Wimba+Absentee+Summary


 * OMDE601 9041**
 * Wimba Session Summary**

The first part of the Wimba Session deals with a presentation of the three most important classification schemes for DE institutions: classification by institutional mode, classification by generations of technology, classification by educational approach. Besides these classical typologies, Sarah Guri-Rosenblitt mentions some additional parameters as: classification by institution size, by funding, by access policy, by diploma types, and by support systems. She then goes on to explain that every typology can be broken down to subcategories and demonstrates this on the example of Single mode institutions which can be categorized for example according to their scope of operations, the development of study materials, their admission requirements, their technological infrastructure and others. Some examples for different types of Single mode institutions are: the UK Open University, the Fernuniversität Hagen, the China Central Radio and TV University, the National Technology University, and the Phoenix University.

In the second part, the course assignment is explained.

The two components of the assignment are: 1) the discussion, choice and description of a classification scheme for DE institutions within the study group; in order to show that the defined classification scheme works it has to be applied to a chosen DE institution; 2) the research of six DE institutions in individual work based on the chosen classification scheme.

As beginning steps of the study group work, after a roll call among the members of each study group, the group tasks should be clarified for each member. Before discussing the classification schemes the group should agree on a common schedule and the different roles and responsibilities of the group members. Then the classification schemes have to be discussed. One out of them has to chosen and to be further defined. A rapporteur has to be selected to post the results.

Some important guidelines for the group work are to use the study group conference and collaborative documents, to draw up a schedule corresponding to the deadline and to break up the task in consecutive steps, and to organize the group space in such a way that it is well structured and easy to follow.

If for example a study group member does not show up, the instructors should be informed and the other members should go on with their work. If the group encounters group dynamic problems, each member should try to keep professionalism and eventually contact the instructor in order to keep them informed.

Once the group work is completed the rapporteur has to post the final version of the group’s classification scheme to the main conference area. Afterwards the individual work starts as described above.