1. North Europe

2. E-learning Distance Education
in Ireland

3. E-learning Leading Providers:
Dublin City University
•Dublin City University was the first major university in the
world to adopt the Open Source Learning Management System
(LMS)/Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Moodle.
•The Irish National Distance Education Centre (Oscail) is run as
a faculty of Dublin City University.
•All 3,400 of DCU’s academic modules are set up online on the
Moodle system. 800 of these are actively used for e-learning.
There are also 70 active courses used for credit purposes
(courses to support students at the programme level, courses
used as staff communications areas.)

4.  Social. The National Distance Education Centre
Described above see under Dublin City University.
 Trinity College, Dublin, Dublin University
• E-learning at Trinity College started in 1998. Trinity College had
400 modules or courses online. It has 9,000 students enrolled on its
WebCT system. This represents 60% of Dublin University’s 15,000
FTES (full time equivalent students).
• Trinity College uses a blended approach to e-learning.
• The Trinity e-learning philosophy has been to use a blended learning
approach and to reduce contact hours ad to put resources on the web.
Their aim is to keep the virtual and the traditional together and they
would not support a structure in which the student does not come in
to the University at all.

5.  National University of Ireland, Galway
• E-learning at NUI is led by the university’s Centre for
Excellence in Learning and Teaching.
• The university uses the Blackboard Virtual Learning
Environment (VLE). Blackboard is used for everything.
• Almost every department in the university uses e -learning
in all their courses. There has been a steep growth rate of
e-learning in recent years. It is difficult to calculate the
number of modules in use as there is great variety of use
including professional development for staff and
discussion groups for students.
• There are many variants of e-learning use: blended
courses/intensive courses, courses with a small amount of
e-learning/courses offered fully online.

6.  University College Cork
• At UCC each department runs its own e-learning offering. The
university’s Learning Technologies Unit has an advisory role for
the whole university, runs the Virtual Learning Environment, and
assists the departments in materials development and other
activities.
 University College Dublin
• The development of E-learning at University College Dublin has
been an evolutionary process. It started at what is now the
Teaching and Learning Centre using the Learning Management
System TopClass.
• Then the Business School of UCD commenced e-learning using
the Learning Management System Blackboard which was run
from the Computer Laboratory.
• A third aspect of e-learning at UCD is the Audio Visual Media
Centre which develops elearning content for the departments.
 Kilroy’s College
• Kilroy’s College is the commercial Irish distance education
institution. It has 10 e-learning courses. These courses have 400
students.

7. E-learning Distance Education
in the United Kingdom

8. Leading E-learning HE Institutions in the UK
 The University of Leicester
 Manchester Metropolitan
University
 Staffordshire University
 University of Ulster
 The Open University

9.  The University of Leicester
The university has 1,000 modules on its Blackboard Virtual
Learning Environment (VLE) and it also has started research on
mobile learning. All 19,000 students at the university have
access to the VLE with 7,000 of them counting as e-learning
enrolments.
 Manchester Metropolitan University
The university has 1,000 e-learning modules which are
available to over 30,000 students at the university.
 Staffordshire University
The university has 350 e-learning courses. It has 5,000-6,000
students and they are enrolled in 12,000 e-learning courses.

10.  University of Ulster
The University of Ulster runs 222 e-learning courses, and has
1,300 fulltime online students each enrolled in many courses.
 The Open University of the United Kingdom (www.open.ac.uk)
All students are distance education students. It is estimated that
online versions have been produced for 375 OU courses with 11,000 e-
learning enrolments.

11. E-learning Distance Education
in Sweden

12. The University of Lund
The University of Lund
www.lu.se was identified as a
large provider of online
courses in both the CISAER
and the Web-edu projects.
The University has now
6000 Luvit-users and 250
online courses.

13. Swedish HE Institutions - EDEN Members
 CFL - Swedish Agency for Flexible Learning www.cfl.se
 Lulea University of Technology www.ltu.se
 Lund University www.ltu.se
 Malmö University - Teacher Education www.lut.mah.se
 Örebro University www.oru.se
 The Regional Association of HE in SW Jonköping University
 SADE - Swedish Assocation for Distance Education
www.sverd.org
 Swedish Agency for Networks and Cooperation in Higher
Education www.nshu.se
 University of Gavle www.hig.se

14. E-learning Distance Education
in Denmark

15. Danish education is firmly rooted
in a long-standing tradition for
learning through ‘the living word’ as
opposed to the printed word (Nipper,
2003:219). It emphasizes online
education that includes face-to- face
seminars and collaborative learning..

16. In the middle of the 1990s the
Danish government established The
Centre for Technology Supported
Education (CTU). CTU was meant to
be a national knowledge centre for
pedagogical use of ICT, providing
funding to pedagogical ICT projects
at Danish universities, colleges and
schools.
In 2000 the project funding was
discontinued and CTU was closed
down. In its place the Danish
government established Learning Lab
Denmark (LLD) as a unit at the
Danish Pedagogical University to do
research in learning, including ICT
and learning. LLD still exists as a
research unit.

17. In education the Danish
government around the turn of the
century tried to establish Danish
Virtual University (DVU) as a
coordinating agency and a common
portal for e-learning in Danish
higher education. After some period
of heated discussions the
responsibility for the DVU
development was handed over to the
universities and nothing much has
happened since then. There is quite a
number of interesting research and
development done in the field of ICT
and learning.
Distance education and e-
learning, however, remain small
scale activities.

18. Two institutions were identified
as large providers of online courses
by both the CISAER and the Web-
edu projects:
 Center of Distance Learning
www.cfu.dk had 500 online
students and 41 online courses
according to the CISAER
Project.
 Danmarks Netskole
www.netskole.dk had 7,000 course
enrolments and 40 online courses
according to the Web-edu project .

19. The following institution in Denmark is a member of EADL (European
Association of Distance Learning):
 Akademisk Brevskole A/S www.akademisk-brevskole.dk
The following institutions in Denmark are members of EDEN (European
Distance and E-learning Network):
 Copenhagen Business School http://cbs.dk
 HK/Privat www.hkprivat.dk/default.asp
 The Danish Association for Flexible Learning www.fluid.dk
 Tietgen Business College www.tietgen.dk
 The Danish member of EADTU is the Danish Association of Open
Universities (DAOU) http://mit.au.dk/daou.

20. E-learning Distance Education
in Finland

21. Two major sources about
e- learning published in
Finland are:
 eLearning in Finland -
Enhancing Knowledge-based
Society Development
(Markkula 2004)
Utbilda via Internet–
Handbok i IT-pedagogik.
LearnIT (Nyberg and
Strandvall, 2000).

22. The University of Tampere
The Open University system in
Finland is based on the Open
University in Great Britain and
started in 1970 at the University of
Tampere. Before that, Open
University education had been
available in summer universities.
More than 80,000 students
participate in Open University
education every year. Open
University education is available at
200 localities throughout
Finland.(www.avoinyliopisto.fi/en-
GB/open/intro.html).

23. The Finnish Virtual University
The Finnish Virtual University
(www.virtuaaliyliopisto.fi) is a
partnership of all 21 Finnish
universities. As described in the
article Nordic Virtual Universities
(Paulsen 2003), it is based on
collaboration, division of labour,
shared knowledge and the expertise
of these member universities. It
promotes online learning and
teaching and develops compatible
information infrastructures. It is not
a university in itself and does not
provide university education.

24. Markkinointi Instituutti (EADL)
Markkinointi Instituutti
(www.markinst.fi) is an independent
educational establishment providing
vocational and continuing training for
adults. According to the institute’s web
pages in English, it specializes in
further training and re-training. It has
over 50 standard examinations and
training programmes. Completing one
examination or diploma lasts from 3
months to 2 years. The Institute of
Marketing uses an integrated teaching
system, which combines innovatively
various distance-teaching and face-to-
face teaching forms supported by
modern educational technology and
media.

25. Institute for Distance Studies Distis
The Institute for Distance Studies
Distis (www.svefol.net/distis) was
founded in 1928 under the name the
Swedish Correspondence Institut in
Finland. The aim of the institute is to
provide increased opportunities for
education through distance courses for
the Swedishspeaking minority in Finland.
Distis is one of two distance study
institutes in Finland, the other catering for
the needs of the Finnish-speakers.
Through current education legislation,
both are attached to a folk high school.
The Finnish member of EADTU
is the Finnish Association for
Distance Education (FADE)
www.fade.fi.

26. E-learning Distance Education in
Norway

27. NKI Distance Education
NKI DE (www.nki.no) is a part
of the NKI group and offers courses
within higher education, secondary
level education and vocational
training. More than half of the
students follow their courses online
and a majority of the courses are
given online.

28. NKS Distance Education
NKS DE (www.
nks.no) offers courses
within higher education,
secondary level education
and vocational training. In
2005, NKS DE offered 104
online courses and thus
qualifies as a megaprovider.

29. BI Distance Education
BI Distance Education (BI DE)
(www.bi.no) is a part of BI
(Norwegian School of Management),
an on campus based institution. BI
DE provides courses within higher
education and vocational training. BI
DE had about 8500 course
enrolments in 54 online courses in
2005 and thus qualifies as a
megaprovider.

30. Sør-Trøndelag University College
Sør-Trøndelag University
College offers courses at higher
education level. In 2005, the
institutions had about 2500
enrolments in 148 online courses,
and thus qualifies as a
megaprovider.

31. The Norwegian Networked University
The Norwegian Networked
University (www.nvu.no) is a consortium
presently consisting of 1 university and 5
university colleges.
These are: Agder University
College, Bergen University College,
Nord-Trøndelag University College,
Stord/Haugesund University College,
Sør-Trøndelag University College and
University of Stavanger. Today the
consortium has several activities aimed at
building knowledge and competence
within e-learning provision and has
important dissemination activities.