Flexible Online Learning - Onsite!

Abstract

Flexible learning is a term usually connected with IT and the dimensions time and space, for instance when using CSCL-systems (e.g., Blackboard, Sitescape, or FirstClass) to combine onsite learning with online learning in further education, typically with few, intensive onsite seminars separated by online periods where the students work, communicate, and learn via the Internet. This chapter takes a different approach to flexible learning and how technologies from distributed, flexible learning can be used in everyday university teaching and learning—onsite learning. Onsite learning is characterized not by virtual and distributed processes, but actual presence of the students. In the current study, we have identified a number of scenarios for these learning contexts and tried a number of systems. In the chapter we will discuss the problems, the pros and cons of the various scenarios, and in short describe some of the technologies we have worked with.