As of August 1st, 2008, the Edutech web site will no longer be updated. Edutech was funded by the Swiss Virtual Campus programme, which ended on July 31st, 2008. Some activities will be taken over by the e-Learning Services group at the SWITCH foundation.
Survey Report
e-Learning Online Software Requirements of Swiss Higher Education Institutions
Background
In spring 2005 the Steering Committee of the Swiss Virtual Campus investigated what kind of e-learning online services are required by Swiss Higher Education (HE) Institutions, and what their mid- and long-term perspective on a national level is. The types of elearning services considered here are hosting services (for learning management systems, groupware, communication tools, content repositories, assessment tools), support services, training services or networking and information exchange.
The aim of this survey was to analyse the requirements of Swiss HE institutions regarding the hosting and outsourcing of online software. Particular questions were:
- which institutions are interested in outsourcing hosting services?
- which institutions are interested in providing such services?
The results of this survey are an important basis to plan, if requested, e-learning hosting services on a national level, and to coordinate offerings between Swiss HE institutions.
How this survey was accomplished
In May 2005, the survey was sent by email to the heads of the e-learning Competence, Service and Production Centers (CCSP) of all 19 Swiss HE institutions. For reasons of efficiency, the CCSP heads were contacted by phone a few days later and their answers were recorded in writing (word for word).