NKI Distance Education

NKI Distance Education is the leading distance education institution in Norway and claims to be the largest distance education institution in Northern Europe.

NKI Distance Education was one of the first institutions world-wide to offer online education when it in 1987 launched its first online distance learning courses based on a conferencing system developed internally specifically for distance education. Since then NKI online education is based on large-scale integration of technology and systems for distance education.

NKI Distance Education offers over 450 courses and study programmes at secondary and undergraduate level, as well as specialized vocational training courses in various fields. The institution employs some 60 full-time and 250 part-time tutors. Each year, NKI Distance Education has around 20,000 active students out of a Norwegian population of 4.6 million inhabitants.

NKI Distance Education is recognized by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and receives each year government grants towards operating costs.

Its web site in English is at http://www.nki.no/in_english.xsql

Levels of study

Higher Education

NKI Distance Education offers a range of subjects leading to examinations at undergraduate level, partly in collaboration with public universities and university colleges. Higher education courses cover a broad spectrum of subjects in the fields of information technology, philosophy, psychology, education, economics and business administration.

Upper Secondary Education

At upper secondary level NKI Distance Education offers courses and training leading to examinations in general studies, health and social studies, design studies, hotel and catering, mechanical trades, building and construction and electrical trades.

Online distance education

(sourced from http://www.nki.no/in_english.xsql?menyID=39&this=1133&artid=696)

NKI started net-based education as early as 1987. NKI distinguished between three technological generations of electronic distance education

1. The first generation system, which was based upon the EKKO computer conferencing system developed at NKI, was in operation from 1987 to 1993.
2. The second generation, which was Internet-based, started in January 1994.
3. The third generation, which comprises web-based courses, was introduced in 1996. NKI experiences are reported in several articles available at http://nettskolen.nki.no/pub/artikkel.xsql?artid=114. A detailed case description is available in NKI Fjernundervisning: Two Decades of Online Sustainability .

All NKI Internet-based distance education courses and programmes have the following criteria in common:

• All or part of the course material is available on the Internet.
• The students must be able to communicate with each other via the Internet.
• The students must be able to communicate with the teacher via the Internet.

NKI is now in the process of providing Internet-based communication between students and teachers in all distance education programmes.

In 1999 roughly one quarter of the courses and programmes at NKI Distance Education were offered through NKI Electronic College or as a combination of internet- and postal-based education.

In 2007, nearly all 450 courses and programmes are offered online, and in 2006 NKI Distance Education registered more than 16,000 online course enrolments.

As of February 2007 NKI has over 8,600 active students in online courses.

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