1. Keeping in Touch… A Minimalist Approach to ODL Claus Nielsen

2. EUCEN-Conference, Vienna October 17-19 2002 Master of Mediation and Conflict Resolution MMCR Elements: Mediation Conflict resolution Negotioation Personal training

3. EUCEN-Conference, Vienna October 17-19 2002 MMCR Details A new education for adults Part-time study combined with full-time work 60 ECTS over two years Only admission with work experience Price: 16.000 € Involves personal coaching and supervision Students meet once a month for a weekend

4. EUCEN-Conference, Vienna October 17-19 2002 A Problem Arises… MMCR needed easy means of communication and continuously contact between students, teachers and guest lecturers. As the programme includes only few face-to-face lessons a virtual bridge between the lessons was needed.

5. EUCEN-Conference, Vienna October 17-19 2002 Creating a Forum During design of MMCR all focus group interviews centered on the personal meeting between the university and focused students with relevant work experience. On-line facilities were not in high demand. To exchange information, papers and supplement face-to- face learning the University of Copenhagen chose to use an on-line forum.

6. EUCEN-Conference, Vienna October 17-19 2002 Choosing a minimalist approach Use of ODL should: Provide a continuously forum for discussion and contact Replace time consuming and trivial processes (providing basic information on e.g. changes in schedules and distribution of papers) enable students to make presentations and writing papers together despite geographical distances The use of ODL should not: Replace traditional teaching methods Restrict the students from valuable personal networking

7. EUCEN-Conference, Vienna October 17-19 2002 Pedagogical Aspects The ODL-platform shall provide a foundation for the face- to-face lessons and give a high level of preparedness. The ODL-solution should help structure the learning proccesses and help evaluate on the training feed back each student get’s through the programme. The critical dialogue with teachers, network-facilitating meeting of adult students and meeting guest lecturers will be at the core of the learning paradigm. Feed back and counselling on mediation sessions can be taken to greater depth through personal counselling via the forum. Blending learning methods give a learning profile that can be made to fit to all types of studies.

8. EUCEN-Conference, Vienna October 17-19 2002 Benefits of Simplicity User-friendly Initial investment low Instruction needed minimal Normal computer skills sufficient No system integration troubles and easy system support The platform can undertake more advanced tasks if the need arises

9. EUCEN-Conference, Vienna October 17-19 2002 University of Copenhagen Founded 1479 35.000 students 7000 employees 6 faculties More than 100 different studies Currently expanding in the CE and e-learning sectors