MegaTrends

MegaTrends was a project to seek to identify the "MegaTrends" in e-learning:

• what are the rules for achieving critical mass in e-learning
• what are the rules for moving from a small scale fragile e-learning provider to a large scale permanent and successful e-learning institution.

The project’s aim was to enhance public knowledge on sustainable and cost-effective large-scale e-learning by analyzing the trends and contributions to large-scale success and to identify laws and recommendations for success and failure in e-learning.

The project had the following specific objectives:

• To identify the MegaTrends of e-learning provision and promulgate them widely.
• To survey the MegaProviders of e-learning in Europe and publish the listing of institutions that meet the criteria established in the project.
• To analyze the mega providers of e-learning to identify examples of cost-effective, large scale elearning.
• To evaluate the mega providers of e-learning to identify examples of sustainable online development
• To study cost-effectiveness in selected public and private institutions that provide large scale e-learning.
• To study e-learning initiatives, which did not, reached targeted goals.
• To identify trends and characteristics of e-learning initiatives which were closed and did not reach targeted goals.
• To identify and formulate laws and recommendations on e-learning success and failure
• To valorize and disseminate the results widely both nationally and internationally

Expected Outcomes/Results:

Result 1. The identification of the Mega Trends in e-learning provision.

Result 2. Listing of Mega Providers in e-learning.

Result 3. Toolbox with models and templates for analysis of cost-effectiveness and sustainability

Result 4. Analyses of cases of excellence on cost-effectiveness and sustainability. Evaluations of Mega Providers in e-learning

Result 5. The identification and survey of e-learning initiatives, which did not reach targeted goals.

Result 6. Trends and characteristics of e-learning initiatives, which did not reach targeted goals.

Result 7. Recommendations on major e-learning provision.

Result 8. Valorisation results.

This material is taken from the MegaTrends web site at http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/, hosted at NKI - which links to a comprehensive set of resources.

Outcomes

The project Megatrends in e-Learning Provision has produced four main reports (downloadable in PDF) which can be found on this wiki page: Megatrends in e-Learning Provision.

The project set up these strict criteria for inclusion as a megaprovider. The institution had to either:

• Enroll more than 5000 enrollments in e-earning courses per year or
• Have more than 100 online courses on offer at any one time provided that
• Institutions whose e-learning provision was from a base in the United States of America or elsewhere outside Europe would not be included in the surveys

and provided also that

• The students were distance education students, that is students who did at least 50.1% of their course off-campus.

The case studies are marked with the category Category:Megatrends.

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