Finnish Virtual University - lessons learned from the development Stavanger NVU-konferansen 2003 Pekka Kess

Information Society –Virtual Finland CountryScoreNetworked Readiness Index Rank Finland5.921 United States5.792 Singapore5.743 Sweden5.584 Iceland5.515 Canada5.446 United Kingdom5.357 Denmark5.338 Taiwan5.319 Germany5.29 Finland Tops Rankings in IT Report Finland Tops Rankings in IT Report Global Information Technology Report Now Available The Report is the most comprehensive, cross-country assessment of the state of information technology, covering 82 economies around the world. Global Competitiveness Programme Competitiveness Reports

ADMINISTRATION By the year 2004 a high-quality, ethically and economically sustainable network-based model of organising teaching and research will have been consolidated. Education, Training and Research in the Information Society; A National Strategy for There will be set up a virtual university by 2004 based on a consortium of several universities, business enterprises and research institutes. It will produce and offer internationally competitive, high-standard educational services. Information Strategy for Education and Research ; Implementation Plan THE FINNISH VISION

ADMINISTRATION Founded in January 2001 Consortium of the all (=21) Finnish universities A service organisation for the member universities - not a new university Not awarding credits or degrees – the right for that retained within the member universities All funding from the government plus universities themselves – funding for the development phase secured until the end of 2003 No fees for students THE FINNISH VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY PAREMETERS 1/2

ADMINISTRATION THE FINNISH VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY PAREMETERS 2/2 Quality control by the members themselves - No external accreditation Portal, services and the complete concept in full operation in 2004 Portal 1/4 - FinnishNov 2001 Portal 1/4 - SwedishJan 2002 Portal 1/4 - EnglishMar 2002 Portal 2/4 - FinnishJan 2003 Portal 2/4 – Swedish/EnglishMar 2003 Portal 3/4 Jan 2004 Portal 4/4 Oct 2004

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 1/9 Guiding values: trust between each of the members of the consortium academic critics creativity value of academic expertise ethically sound soltions equality in terms of location, size, etc of the members international sustainable development high quality econimically sound solutions

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 2/9 Strategic goals to: utilise the stenghts of each member university enable each university to concentrate better on the basic tasks of research, education and related services enhance the collaboration strenghten the international position of the member universities improve the attractiveness of the member universities among students, teachers and other stakeholders save resources in the long run

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 3/9 Services supporting teaching and learing: teaching based on academic research is the task of the member universities FVU services are those produced by the members of the consortium and used widely covering areas of: –tutoring, –guidance, –administration, –information management –training and advising these services In the FVU framework following projects will be carried out: –projects for joint services, –projects for regional actions –projects for interdiciplinary national networks

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 3/9 Services supporting teaching and learing (cont…): The goal of the development of teaching and learning platforms is in such environments where the collaboration between the teachers and academic experts is at the center point. These systems will in time replace systems where ICT is used primarly in storing, copying, combining and delivering data. The goal is that the universities will get a great number of new educational modules, programms and parts of degrees produced by themselves or with network collaboration. The objective here is promote student enrollment to these studies.

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 4/9 Services supporting research: Services and platforms for students as well as the supported network type work of the teachers are key services for the reaserach activties as well Services supporting contract administartion Digital information management together with the academic libraries and other ’owners’ of digital materials Meta data management development for the needs of academic research

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 5/9 International issues : international activities are a key element of academic research and education – this will be supported by helping in –recruiting student and staff from abroad –designing and delivering education in other languages participation in selected international network activities to support the strategic goals international dissemination of the Finnish approach and knowledge

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 6/9 Organisational issues: Key actors are in the project phase (>> 2004) –FVU Consortium –University networks –University internal projects –FVU contact person network –FVU Development Unit Key actors are in the established phase (>> 2004) –FVU Consortium / board –University networks –FVU Center

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 7/9 Marketing issues: services are disseminated widely to all potential users PR, training and related activities are used FVU portal will be the most used marketing tool

ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC ISSUES 8/9 Quality issues: Goals are that the services: –meet the needs of the universities, –are technically well designed, –can be maintaned economically –can be accepted in international collaboration and evaluation Evaluation phases: –Portal and connected services: usability –Peer evaluation of networked production –Teacher ICT knowledge level evaluation –FVU external (International ) evaluation in collaboration with FHEAB

ADMINISTRATION Strategic approach summary Less friction to study in other universities (in Finland) Distributed developement Centralised standardisation STRATEGIC ISSUES 9/9

ADMINISTRATION FUNDING Budget for 2003 –Ministry of Education (MoE): total ca. 9 M € split between individual universities (½) University network projects (½) –ESF + private funding: : 0.7 M € for the portal building, PR and training –plus resources as synergy from other national initiatives and intra-university projects Anticipated MoE and ESF funding for 2004 at least on the current level 2005 onwards yet open

STUDY Connet – Cognitive Science and Cognitive Engineering Education of Organic Chemistry Electronic Postgraduate Studies in Law Finnish Virtual University of History Finland Futures Academy KasVi – The Virtual University of Educational Sciences Mathematical Modelling MOVE – Music Education in the Net The National University Network for East and South-East Asian Studies OSCu – Open Source CoUrseware Psykonet – Network University of Psychology Russian Studies Online SOSNET – A National University Network for Social Work TieDot – Distance Education of Scientific Information Skills University Network for Communication Sciences The Virtual University of Literary Studies

STUDY IQ-FORM – Intelligent Questionnaire IT-Peda – Network to Enhance Knowledge on On-line Teaching and Learning in Finnish Universities OVI – The Project for Developing the Virtual Environment for Assessing and Counselling SUVI – Open University in Finland TieVie – Information and Communication Technology in Higher Education – National Teacher Training Programme

TEACHING Regional initiatives Eastern Finland Virtual University Network Helsinki Business Campus Learning Center – Developing of New Ways of Teaching and Studying

ADMINISTRATION IPR management model contracts support services Project management Life cycle model Project management handbook Training material ICT Strategy formation strategy process model strategy kowledge base virtual libarary case histories SERVICES

Crossing the Chasm Vertical niche markets Whole product Compelling application Dominant position Strong reference base De facto standards … then Horizontal Market Development CROSSING THE CHASM

Project Outcome (%)Project Size in Function Points < ,0001, >5000 Cancelled > 12 months late On time Early > 6 months late SOME AMATEURS!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES PRODUCT OBJECTIVES THE FVU PORTAL IT-Peda – interest group SETTING THE TARGETS!

Mobilizing the FVU (?) CHALLENGES

Thank you!