Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Roundtable: World Cafe: The Use of E-Learning for Higher Education within Public Policy Relevant Initiatives

(Education and Employment in a Global Market)

Round table session: World Café format. In the World Café setting, we propose to include 5 tables, with themes per table. Each table is chaired by a session member, that takes notes and remains present at the table. Audience is requested to rotate during the session, spending 15 minutes on each table, and participate in the debate based on their own experience. By including the audience, anticipating users of e-learning, tutors in e-learning and providers of programmes to be in the session, we aim to foster a lively debate and benefit from the diversity of perspectives. The table sessions proposed are: Policy relevance of e-learning By offering policy relevant teaching material to a group of participants, with aim to induce development, what would be good formats to integrate academic learning with practical relevance, using e-learning tools. E-learning design accommodating diversity and the impact of a format on students with a diverse background Depending on the audience, design choices of type of platform, type of material and type of tutoring and interaction could be different. What are the most crucial factors to take into account, and how can we deal with the diversity from design perspective well? Strategic and institutional implications of globalisation in e-learning By broadening populations participating in e-learning, new university goals or success criteria may need to be debated. What strategy goals are needed to thrive for globalization broadening at the same time access and taking care of inclusion and diversity and how can e-learning contribute specially to this? Broadening access: inclusion versus integration By broadening the scope of our e-learning activities, we aim to provide participants with (new) access to otherwise unavailable learning opportunities. Consequently, it can be argued that they are integrated in the e-learning activities within institutes of higher education. While this can be interpreted as a beneficial development, it also opens up the question of whether access (and integration) is sufficient. Wouldn't it be better to really include new participants in the regular (e-learning) curriculum? This would allow them to be an active part of the learning community present at the applicable institutes of higher education. This would foster an (active) exchange between all participants and contribute to a better understanding of how learning opportunities can be applied in the context of real-life situations and challenges. Supply and support or development Should we encourage developed countries to develop material and include diversity in their users, or would bottom up provision, by course-suppliers or tutors located in the developing regions bring additional value added? Please note this session has a direct connection with the panel session based on cases "Dealing with participant diversity in higher educational e-learning projects" Also note we invited two elearning experts from African institutions to join us as table chairs, but those are unconfirmed and thus not added to the speaker list yet.