Abstract

This paper will give you an example from the Netherlands of how we are working on a transformation of education and how information and communication technology is facilitating this. The author works in the department of Teaching and Student Affairs of Hogeschool IJselland, University of Professional Education in Deventer in the Netherlands. Within this department he is involved in the role of information- and communication technology and library services in the educational process.

Introduction

This paper will give you an example from the Netherlands of how we are working on a transformation of education and how information and communication technology is facilitating this. At first a brief introduction in the way higher education is organised in the Netherlands is given and some details about the IJselland University of Professional Education. After that a transformation of education that is taking place, is described. In what way we are working on this transformation is the subject of chapter 3 of the presentation and the role ICT is playing in chapter 4. The paper finishes off with some thoughts on the work that still needs to be done.

Higher Education in the Netherlands
A short introduction to the Dutch system of higher education in general and IJselland University in particular will be helpful to understand the perspective from which this paper is written.

In Figure 1 the American and the Dutch educational systems are compared. The blue boxes are comparable. After high school a Dutch pupil goes either to vocational school, or to a type of higher education that is called in Dutch "hogeschool" but is named "university of professional education" abroad to prevent a confusion between hogeschool and high school. The third type, pupils with the right previous education in high school can choose, is the university. At the far right the enrolment in the separate types of education are given for the Dutch situation.

		1998 (x1000)
University	Universiteit (WO) (University)	155
Colleges Community Colleges	Hogeschool (HBO) (University of Professional Education)	285
High school/vocational	Vocational (ROC)	420
Junior/Middle school Elementary	MAVO-HAVO-VWO Voortgezet onderwijs	856
	Basisschool	1534

To clarify the distinction between universities and universities of professional education some differences are given. Some of them are arguable. The most important difference (and not disputed) is that the core business of universities of professional education is….education. Some applied research is done but that is of minor importance. In Dutch universities research is of major importance and according to some the core business of the university. Universities of professional education are relatively young. Most of them started 13 years ago. As a consequence the silo structure is not as strong as it is in universities. That is an advantage in standardisation of IT and for the co-operation between for example the IT department and the library. Universities have more financial resources. They get more grants from the federal government and are better in pulling in money from businesses. Universities have more experience with ICT. It took some time before ICT investments were a management-issue in universities of professional education. In the Carnegie Classification definitions, Dutch universities would be Research universities or Doctoral universities. Most Dutch Universities of professional education would belong in the category Master’s universities and colleges.

Some figures about higher education in the Netherlands. To educate students the universities of professional education received in 1998 a total of 1.3 billion dollars in federal grants. Universities received 2.2 billion. The tuition fee for both types of universities is 1400 dollars. This fee is the same for all students in public universities. There are a few private universities of professional education that ask much higher fees, but there enrolment is rather small. The first private university has yet to start in the Netherlands. All Dutch students can get a grant form the federal government of about 200 dollars per month. Dependent on the income of the parents they can get a scholarship from the federal government of about 200 dollars per month on top of that. To meet the estimated standard of living for a student (they should be able to spent 600 dollars a month), student can get cheap loans form commercial banks that are subsidised by the federal government. But most students don’t want to make debts during their study and combine their study with a job.

IJselland University is situated in the Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel as is hogeschool Enschede, University of Professional Education. IJselland had at its start in 1986 about 2500 student. In 1996 we moved in to a new building that was meant for 4000 students. Now in 1999 we teach 6500 students. That’s one of the reasons why a rebuilding will take place next year.

To make the education of 6500 students possible, somewhat more than 500 staff is employed of which 200 are teaching staff. 25% of the student is part-time which is a relatively high percentage for a Dutch university of professional education. In 1998 there were 100 foreign student from 20 countries. Approximately 120 Dutch students went abroad that year. Fifteen 4-year degree courses that are of the baccalaureate level are offered. And thirteen 1-year Master programs.

In January 1999 IJselland University was awarded best university of professional education by a Dutch magazine that compared the results of quality audits that are made by external committees for all the 4-year degree-courses in the universities of professional education. Those audits are made in a 4-year cycle.

IJselland University ended at the ninth place (of 52 universities of professional education) in a national election by students for best university earlier this month.

The Need for a Transformation of Education

Education is changing, not by substitution but a transformation is taking place. This transformation is brought about by changes in the student population and by changes in the demands by employers. This goes for the universities but in vocational schools and high schools comparable changes are taking place. Education is becoming more and more student centred and competence based. Education has to be more student centred and less teacher centred. The student will be treated more and more as a costumer. And that has some important consequences: The first is that education has to become more flexible. Education will be partly independent of time and place. A student can take a course anytime he wants and any place. That could be in school, but it could also be at home or at the working place (training on the job!). Students differ in the way they learn. Student centred education will take into account the learning style of the student, his or her personal characteristics and passed experience. Digital learning environments can make that possible. The shift from a teacher-centred to a student-centred education does not mean that education will become independent of teachers!. The interaction with teachers remains very important, and modern ICT-tools facilitate this interaction. Flexibility has to be organised. Organizing interaction and communication is essential when education is delivered asynchronously.

The second consequence of being student centred is that the combination of studying and working has to be facilitated. During their career as a student, our students will evolve from a working student, what they are now (more than 80% of our students have a job) to a studying worker what they will be during there professional career (life-long learning). So facilitating the combination of work and study means that students have to be able to make arrangements with employers about the shifts they are available for work. It means that Universities have to create jobs for students themselves. Common practice in the United States and at Dutch universities but not at Dutch universities of professional education. And that is beneficial to students, but also to the university. Student-assistants are skilful with ICT-tools. Why not let them assist faculty in building Web-based courses. They both can do what they are good at and working with students is an excellent opportunity to deliver student-centred courses. Finally facilitating the combination of work and study means a supply of courses that are fit for life-long learning. ICT tools make it possible to deliver training on the job.

Education will be competence-based. We are not filling the student with knowledge, insights and skills but making him competent to work as a professional in a rapidly changing environment. We are teaching him to learn, because learning will not stop after the initial university-study. Life-long learning is important. This does not mean that knowledge, insight and skills will become less important. It means that the teacher will be more called upon as a coach of learning processes and less as a specialist in the discipline he has studied himself. The students will find the information they need in different ways. ICT helps with that.

To become a competent professional it is important to be in touch with your chosen field of profession from day one of your study. Universities can make that possible by offering courses in which real life cases are the basic principle. They also can simulate real life. In fact a laboratory is such a simulation, or a call centre students can practise in, or a virtual firm of consulting engineers. The best way to get in touch of your field of profession is of course to go there. That good be as an intern during your study, a job besides your study or you can use the ICT-tools, for example for a videoconference.

ICT is a toolbox for the changes in education. Learning and teaching can be made more effective and efficient by making use of courseware, e-mail, digital learning environments and databases from which we retrieve information. And of course the internet. On the world wide web an enormous amount of information is available. The transformation of education is inevitable. But how are we getting there?

How Are We Getting There?

At my university we try to get there by using an integrated approach, looking for alliances and stimulating the participation of faculty.

The Integrated Approach
Some major projects are going on in our university. We started a program on flexible learning, made some changes to the organisation of the university, are rethinking the Administrational processes, we are re-arranging the building, thinking about a virtual library. All these projects have in common that they are a consequence of a student centred approach. And they are (therefore of course) related.

Flexible learning (learning independent of time and place, taking into account the characteristics of a student) implicates that students do have access to computers. We are bringing more computers into our building and give students access to network from their home or their work. A GroupWare-product is introduced and the use of the Intranet is intensified to organise interaction and communication. A standard digital learning environment (Lotus Learningspace) will be introduced in all the institutes of the University.

These institutes are the result of some changes in the organisation of the University. The institutes are the education units. The staff in the institutes is nearly only teaching staff. All other positions (Financial economical affairs, Personnel affairs, Facility management, Student-administration, Student services, Library, IT department) are placed in two departments. Those departments have to deliver customer-oriented services. So not only the education has to be student-centred, the university as a whole has to be costumer-oriented. The facilities the departments offer have to lower the thresholds for the use if ICT in education. That is why a teaching technology centre will be equipped.

Rethinking the Administrational Processes. Most of the administrational processes for the students of the 8 institutes take place in one of the two departments I just mentioned. The departments act as one service-centre. This service-centre has to act as a one-stop-shop for the students. I saw a fine example of such a one-stop-shop in a presentation by the University of Minnesota at he Educom-conference last year. We are trying to build one as well. The basic idea is that a digital environment is build for the student. An environment in which not only the digital learning environment is placed but also all the other information the student (and the organisation) needs during his career in university. This digital environment is build around an individual study-contract that is made up between the student and the university.

We are rearranging the building. The reason is obvious. As I mentioned before the building was meant for 4000-5000 students and now there are more than 6500. But we are also taking in to account changes in education. And so the student is the starting point. Student-activities are concentrated in the central parts of the building. We are making a study landscape with about 300 computers. And the way the institutes are placed in the building should be recognisable for students.

And finally the library. SAB is a abbreviation for the Dutch name of the library involved. A translation would be "City archive and Athenaeum library". For your and my convenience I’ll use the abbreviation SAB, as we do at my university. Although the IJselland University is only 13 years young, the SAB has been a library for higher education for more than 400 years. It started as the library for the Athenaeum Illustre and later the "latin school" where Erasmus studied.

Nowadays the SAB has three costumer groups:

• The city of Deventer; the SAB administers the archives of the city of Deventer and is the library for the civil servants of the city.
• The province of Overijssel; the SAB serves the inhabitants of the province of Overijsel whose academic needs for library services cannot be fulfilled by the public libraries.
• The IJselland university; the SAB is the library for the 6000 students and the 500 staff of the university. IJselland University is responsible for the management of the SAB and its 30 employees.

The SAB is a relatively heavy user of ICT. In that regard it is an knowledge centre to the public libraries in the province of Overijssel and to he cultural institutions and the educational institutions in the city of Deventer. Together with the public library of Deventer the SAB has started the Virtual Library Deventer. Objective of the Virtual Library Deventer is to offer library services 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Most services can be accessed from home or work.

Universities used to be built around libraries. The library as the centre of knowledge. But nowadays knowledge is literally everywhere. By using ICT it is no longer important from what place the physical services are coming. From where the books and the magazines are delivered or the services of the information specialist are given. But not only can information be consulted digitally consulted, the information itself is digitalised more and more. And you don’t have to own the information. There is a shift of emphasis from collectioning to giving access. The virtual library comes in sight. In Deventer we are building such a virtual library. Together with the public library of the city. In this virtual library the catalogues of available books and magazines can be accessed on the internet. You can make book reservations. Maybe in the near future you can get the books you want to borrow delivered at your home address. You can subscribe to e-mail alerts on new books or the contents of magazines you select. You can easily access a variety of information about local history. On numerous subjects links are given of which the quality is checked by the information specialists and that can be used to start a surfing tour. Interactivity is important. You can ask questions to the information specialists by e-mail and get a response within 24 hours. You can contribute to discussion lists on several subjects. But this does not mean that the library as a place you can go to has to close its doors. Also in the near future there will be a need for a physical place where you can read, study, access information and where you can get help to do so. In the IJselland University there will be created a "study-landscape" in which about 300 computers will be available to students. The study-landscape will also be a physical integration of the IT-department of the university and some of the library services.

A librarian is, and will be in the future, a broker between the demand en the supply of information. The demand of information is rapidly changing and the supply of information is growing very fast. Digital sources will be more and more important. That will have consequences for the librarian as well.

-Our children grow up in a visual culture. We grew up in a reading culture. Librarians should become visual literate to be able to assist these new costumer groups.

-The librarian has to learn to work with new ICT tools. At first the tools will be used for substitution: the existing services will be made more efficient and effective. Information will be found faster, that is if the information has been made accessible.

But in time the ICT-tools will be used for a transformation of service delivery.

-The library-services will be more and more driven by demand, not by supply. The librarian has to anticipate wishes of costumers or customer-groups. He sometimes has to act as an account manager.

In a 4 year degree course in Small Business at our sister university in Enschede, a group of 150 students is supervised during their entire study by a team of 5 staff-members of which one is a librarian. Just like her 4 colleagues she is a coach of learning processes. The transformation of education is not possible without changes in the way the university organises its processes. The projects I just told you about are an attempt to do just that.

Looking for alliances
But it is not enough. We have to look for alliances. Alliances are essential because there are no blueprints for the way we should use the ICT-toolbox for the transformation of education. Libraries, cultural institutions and educational institutions are all going through the same process: they get more and more customer-oriented and ICT is for them an important tool-box to reach their goals. So co-operation seems obvious. That means giving and taking. We all have experiences with standardisation of ICT tools in our own organisation. Negotiations at this point between organisations are even more laborious.

Co-operation can be about content and about infrastructure. About content because costumers are often not really interested in the physical place the information they need is coming from, that is if they can be sure it is correct. In some cases we will have to build a common (virtual) front office and two or more institutions will work together in the back office. IJselland works through SAB, our library, together with cultural institutions of the city at the digitalisation of the cultural heritage of the city of Deventer. Co-operation can also be about infrastructure. In the city of Deventer IJselland University works together with a vocational school (6000 students), 3 high schools (6000 pupils) and 50 elementary schools in creating a shared ICT infrastructure that is managed by the university.

Other institutions of higher education are changing also and we can benefit from their experiences (and they from ours). That why we in the Netherlands are working together on ICT and education in an organisation called SURF. SURF can be regarded to some extent as the Dutch equivalent of Educause. Surf organised the trip for most of the Dutch delegates at this conference. A delegation that is the largest outside North America. A proof for the importance we attach to international alliances.

Participation of faculty
We are only getting there when staff and students want to get there. Teaching and other staff play an important role in educational changes. These changes will bring about (or are brought about) new tasks and a new way of working (but not everything will be new though). Most teaching staff won’t be able pick up this new way of working by themselves. A personnel policy of the institutions is necessary. A policy that takes account for employability, because we have to be competent as well. We also have to learn to learn. Sometimes an opportunity is given to practise what we preach. When we did the migration from Windows 3.11 with Perfect Office, or even for quite a number of staff DOS with an older version of the office suite, to Windows NT with Office 97 we had to train staff in using the new software. We choose not to give a classical training in which all the features of the Office-suit are demonstrated and practised in 20 or so afternoon-sessions but offered a two-day course according to the learn to learn principle. The basics of the Office suite, the web-browser and the e-mail client were practised and they were made familiar with the course material that would make it possible to organize their own training on the job, according to their needs. It went rather well although it was difficult to adjust to very different levels of computer skills.

Another possibility to practise what we preach is the virtual store for the department of Personnel affairs. In that store ICT is used to optimize a costumer-oriented approach. A staff member will be able to get personalized information and services, independent of time and place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The university will make arrangements with a supermarket. When you have to work late, you can send in your shopping-list by e-mail, and the goods will be delivered at your home-address.

The Role of Information and Communication Technology

We come to the role of Information- and Communication Technology. I hope I made clear ICT is a tool-box for the transformation of education. No more, no less. Thanks to ICT I can access information that is stored anywhere. There is a shift from collectioning information to giving access. The role of a teacher is changing. He will be no longer the only (or the most important) source of information. Information will be tailor made. ICT facilitates communication. Communication between students and staff and staff and students among themselves will be intensified through ICT. That is of crucial importance for the effectiveness of education especially in a flexible learning environment. ICT makes interaction a lot easier. It stimulates an active participation of students and staff in the educational process. As an integration of this al these developments web-based education has a very strong future.

Epilogue

Let me finish of with two issues that are very important in the near future. We have to share our knowledge. Within institutions and between institutions, nationally and internationally. This conference is a very nice example how this can be done.