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FUEL Capacity Building
FUEL Capacity Building
Start date: Sep 1, 2014,
End date: Aug 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Adult Education institutions intending to meet the needs of their learners in the new millenium must build their e-learning capacity. For most people e-learning is already a cultural expectation in Education. Not having e-learning tools, competence and suitable online and net-based course flexibility will eventually be unacceptable and unworkable for education providers in the brave new digital age.
Folkeuniversitetet enters this year, 2014, achieving its 150th anniversary. Our aim as an institution is to provide quality lifelong learning opportunities accessible to all adults regardless of social background, location or demographic. E-learning is a key strategy for helping provide and achieve this aim in the future. Hence, in terms of objectives for the project, the FUEL CB project (Folkeuniversitetet E-Learning Capacity Building) will enable staff to develop greater knowledge, competence and understanding in e-learning and thereby build our capacity to provide more flexible, modern courses and opportunities. Our aim is that the knowledge and ideas that our participants acquire will filter throughout the organisation and better provide for the growing needs and expectations of our learners. In effect the professional development and networking opportunities will build competence and innovation and this in turn will strengthen motivation to help 'fuel' to our e-learning aims.
A further objective is to 'fuel' vision and ongoing strategies to build our capacity to embrace and include a greater range of e-learning possibilities in Adult education. Participants attending the activities will pass onto colleagues vision and understanding regarding the scope and nature of the technological changes taking place in education, particularly Adult long life learning. Further, participants will return freshly driven, motivated and inspired to inspire others toward more innovation for the benefit of our organisation and our learning community. When our learners are inspired then we also achieve.
The key persons who attend as participants will consist of teamleaders, teachers and technical development and support staff. The selected participants will represent a cross-section of different curriculum, administrative or technical areas that can most effectively share, disseminate or implement the ideas, knowledge and competences that they acquire. As leaders, teachers and technical experts, they are able to disseminate key information in meetings and workshops and are well-disposed to implement new ideas into procedures, operations and subject areas. Teachers can present and teach the ideas that they acquire and include new ideas in e-learning initiatives. Tech representatives, responsible for development and support in our e-learning initiatives will return with greater capacity to support the ongoing development and implementation of e-learning tools and courses.
The activities proposed in our project application focus on courses and conferences with strong Adult education and e-learning themes. The EDEN conference focuses on Europen Distance Education. The Educa Online Conference focuses on vision and innovation and represents a high quality opportunity to network and expand knowledge in e-learning. The IATEFL conference features one of the largest gatherings of Educationalists across Europe and around the world and is a highly productive networking opportunity with strong e-learning themes. Finally the IATED Educalearn conference has a strong International angle, a central focus on vision and innovation and substantial emphasis on meeting individual needs through technology particularly with regard to distance education opportunities, in a way that is directly relevant to the needs of learners like ours. All the above represent outstanding opportunities for participants to acquire a glimpse into the future of Education and return to their institutions with ideas to inspire and build capacity.
We will follow an adaptive project management methodology in our FUEL CB project. We expect that in each of our proposed activities we will acquire knowledge and competence which will be surprising, unexpected and new. With an adaptive methodology we are more open to new ideas and innovation. Further, the aim will be to adapt the tools and systems we already have to new ways of thinking. We want to meet the evolving needs of our learners first by addressing our knowledge and thinking outside of the norm in order to provide a meaningful and engaging platform for our learners. Hence our aim is ongoing adaptation to the needs of our learners and development of our learning platform to new ideas and opportunities aided by cooperation with other Adult learning providers.
Overall, as Folkeuniversitetet launches into its next 150 years of Adult learner dedication, we believe our FUEL CB creation will meet the needs of the growing lifelong learning generation.