Finnish Association for Distance Education

The Finnish Association for Distance Education (FADE) is an association for distance education institutions or organisations in Finland which offer higher education at a distance. It includes 10 universities and university colleges.

FADE was founded to coordinate cooperation at a national level and to promote international cooperation, research work and training in areas of distance education. In the 1970s, instead of establishing a special institution, distance education was introduced into many existing higher educational institutions. FADE membership also includes companies and correspondence institutions.

FADE's objectives are to promote the development of distance education, to encourage the research and development of methods and techniques used in distance education. The association functions as its members representative in relation to public authorities, councils and other institutions and organisations.

FADE has headquarters at Helsinki University of Technology Life Long Learning Centre DIPOLI.

Its web site is at http://www.fade.fi

It is a member of EADTU.

Members

Distance education activities in Finnish universities are usually organised by the centres for continuing education which work as an integral part of the conventional universities. All Finnish universities are state-owned.

FADE has a special sector for cooperation of higher level distance education institutions with 10 member institutions. Six of these have established the cooperation in joining the EADTU activities. The active partners in this cooperation are the following institutions:

1. University of Helsinki, Lahti Research and Training Centre
2. Helsinki University of Technology, Lifelong Learning Institute Dipoli
3. University of Jyväskylä, Continuing Education Centre
4. University of Oulu, Continuing Education Centre
5. University of Tampere, Institute for Extension Studies
6. University of Turku, Centre for Extension Studies

These six universities have also joined the EuroStudyCentre Network.

Institutional Structure and Distance Education in Finland

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Distance education became a central part of the Finnish adult education strategy after the mid-1980s. After that, at a rapid rate, numerous projects were started to experiment with and develop distance education, particurarly in vocational adult education ane open university teaching.

A typical feature of Finnish open university distance education is cooperative organisation. Parties cooperating with the universities in implementing distance teaching include more than 270 civic and workers educational institutes (Adult education institutes) and ninety folk high schools.The basic task of the institutions is to organise general adult education in their own areas. There is thus a ready made network with lecture halls, some teleconferencing facilities and administrative staff covering the country. Universities have not had to develop their own separate study centre network outside their own campuses.

Each university decides annually which establishment will function as a location for distance education programmes. The institutions may cooperate with several universities. In addition to this cooperative organisation some universities have developed the courses, which can be studied independently. In these cases the study package normally includes all study material and informative material needed and the students are not taking part of tuition in the study centres.

For developing Open and flexible Distance Learning in Finland the ministry of education established a working group consisting of learning technology experts from public organisations and private companies. The representatives are teachers, tele operators, researhers, consultants, technology providers, multimedia producers and policy makers. According to the development plan there is a budget of 50 million FIM for 1994-1995 focusing on following areas:

• development of teacher's education (also continuing education)
• promoting of the distribution and development of learning material
• increasing the use of telecommunications in education
• starting pilot experiments for different parts of the development plan
• promotion of research for the use of different learning methods, learning materials and technologies
• stronger participation to international co-operation
• better informing and advising in use of new learning technologies
• development of national and regional co-operation
• promotion of planning, surveying and observation work in the field

Budget Level and Sources of Income

Financial sources differ from university to university. Mostly the state provides partial subsidy - through the Ministry of Education for Open University activities. Students pay fees also.

Student Profile

The Finnish open university studies are aimed at a very heterogenous audience. Usually, the students are accepted for the courses in order of registration, regardless of age or previous education. The Finnish open university students have mainly a degree in secondary higher education. The majority of students are studying parallel to their daily work - usually in the evening.

Traditionally, the age of an average student has been between 30 and 40 years. However now that youth unemployment has increased to a high level, the state has directed resourses to education in order to relieve the situation. As a result, the average age of students is now lover. Students in the open university are motivated by the desire to improve their general knowledge and professional skills - or to gain an academic degree.

Approximately 75% of students are women.

Estimated number of students registered in open university in 1994 is more than 50.000, of whom more than 15 % participated the distance education programmes.

Course Offers and Profile of Studies

The most popular subjects are: general education, psychology, law, social sciences and communication science.

Distance education courses have the same status as courses from a traditional university. It is not possible however to complete a masters degree through distance education.

Structure of Course Programmes

Course offered are modular.Many advanced studies can be undertaken by distance education. However despite very few exceptions (eg. some tailor-made, target group specific courses) students can not obtain a degree (a Finnish Masters degree) only by studies undertaken at a distance.

Study Load

After completing 60 study units (out of 160 required for a masters degree) a student will get permission to finish studies at a traditional university.

Access

Admission to universities (for 'conventional study') is restricted. A baccalaureate degree and passing an admission test are required. However access to distance taught courses is in practical terms open and after completion of 60 study units a person is granted permission to finish studies at a university.

Enrolment

Usually takes place through the different study centres.

Assessment

Assessment and certification is completed in accordance to the rules and practices of the (conventional) university studies and by university staff. In some experimental projects individual study centres have also been involved in assessment and certification of students.

Credit Point Recognition

Credits are normally transferable between institutions.

Fees Charged

Fees are dependent on the amount of study material and tuition the student receives as part of the programme. These vary from one university to another and from course to course (from 200 to 1500 FIM).

Course Delivery and Student Support

The Finnish pattern of distance education is largely a cooperative activity which utilises the existing educational networks.

The course delivery is based on combination of independent studies and group activities supported by the study material and telematic based interaction between other students and the teacher. In open university studies the curriculum is constructed especially for distance education.

The traditional mode of teaching takes place through different study centres by a small group instruction with different groups linked by audio conferencing or audiographics - videoconferencing has been used to a limited extent.

Principal Teaching Medium

Course study material is mainly text

Complementary Material

Audiocassettes, videocassettes and also computer aided learning material.

Support Services

Students receive study guidance and support from several persons, the tutor, other students, the distance learning coordinator, the representative of the adult education centre and the university teacher. Activities are undertaken by universities and local study centres.

Study Centres

Continuing education centres were established in universities. All 21 Finnish higher education institutions have supplementary training centres as well as 38 regional teaching locations. This network of training centres covers the whole country. Much of the teaching organised by the centres is face-to-face and extra-mural. Nearly one-fifth of the students participate in distance education courses.

The student support system is one of the most important areas of development work. There are over 270 study centres. The study centres do not usually have permanent teachers for university level distance education but for each course part -time teachers are hired. The role of the universities is to plan and coordinate distance education programmes, to produce study material, train teachers, and to evaluate study performance as well as deliver certification.

FADE has participated from the beginning to EuroStudyCentre-project and six universities have been nominated as studycentres. Universities participating the EuroStudyCentre-project are the Universities of Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Oulu, Tampere and Turku and Helsinki University of Technology.

Course Development and Production

Courses are designed by teams with representatives from continuing education centres and university faculties.

Quality Assurance

Pedagogical and standards/quality control is done by the committees of university faculties.

Media Methods and Technology

Opportunities for direct contact between students and teacher are enhanced by the availability of the modern telecommunications network. Audioconferencing has been widely used in distance teaching programmes during last five years. As an extension of audioconferencing, audiographics has also been ued by most of the universities. Computer Mediated Communication (email, computer conferencing etc.) is spreading quickly to higher distance education and virtual learning environments are under design and realisation (for example AGORA in the University of Oulu). The use of videoconferencing has also increased a lot in distance teaching programmes as the communication and purchase costs are coming down. The Finnish Broadcasting Company has more and more important role in distance education and there has also been experiments in using cable-TV and the channels of private local radio companies in distance programmes.

Research activities

In connection with the current open university distance education projects, research has been focused special attention on the following issues:

• targeting distance education
• didactic questions in distance education
• functionality of the distance education system from the students point of view
• guidance and support for study
• new teaching technology in distance education
• educational technology
• costs of distance education
• tailoring international material to Finnish programmes
• developing information, advising and guidance systems.

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