Lessons to be Learned from the Project and Process of Supported E-Learning at the Virtual Women’s University

Summary

The vifu sub-project “Moderated Learning in the Internet” was conducted as part of the International Women’s University (ifu) in co-operation with the project area City located at the University of Kassel and the Centre for Distance Learning and Continuing Education at the University of Hildesheim. This took place in the summer of 2000, more or less parallel to the EXPO World Fair. This virtual project dedicated itself to the development, testing and evaluation of an (Internet-based) moderated learning, research and work process. In their research activities, the project area’s (women) scholars were to be transformed into a ‘learning community’. In order to achieve this, the scholars were to make use of an Internet-based work and communications platform. The intention was for the resources developed to be taken over by the international network. The project was made possible with the help of the Hyperwave eLearning Suite, a platform which combines a number of possibilities for communication, knowledge transfer and the structuring of work materials. By means of a browser, it may be used independently of the platform itself.

The following reports on the project results with particular respect to the possibilities available on the Internet and the corresponding moderated learning and research processes. Furthermore, it offers insight into which elements of Internetbased learning and working environments are — from a didactic, technical, and communicative perspective — essential to attain attractive online-supported developments.

Translated by Heather MacRae.