The Finnish Virtual University. Lessons and Knowledge Exchange Opportunities to Inform Pan-Canadian Plans

From Re.ViCa

Prepared for: The Information Highway Advisory Branch, Industry Canada September 25, 2001

By Joanne Curry

PDF, 42 pages, English

ISSN 1458-316X

Excerpt: 2. Background

The purpose of reviewing the Finnish Virtual University (FVU) project was to learn from the design and the initial implementation of a national virtual university initiative with goals similar to the Pan-Canadian Online Learning Service proposed by the Advisory Committee for Online Learning. During the visit programme, interviews were undertaken in order to provide:

A comparison of the FVU operational and business models with other virtual universities including the Canadian Virtual University.
A status report on the FVU and implementation issues, specifically the ability to partner both universities and colleges/polytechnic together.
A list of generalizeable lessons and programme components that could inform Canada’s plans for a Pan-Canadian Online Learning Service.
The identification of specialized expertise of FVU personnel that would be valuable for a Canadian initiative.

The other goals of this assignment and visit program were:

To share expertise and experiences on issues of research and implementation of eLearning, online education and virtual universities; and
To strengthen cooperation between Canada and Finland in the above mentioned areas and identify potential areas and projects for collaboration between Finnish and Canadian organizations.

As the first international visitor invited by the FVU Development Unit to review the plans and early implementation of the FVU1, the FVU Development Unit provided me with access to key people and translated several key documents. During my stay in Finland, from May 31st to July 3rd, I participated in meetings with the FVU Development Unit and a meeting of the Eastern FVU project. Meetings were also arranged with over 40 representatives of the FVU participating universities and several polytechnics and private sector organizations as well as with the Finnish Ministry of Education representative responsible for the FVU project. The list of individuals met is provided in Appendix A.

During the visit, I made four presentations that provided an opportunity to showcase Canada’s knowledge base and highlight Canadian institutions offering online learning products and services. These presentations included one at the Ed-Media pre-conference workshop on Virtual Universities and Polytechnics organized by the Finnish Ministry of Education that had over 150 participants. Another presentation was made to participants of an Eastern FVU research seminar and an overview was provided to the Helsinki University of Technology Learning and Teaching committee. A presentation, which included my initial observations on the benefits and challenges of the FVU implementation, was also made to a consortium meeting with the Rectors and Vice-Rectors of a majority of participating universities in attendance.

The cities visited during my stay included Helsinki and Espoo (my primary base of operation), Rovaniemi, Kokkola, Savonlinna, Tampere, Oulu, and Turku. This report summarizes the information gathered and discusses the issues being encountered by the FVU, highlighting lessons to inform Canada. Specialized expertise and areas of potential knowledge transfer are identified at the end of the report. The visit programme and report writing represents 15 days of professional time.