Action plan eLearning Bio Energy Tinne Oostvogels Action plan to a make a business plan for Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences. A plan to market the eLearning of BioEnergy.
Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences Mr. Tapio Pihlajaniemi Kampusranta 9A FI-60101 Seinäjoki Finland Tel. +358 40 830 3966 Fax. +358 20 124 4909 18-3-2011
Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
Content 1.
Background .................................................................................................................................3 1.1.
Principal: Seinajöki University of Applied Sciences ...............................................................3
1.2.
Southern Ostrobothnia ........................................................................................................4
1.3.
Bio energy projects in Southern Ostrobothnia .....................................................................5
1.3.1.
Bio energy expertise’s development via work based experience ..................................5
1.3.2.
Forestry education beyond traditional boundaries in Seinäjoki UAS .............................5
1.4.
2.
eLearning on Virtual Learning Environment .........................................................................6
1.4.1.
Virtual Learning Environment.......................................................................................6
1.4.2.
Content Management Environment Joomla .................................................................7
1.4.3.
Learning environment Moodle .....................................................................................7
1.4.4.
Communication environment ......................................................................................8
Project assignment......................................................................................................................9 2.1.
Formulation of the problem.................................................................................................9
2.2.
Objectives ...........................................................................................................................9
2.3.
Results.................................................................................................................................9
3.
Project approach ....................................................................................................................... 10
4.
Project activities ........................................................................................................................ 11
5.
The products ............................................................................................................................. 12
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
1. Background 1.1.Principal: Seinajöki University of Applied Sciences
Figure 1: SeAMK logo
Motto: You are your future Values: Professional know-how Active partnership
International networking Spirit of entrepreneurship
Description: This municipality-owned Finnish institution of higher education is based in six municipalities of Southern Ostrobothnia. These are Seinäjoki, Ilmajoki, Kurikka, Kauhajoki and Ähtäri. The university is respected for its vision for international activities and options for international standard education. Students can choose to apply for a bachelor-level (19)or a master-level (6) degree in Finnish or one of the three degree programmes in English. SeAMK includes five different faculties and all these faculties have their operations at three or two different sites. -
Business School The business school is located in Seinäjoki (Business Management unit, International Business unit and Entrepreneurship unit) and in Kauhajoki (Hospitality Management unit).
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School of Agriculture and Forestry The school of agriculture and forestry is located in Ilmajoki (Agriculture unit) and in Ähtäri (Forestry unit).
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School of Culture and Design This school is located in Jurva (Design unit) and in Seinäjoki (Cultural unit).
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School of Health Care and Social Work In Seinäjoki you can find both the Health Care unit and the Social Work unit.
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School of Technology All the technology operations are located in Seinäjoki.
Source:
http://www.seamk.fi/in_english.iw3
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
1.2.Southern Ostrobothnia Finland consists of 20 regions, of which one is Southern Ostrobothnia. The regional centre and largest city in the area is Seinäjoki. In the last years this region has developed into an increasingly nationally and internationally attractive, creative and competent region. People and companies choose to come and stay here because of the regions interesting values, habitability and competitiveness. The region is well known for its entrepreneurship and lots of small and medium size enterprises. Entrepreneurship is the key to development which is supported by terms like intelligence, bio, health, information, energy and nanotechnologies. Needs of the students, experts and companies are satisfied by the innovation system which is specializing as an international network. The units of Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences and Seinäjoki University Consortium is where innovation is built. The main business activities are clustered in food industry, wood industry and metal and technology industry.
Figure 2: Statistics Southern Ostrobothnia 2009
Source:
South_Ostrobothnia_brochure_2007.pdf Epliito_yleisesite_2009_ENG.pdf Found on: http://www.epliitto.fi/?page=index&lang=en
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
1.3.Bio energy projects in Southern Ostrobothnia 1.3.1. Bio energy expertise’s development via work based experience Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences has started a higher education project of bio-energy development in South Ostrobothnia. This bio energy expertise supports Seinäjoki UAS’s operations. The project objective is to develop higher education and employment and therefore increase the level of renewable energy’s use by 2020 as part of the fight against climate change. The project aims to increase the know-how on bio energy in the region by interaction between company networks and education. The information collected from the other projects should be integrated in education. The main objective is to develop new teaching methods to satisfy the companies’ expectations of higher education tuition and learning environment. The current project aims to contribute to the Lake District Provincial College’s operations. The target municipalities for this project are especially Alajärvi, Ilmajoki, Lappajärvi, Vimpeli, Evijärvi, Kuortane, Soini, Seinäjoki and Ähtäri. The three-year project is funded by European Social fund Programme (ESR). Furthermore, the government, the target municipalities and Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences are investors too. Source:
http://www.seamk.fi/Suomeksi/Tutustu_SeAMKiin/Yksikot/SeAMK_Maa_ja_metsatalous/Tutkimus-_ja_kehittamistoiminta/Bioenergiaasiantuntijuuden_kehittaminen_tyoelamalahtoisesti.iw3 1.3.2. Forestry education beyond traditional boundaries in Seinäjoki UAS
Last year in June, the Finnish Forest Association held a conference for the forestry sector about new opportunities for forest-related studies. All kinds of schools were present and interested in giving a boost to their forest engineer studies. Source:
http://www.seamk.fi/In_English.iw3?showlocation=708f6f46-8fff-4128-8bebf241ddbe753d&newsID=cbd36387-7e4a-4ace-acbb-606674fd28e3
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
1.4.eLearning on Virtual Learning Environment 1.4.1. Virtual Learning Environment A VLE is a multi-perspective computer program which offers teachers a collection of teaching and learning tools to enhance the traditional way of a learning process. In this system the teachers and students use computers and the internet to get to this environment. This makes sure that the learning is not restricted to a particular building or any single location or moment. The program gives the teachers the opportunity to easily present all the components required for a course of education to students. Some of the possible components are the following: -
Curriculum, syllabus of the course Online support for teacher and student Electronic communication Internet links to outside curriculum resources Tools for assessments and set up exams Tools for communication Tools for uploading of content Tools to make students able to return their work Tools for administration of student groups Tools for collecting and organizing student grades Tools for questionnaires Tracking tools to observe students progress on assignments New features like Wikis, blogs, RSS and RD virtual learning spaces
Both the teacher and the student have an ID on this VLE. The teacher can see what a student can see, but the teacher has user rights to create or modify the content on the VLE. The VLE is often confused with a managed learning environment. A VLE is actually a subsystem of an MLE. The MLE itself is a bigger web of software systems to help the teacher manage the education process and standardize the resources used in learning. VLE’s focus on the teaching and learning part of the online setting. The most important part of all these environments is the concept of personalized online learning space for the students. Source:
http://www.vital.ac.uk/community/course/view.php?name=VLE http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci866691,00.html PDF LE-Secondary.pdf: Learning Platforms, Making IT personal http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-managed-learning-environment.htm
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy 1.4.2. Content Management Environment Joomla 1.4.2.1.
Content management environment
CMS is software that enables you to keep track of all content you place on the internet. This content can be texts, music, videos, documents, etc. One of the main advantages is it’s an easy-to-use device that requires almost no skill or knowledge. The program itself manages all the content. 1.4.2.2.
Joomla
Joomla enables people to build their own web sites and online applications. The content can be published on the World wide web or on intranet. This system is written in PHP, and stores data in MySQL databases. That database system, which stands for Structured Query Language, makes multiple users able to get access to a number of databases. Some features included in Joomla are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search bar and support for other languages. The framework is made in a way that developers can easily build add-ons such as: Source:
Inventory control systems Data reporting tools Application bridges Custom product catalogs
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Integrated e-commerce systems Complex business directories Reservation systems Communication tools
http://dssworld.in/technologies.php http://www.joomla.org/about-joomla.html
1.4.3. Learning environment Moodle Moodle is the abbreviation for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It gives teachers and students a software platform for e-learning. This way the teachers can create an affective online course where interaction is possible. The features of Moodle enable the teachers to reach a hundred of thousands of students, but also just a primary school. Many institutions use Moodle to make a full online course, but others also use it to enhance their class courses with an additional learning platform. There are all kinds of extra options given to the teachers to deliver more than only content, e.g. forums, databases and wikis. Some typical features are: -
Assignment submission Discussion forum Files download Grading Moodle instant messages
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Online calendar Online news and announcement Online quiz Wiki
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy Those who wish to extend the modular construction of Moodle can ask developers to create plug-ins for other functions. Some of the plug-in types are: -
Activities Resource types Question types (multiple choice, true and false, fill in the blank,etc) Data field types Graphical themes Authentication methods (username and password accessibility) Enrollment methods Content filters
The VLE can be integrated in a content Management system. Source:
http://learncms.com/moodle.html http://moodle.org/ 1.4.4. Communication environment
This is a place on the site where it is made possible to communicate with each other. All the participants of the course are able to do a video conference. Instant messaging is also possible and every one can enroll to all kinds of newspapers on bio energy themes.
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
2. Project assignment 2.1.Formulation of the problem At the moment a new way of teaching is being created for learning bio energy in Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences. This project involves a Virtual Learning environment which means that elearning will be integrated in the learning system. Now I want to invest what the participants expect from these courses and how we can reach prospects for this project. My assignments consists of making a business plan for the project: eLearning BioEnergy. I will figure out ways to attract the main prospects: students from the school of agriculture and forestry and entrepreneurs who are interested in bio energy. Other prospects are students from the school of technology and hobbyists who are interested in bio energy. This project is something new, so I’ll create more brand awareness.
2.2.Objectives Primary objectives: How can we launch and manage bio energy eLearning for professionals? -
How to launch this kind of eLearning system? What media to use for advertising? (newspaper, eMedia, social media,etc.) How to measure the interest for the project? How to keep whole Southern Ostrobothnia in touch? How to attract entrepreneurs? How to find the bio energy experts from Southern Ostrobothnia and attract them to join the eLearning environment.
Higher level objectives (What could be done if there’s enough time): -
Create the networks of entrepreneurs Launch bio energy elearning system Create better knowledge of bio energy in Southern Ostrobothnia Find out how bio energy supply chain is working and make a diagram of it, which points are bottlenecks, then try to remove bottlenecks -> goal: manage bio energy supply chain
2.3.Results The final result of my assignment will deliver a business plan with an internal and external analysis (incl. SWOT summary) and a marketing plan. I will make a brochure, an introductory mail of which the lay-out can be used as a form letter a form letter and I will figure out a way to use e-commerce and social media to attract entrepreneurs. This communication will be targeted to 2 different kind of groups: students and entrepreneurs. The communication will focus on the target groups of Southern Ostrobothnia. Tinne Oostvogels
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
3. Project approach I will make a questionnaire to get to know the interest and the expectations for this project from the target groups. As we have 2 target groups, 2 different kind of questionnaires will be sent. The questionnaire includes the following themes: - Interest in bio energy and elearning - Knowledge of bio energy, SeAMK and their projects on bio energy - Expectations - What Fields of bio energy/ subjects they’re interested in - Suggestions - What price are they willing to pay - How many hours a week can they spend on eLearning - General identification questions To interview prospects, a list of entrepreneurs in the agriculture and forestry sector in Southern Ostrobothnia will be made by mister Sivula. The questionnaire will be sent by mail to those prospects. A teacher from the School of Agriculture and Forestry from SeAMK will be contacted to get a mailing lists of prospect students. From both groups I expect about 30 responds to the questionnaire to make the data reliable and qualitative. I will do an analysis of the data in Excel and process this data into charts with short conclusions. After the analysis a marketing plan will be created to launch the project. There will be a weekly meeting with mister Sivula to discuss the progress and resolve questions.
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
4. Project activities Phase 1:
A: make questionnaire and test them B: adjust questionnaires if needed and mail them
Phase 2: process the information to reliable and clear data with conclusions Phase 3: collect the right information to create marketing plan Phase 4: create marketing plan with: brochure, form letter, introductory mail, e-commerce and social media both for students and entrepreneurs.
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Action Plan eLearning BioEnergy
5. The products For this assignment I will have the following sub products and final products: Sub products: Action plan List of students and entrepreneurs Questionnaire Charts Final Products: business plan CD-ROM
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