THE USE OF E-LEARNING-TOOLS IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION BETWEEN COURSES IN HIGHER EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITIES

This paper is about the international cooperation between courses in higher education of the Department of Media Education at the Johannes Gutenberg- University in Mainz/ Germany and the University of Tampere/ Finland in 2012. In the context of our master programme in Lifelong Learning and Media Education several e-learning-tools e.g. LMS, videocasts, e-portfolios and virtual classrooms were used to support different fields of the students’ competences which are inevitable for the student’s vocational field and their future career in a world of globalisation.

Education Related to Real Practice and Competences:
The “Hochschulrektorenkonferenz” (abbr.: HRK; “University Rectors Conference”) lists in its guidelines for international strategies of universities several aspects which come up to universities concerning political and economic regards in the course of increasing globalisation. The educational system is seen as the key to the development of these competencies. Therefore universities have the role of „Agents of change. Young people should be qualified to realise their „global citizenship“, not only to be prepared for their job (HRK, S.3).
Intercultural competences have risen to a key competence in recent times of globalisation. In our case the students got in contact with international students, were engaged in an international course at University and gained language skills, soft skills and knowledge in media education.
The Seminar:
In the seminars intercultural awareness and competences were moderated via cultural exchange about student life in both countries and a personal introduction via the production and publication of videocasts. We integrated practical projects and the visit of media pedagogical institutions. Students should make technical documentations of interviews with employees of the media pedagogical field and present them in the LMS for a discussion with other students. Different aspects of media education were trained and special technical, journalistic and creative media competences were asked. Because the international cooperation was organised via a learning management system topics like creating learning environments or online-communication and online-moderation were integrated.
The form of examination was an E-Portfolio. In the pedagogical context they are used to compose and document individual learning and educational processes and their results.

Evaluation and Future Prospects:
The evaluation at the end of terms showed that many of the students consider international cooperation as important and they also enjoyed it. In their view it would be reasonable to extend the internationalisation of their studies.

References:
[1] Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (o.J.): Die deutschen Hochschulen in der Welt und für die Welt. Internationale Strategien der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz – Grundlagen und Leitlinien. http://www.hrk.de/de/download/dateien/Endfassung_Internationale_Strategie_der_HRK_18.11.08.pdf (13.11.2011).
[2] Erll, Astrid/ Gymnich, Marion (2011): Interkulturelle Kompetenzen- erfolgreich kommunizieren zwischen den Kulturen. 2. Aufl. Klett Lerntraining (Uni-Wissen Kernkompetenzen). pp.6-14.
[3] Paetz, Nadja-Verena et al (2011): Kompetenz in der Hochschuldidaktik. Wiesbaden: DOI 10.1007/978-3-531-92873-9_6, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH.