switzerland. All these resources need to be safeguarded. Another important factor is whether online education courses are sufficiently flexible to be integrated into unit-level structured courses of study along the lines of the Bologna Model.

The Swiss Virtual Campus Steering Committee therefore requests that activities in the pipeline be allowed to continue by means of a consolidation programme.

The proposed programme consists of four elements described below; each one is accompanied by a funding proposal. The unit figures shown for the different elements of the programme serve primarily as a basis for calculating funding requirements. However, the Steering Committee heading the programme in 2004–2007 should have enough latitude to take into account the individual characteristics of projects.
 

1. Maintenance and User Support for Qualifying Phase I and II Projects

Equally as important as the initial development of online course material is the need to keep it relevant and updated (maintenance). Special efforts must also be made to fund well-trained online support specialists (tutors), to ensure that course material, developed at considerable expense, reaches end-user communities - the students. This task should include all phases of the teaching/learning relationship, i.e. registration, support, assessment, certification, etc.
 
Proposals:

• Successful projects (courses) developed between 2000 and 2003 should receive funding for maintenance and user support.
• Quality procedures and criteria used to judge the adequacy of a project and its conformity to SVC objectives will be defined by the SVC Steering Committee, in consultation with the SVC Commission. The SVC will terminate funding of any projects failing to comply with these conditions.
• Approximately 38 projects (calculated on the basis of 2 for each higher education institution) are expected to qualify out of the 50 projects funded during phases I and II of the programme (universities, FIT, UAS).
• In principle, funding will be paid to the leading higher education institution (project leader), but all partners using the course should benefit, directly or indirectly. Organization of maintenance and user support may vary depending on project and network organization.
• The professional team in each higher education institution responsible for new project development will also contribute to maintenance.
• Tutoring methods, intended to provide support for online course users, are an integral part of the project, but responsibility for the tutoring itself lies essentially with the higher education institutions, or the users’ own faculties. As such, federal support in this area should focus particularly on the training of tutors.
• Funding requirements: an average annual amount of approximately CHF 60,000 per project, renewable for up to 4 years, plus matching funds from the higher education institutions themselves (for universities, in accordance with Article 21(2) LAU). This amount should be allocated equally between maintenance and user support, although some flexibility will be necessary. User support should take account of the number of students taking the course, which may vary considerably from one project to another.
• Since certain UAS projects do not meet the same criteria as SVC university projects, maintenance and user support for the UAS projects will need to be adapted accordingly.

Federal funding requirements: approximately 38 projects retained from phases I and II at an average annual cost of CHF 60,000 over the 2004—2007 period, [i.e. CHF 9.12 million over four years (universities, FIT, UAS)]
 
Universities: CHF 7,100,000    
FIT: CHF 675,000
UAS: CHF 1,345,000
Total: CHF 9,120,000
 

2. Creation of a Professional Production Team in Each Higher Education Higher education institution

Faculty members are specialists in course content but not necessarily developers of online courses. To produce high quality courses would require the creation of interdisciplinary teams consisting, for example, of an instructional designer (leader), a new-media professional, a programmer and a system support specialist. This approach should generally allow projects to be carried out more efficiently and cost effectively.
 
Proposals:

• Each higher education institution must have a professional production team; new teams can be created or existing teams developed. Financial support to be granted for this purpose.
• The teams’ main task will be to develop new SVC projects for the creation of new courses, but also to contribute to the maintenance of existing SVC projects and, if possible, to support some of the institutions’ other projects.
• In addition to members with technical expertise, the team should include members with teaching and educational skills.
• Federal support for professional teams comprises basic funding, divided more or less equally into fixed and variable contributions, and complementary financing (overheads) based on the number of qualifying projects. Subsidies for professional production teams therefore consist of:
  

1. a fixed part, i.e. a basic annual contribution of CHF 100,000 for each higher education institution throughout 2004-2007 (i.e. an annual total of CHF 1.9 million);
2. a variable part, depending on the size of the higher education institution; the global annual amount of CHF 1.9 million will be distributed according to the number of teaching staff (based on Federal Office of Statistics figures: professors + upper middle staff for universities and FIT, total teaching staff for UAS) and students;
3. an overhead of CHF 100,000 for each new qualifying project (cf. third element below).
   

The federal subsidy will be supplemented by funding from the higher education institutions themselves (for universities, in accordance with Article 21(2) LAU). The total amount available to each higher education institution should therefore ensure sufficient funding, particularly since smaller higher education institutions could work together (as could universities with UAS). Federal share of basic funding for each higher education institution is shown in the attached table.
 
Federal funding requirements: equivalent to 19 teams overall at an average annual cost of CHF 200,000 over four years, allocated among the higher education institutions in the form of fixed and variable contributions, on the basis of the number of teachers and students (basic funding), as follows:
 
Universities: CHF 8,000,000
FIT: CHF 1,600,000    
UAS: CHF 5,600,000    
Total: CHF 15,200,000    
 

3. Phase III Call for Swiss Virtual Campus Projects

Upgrading teaching and university education by means of new information technologies presupposes substantial expansion of the range of online courses available. There is great demand for funding to support the development of such online modules and courses. The Swiss Virtual Campus is concerned with creating networking between higher education institutions to enable them jointly to develop and provide online course modules. This objective needs to be pursued, as does cooperation between universities, Swiss federal institutes of technologies and universities of applied science to develop educational material that can be adapted to different situations. It would also be useful to adapt programme conditions to take account of experience gained during the two first phases of calls for proposals, to better meet needs and make good use of new potential.
 
Proposals:

• Financial support is needed to develop projects for new online courses.
• Other than proposed changes, eligibility and selection criteria for projects remain unchanged.
• The criterion requiring collaboration between three or more partners from different higher education institutions to develop and provide online course modules, should be extended to include foreign faculties (funding not provided). For example, professors in Switzerland who are alone in teaching highly specialised disciplines should be permitted to form a cross-border network to create online courses.
• Provide particular support for the development of problem-based teaching and learning (medical studies) scenarios.
• Limited support should also be provided for projects catering to preparatory and further education.
• Qualifying projects will be implemented by the professional production team at the "leader" institution in close collaboration with the project leader. An instructor-coordinator will act as an interface between knowledge providers (teaching partners) and the professional production team; he/she will also ensure collaboration between partners at the network level.
• A one-off average subsidy of CHF 300,000 for the development of each new qualifying project, i.e. approximately CHF 200,000 for the project itself + CHF 100,000 for overheads. The federal subsidy will be supplemented by funding from the higher education institution itself (for universities, in accordance with Article 21(2) LAU).
• The subsidy will serve mainly to finance the salary of the instructor-coordinator [for approximately one and a half years] and a share of the partners’ costs. The Steering Committee should have enough latitude to be able to propose adjustments in allocated amounts, depending on the project. It should also be able to reserve funds for further education courses, and possibly to provide financial support, on defined terms, for buying and adapting foreign courses.
• The CHF 100,000 per project subsidy for overheads is intended to strengthen the professional production team of the "leader" institution.
• The calculation basis presupposes a total of 76 projects, distributed among the different types of higher education institution according to the number of students (Universities 48, FIT 10; UAS 18).
  

Federal funding requirements: 76 projects (universities 48, FIT 10; UAS 18) at CHF 300,000 (CHF 200,000 + CHF 100,000 overheads)
 
Universities: CHF 14,400,000    
FIT: CHF 3,000,000
UAS: CHF 5,400,000
Total: CHF 22,800,000
 

4. Coordinating Body, Mandates and Programme Management

Finally, networking and online education require changes at the institutional level. Rules, mission statements and objectives must be adapted and updated, and accreditation and certification policies are needed. Teacher training, advanced technical support, technological monitoring, web visibility, legal, teaching and educational support, international liasing, etc. are also required. In many cases, these issues are so broad that they require the involvement of larger entities, such as government agencies, professional associations or coordinating bodies. The success of online education depends as much on a solution to these problems as it does on the development of course material. It is also important to prepare the transition from the impulse programme to a sustainable structure.

Proposals:

• In order to secure viable, long-term programme management and coordination that take account of the specific issues involved in the Swiss Virtual Campus, it is proposed to work closely with the SWITCH foundation, possibly on the basis of a performance mandate. Responsibility for technical support for higher education institutions, on the organizational level, could also be given to this institution.
• Special expertise may be needed, and funds should be earmarked for individual mandates to deal with problems or provide services that concern the higher education institutions as a whole.
• Management of the programme itself must also be financed.

Annual costs for these services, which must serve universities as well as FIT and UAS (funded 100% by the Confederation):

Coordinating body and services for higher education institutions CHF 1,200,000
Mandates CHF 395,000
Programme management CHF 300,000
Total    CHF 1,895,000
 
Federal funding requirements for four years:
Coordinating body (including technical support), mandates, management: CHF 7.58 million


Recap of Federal Funding Requirements

Measures	Proposed Subsidies (CHF 1000)
	Universities	FIT	UAS	Total
Maintenance and user support (qualifying projects in phases I /II) 38 projects at an annual average of CHF 60,000, i.e. CHF 240,000 (**)	7,100	675	1,345	9,120
Establishing a professional production team at each higher education institution (**)	8,000	1,600	5,600	15,200
Phase III call for Swiss Virtual Campus proposals 76 projects / CHF 300,000 (universities 48, FIT 10, UAS 18) (**)	14,400	3,000	5,400	22,800
Sub-total federal funding requirements (excl. institutions’ own funds)	29,500	5,275	12,345	47,120
Coordinating body (incl. services for higher education institutions), mandates, management *	7,580*			7,580
Total federal funding requirements for Universities, FIT and UAS (2004–2007)	37,080	5,275	12,345	54,700

*)    These services, financed 100% by the Confederation, must serve universities as well as FIT and UAS.

**)    The federal subsidy will be supplemented by matching funds from the higher education institution itself (for universities, in accordance with Article 21(2) LAU).