BIS

BIS stands for “Begeleid Individueel Studeren” (“Guided Independent Study”) and is a service of the Ministry of the Flemish Community, Department of Education. BIS wants to offer the official distance learning in two basic forms: traditional in writing (classic courses on paper), as well as fully online courses (BIS online). BIS Online profiled itself as online, web-based distance learning and all teaching aspects were offered online. The origin of BIS goes back to 1965, the very beginning of distance education in writing in Belgium. From November 2003, the BIS-courses were also offered through the Internet. (The decision to do so was already taken in 2000.) Both systems were developed separately and organizationally separated.

In the beginning of 2007, the Minister of Education decided to reduce BIS as the provision of education was not considered to be a core task of a Ministry that should be more involved with educational policy making. A distinction was made between the written courses and BIS Online. BIS Online was a fairly recent application where students had access to an interactive educational website with support. The offer was found quite stimulating: those students who had access made quite intensive use of the possibilities. Therefore, the continuity of BIS Online was secured by transferring it to VDAB that was also developing an electronic learning platform.

For the more traditional courses in writing, the situation was different. In this format, students buy a certain course, and they get a number of tasks that are corrected by mentors. If a student submits all his tasks he received a certificate. The statistics however show that only 16 out of 100 students submitted tasks during the first year. Only 10% of the students submitted all their tasks after three years. The Ministry had become a developer and disseminator of courses but not much was done with it. Therefore the service was discontinued and more space was created for initiatives of experienced players in the education and training field (e.g. Centers for Adult Education and VDAB).

For two specific target groups, the written courses are still offered: for prisoners (as they are not able to use BIS Online) and for candidates that want to do an exam at the Vlaamse Examencommissie (“Flemish Exam Commission”).

References:

• Ministerie Onderwijs stopt met eigen schriftelijk afstandsonderwijs, 6 maart 2007.
• Vlaams Parlement Handelingen. Commissievergadering 17 januari 2008. Commissie voor Onderwijs, Vorming, Wetenschap en Innovatie