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ICeF - NewMinEVia G. Buffi 13CH-6900 Luganoinfo@newmine.orgTel. +41 91 912 46 74

Benedetto Lepori and Chiara Succi

eLearning in the Universities of Applied SciencesCountry Report on Germany

Lugano, August 2004

Nr. 5

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Table of contents

1 Introduction 5

2 Higher education in Germany 62.1 General overview 62.2 The governance system 72.3 Fachhochschulen 92.4 Higher Distance Education 11

3 ELearning in higher education 123.1 eLearning in Fachhochschulen 123.2 The Virtual Fachhochschule - VFH 133.3 The Zentralstelle für Fernstudien an Fachhochschulen - ZFH 15

4 Conclusions 18

5 Bibliography 195.1 Websites 20

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1 Introduction

In this report, we analyze the diffusion of eLearning1 in the German Universities of Applied Sciences(UAS). The document is part of a wider comparative study on the adoption of eLearning inUniversities of Applied Sciences in four European countries (Germany, Finland, Netherlands andSwitzerland), carried on by the NewMinE Lab - New Media in Education Laboratory (www.newmi-ne.org) - at the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano and financed by the Swiss Federal Officefor Professional Education and Technology (www.admin.ch/bbt).All the four studied countries have a «binary» higher education sector (Huisman & Kaiser 2001),where alongside the university there is a second university sector composed by organizations relea-sing university degrees (ISCED 5A2), but with a prevalent professional orientation3: theFachhochschulen in Germany, the Hogescholen in the Netherlands, the Polytechnics in Finland andthe Fachhochschulen in Switzerland. Despite the importance of UAS in higher education and the differences with universities, studies onthe adoption of eLearning in higher education have exclusively concentrated on universities (Collis &Van der Wende 2002; Wende and Ven 2003; Lepori, Cantoni and Succi 2003). Yet, there are somegood reasons to study eLearning in UAS. Firstly, these schools account for a large share of highereducation enrolment (more than 1/4 of university enrolment in Germany, 2/3 of in the Netherlands).Secondly, between universities and UAS there are important differences concerning the type of edu-cational programs and their duration, the conditions of access and the diplomas, the organizationand the personnel structure and funding models (Teichler 2001); thus we suspect that eLearningdevelopment could show different patterns in UAS than in universities. Finally, there are some fea-tures which could make UAS more suitable for a wide introduction of eLearning: they are more direc-ted towards professional education and, at least in some countries, towards continuing educationthan universities; a large share of the curricula are in technical sciences, where content can be easierstandardized than in social sciences and humanities; finally, academic values of reputation and free-dom of teaching are less important in UAS and thus cultural barrier to new forms of educationshould be lower than in universities (Lepori and Succi 2004).The main objectives of the document are the following: firstly to present a review of current deve-lopments in eLearning in German UAS; secondly, to relate these developments to the organizationof the UAS and, in general, to the structures of the German higher education system; finally, to iden-tify best practice cases which could be useful to develop suitably organization forms for eLearningin these schools.This case study is based on the exam of documents and web sites on eLearning in German UAS (seethe reference section), on the international literature on the subject and on a site visit to the twomost significant projects in German UAS, i.e. the Virtuelle Fachhochschule in Berlin and theZentralstelle für Fernstudien in Koblenz, which was carried on in February 2004. Moreover a draft ofthe report has been sent to a list of experts in Germany to check on the correctness of the informa-tion and to deepen selected issues.The document is organized as follows. In the first section we describe the German higher educationsystem organisation and we identify the features and the role of Fachhochschulen. In the second sec-tion, we analyse the diffusion of eLearning in Fachhochschulen at a general level and we discuss indetail our two case studies. We conclude with some general considerations.

1 In this paper we will use the term eLearning as it is defined by the Commission of the European Communities: «the use of newmultimedia technologies and the Internet to improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services aswell as remote exchanges and collaboration» (CEC 2001: 2; website: europa.eu.int/comm/education/elearning/index.html).

2 International Standard Classification of Education (UNESCO 1997).3 Various efforts were made for naming this second sector of higher education emerging in Europe since the 1960s. Various

terms were chosen: «Short-cycle» higher education, «Non-university» higher education, «The alternative sector» of higher edu-cation, «Vocational» higher education, «Professional» higher education, «New» higher education institutions or programmes,the «college sector», a list of names of national types, e.g. the «polytechnics», «Fachhochschule», etc... (Teichler 2001).

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2 Higher education in Germany

In this section, we introduce some features of the German higher education system relevant for ourstudy and we present the Fachhochschulen - FH. The presentation is organized as follows: firstly, wegive an overview of German higher education; then, we discuss some relevant features of highereducation governance, i.e. federalism, the importance of the Humboldtian model of university andthe conception of higher education as a public good. Further, we present more in detail theFachhochschulen and distance education.

2.1 General overviewGermany has a differentiated system comprising higher education institutions of various types(Eurydice 2003):

universities (including technical universities and specialised universities), who offer university tea-ching leading to diplomas, who can deliver doctoral degrees and who perform research activities(mostly in basic research);colleges of education (Pädagogische Hochschulen) where mostly integrated in the universities inthe '70 and exist as independent institutions in Baden-Wurttemberg. They train teachers forGrundschulen and certain types of lower-level secondary schools;colleges of arts and music (Kunsthochschulen and Musikhochschulen) offer courses of study inthe visual, design and performing arts;universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) provide university-level vocational educationleading to a UAS diploma (see section 2.3);distance education institutions provide higher education without requiring stable presence of thestudent at the university (see section 2.4).

Table 1 shows the number of institutions for each of these types, while Table 2 shows the numberof students in each category. Thus, FH enroll about ¼ of all higher education students.

Total Univ. Compr. Colleges of Colleges of Coll. of art FH VerwaltungsUniv Education theology and music FH

1992 318 91 1 11 19 43 125 281993 314 87 1 8 17 44 127 301994 325 88 1 6 17 46 136 311995 326 88 1 6 17 46 138 301996 335 90 1 6 16 46 146 301997 337 90 1 6 16 46 147 311998 344 92 1 6 16 46 152 31

Source: BMBF in Huisman & Kaiser 2001

Table 1. Number of institutions of higher education in Germany from 1992 to 1998

Total Universities Colleges of Fachhochschulen includingand equivalent art and Verwaltungsfachhochschulen

institutions musicStudents 1,662,525 1,194,829 23,255 444,441

Source : Statistisches Bundesamt, Fachserie 11, Reihe 4.1

Table 2. Students by type of institution of higher education(as per the 2001/2002 winter semester)

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As a whole, the German system is perhaps the best example in Europe of a «dual» higher educationsystem (Huisman and Kaiser 2001), where there is a clear distinction between those institutionsoriented towards general university education and those (the Fachhochschulen) oriented towardsvocational education. The two categories of schools have different study organizations and deliverdifferent diplomas. Moreover, universities largely embody the ideal of a close link between researchand teaching (see section 2.2), while Fachhochschulen have very small research activities.Despite the introduction of Bachelor's and Master's degrees, there are no signals that the differen-ces between the two sectors will become smaller in the near future. There is no process going on inwhich the upgrading and lengthening of courses in the vocational higher education sector will leadto degrees similar to those in the university sector. Nor, in general, is there a tendency to create aunitary higher education sector, as e.g. was the case in the United Kingdom (Huisman & Kaiser2001). Thus, the two categories absolve two different «social roles» in the German society.Fachhochschulen are clearly more directly vocational, serving the needs of industry and other sec-tors, while universities provide scientific higher professional training and prepare the next generationof scientists, researchers and academics. However, the introduction of the European Bachelor/Master structure could have a a big impact onthe organisation and direction of the study programmes, increasing the competition between uni-versities and FH and facilitating the modilibty between the two types of schools (especially after thebachelor degree).Therefore, according to one interview, a shift can be expected (1) that FHs will offermore sophistiaced courses - now also on a master level and (2) univesites are forced to offer pro-grammes that are directed more to demands of the labour market and economy, e.g. by includingIT-competencies, trainings for presentation etc.

2.2 The governance systemThere are three features of German higher education belief system and governance which are rele-vant for our presentation: federalism, the strength of the «Humboldtian model» of university and apublic-service mission of higher education.

a) The sharing of political authority and competences between the national level (the Bund) and theregional level (the «Länder») has profound roots in the history of the country, since prior to thefoundation of the German Reich in 1870 the Länder where sovereign states. After the forced uni-fication of the Nazi period starting in 1933 and the occupation of Germany in 1945, a centralpolitical authority was not created until 1949 in the western part of German. As a consequence,all competences in higher education and research belonged firstly to the Länder (Königsteigeragreement of 1949). In the '50 and the '60, the Bund entered progressively in the research andhigher education sector, until the principle that domain was a joint task of Bund and Länder wasinsterted in the Grundgesetz in 1969 (Braun 1997).

As now it stands, the sector is ruled by a national framework law (Hochschulrahmengesetz), whichprovides the fundamental legal framework and sets out general aims and principles of higher edu-cation. It governs degree programmes, teaching and research, rules on access, membership andhuman resources and applies to all higher education institutions, public and private. The Länder pos-sess discretionary powers in the implementation of the national law, which allows them considera-ble room for manoeuvre in this sphere (Van der Wende & Van de Ven 2003).

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Source: Van der Wende & Van de Ven 2003

Figure 1. Governance of German Higher Education

The coordination in the educational sector and the cooperation between Bund and Länder in theeducational sector is ensured through different bodies (see Figure 1). The Standing Conference ofthe Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (Kultusministerkonferenz) brings together the mini-sters and senators of the Länder responsible for education and training, higher education and resear-ch, and also cultural affairs. It is based on an agreement between the Länder and deals with policymatters pertaining to education, higher education, research and culture that are of supra-regionalimportance. Resolutions of the Standing Conference can only be adopted unanimously. and have thestatus of recommendations, with the political commitment of the competent Ministers to transformthe recommendations into law, (Eurydice 2003). The Commission of the Federation and the Länderfor Educational Planning and Research Promotion (Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildungsplanungund Forschungsförderung, BLK), is the body responsible for joint educational planning and researchpromotion, in which the Federal Government and the governments of all the Länder are represen-ted. Finally, the Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) was established in 1957. Its tasks include thedrawing up of recommendations on the content and structural development of higher education,science and research. The Science Council is made up of scientists, recognised public figures andrepresentatives from the Federal and Länder governments.

Funding for higher education is shared by the federal and Länder governments, with the Länder pro-viding 90% of the money. The public funding of institutions is based on institutional budget reque-sts, each approved in a process of budget negotiations by the authorities; the amount a universityor Fachhochschule receives in terms of allocations is not influenced by its actual number of students(Huisman & Kaiser 2001). Moreover, project funding for research is delivered through the DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft DFG and through special programmes of the Bund. Actually, the division ofcompetences between Bund and Länder had the effect of strengthening the autonomy of the uni-versities (Braun 1997).

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b) A second important feature of German higher education is a belief system based on a strong linkbetween teaching and research and on autonomy of professors in their teaching and researchactivity. The roots of this model come back to the foundation of the University of Berlin byAlexander von Humboldt in 1810 and thus are known as the Humboldtian model of university(OECD 1998), which promoted the idea a state university retaining a wide degree of autonomyfor professors and conferring value on research above teaching (as well as education throughresearch). As such, the model has profoundly been modified in the expansion phase of highereducation after the II world war and the link between research and teaching has been more andmore transferred to graduate education (Clark 1995). However, the idea that the two activitiesshould be realised in the same institution and by the same persons remains a cornerstone ofGerman universities (Schimank and Winnes 2000).The governance model of German universities can be thus characterized by the combination offormal bureaucratic control by the state (universities are part of the state sector; the main rulesare defined by the law; the budget is controlled by the State) and of large academic autonomyof professors in their activity (Clark 1983; Braun et Merrien 1999), while market forces (for exam-ple competition for students) play a limited role. This model creates rather unfavorable conditionsfor the development of eLearning, since market incentives to access to new markets are almostinexistent and universities are bound to a rather traditional model of education (Lepori, Cantoniand Succi 2003).

c) The third important feature is a conception of higher education as a public service, which shouldbe granted to all students, irrespective of their social origin. Hence, student's fees are very lowand basically access to higher education should be granted to everybody having the requiredsecondary diplomas. The creation of distance education institutions in the '60 (see section 2.4)and of the Fachhochschulen in the '70 (see section 2.3) can be seen as a measure to grant accessto higher education to everybody (including working people) and to keep pace with increasingnumber of students (enrolment in universities nearly doubled from 1960 to 1970 and more thandoubled in the following decade) while retaining the Humboldtian model in universities.

2.3 Fachhochschulen

The creation of the Fachhochschulen in 1970/71 can thus be seen as a consequence of the expan-sion of the university sector after the II world war, but also of the need of new forms of educationand training, more oriented to professional training.For nearly thirty years now, these new institutions have educated an increasing number of studentsmostly in engineering, commerce, applied arts (design) and various social professions (OECD 1997)and account for about ¼ of all university students (see Table 2).Fachhochschulen vary considerably in terms of size, number of students and number of courses ofstudies, and consequently they have a specific regional character or particular area of specialisation;however, they are much smaller than universities, the average number of students being about2'500 (see Table 1 and Table 2). The characteristic aspects of study and organisation of teaching andstudying at Fachhochschulen are the particular emphasis on practical application and the links withthe requirements of the professional world. The Fachhochschule curricula are highly structured, andit is this structure and the individual contact with other students and the teaching staff which attractstudents from large universities to transfer to a Fachhochschulen. Students learn in small groups andmuch of the work is more practical and is generally highly relevant to specific occupations. The seme-sters spent outside the institutions to gain practical experience (Praxissemester) are a very importantand distinctive aspect.Students access to a Fachhochschule either through the Allgemeine Hochschulreife and theFachgebundene Hochschulreife (both giving also access to universities) or throughFachhochschulreife.. The Fachhochschulreife is normally acquired at a Fachoberschule. In most casesstudents acquire Fachhochschulreife in a regular secondary school after finishing 12th grade succes-sfully, whereas they receive General Hochschulreife («Abitur») for entering Universities after fini-shing examinations at 13th grade.

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It is also possible, however, to obtain the Fachhochschulreife through special additional courseswhich are offered, for instance, at Berufsfachschulen and Fachschulen, and which lead primarily tovocational qualifications. The share of students accessing the Fachhochschulen with the generaldiplomas has increased steadily since the '70 now constitutes about ½ of the new entrants. In prin-ciple, access to universities and Fachhochschulen is open to everyone who has passed the requiredexams. Additional facilities are available for especially talented applicants who are already working,even if they do not have the prerequisites for attending a Fachhochschule (BMBF 2003).The Fachhochschulen sector is becoming even more strategic in the German higher educationsystem. In fact recommendations by the Wissenschaftsrat (Science Council) have included manyissues that encourage the consolidation of a binary system and a strengthening of the role ofFachhochschulen (OECD 1997) as shortening of study times, more vocationally oriented education,increased capacity of Fachhochschulen and development of Fachhochschul-and enterprise-basededucation.This is why the federal government and the federal states decided to increase the admission capa-city of the universities of applied sciences to 35 % and later 40 % of all first-year students..Fachhochschulen don't have to substitute universities but should contribute to solve the problemsderiving from a mass higher education society in a more efficient way. In fact, statistics show thatrunning costs per student are about ½ of costs in universities (see Table 3), while the average timeto reach a diploma at Fachochschulen is 4.2 years in comparison to 7 years in universities. TheFachhochschulen also have a smaller drop-out rate around the 18-20 % in comparison to 29-31 %in universities (OECD 1997).

Year All institutions of higher education Universities Fachhochschulen1993 12,594 14,056 7,1601994 12,533 13,889 7,6321995 13,034 14,562 7,8421996 13,340 14,842 8,349

Source: BMBF 2003

Table 3. Running costs (basic expenses) for teaching and research at institutions of higher educationper student in Germany in DM.

These differences can be partly explained by the much lower rate of research in Fachhochschulen incomparison to universities. While at the beginning research was not part of their mandate and theycould only realise research if was closely linked to their teaching activities, the situation has partiallychanged and Fachhochschulen play an important role in applied research especially for small andmedium enterprises (BMBF 2002); however, research intensity is still much lower than in universities.Overall research expenditures of Fachhochschulen were only 0,3 mia Euro in 2001, while expendi-tures of universities reached 5,9 mia. Euro.In this framework, Fachhochschule's teachers are generally expected to teach 16 units (45 minutes)a week, whereas university professors teach eight-nine units a week (Huisman & Kaiser 2001).However, due to various reductions many teachers at FHs have a typical workload of 13-14 units aweek. Semester at FHs, however, typically are about 4 weeks longer in time that universities.Professors at Fachhochschulen must, as a rule, fulfil the requirement of professional experience,additional to a Ph.D., while professors at universities must hold an additional academic qualification,known as Habilitation.

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2.4 Higher Distance Education

During the expansion of the higher education sector (1960-70s) alternative opportunities were alsoestablished as evening and distance courses. In that period 30 out 54 universities in East Germanyoffered distance degree programs (Guri-Rosenblit 1999).The Fernuniversität Hagen was founded in 1974 as a comprehensive university of the Land ofNordrhein-Westfalen. It is the sole university in the German-speaking world to offer courses of studyby distance learning only and, with about 45'000 students in 2002/3, is the largest provider ofdistance learning facilities at university level in Germany. Alongside the Fernuniversität in Hagen, pri-vate Fernfachhochschulen offer distance learning courses of study all over Germany. The courses ofdistance learning these institutions have on offer fall within the field of business management andappropriate continuing qualification courses for engineers and computer specialists. The bigger isdie Privat-Hochschule Akad (www.akad.de) that enrolls about 8.500 students distributed betweenfour institutions. The Hamburger Fernfachhochschule (http://www.fern-fh.de/) offers FH diplomasrecognized since 1997 from the German government (HRG: Hochschulrahmengesetz) and the Stateof Hamburg (HmbHG: Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz). An other important privat institution ack-nowledged from the State is the Private FernFachhochschule Darmstadt (http://www.privatfh-da.de)that counts around 1.500 students inscribed in Informatik, Mechatronik and Elektrotechnik.Also the institutions of higher education which students attend in person (Präsenzhochschulen), arebecoming increasingly involved in distance learning. The Federal Government and the Länder aresupporting this development through the joint research promotion issue of distance learning esta-blished in 1993 by the Commission of the Federation and the Länder for Educational Planning andResearch Promotion (Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildungsplanung und Forschungsförderung).Since then, additional new distance learning opportunities, which provide first degree courses aswell as vocational, academic continuing education, have been established at Präsenzhochschulen(www.online-studying.de).

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3 ELearning in higher education

In September 1999 the Federal Government presented an Action Programme entitled «Innovationand Jobs in the Information Society of the 21st Century». The main aim was to guide Germany inthe evolution from an industrial to an information society. Practical objectives included to increasethe use of Internet, to equip schools and training centres with multi-media PCs and Internet con-nections, to ensure that all universities use networked computers and to integrate the new media inthe changing forms of life-long learning (BMBF & BMWI 1999).A new programme called «New Media in Education Funding Programme» started the following year(BMBF 2000) in order to define the strategies for the integration of new media in the education sec-tor. Through this programme the Federal Ministry of Education and research (BMBF) has supportedmany projects on eLearning, following the EU policies and foreseeing its strategic role in the highereducation sector development. In particular 267 Mio were allocated for the period 2000-2004 ofwhich about 220 Mio dedicated specifically to higher education. Another 100 Mio are estima-ted to be contributed by the German Bundesländer (states) to eLearning promotion activities. About450 proposals have been submitted in 2000 and 100 projects have started. Most of them are coo-peration projects between different universities focusing on the development of multimedia mate-rials for education (Kleinmann and Wannemacher 2004; see http://www.medien-bildung.net/).In particular three lead projects concerning web-based learning were funded. The first project is aimedat the establishment of a virtual collaboration between Fachhochschulen in two technical subjects(www.oncampus.de). The second project is developing comprehensive and supraregional multimediasupport for on-campus study in the stage I of the chemistry course (http://www.vs-c.de/). The thirdlead project is concerned with developing and testing technical and organizational solutions for tele-learning scenarios in continuing education centres, in companies and at the workplace (BMBF 2000). Before a comprehensive national program was established to coordinate these activities, there wereseveral funding schemes scattered in most of the sixteen Länder. We will just mention the three lar-gest: Universitätsverbund Multimedia Nordrhein- Westfalen (http://www.uvm-nw.de); VirtuelleHochschule Bayern (http://www.vhb.org); Virtuelle Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (http://www.vir-tuelle-hochschule.de) (Bett et all 2002).A recent review of support initiatives and elearning development in German universities shows alarge number of initiatives for the development of learning materials, but also that institutional sup-port is not always present and thus that there is the risk that many of these initiatives are abando-ned at the end of the project funding (Kleinmann and Wannemacher 2004).However, according tosome interviews we performed in 2003 in Baden-Württemberg, German universities seem ratherreluctant in introduction new educational technologies, for cultural reasons (the strength of theHumboldtian model of universities), but also for economic reasons (no incentives to acquire new stu-dents; Lepori, Cantoni and Succi 2003).

3.1 eLearning in Fachhochschulen

The adoption of eLearning within Universities has been widely studied in order to identify the trendsand to design models and future strategies (Coimbra Group 2002, Collis & Van der Wende 2002).Unlike the university sector, the Fachhochschulen sector has been almost neglected in the analysis ofeLearning in higher education, probably because they are not present in all countries and accountfor a small share of university students. Nevertheless FH seem to have some advantages over uni-versities in introducing eLearning: they offer mostly technical curricula, where the subject seems tobe more adapted to distance education and to standardization of contents than in humanities andsocial sciences. These schools are younger and less stuck to an academic model than universities andthus more prone to experiment new forms of delivery. For the same reason, collaboration and jointoffer of curricula seems less difficult than in universities (Lepori and Succi 2004). Also from German official documents it emerges that this issue is little stressed; yet the main projectof the «New Media in Education Funding Programme» aimed to build a Virtual Fachhochschule (seesection 3.2).

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Actually in Germany two institutions are delivering an online Fachhochschulen distance degree4 theVirtuelle Fachhochschule (VFH; www.oncampus.de) and the ZFH-Zentralstelle für Fernstudien anFachhochschulen (www.zfh.de). Moreover, individual online courses, as well as many experimenta-tions are being carried out in almost all FH.Some FH have also created their own eLearning and media development centre, as it is the case ofthe FH Köln (Zentrum für Informationstechnologie; http://www.zi.fh-koeln.de), of theFachhochschule Düsseldorf (Institut für Medien, Kommunikation und Informationstechnologie;www.kmi.fh-duesseldorf.de) and of the Fachhochshule München (Abteilung medien+LEHRE;http://www.fh-muenchen.de/ml/). Finally, the tele-akademie at FH Furtwangen started in 1994 withdelivering online courses via the internet. It is being perceived as the pioneering institution regardingthe use of E-LEarning in Higher Education, e.g. it offers various online courses in the context on edu-cation and technology and has educated hundreds of professionals that are planing and implemen-ting e- learning in Germany. tele-akademie has implemented the curriculum for the ENLT (Expert ofnew learning technologies) a programm that is being conducted now for almost 10 years.

3.2 The Virtual Fachhochschule - VFH

The Virtual Fachhochschule (www.oncampus.de) is one of the flagship projects financed since the1998 by BMBF aimed at developing new strategies for teaching and learning and at enhancing clas-sroom lessons (Bischoff & Granow 2002). VFH declares as its strategic objectives:

adapting study programs to the challenges of the future:use of the newest technology to increase the competitiveness in higher education;new groups of students and international markets for our universities;

opening higher education for a wide spectrum of social groups through innovation:vocational education;Life Long Learning (Triple L).

Eleven Fachhochschulen and two universities located in seven federal states in Germany, as well astwo private partners were involved in the project, which was officially concluded at the end of 2003and is going through its implementation phase.

ActivitiesThe VFH developed two full degree programs in Media & Computing and in Business Engineering;actually it's entering the 6h semester of life and it has involved almost 700 participants. Each pro-gram is composed by 36 modules (one module is 4 hours c.a.) and they are delivered through theLearning Management System Blackboard (www.blackboard.com). VFH has chosen this platformthree years ago, deciding to integrate it with a more sophisticated communication tool, com-prehending audio, video and text tools. 20% of each program is delivered in presence, through 4weeks-ends per semester where students meet in the nearest learning centre. These meetings areplanned at the beginning of the program and each institution manages them independently, mostlyrepresenting a discussion and a confrontation moment.

Organization ModelWhile students are enrolled in one of the partner UAS, the VFH is going towards the model of a»virtual» UAS, where each program is managed by a faculty council (composed of representatives ofthe partner schools). One of the most interesting aspects of the initiative is the institutional model crea-ted ad hoc in which existing institutions cooperate in a virtual organisation exploiting existing channelsand synergies.

4 Fernstudienangebote in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (www.zfh.de/fernstudium/andereangebote/staatfh.pdf)

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The cooperation between different institutions is a frequent phenomenon in the German non-uni-versity sector and it's increasing since new projects on eLearning introduction are started (BMBF2000). This happens because institutions want to make the most of funds and need to reduce thedeveloping materials costs.

Figure 2. Organization of the Virtuelle Fachhochschule

Moreover in this case were cut also the expenses for the building of a completely new institution,basing the VFH on already-existing institutions. A further factor fostering the cooperation betweenFachhochschulen are the technical contents on which it's easier to find an academic agreement.Anyway it doesn't cancel problems, especially coming from the IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) distri-bution. The management structure of the Virtuelle Fachhochschule is rather complex and has reque-sted an intensive activity of negotiation between partners. In the spring 2001 a cooperation contractwas signed between 7 institutions (FH Lübeck, FH Ostfriesland/Emden, FH Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel,Hochschule Bremerhaven, FH Brandenburg, TFH Berlin and FH Stralsund).

Economic ModelDespite these profitable conditions, the structure is fragile especially from an economical point ofview, since student's fees are very low and the partner FH have a budget which is largely indepen-dent from student's numbers.The VFH has received 22,5 M euros from BMBF used to buy hardware and software tools and todevelop the online didactical materials. Actually, the largest costs are the maintenance of coursematerials (25% of the creation price) and the licences for the Blackboard platform (50.000 euro peryear). The consortium is supported at 50% by its partner institutions, offering back two degree pro-grams in which new students are enrolled; for the other 50% it is financed by additional funds fromspecial projects.For example the Technische Fachhochschule Berlin at the beginning of the 2004 has created a labo-ratory (http://learn.tfh-berlin.de) with 5 full-work people paid from the FH. The Lab is in charge ofdeveloping innovative services for the school, creating technological supports for face-to-face les-sons and continuing the VFH experience. Beside the TFH Berlin is introducing a media fee of 65 eurofor online students.

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The VFH is based on a compensation model where the contributions of each partner institutions (forexample for tutoring or maintenance of course materials) is accounted through fixed rates and com-pensation is done every year.

Future prospectivesThe public of the VFH is constituted from workers a little bit older than presence students in FH. Forthe future VFH doesn't think to change the target but it figures out to enlarge itself finding co-part-ners abroad. In order to expand world-wide, VFH will translate course contents in English, probablystarting this operation from Asia countries. The main challenge for VFH is to convince their rectora-te in investing in the initiative. In the short period, in fact, VFH doesn't expect to develop new onli-ne degrees program because for the partner institutions if would mean, given the available funds,to reduce the presence ones.

3.3 The Zentralstelle für Fernstudien an Fachhochschulen - ZFH

The Zentralstelle für Fernstudien an Fachhochschulen is a centre for distance education establishedin 1995 for the Länder of Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland and Hessen. It supports the development ofdistance and online degrees in 13 Fachhochschulen in these three Länder. It is a public institutionwith ten employees paid at 50% from the Länder, created to develop distance activities for theLänder. In this way students could access to education without going to the FernUniversität Hagenbut staying in the Land.

Centre activities and organisationActually eleven distance professional degrees are offered from the ZFH, among which a master in busi-ness administration and an online program in social work (see below). Almost 1.500 students are enrolled in these programs. Each curriculum is born from the collaborationof some FH, with a leading partner coordinating the work and producing most of the contents. Thestudents of the partners FH can attend the whole distance curricula, referring to their FH which isresponsible for the follow-up of their students. In each FH there is a person of the centre (paid by theFH) in charge to manage the collaboration with the ZFH, to assist students and to operate the locali-zation of curricula. The ZFH centre coordinates exclusively the administrative work and receiving for thisactivity 10% of the student fees. The FH are responsible for the quality of the contents and their tea-chers are paid by the centre to produce the material. Copyright on the materials is transferred fromthe teachers to the ZFH, who gets also the right to modify the course materials.

Bundesland Mitgliedshochschule Studiengang

Hessen Fulda SozialkompetenzSoziale Arbeit

Friedberg Facility ManagementLogistikWirtschaftsingenieurwesen

Frankfurt Präsenz Informatik

Darmstadt

Wiesbaden

Rheinland-Pfalz Koblenz MBAWirtschaftsingenieurwesenSoziale ArbeitPräsenz Sozialkompetenz

Bingen Präsenz Informatik

Trier Informatik

Worms Präsenz InformatikPräsenz Sozialkompetenz

Kaiserslautern VertriebsingenieurPräsenz Sozialkompetenz

Saarland Ludwigshafen

Mainz Präsenz Sozialkompetenz

HTW des Saarlandes(Saarbrücken) Präsenz Informatik

Table 4. Partners and curricula of the ZFH

Eight distance curricula are based on printed materials and comprehend facultative face-to-facemeetings once a month with an high average flow of the 80%. The drop-out rate from the pro-grams is around the 10-15%. To enhance the collaboration part on-line tools are being introduced. The ZFH has recently boughtand adapted a commercial LMS to enhance the communication and the services offered to thedistance students; it's still testing this tool that will be proposed soon to teachers and students.

The Bachelor of Arts Soziale ArbeitThe Bachelor of Arts Soziale Arbeit (BASA; www.basa-online.de) is a curriculum in social work deli-vered on-line. It is based on the collaboration of 5 FH under the leading of the FH Koblenz. It hasbeen founded for three years (2001-2003) by the ministry of education and research with 750.000euro that were used mainly for the material development. Actually it has to be sustained and main-tained by itself and the biggest problem is the update of materials, which amount at 25% of thedevelopment cost. The contents were realized from the teachers of Koblenz with the support ofpedagogical and technical experts and are delivered through the platform WebCT. Each semesterthere is a kick-off meeting in presence, where students are informed on how to use the platform,followed from other presence mandatory meetings.Each FH partner can enroll 25 students to BASA and has to manage independently its students forthe access (login, password), the tutoring and evaluation. For each module students are requestedto write some online essays in order to get the credits. At the end of the fourth year they will writealso a final thesis. Lessons are essentially based on texts that learners can print from pdf files; the

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platform offers services as chat, forum, library, as well as a calendar helping students in the colla-boration with peers, teachers and tutors.In the first edition of BASA, 27 students started the curriculum in Koblenz and only 4 have aban-doned it, registering a 12% of drop-out rates. The program has found good appreciation by thestudents and in the second year almost 170 people have submitted an application.

Future perspectivesFor the Fachhochschule of Koblenz, eLearning doesn't represent a strategic project but the rectoratehas some interests in maintaining it as innovative experiment and as different offer for new students.ZFH figures out that in the future this kind of educational activities could be successfully adopted inthe post-graduate sector rather than at a bachelor level, but in any case also FH should be ready toinvest in this direction. In fact in Germany FH students are full time students and online or distancedegree could be effective in reaching students with different needs. In order to introduce theBologna model FH are also supposed to transform many diplomas in bachelor and master studiesand eLearning could be a good opportunity for internationalization of degrees. Another importantissue should be the possibility to switch between presence and distance programs on the samesubject.

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4 Conclusions

This study leads to some conclusions, which are also relevant for the Swiss case. Firstly, in theGerman context, development of distance education and eLearning is mostly motivated throughsocial reasons, that is opening curricula also to students which cannot attend regularly higher edu-cation institutions. This rationale was for example at the basis of the creation of the FernUniversitätHagen and some distance education opportunities in the UAS sector.However, this model makes the expansion of presence universities and UAS in the distance (or atleast partially at distance) domain quite difficult. This for two main reasons: firstly, these institutionsare largely stuck to a traditional model of universities, where direct contact between teacher andstudents is considered to be quite important. Secondly, in a situation where student's fees are verylow, there are almost no incentives to access new markets, since this would simply entail additionalcosts.In this situation, the two projects we examined have a fragile economic situation. The developmentof course materials is possible only to the extent that additional funding from new media programs(at national or European level) is available. Funding from their institutions covers hardly delivery andmainentance cost.In this situation, the two projects have resorted to a strategy of producing simple course materials(costs are around 50'000 euros per course) and developing cooperation and joint services betweendifferent UAS, in order to reduce the costs and achieve a critical mass (using the same materials fordifferent courses). The Virtuelle Fachhochshule provides a more complex model, with a joint agree-ment between the schools and the creation of faculty councils for each domain, while the model ofthe ZFH is more like a common service centre for the participating schools.This remark underlines that suitable institutional and organizational arrangements are critical for thedevelopment of elearning, especially in countries where the higher education sector is not stronglymarketised and thus business opportunities are limited.

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5 Bibliography

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Lepori B., Cantoni L., Succi C. (2003), The introduction of eLearning in European universities: modelsand strategies, Kerres M., Voss B. (Hrgs.), Digitaler Campus. Vom Medienprojekt zumNachhaltigen Medieneinsatz in der Hochschule, Waxmann, Münster

Lepori B., Succi C. (2004) eLearning in the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences, ePaper NewMinE 4,Lugano

Lepori B., Succi C. (2004a), Universities of applied sciences: a new frontier for eLearning?, in A.Szücs, I. Bo, EDEN 2004, Budapest, Hungary

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Rowley D.J., Lujan H.D., Dolence M.G., (1998) Strategic Choices for the Academy, Jossey-Bass, SanFrancisco (Ca)

Schimank U., Winnes M. (2002), Beyond Humboldt? The relationship between teaching and resear-ch in European university systems, Science and Public Policy, 27 (6), 397-408

Teichler U. (2001) Changing Patterns of the Higher Education System and the Perennial Search of theSecond Sector for Stability and Identity, Millenium - Revista do Instituto Superior Politécnico deViseu - n.º 21 - Janeiro de 2001

Wende M. van der and Ven M. van de (2003) The use of ICT in Higher Education. A mirror of Europe,Utrecht, LEMMA Publishers

XXX (2001) Handbuch der Universitäten und Fachhochschulen. Deutschland, Österreich Schweiz,K.G. Saur Verlag GmbH, München

5.1 Websites

Studieren in Netz http://www.studieren-im-netz.de

New Media in Education Programmehttp://www.medien-bildung.net

KultusMinister Konferenzwww.kmk.org

Deutscher Bildung Serverhttp://www.bildungsserver.de/

Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildungsplanung und Forschungsförderunghttp://www.blk-bonn.de/

Eurydicewww.eurydice.org

BIBBhttp://www.bibb.de/redaktion/pt-iaw/

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newmine ePapers:

Nr. 1: ePaper NewMine 1: Lepori, B. & Rezzonico, S. (2003) La réalisation de cours eLearning du Campus Virtuel Suisse Etat des lieux à mi-parcoursNewMinE Lab, Lugano

Nr. 2: ePaper NewMine 2: Lepori, B. & Succi, C. (2003) eLearning in Higher Education. Prospects for Swiss Universities.NewMinE Lab, Lugano

Nr. 3: ePaper NewMine 3: Lepori, B., Cantoni, L., (eds.) (2004) EDUM project. How to create and to manage eLearning activities. NewMinE Lab, Lugano

Nr. 4: ePaper NewMine 4: Lepori B., Succi C. (2004) eLearning in the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences,NewMinE Lab, Lugano

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