Abstract
Blended e-learning in higher education targeting company knowledge needs, can support continuous competence development for practitioners in the manufacturing industry. However, university education is traditionally not designed for workplace knowledge needs that strengthen practitioners’ learning in everyday work, i.e. work-integrated learning. Designing for such learning efforts is even more challenging when the pedagogical strategy is to stimulate practitioners own work experiences as a valuable knowledge source in construction with other peers or teachers. The aim is to explore how engineering practitioners and research teachers mutually co-construct knowledge. In particular, three types of case-based methodologies are examined within a range of industry-targeted e-learning courses. The study is part of a longitudinal joint industry-university project. Eleven courses were analyzed through focus group sessions with 110 practitioners from 15 different companies. Results show that 1) Virtual digital cases stimulate high technology learning, but show low collaboration with peers, 2) On-line collaborative negotiation cases stimulate both web-conferencing and high interactivity, and 3) Real workplace cases do not stimulate e-learning, but motivate strong work-integrated learning and knowledge expansion.
Highlights
University e-learning education aims to support lifelong learning for practitioners in the manufacturing industry and strengthen their competence development integrated in work practice [1, 2]
The design of the courses has been evaluated iteratively including various use of elearning technologies and pedagogical strategies [6]. Based on these findings this paper explore the e-learning design and the different case-based methodologies in eleven courses on master level of 2.5 European Credits (ECTS)
Active learning [25] between practitioners and researchers is described as mutual engagement for triggering co-construction of knowledge
Summary
University e-learning education aims to support lifelong learning for practitioners in the manufacturing industry and strengthen their competence development integrated in work practice [1, 2]. University campus courses are traditionally not designed for time independence, flexibility or collaborative e-learning [3] Such courses do not regard practitioners’ work experiences as a valuable knowledge source. The case-based methodology is part of the designed courses, developed on advanced master level and constructed within the industry-university collaborative project, ProdEx (Expert in Production Technology). Focus is on the courses and the different case-based methodologies that are introduced to trigger different perspectives and the integration between theorybased and experience-based knowledge [7] The teachers that both design and run the courses, are research experts within production technology, we label them research teachers. The. ProdEx educational model offers a new type of courses that facilitate an e-learning design and knowledge content directed towards manufacturing industries expert knowledge needs
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