The team of EUROWEAVING published a brand new report on the findings generated in their Grundtvig Accompanying measures project.
Networking is a key competence of practitioners in education, and networks are considered to have high potential for solving structural problems.

The Art of Networking deals with planning and implementing a particular type of educational network: European networks in the framework of the EU funding programmes for lifelong learning.
The publication addresses professionals in education – teachers, trainers, programme developers, managers, researchers and evaluators – who are already involved in networks or may wish to be so in the future.
Download: art_of_networking.pdf

There was a relaunch of an evaluation report concerning blended learning in the European Healthcare and Social sector by Hans-Dieter Haller, Jutta List Ivancovic and Tim Scholze.
The evaluation focused on the major stakeholders, on the demands both of learners and their superiors concerning blended learning offers as well as on the knowledge and didactic competences of the learning personnel.
Applied methodological-didactic concepts, learning behaviour and contentment, implications for internal and external teaching staff as well as a use-of-potential (demand) analysis for the institutions were focal points of the evaluation.

The report can be accessed -> here

Most of the learners have previous experiences with
computers and they have basic competencies in
using several programmes and software.
Nevertheless there are learners who are not familiar
in using the computer for studying which is a barrier
for eLearning.

According to the results of the studies the acceptance of
eLearning highly depends on how familiar the learners are with
computers. ELearning can only be successful if the learners
accept the medium computer or internet. As a consequence it is
important for instructors, teachers as well as for decision makers
to clarify in advance which competencies the learners have
regarding the handling of computers and how familiar they are
with information search and learning by computers. Thus a
thorough introduction into how to work with information
technologies can also lead groups with little computer skills to
enjoy learning with computers and to acquire new competencies.

The tendency that learners who are little familiar with
computers hardly use eLearning offers, also shows in
the study of Baume, Hummel & Krcmar (2004).
Learners had little competencies for computers and
therefore eLearning was badly received. Participants
mainly printed out material, apart from that the
computers were hardly used for learning.

In the study of Beutner (2004) it was confirmed that
certain target groups not necessarily have the
required competencies for working with the
computer. Talks with doctors and physician
assistants showed that one can expect higher
barriers in the training fields of health care than in
commercial areas and affiliated jobs that require
training, because it is rather social and medical
aspects being in the focus.

Competencies for eLearning cannot be taken for
granted, as was also shown in the study by
Woywode and Dittler (2006). The students
questioned were basically open-minded towards
eLearning, but the majority (68%) is inexperienced
with eLearning applications in general as well as with
learning platforms (75%) specifically.

Healthcare enterprises consists of various departments, therefore
„various“ is mostly voted for in regard to the delivered contents.
IT are of minor importance in the 3rd sector.

At least it is not of major importance which is contradictory to the statement of decision makers that there is a lack of IT-skills among the personnel.
It is remarkable that, despite the obvious lack of IT skills of the personnel there is not a strong which for training in this area.
An explanation would be the shortage of available time and the prevalence of other, more urgent trainings especially in the healthcare sector

Read more in the article of Michael Eichhorst -> here

There seems to be a significant higher value of theoretical knowledge in hospitals than in other entities (regression) vice versa concerning practical skills.The high rating of both theoretical AND practical knowledge can be interpreted as a strong point for mixed methodology.
In hospitals there is a high demand (67%) of expertknowledge whereas in other enterprises the demandof expert knowledge is average.
In contrast to cognitive competences the demand of DM in hospitals concerning communicative competences are only at average.
The results of communication and management can be compared
A high quantity of tailor made learning offers for scientific/expert knowledge is required in the healthcare sector, especially in hospitals.
As 85-91% of decision makers consider communicative skills as average or high importance Blended Methodology seems especially appropriate for both hospitals and other 3rd sector enterprises, especially in combination with project learning

“Reducing costs for absence of learners from workplace� is most important..
Contradiction to the demands of DM and the complaints by the learners. There is a tendency to reduce learning times by eLearning because of economic reasons.
DM from hospitals are mainly not conscious about other learning target groups, e.g. clients/patients
Especially the mixture of topics including communication for different learning groups favours the introduction of mixed methodology.

80% of the enterprises report regular staff training (fairly often to very often) Credit point system rarely applied in both hospitals and other entities In hospitals there is a high demand (67%) of expert knowledge whereas in other enterprise the demand of expert knowledge is average. Comparatively low demand of IT skills (72% rarely or less) 92-100% rate the conveyance of practical skills average or highly important 40% do not know what a KMS is. Low preference of 31-55%. eLearning: 40% low and average preference in hospitals but 80% unknown in other organisations.
A high quantity of tailor made learning offers for scientific/expert knowledge is required in the healthcare sector, especially in hospitals. As 85-91% of decision makers consider communicative skills as average or high importance Blended Methodology seems especially appropriate for both hospitals and other 3rd sector enterprises Still, KMS are unknown or unattractive territory for most 3rd sector organisations. Pure eLearning is not feasible and very unattractive in the 3rd sector, at least 40% average demand in hospitals. Nearly one third does not know what it is BL shows a significantly higher value than eLearning.

Description of emotion-related skills (especially “emotional intelligence�?) and the concept of affectivecompetencies as a bridge between pedagogical and psychological approaches towards a scaling ofthe affective dimension in the AC-Cube.
Giardini investigated competencies and skills that concern the processing, regulation, and utilization of affect.
The initial point of reference is Salovey and Mayer’s (1990) original conceptualization of emotional intelligence and its refined version (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).

download the dissertation -> here

The different methods (face to face teaching, eLearning and projects) were well accepted by the learners. Learners particularly liked the face to face lessons. Some of the respondents had problems with eLearning, what in most cases was due to technological problems and lacking experience with computers. What respondents liked most about blended learning was the diversity of methods or the fact that the different methods complemented each other well.
Reasons for the satisfaction with the course are the “instructors and tutors “, the “learning material“, the “methods“ and “acquisition of knowledge“. During the face to face phases the learners particularly liked the exchange with colleagues and working in groups.
Presence phases cannot completely be replaced by eLearning. Mainly at the beginning of a blended learning course it is important to give a thorough introduction into the LMS to the learners. Interaction with instructors and tutors is indispensable and can best be realised by meeting in person at the beginning.
During a course the learners particularly appreciate to learn with a group. The exchange with colleagues and social aspects of face to face lessons are important and indispensable to learners. Blended learning offers the advantage of combining different learning methods.
In small and medium enterprises and public administrations there still are many employees with little competencies as to computers. But computer based learning calls for basic knowledge particularly in this area. A low affinity towards technology combined with the “compulsion�? to learn at the computer evokes additional causes of friction outside the proper learning arrangement. The concept of blended learning relativises the tendency to technical aversion.
Those learners who less like to use the computer, who learn independently with printouts, or prefer face to face phases at least partly get their type of learner promoted. It must be considered that learners with only little experience with IT need more time to get to know the necessary software and for accessing the contents. Not all potential learners are immediately ready for this new methodology, that’s why it may be necessary to have an accurate preparation before the real delivery of courses.

Literature
Baume, M.; Hummel, S.; Krcmar, H. (2004).
Erfolgsfaktoren für Blended Learning - Konzepte
Erfahrungen aus der Evaluation von Webtrain.

http://www.winfobase.de/lehrstuhl/
read more in German -> here

“Reducing costs for absence of learners from workplace� is most important..
Contradiction to the demands of DM and the complaints by the learners. There is a tendency to reduce learning times by eLearning because of economic reasons.
DM from hospitals are mainly not conscious about other learning target groups, e.g. clients/patients
Especially the mixture of topics including communication for different learning groups favours the introduction of mixed methodology

Preferences in special learning arrangements individual learning styles and learning strategies (only 22% known) “gives the  learners a better self-esteem (self confidence)�: affirmed with “rather much� and a rather high variance Learning experiences and expectations are known for 45,8%.
The highest value is for expected results (97%), also the value for . The lowest values are for motives for learning (73) seems to be high. The lowest values are for prerequisites in knowledge (previous knowledge/qualification)(34%), individual learning styles
and learning strategies (22%) and preferences in special learning arrangements (19%).

Learners’ disposition (ability of self-learning One third of the answers is “low�?, only one fifth is “high�?. This seems to be a reality which is to be considered very much in decisions for eLearning Motivation:
Nearly half of the respondents give no answer, so they seem not to know the motivational situation; from those who seem to know it, the answer is mostly “average�? whereas “high�? is rather seldom.
Ability of self-learning is normally more re-quested in eLearning, the hospitals my have a problem with that.
There is a clear distinction between hospitals and others: DM in hospitals do not know the motivation of their learners (maybe due to the size and heterogeneity) whereas 78% of the DM of other (small) enter-prises opt for average and higher.

The problem with learning styles is that although they are often cited to be one of the most important methodological aspect in learning and therefore very important for the construction of learning arrangements one can find few examples where this has been applied. A model that had been developed by Gordon Pask may serve as a guideline for applications.
This model is one among a plenty of approaches to learning styles (Haller, 1992) and makes evident two basic styles of learning (Pask, 1976): “holistic” (with a permanent change between concretion and abstraction) and “serialistic” (a step by- step learning, where abstractions develop out of concretions). Furthermore, one should take account of the experience reported by Pask that serialistic learners hardly can get on well with holistic learning environments, whereas holistic learners rather can do so with serialistic environments.
“Versatiles” are people who manage best both environments. This leads to the conclusion, that such programs should have at least a “serialistic platform” which is supplemented by “holistic facilities”. An experiment on eLearning in a language laboratory could prove this convincingly (Schulz- Wendler, 2001) .

Different learning styles can be turned over in eLearning alone by constructing and offering multiple ways for learning and in Blended Learning by switching between the components (building a serialistic programme and complementing it with group
discussions in a f2f-situation..