Assembly Meeting

Educational Technology WG (ETWG)

January 28th 2009, 13:30 - 15:30, Hotel Montreux Palace

Agenda

1. Information
   
   • Departure of Patrick Jermann as chairman of the ETWG
   • Preparing election of new ETWG chairman
2. edubub days 2010 Wrap-up
   • Feedback, first impressions
   • Planning of eduhub days 2011
   • Does the 'basic formula' of the eduhub days work?
   • New program committee
3. CRUS Report
   • Information by Aude Pacton
   • How to integrate outcomes of Case Studies and SIGs into the report
   • SIG-OER: white paper
4. SIGs
   • State of SIGs: The Special Interest Groups present a short account of their activities during the past 6 months.
   • Creation of new SIGs: e-Portfolio, e-Collaboration, Teaching Scientific/Academic Writing
   • Close SIGs
   • General evaluation of SIGs
5. Varia

Meeting Minutes

(Agenda, slides)

Information

• After a 2-years term, Partick Jermann, chairman of the ETWG, will resign. He will leave his position after the next meeting of the ETWG. It was suggested that applicants for the ETWG presidency and ETWG secretary should announce their interest before the next meeting by sending an e-mail to Patrick Jermann or Rolf Brugger.

edubub days 2010 Wrap-up

• The eduhub days were in general positively received. The eduhub days 2011 should mostly follow the concept of the eduhub days 2009-2010.
• The interactive tables can be improved: give more time for discussions, make summaries of outcomes, increase distance between tables to reduce noise etc.
• For future eduhub days it is suggested to discuss e-learning management and organizational issues but also to cover activities of technical and didactical supporters.
• The sector of private corporations is not excluded from participating at the eduhub days, but should not be specifically incorporated in the program and organization.

CRUS Report

• Aude Pacton (CRUS) presents the aims of a report of the current state of educational technologies at Swiss universities (slides). It will be a report of the rectors (CRUS) to the SUC.
• The aim of the report is to show the state of e-learning at Swiss universities and to point out the evolution since the end of the SVC.
• CRUS ask the e-learning community to give inputs to the report and the community is happily willing to help. However, for the sake of procedural correctness, CRUS should ask the rectors to authorize e-learning experts at their respective institutions to provide input to the report. Aude Pacton will suggest this procedure at the next CRUS meeting.
• As a sideline of the discussion about the participation in the CRUS report: The ETWG feel the necessity to clarify their role towards universities, the CRUS etc. It is still an open question if the ETWG members have to represent their universities' point of view or if the ETWG should or can express their own opinion. It is suggested to clarify this question in the future.

Special Interest Groups

State of the SIGs

• Games and Learning SIG: The SIG have been very actively sharing experiences around didactical games. They have organized two online meetings and a considerable amount of material has been collected last year. A third online meeting will be organized soon.
• Open Educational Resources SIG: During the year, the OER SIG have been busy writing a white paper. The paper describes what OER are, why they are important for universities and the entire societiy and how a cultural change could be triggered. The SIG ask the ETWG to approve the paper and to submit it to the CRUS.
  The ETWG refuse to approve the paper mainly because it is politically delicate and should be approved by all universities individually.
• National Research Programs SIG: The SIG have met several times during the year and made a survey of current research activities related to e-learning in Switzerland. The survey results will be used to make a proposal for a national e-learning research program.
• The e-Assesment SIG and Trendspotting SIG are not present at the meeting.

During the presentation of SIG the ETWG clarify their role: SIGs are expert teams who organize themselves to cover and discuss a specific topic. SIGs are independent and therefore not necessarily express the opinion of the ETWG or Swiss universities. Their role is to provide expertise and trigger a process of change.

The ETWG accept the creation of the following new SIGs:

• Teaching Scientific/Academic Writing by Guillaume Schiltz (ETHZ)
• e-Collaboration by Claudia Schlienger and Julia Kehl (ETHZ)
• e-Portfolio by Céline Restrepo Zea (UNIL) and Benno Volk (UZH)

 

Participants

Schewa Mandel (UZH)
Markus Schaad (UZH)
Gudrun Bachmann (UniBas)
Guillaume Schiltz (ETHZ)
Benno Volk (UZH)
Eva Seiler (UZH)
Stefano Tardini (USI/SUPSI)
Luca Botturi (USI/SUPSI)
Beat Döbeli (PHZ)
Nathalie Roth (SWITCH)
Ueli Woermann (UniBe)
Aude Pacton (CRUS)
Nathan Labhart (UZH)
Andy Zbinden (SWITCH)
Urs Gröhbiel (FHNW)
Koni Osterwalder (ETHZ)
Kalli Benetos (TECFA)
Nadia Spang Bovey (UniL)
Céline Restrepo (UniL)
Hervé Platteaux (UniFR)
Petra Kauer-Ott (SWITCH)
Patrick Jermann (EPFL)
Rolf Brugger (SWITCH)