South Europe

E-learning Distance Education

in Cyprus

Ε-learning courses in Cyprus are

very weakly developed. It is primarily

offered as a supplement to traditional

degrees. Several organizations participate

in EU funded projects focusing on e-

learning.

On several occasions institutions in

Cyprus collaborate with other

international organisations in offering

online degrees.

Compulsory and Higher Education

Use of ICT and e-learning in public schools is in an embryonic state

content but in private schools ICT use has been embraced on a large scale. They

use ICT for supporting their pupils in different aspects of learning.

Cyprus Productivity Centre

The Cyprus Productivity Centre (CPC) was established in 1963 by the

Cyprus Government, with assistance from the United Nations Development

Program and the International Labour Office. It provides additional support to

the traditional training programs and designs e-learning training programs in

Greek which are tailor-made so as to meet specific needs of the business

community in Cyprus.

Cyprus e-Learning 2005: Expertise and Business Partnership (Cyprus Portal)

The portal aims to promote the e-Europe initiative and especially the

lifelong learning, encourage universal access to global education and help

people, particularly youth, acquire the qualifications and skills they need to

realise the benefits of the knowledge society.

HΕ Ιnstitutions with E-learning Activity

Intercollegewww.intercollege.ac.cy

CARDET(Center for theAdvancement of Researchand Development inEducational Technology)

www.cardet.org

University of Cypruswww.ucy.ac.cy

Open University ofCyprus

Elearning Distance Education

in Greece

Hellenic Open University

Adult distance education in

Greece became initially available in

1998 with the founding of the

Hellenic Open University (EAP)

(www.eap.gr). The university also

offers full Master’s and PhD degrees.

All courses are delivered exclusively

at distance.

Students communicate with

professors via traditional (courier,

telephone) and newer (fax, e-mail)

forms of distance communication.

E-learning platforms in HE Institutions in Greece

Ifigenia - Distance Education

Courses - The University of Crete

(www.uoc.gr).

Computer Networks and

Telematics Applications Lab

(CONTA) by University of

Macedonia (www.uom.gr) – offers

online seminars on Telematic

Applications &Computer Networks,

Information Systems in Education

and Web-based Tele-Education.

Vocational E-learning Training Centres

Tele-education Centre by Athens University of Economics and Business

(www.stat-athens.aueb.gr/en/frames.htm)

Vocational Training Centre by Panteion University (www.panteion.gr/uk)

Vocational Training Centre - National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

(www.uoa.gr).

E-learning Distance Education

in Italy

Sfera• In 1999, Enel (power and gas provider) has

created Sfera, a knowledge provider for adult

learning and human resources improvement.

• The learning methods are based on editorial

instruments (accessible online) but also on

tutoring and mentoring online, virtual classrooms,

forum, chat and newsgroup.

• The e-learning delivery is based on a synchronous

shared method because it is based partly on self-

training, partly on virtual classrooms, tutoring

interaction, online whiteboards, online tests,

conferences, forum and chat.

• The UniversitàTelematica“GuglielmoMarconi” is the first Athenaeum in Italy which follows the “Open University” model, already attended in many European Countries.

• Being public,but not a state body, recognized by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR -M.D. 1 March 2004), it adopts innovating learning modalities by developing suitable research strategies for most advanced technological solutions and by integrating non

Università Telematica Guglielmo Marconi

The University of Trento provides some services in order to support the lecturers in online course design. These services are addressed to:

• undergraduate and postgraduate students (on campus, distant and working)

• teachers and tutors

• lifelong education

The institution provides three types of e-learning formats:

• web-enhanced courses (in order to support the traditional face-to-face lectures);

• blended courses (lectures are partly face-to-face and partly online);

• entirely online courses.

Università di Trento

• This institution has been founded as an initiative of the Università Gabriele d’Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara and of the foundation that carries the same name. UNIDAV provides 5 graduate programmesthat sum a total number of about 120 courses. In addition to that there are 6 master programmes that can be divided into more than 100 single courses or modules.

• The university’s platform called “Open Learning Center” is based on the “oracle iLearning” application.

Università Telematica Leonardo da Vinci

Scuola IaD – Università di Roma Tor Vergata• The institution has offered online courses since 2001.

• Scuola IaD is an interfaculty Unit of University of Rome Tor Vergata. It provides a wide range of online education courses (first cycle degrees, master, Continuing Education in Medicine, IT education as ECDL, EUCIP, IT administrator and Linux and adult continuous education).

• Scuola IaD can be considered a megaprovider of e-learning.

Nettuno-Network per l’Università Ovunque• Promoted in 1992 by the Ministry of the University and

Scientific and Technological Research, NETTUNO is a Distance University that starts off from traditional universities.

• Distance Teaching Method:

– Academic lessons (video lessons broadcast on satellite television channels RAI NETTUNO SAT 1 and RAI NETTUNO SAT 2 and on the Internet via satellite).

– Practical exercises on the Internet via satellite even through virtual laboratories.

– Distance tutoring by audio and video chat, forum and videoconferencing.

Università degli Studi Di Milano• The Milan University (Milano Statale) provides a

“Piattaforma Ateneo” called “Ariel”.

• This portal currently displays a variety of programmes and courses that are mainly based on blended learning approaches.

Università Bocconi (Milano)• This university calls its e-learning Project “B-Learning” and uses

“Lotus Learning Space” by IBM as a learning platform. The information given about the e-learning efforts undertaken by UNIBOCCONI indicates that this institution uses ICT exclusively

• to support traditional learning scenarios.

• Università Bocconi cannot be considered a megaprovider of e-learning.

Politecnico di Milano• The portal “COL” (Corsi Online) exists since 1998 and is a free

service that publishes the resources related to the face-to-face courses offered by the university. It also provides some communication tools in order to improve and facilitate contact between students and teachers.

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

• The Naples University offers online services over a portal called DoL – Didattica online.These services have the unique objective to enhance face-to-face courses. UNINA is therefore not a megaprovider of e-learning.

Politecnico di Torino

• Politecnico di Torino currently offers 7 graduate programmesfully online (6 in 2004/05).

E-learning Distance Education

in Malta

• The current supply of e-learning courses in

Malta is very weakly developed. There are

three public providers involved with e-

learning of which one, the University of

Malta, is still developing its first online

modules. The other two players are the

Department of Further Studies and Adult

Education and the Ministry of Investments,

Industry and Information Technology. Each

of them offers only one to two online

courses.

• No megaprovider of e-learning could be

identified in Malta.

E-learning Distance Education

in Portugal

Universidade do Porto

The institution (www.up.pt)

has currently about 28,000 students

at 15 different university schools or

faculties. The main objective has

always been to provide on-campus

students with an additional channel

alongside face-to- face studies.

Presently the University of

Porto offers about 70 online

courses for approximately 5,000

students.

Universidade do Minho

The University of Minho

(www.tecminho.pt) uses WebCT

to provide online courses to

their graduate students. The e-

Learning-Center TecMinho

itself is a University Interface

and deals with “Continuous

Training Courses” for on-

campus and off-campus targets

(having around 10 e-learning

courses per year).

Universidade Aberta

Universidade Aberta, the

Portuguese ODL state university, is

currently offering about 100 post-

graduate courses online, on a totally

virtual mode.

Universidade Aberta is also on

the process of converting its ODL

graduation courses to e-learning.

Consequently, it’s expected by the

end of the decade about 10,000

students will enroll every year on an

e-learning or online course by

Universidade Aberta.

E-learning Distance Education

in Spain

E-learning and Leading HE Institutions in

Spain

E-learning in Spain is at an

initial phase of development. There is

no specific policy on the part of the

central government or the regional

administrations to promote e-

learning; however, there are more

generic and horizontal plans that

indirectly promote e-learning

projects.

Universidad Nacional de Educación a

Distancia – UNED

The UNED (www.uned.es)

is a distance teaching public

university created in 1972. The

institution started to use WebCT.

Later it developed an open

source platform under the name

of aLF (www.innova.uned.es).

The UNED has more than

180,000 students and declares

itself the university with the

largest number of online courses

in Spain.

Universidad de La Laguna

The Universidad de La

Laguna uses MOODLE as

its VLE. Currently about 150

online courses offered.

(www.ull.es)

(www.campusvirtual.ull.es).

Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The University (www.ulpgc.es)

offers over the Virtual Campus 5 full

degrees, 7 master programmes, 23

specialization programmes that sum a

total number of more than 450 online

courses.

Universidad Politécnica de València

The “Área de Universidad

Politécnica Abierta (AUPA)” is

the university’s institution in

charge of promoting the use of

ICT in teaching. It encourages

the use of the VLE, offers

teacher’s training to improve

online teaching and also detects

educational and technical needs

in the context of e-learning.

Currently there are almost

18.000 postgraduate online

students that can enroll in more

than 250 courses.

Universitat de Barcelona Virtual

The UB-virtual is the result

of a joint initiative carried out

by “Universitat de Barcelona”

and Caixa Catalunya and

Santander Central Hispano, two

important banks, that represent

the private part of the operation.

The UB-virtual as the

distance learning part of the

joint institution offers a large

number of online courses (over

60 master programs, almost 100

certificate online courses, more

than 200 extension university

diplomas) onWebCT.

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

The Open University of

Catalonia (www.uoc.edu) was

created in 1994 and is the first

entirely virtual university

worldwide.

Its educational activity has

been frequently awarded

(educational quality, best online

and distance university, world’s

best digital opportunity, best

European educational initiative)

and has a constant and sustained

organic growth.

CEPADE – Universidad Politécnica de

Madrid (UPM)CEPADE (www.cepade.es) -

Centro de Estudios de Postgrado de

Administración de Empresas – (Centre

of postgraduate studies of company

management) was founded in 1971 to

cover an increasing demand of

knowledge in the field of company

management. CEPADE belongs

administratively to FGUPM (Fundación

General de la Universidad Politécnica

de Madrid, a foundation created with

the aim to promote science, culture and

education within the general objectives

of the UPM) but is academically

integrated in the UPM. As a result, all

CEPADE degrees are in fact

postgraduate degrees by the UPM.