Themes of the Conference

The Bologna Declaration and the creation of the European Area of Higher Education are the core of the actual innovation at all European universities. E-Bologna adds the 'E' to this and hence supports the Bologna process. The European Learning Space is creating the learning environment of the European universities that is based on strong universities evolving to a large extent towards e-learning institutions. Therefore, E-Bologna is the response of EADTU on the Bologna-Declaration.

The European Learning Space and E-Bologna are directly linked to each other because they serve the same objectives:

1. Mobility and virtual mobility, enriching courses and curricula and providing an international experience for students, supported by instruments like as ECTS and the Diploma Supplement.
   
2. The Development of Flexible and Personalised Courses, as a response to the diversity of needs of students, building competencies in a perspective of lifelong learning. Also, building Complementarity and additional strengths between universities by (virtual) staff exchange; international course teams, international seminars or joint programmes/degrees. Beyond this, the co-operation with industry is a core issue with respect to competency building, flexibility and personalised learning, and lifelong learning.
   
3. Student Support in an E-learning Context, using new learning models such as (computer supported) collaborative learning and resources from support centres and libraries. Also, the use of new assessment and tutoring methods to monitor the learning process.
   
4. The use of Electronic Platforms and E-learning and Open Source, to support institutions and course teams to develop, tutor and assess courses, or to supply institutions with instruments to optimize teaching, tutoring, learning and assessment in an e-learning context.
   
5. Organisational, Business and Legal aspects
   The design and implementation of e-Learning and blended learning courses requires a multiple commitment of different actors within the universities: teaching staff, e-learning development centres, programme directorate, student support centres and institutional management. This is quite contradictory to traditional courses, where one teacher is speaking in an isolated way. Therefore, the organisation of e-learning is more complex. It involves management and business questions. It becomes even more complex when different units in universities will co-operate to achieve a course or programme or will re-use materials. The latter raises also legal questions.