Ontwerp en implementatie van de Masteropleiding Special Education needs via e-learning

Purpose of the study and problem statement: Dutch collegs and universities are increasingly working with e-learning or planning to do so in the near future. In many cases they are seeking ecologically valid design principples. Currently Dutch higher education lacks clear and complete sets of valid e-learning design principles. The current research seeks to contribute to building such a set of design principles for e-learning within the context of Dutch higher education. The study took place within the Windesheim master Special Educational Needs (SEN).

In 2005 the management team of the Windesheim master SEN commissioned to design and produce four master SEN courses via e-learning. These four master SEN courses had existed for some time in the form of face to face courses. The face to face courses were to constitute the basis of the e-learning courses. The assignment from the management team contained short-term goals in terms of numbers of enrollments, student satisfaction and academic success for the e-learning courses. Within the Windesheim institute there was no prior experience with e-learning. The conversion of the four face to face courses to e-learning courses therefore constituted a major challenge. A small e-learning team was formed. Near the end of 2005 a rough draft of the e-learning design was delivered, based on a limited review of the literature. In response to the rough draft, questions were raised about relevance, usefulness and effectiveness.

In response to these questions the research that is the subject of the dissertation was initiated. The purpose of the study was to validate and to refine the rough draft of the e-learning design, and to support, to augment and to evaluate the implementation. The problem statement in this study was as follows: Which principles constitute a valid, useful and effective e-learning design for master SEN courses?