Higher Education Distance Learning in Portugal - State of the Art and Current Policy Issues

English The paper is based on a recent report given to the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education on "Reforming Higher Education Distance Learning in Portugal" (Hasan et. al. 2009). The report was grounded on on-site visits of leading Portuguese Universities, Polytechnics and Business Schools as well as on written statements of the institutions visited. Additional material has been provided by the Ministry of Education. The article tries to give an appraisal of the actual state of the art of university level distance education in Portugal covering issues such as spread of distance learning so far, attitudes towards distance learning, pedagogical models, access, funding and quality issues. On the basis of this analysis some policy recommendations are formulated by the authors. German Der vorgelegte Artikel basiert auf einem Gutachten ("Reforming Higher Education Distance Learning in Portugal" (Hasan et. al. 2009)), das für das Portugiesische Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Technologie und Höhere Bildung erstellt wurde. Die Studie basiert auf Besuchen der führenden portugiesischen Universitäten und Fachhochschulen (Polytechnika und Business Schools) sowie auf schriftlichen Stellungnahmen der betreffenden Institutionen. Zusätzliche Unterlagen wurden vom Ministerium zur Verfügung gestellt. In dem Artikel wird der aktuelle Stand des universitären Fernstudiums in Portugal beschrieben. Dabei wird die bisherige Reichweite der Anwendung von Fernstudienelementen dargestellt, ebenso wie Einstellungen und Haltungen gegenüber der Fernlehre erörtert und vorherrschende pädagogische Modelle, Zugangsbarrieren, Finanzierungsformen und Qualitätsmerkmale analysiert. Auf der Grundlage der betrachteten Problembereiche werden anschließend von den Autoren einige Politikempfehlungen formuliert. I. International trends in Distance Learning (DL) A key development to be noted is that the use of a new learning management system spread rapidly to conventional universities and started to break the monopoly of the large distance learning universities. Furthermore the traditional way of content production supplemented with some tutorial support was questioned as being the delivery of "canned content" that neglected the potential of students' collaborative contribution to enhance their learning. The development of network supported teaching environments was a tool to exploit this potential as it was accompanied by a shift from the behaviouristic and cognitive learning theories and approaches to constructivist and more collaborative oriented learning paradigms like connectivism (Siemens 2004 ) These developments emerged in the form of "blended" pedagogical approaches that offered increased opportunities for simultaneous and collaborative interaction with peers as well as with faculty forums, chat rooms, online tutoring and course content on a web site. Tutoring online replaced, at least in part, F2F tutorials in fixed locations. Highly specialised tutors can tutor students wherever the tutors are. The growing use of blended models in traditional Higher Education Institutes (HEI) was supported by other developments on the side of student circumstances and needs. More and more students worked as much as 20 hours a week for a variety of reasons, including to pay their fees, and needed greater flexibility in class schedules to accommodate their work requirements. With the new developments students had the benefit of a choice between the two options, the blended model and the virtual. An example of the spread of the DL pedagogy is offered by a recent survey conducted in Germany and reported in Figure 1. It shows that that 87 % of the students in Germany use digital teaching material in support of classroom lectures; 35 % used interactive teaching modules; 12% participated in virtual seminars; 8% received live internet broadcasts; and 5 % used virtual practicals and laboratory activities. Figure 1. Students Preferences of eLearning Offers European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning http://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&article=414