Overview+of+E-Learning+-+Greece

Sidiropoulos, Makridou-Bousiou and Mavromati (2010) discuss the efforts by the Greek Ministry of Education to integrate distance learning into the curriculum, however conversations between the writer of this wiki and Mavromati illustrate that funding has been cut so severely with respect to education in Greece that these integration efforts may have changed somewhat since writing of the 2010 report "eLearning in Greece". As explained in the previous section of this wiki, there is a review occuring in higher education as a result of the austerity measures, the details of which will be alluded to the stakeholders in September of this year.

As Sidiropoulos, Makridou-Bousiou and Mavromati describe in their report, there is one institution primarily delivering distance education in Greece which is the Hellenic Open University. Although this institution is growing in popularity with prospective students, and Greek public universities are seeking to adopt blended learning models within their organisations, it appears as though adoption is generally quite slow with a real need for development of teaching and learning models directly suited to Greek higher education.

The European Distance and E Learning network [] provides a space for Greek e-academics to network with other academics from within Europe. This shared knowledge and collaborative space provides some support as Greece grows in utilisation of e-learning within higher education institutions.

Kalogiannakis (2006 in Sidiropoulos, Makridou-Bousiou and Mavromati p. 195) states that "the most common application of distance education programs consist of uploaded presentations of the course contents with no provision for structures for interaction or student participation", further supported by Sidiropoulos, Makridou-Bousiou and Mavromati's statement that "despite the growing interest by teachers and students alike about incorporating distance and blended education techniques, a common problem is the low quality of most such efforts".

With a high broadband penetration (46.2% as referred to previously in this wiki) the infrastucture exists upon which to continue to grow e-learning in Greece. The existence of the Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (RA CTI [|http://cti.gr]) ensures a focus exists within Greece on the area of Information and Communication technologies especially in the area of education and training and one of its nine main focuses is on e-learning. This e-learning sector was established in 2003 and was designed to advance e-learning however most advances are being made by the higher education institutions themselves.

It was interesting to read from the Sidiropoulos, Makridou-Bousiou and Mavromati report written in December/January 2009 that it appeared at that time that the "eLearning and web-based learning development in Greece is at a high level priority for government policy". This statement was made prior to the economic collapse of Greece and the writer of this wiki has been unable to find the most recent status of e-learning in Greece more than a brief discussion with Mavromati illustrating the withdrawal of funding from education.

However in 2006 Siassiakos et al. stated that:

lifelong learning is one of the three bases axes on which Greece bases all of its efforts to upgrade Greek reality in all levels, such as the financial, the social and the cultural in both terms of quality and quantity. To win the bet of adult education in the country, all possible ways of delivering education and training services should be explored and used. Distance learning has to be used more widely in parallel and additionally with the traditional educational settings. The use of electronic means in distance learning shows remarkable results. In Greece the use of distance e-learning is relatively poor. //(note: wikispaces will not accept indent on this quotation)// Siassiakos et al. refer to the example of the Adult Education Centres which are run by the General Secretariat of Adult Education (GSAE) designed to promote further education and training for adults. In 2006 the GSAE set a goal to create for adult Greek students an electronic distance education system outlining a proposed blended model, asynchronous, well supported within the Adult Education Centres. The GSAE is responsible for all design, development and implementation and policies surrounding adult education in Greece. At this time funding was to have come from the National Funds - 25% and the European Community Fund - 75%. A cost analysis was done of two models of learning - solely e-learning and e-learning with face to face meetings. There was not great significance in the cost of either modes of learning.

It is clear from the Siassiakos et al. article that even back then in 2006 education and in particular e-learning sufffered cost restraints to development, relying on international funds to enable such projects as the GSAE one outlined above. It is therefore logical to think that with the current economic situation in Greece that whilst the country is under economic duress perhaps there may be very little forward movement in e-learning.

Siassiakos et al. in a later dated report (2007) advising of the existence of the Adult Distance Education and Training Centres (ADECT), formerly the Adult Education Centres (AEC). At this time the ADECT e-learning model was blended, with a hierachy of training staff and a module system of learning of 250 hours, based on 5 courses of 50 hours each. The learning system adopted was Moodle. In the first phase of deployment some 800 participants were accepted into the course in 9 regions throughout Greece. Statistics within the Siassiakos et al. 2007 article showed that 55.1% of all applicants were women, 42% 31-40 years old, 29.4% up to 30 years old and 34.7% older than 40. 62% had internet access at home and 15.2% at work.

It was proposed within this report that ADECT moves forward to use synchronous tele-conferencing, development of more programmes and further development of higher education e-learning materials. Marseilles (2008) describes in the University World News the overall structure of higher education in Greece, and gives further reference to the current status of e-learning there [].