The central research topic of the e-Education research area is the investigation and development of an integrated conception of e-education in open and distance education, which includes aspects of electronic learning (e-learning) as well as electronic teaching. M-learning (mobile e-learning, originating from the mobility of our modern society) is seen as a special branch of e-learning in this context. The research area requires an integrative approach, which covers the whole spectrum of individual and cooperative learning in such a way that different learning types, styles, and situations are supported. The respective learning scenarios will be supported by existing and newly designed electronic learning environments, where they will be practically tested and evaluated by students and faculty members of the University in Hagen. Here, we will benefit from the many existing components produced in Hagen, which provide the building blocks for testing the integrative approach.
The learning scenarios to be investigated by the RA are used in open and distance education and include phases of distributed (individual or cooperative) learning and short periods of presence at the university. This kind of learning situation satisfies the demands of the learners for flexibility and offers possibilities of high-quality education accompanied by an increasingly better access to the Internet. E-education is also very important to facilitate life long learning in our modern society, since it provides on-demand studies and continuing education. Furthermore, e-education supports to a high degree the needs of special groups of students (e.g. single parents, employed persons, disabled people). The RA follows two goals: On the one hand, existing successful approaches of e-education shall be scientifically deepened and, on the other hand, new innovative approaches (e.g. intelligent tutoring, natural language communication, mobile applications, collaborative peer learning) as well as new forms of didactics for e-education shall be investigated, developed, technologically supported, tested, and integrated.
To cope with all aspects of these research topics, the RA is supported and carried by scientists of 6 chairs of the University of Hagen. Thus, the interdisciplinary field of e-education can be investigated from different perspectives, be it communication, content, media, information and knowledge representation, as well as remote collaboration and distribution of materials within shared environments and finally all relevant aspects of educational science and theory as well as media pedagogy.
In the years 2002 until 2006 the research area has successfully acquired and performed many national and European projects with an average of more than 320 kEuro in third –party funding per year and a corresponding total of 7 succesfully completed phd thesis projects that can be assigned to this research area.
Teaching