Off-campus, online, open and flexible education

Introduction

Off-campus education, often in the form of open, online and flexible education, is increasingly being used by higher education institutions (HEIs) who wish to reach beyond their traditional student populations and reach a more diverse range of students.

Meet Jukka Lerkkanen from JYU and listen to what he says about the expertise on off-campus, online, open and flexible education.

Meet our experts on off-campus, online and flexible education
Jukka Lerkkanen, Jyväskylä University (JYU) [CHAIR]

Doctor of Education

  • Managerial skills, strategic planning of open university education, proven social and communicational competence.
  • Designing and delivering career guidance and counselling services based on guidance needs.
  • Research Associate in Florida State University, Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development.

Membership

  • The National Forum of Finnish Open Universities, chair
  • EADTU EMPOWER chair for the Off-campus, online, open and flexible education expert pool
  • EADTU Supervisory Board, member

 
Last publications

  • Einarsdottir, S., Björnsdottir, M. D., & Lerkkanen., J. 2020. Cross-Cultural Validation of Asssessment instruments used in career counselling and guidance in Nordic countries. . In E. Haug, T. Hooley, J. Kettunen & R. Thomsen (Eds.), Career and career guidance in the Nordic countries. Career Development Series, 9. Leiden: Brill, 177–189 Sense. DOI: 10.1163/9789004428096_012
  • Andreassen, D.H., Einarsdóttir, S., Lerkkanen, J., Thomsen, R., & Wikstrand, F. 2019. Diverse histories, common ground and a shared future: The education of career guidance and counselling professionals in the Nordic countries. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance. 19, (1), 1–26

See Jukka's institutional webpage here 

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Yoram Kalman, Open University of Israel (OUI)

Yoram Kalman has been involved in online open and flexible higher education for over 20 years. Currently he is an associate professor at The Open University of Israel, and his research and daily work focus on applying digital technologies to innovate higher education. In particular, he is interested in the strategic aspects of digital innovation, and in the use of learning analytics to further good effective management and decision making in higher education. Yoram is head of the department of Management and Economics, as well as the head of the MBA program. He works with hundreds of faculty members who teach over twelve thousand students in Israel and internationally. In the last 25 years Yoram held several senior management positions in the private and the public education sectors in Israel and in Europe. 

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Eric Kluijfhout, Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL)

Eric Kluijfhout works at the Dutch Open University (OUNL) as a senior project manager where he led numerous e-learning projects, within and outside the institution, and served as programme manager for international research & development activities and projects. He was seconded to the Dutch national foundation for ICT in higher education - SURFfoundation - for two years where he was active at the crossroads of organizational design and ICT governance. Currently Eric coordinates the development of at OUNL’s educational platforms. 

Eric graduated in 1988 in the field of Educational Technology, and for the next twelve years worked at universities in Africa, Latin America and the Far East as a consultant, leader of institutional ICT and management projects, and for the last three years as Head of an international consultancy unit. In 1996 he completed his PhD on Information Technology infusion strategies in the developing world. In 2000 he joined the Dutch Open University. 

In addition to his work for the Dutch Open University Eric is an independent consultant in the field of technology enhanced learning for higher education. 

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Christian Dalsgaard, Aarhus University

Christian Dalsgaard is Associate professor at Aarhus University. His area of research is online education, and his fields of expertise includes open and flexible education, OER and MOOCs, and blended education. 

He participated in the Online Education: Coronacrisis support webinar April 21st. 

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Eamon Costello, Dublin City University (DCU)

EMPOWER offers

New students may be older than traditional students: they may be students working part-time or full-time while they study; they may be elderly students, international students, students with disabilities, students from disenfranchised groups or many other specific groups of students.

While it is true that alternative educational approaches such as off-campus education, open, online and flexible education offer many new opportunities for accessing non-traditional students, the experience of the open and distance teaching universities (which have a long experience in catering for non-traditional students) is  that the transition to serving new student groups requires a complicated (and sometimes) risky organizational transformation. It requires careful analysis, detailed planning, and a significant investment in developing resources that most higher education institutions do not have. Simply offering some online classes, or advertising evening classes in some distant campus, is not sufficient

If you wish to succeed in reaching new student populations, we can help you better understand what off-campus, open and flexible education is about. We can also assist you in developing a strategy for making the transition, and in adapting your existing business model to improve your chances of success. Addressing non-traditional students through off campus, open, online and flexible education is not simple, but the social and economic benefits of success to HEIs who do it properly make the effort worthwhile.

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EMPOWER is carried out with the support of the European Commission, Dg EAC, under the Erasmus+ Programme, however, sole responsibility for this website lies with the EADTU and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.