THE E-CAMPUS-PROJECT - THE TRANSFORMATION OF A STUDENT ADMINISTRATIVE TOOL INTO A PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

摘要

The web technologies of the present time together with the diverse plethora of digital applications for mobile technologies offer unique opportunities to design mobile and flexible Personal Learning Environments (PLE). Even though the concept of PLE doesn't have a widely established single definition, the common factor seems to be the potential for offering new ways of using digital technology for student-centred learning, and are typically described as a collection of different applications, usually web based and collaborative (social), which aims at foster self-regulated and collaborative learning. A PLE should offer the learners possibilities to 1 learn with other people; 2 control their learning resources; 3 manage the activities they participate in; 4 integrate their learning. In 2010, Mid Sweden University decided on an educational strategy for the coming years 2011-2017, in which e-learning was established as one of two main areas for strategic development. E-learning should be a part of the educational activities carried out on campus as well as a part of the courses given on distance. An important part within the framework of the strategy was that Mid Sweden University should have a presence on the Internet that could be understood as a digital campus or an e-campus. The e-campus-project started in 2013 with the ambition to build an e-campus for students. This digital environment would be organized around the existing student administrative tool The Student Portal. Together with a new personalised interface the portal would be developed towards potential integration with other learning resources and learning support services located on the university websites, including the university library services, as well as the learning management system Moodle and GoogleApps licensed to the university. Functions for personalised schedules, possibilities to access transcripts of learning achievements and functions for course registration as well as resources for booking rooms for group work should be easily accessible. Students should have the possibility to easily communicate with each other and with their teachers via group or programme sites and messaging systems. Also, based on the increasing adoption of smartphones and iPads, the demand for mobile access to this new environment was obvious. The new environment should therefore have a responsive interface. In conclusion, the possibilities to transform the existing environment into a PLE is present and vital. The poster presentation aims at further the discussion on the concept of PLEs and the different solutions for digital learning environments among universities by presenting the key elements of the personalised and responsive interface in this still ongoing project. The poster gives an overview of what functionality is present in the digital environment and what possibilities exist in the coming steps of the continued development.