A Framework for Building Virtual Communities for Education

The aim of education is to provide the basis for life long learning and improvement. In this direction, schools and universities offer standard curricula aiming to cover the fundamental needs of their students in a few years scope. On the other side, institutes and companies offering life long education focus on improving specific skills and competencies of people in a short period of time. Obviously the aims, capabilities and availability of attendants vary significantly, since they usually have to cope with their morning work and their family duties. As a matter of fact, several issues, such as the limited duration of training programs, the loaded schedule of trainees, the inevitable absences due to other obligations, the multitude of topics to be covered, the variance of attendants’ interests and needs, have to be considered in order to create a competitive training program. In order to support attendance and inform people on the topics, requirements and aims of programs we need a flexible program structure and an infrastructure that delivers information, training material, and support on demand, in a daily basis. We believe that a single institute is not always capable in coordinating such a composite effort and we capitalize on the building of a virtual community for education. Community will comprise training institutes, educators and trainees who will interact and co-operate in order to achieve maximum gain and flexibility.