Blended ICT Models for Use in Higher Education

Abstract

Information-transfer is a tradition in higher education; in the information transfer model knowledge is passed from the experts (tutors) to the learners (students) by means of lectures and text books. The hope of increasing the educational impact by using impressive tools based on ICT has the serious disadvantage of increased cost. We argue that new, low-cost educational models based on constructivism can be used in parallel with traditional learning introducing a blended (or enhanced) learning approach. In such a blended environment, organizational, educational and technological issues need to be considered as a whole. We introduce a light-weight blended educational model based on cooperation and experimentation. We describe the educational background, introduce a development framework and briefly discuss its quality aspects based on the ISO standard.