Rahmenwerk für zielgruppenorientiertes Blended E-Learning im MINT-Bereich im Kontext des Lebenslangen Lernens

Abstract

Today’s life is permeated by the internet, barely anything is not "networked" or "electronically disposable". The world is changing, the "information society" is consuming information in real-time on mobile devices, irrespective of time and space. This also partly applies for the education and advanced training: By "e-learning" is understood the electronic support of learning which takes place "online"; digital contents are available via internet. Furthermore, living conditions of the so called "digital natives", the young individuals of the information society, have changed. They claim educational systems which are flexible concerning time as well as space and expect comprehensive digital availability of information of the educational institutions. They do not want to subordinate their lives to curriculums or schedules – but learning shall fit their own lives and shall be taking place lifelong. New "learning scenarios", e.g. for single parent part-time students or working people shall be made practicable easily. This shall be achieved by a paradigm acquired by the European Union which is consolidated under the term "lifelong learning". Both, e-learning as well as lifelong learning, gain in importance since the (German) economy address the "shortage of skilled workers". The demand for specifically trained engineers of the STEM sector shall be satisfied quickest possible as well as closing the "gap of employees" to furthermore secure the increase and wealth. Specific e-learning solutions for the STEM sector have the potential to offer a fast as well as flexible education and advanced training for engineers in which concrete requirements of the industry based on expert knowledge are communicated. Problem: At the moment there is no such system yet. What are the requirements for such an e-learning application in the STEM sector? Next to new technology it especially needs to fulfill the functional requirements of the STEM sector, of the diverse target groups (like e.g. educational institutions, learners or digital natives, industry) as well as lifelong learning’s paradigm, i.e. the technical and conceptual requirements need to be merged. Against this background, the work at hand provides a framework for the compilation of such a solution. The practical results are based on the blended e-learning system of the project "Online Computer Engineering" (VHN-TIO).