Goals and organisation

Assembly Meetings

The ETWG meets twice a year. One meeting is usually associated with the eduhub days. Assembly Meetings are for ETWG members and SIG leaders. Non-voting guests from the Swiss e-Learning Community are welcome.

National cooperation goals

• Build a network of trust and collaboration between the members of the Swiss e-Learning Community eduhub.
• Find experts with particular experience, knowledge and skills and help to establish contact (e.g. e-assessment, mobile learning, MOOCs, etc.).
• Identify future funding for projects.
• Identify requirements and develop strategies for successful use of e-learning in the future.
• Put e-learning on the political agenda of Swiss Higher Education Institutions on a national level.
• Facilitate the dissemination of promising ideas and products.
• Develop common quality standards and certification instruments.
• Develop juridical guidelines and best practice approaches.
• Contribute and benefit from national e-learning exchange platforms (e.g. eduhub).
• Cooperate and exchange with related national networks or assemblies.

E-learning lobby and organisational goals

• Put e-learning on the political agenda of Swiss Higher Education Institutions on a national level.
• Identify future funding for projects.
• Identify requirements (through Special Interest Groups) and develop strategies for successful use of e-learning in the future.
• Establish and maintain contact with swissuniversities.

International cooperation goals

• Cooperate and exchange with related international networks.
• Get international visibility and attention for e-learning activities at Swiss Higher Education Institutions (for instance through international events).
• ETWG members are representatives of Swiss Higher Education Institutions such as Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Universities, Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences and Universities for Teacher Education. Every organisation has one vote (see table below).
• Maintain contact with educational commissions like rectors conferences, commercial partners and political bodies. Non-voting guests are welcome to participate. They will be invited upon request.
• The Assembly has a Chair and a Secretary. Both are (re-)elected for a period of two years.

The Assembly acts on political level as an e-learning lobby organisation and implements the goals of paragraph "E-learning lobby and organisational goals" (political agenda, future funding, strategy, institutional commitment).

The political agenda is put into practice by the following means:

• Individually by the members, by lobbying at the institution rectors (who are represented in the rectors conferences).
• As groups, for instance as steering committees to pilot national projects.

International contacts can be established by various means:

• The Assembly may establish itself contact to foreign organisations.
• The Assembly may delegate foreign contacts to a Special Interest Group (SIG).
• The Assembly may benefit from SWITCH’s long-lasting tradition in cooperating with foreign
  organisations.

Participants of the ETWG Assembly

Special Interest Groups (SIG)

The purpose of the Special Interest Groups is to assemble specialists in specific e-learning topics and to allow in-depth discussions and developments on expert level. The SIGs are associated to and coordinated by the ETWG.

• The SIGs concentrate on a particular topic (e.g. e-assessment, e-portfolio, Open Educational Resources (OER), MOOCs, quality in e-learning, mobile learning, etc.).
• The SIGs cover topics that are of interest to the ETWG or to the eduhub community and represent think tanks.
• The initiative to start a SIG may come from the Assembly (formal, top-down) or from the eduhub community (informal, bottom-up).
• The SIG members may be officially mandated by the Assembly to contribute to (inter-)national working groups.
• The SIGs can be organised to work formally or informally. They usually define their way of cooperation and communication themselves. This may include regular meetings, video conferences, mailing lists, wikis, seminars, expert cafes, brainstorming excursions, etc.
• The SIGs regularly report to the Assembly and the eduhub community. At least twice a year the SIGs have to make a short status report (max. 10 lines) that will be sent to the Assembly and the eduhub community.
• The SIGs work transparently and inform the eduhub community about their ongoing work and outcomes (e.g. conference, blog, papers, websites, etc.).
• The SIGs can request an official statement with regard to their results (white paper, guidelines, etc.) from the Assembly.
• New SIGs must be formally approved by the ETWG during an Assembly Meeting.

Procedure for a statement request:

1. The SIG's outcome is sent to the ETWG members (by e-mail).
2. The ETWG members can comment on the outcome (by e-mail).
3. This SIG can decide to revise their outcome, or to invite ETWG members to clarify open questions (online discussion).
4. The final revision of the SIG's outcome is sent to the ETWG members together with the invitation to an ETWG Assembly Meeting (by e-mail).
5. After a short discussion, the ETWG members vote for a final statement for the SIG's outcome during a regular Assembly Meeting.

Inactivity of a SIG:

• A SIG is considered inactive, if it fails to report activity to the ETWG for two consecutive years or if a SIG representative reports temporary inactivity to the ETWG.
• Inactive SIGs do not need to report to the Assembly or to the eduhub community.
• Inactive SIGs can be re-activated by sending an informal note to the ETWG Secretary. An approval of the ETWG is not required for re-activation.
• A SIG can remain maximally for two years inactive. After that period, inactive SIGs will be formally closed at the next Assembly Meeting.
• Closed SIGs can be reopened anytime, if there is enough interest in the eduhub community for the topic of the SIG. Reopened SIGs must be approved by the ETWG.