This paper describes the NKI Technical College and the model of collaboration between state institutions and the NKI Distance Education to offer professional training in technology.
The Norwegian technical colleges are formally secondary schools. However, as opposed to the majority of educational offers at this level, they aim at recruiting students who have earned their qualifications as skilled workers, and have some practical experience . Thus, many potential students are well established in work, family and social life, a situation that makes full time studies difficult.
Distance education has proven to be a successful solution. The students can complete the NKI Technical College either through individual distance studies or by taking part in combined education with local face-to-face teaching.
The model involves close cooperation between NKI Distance Education and state technical colleges, where the local colleges organise the face-to-face instruction and laboratory training. The programmes involve theoretical studies based on printed material, correspondence education, laboratory kits for individual students, PC software and computer conferencing, laboratory training, exam courses, local face-to-face teaching, exam fresh up courses and video based learning.
NKI is a private non-profit foundation in education and operates a polytechnic college specialising in engineering and computer science courses, a decentralised vocational school at secondary level, a business training institute in computer application software, and a distance education institution. NKI Distance Education offers programmes in vocational training, technology and administration at secondary and tertiary level. The programmes are accredited by state authorities and financially supported by the Ministry of Education.
The technical colleges in Norway are formally part of the secondary school system. They offer two year full-time programmes in different branches of technology aiming at young adults who have earned their certification as skilled workers and who have some practice within their trade. The technical colleges give further education in basic science subjects, technology and management and prepare their students mainly for lower and middle management positions.
As the target group for the technical colleges thus are adults with vocational, social and family responsibilities, many of them find it very difficult to leave their jobs to engage in full-time studies. NKI has developed a parallel programme which in a flexible way can cater for different needs of people who wish to complete the technical college programme through distance learning.
The NKI Technical College includes a preparatory course of one semester that prepares for enrolment at both NKI and the public full-time colleges. The two ordinary years of the programme cover 8 modules. Each module is supposed to take approximately one semester to complete part-time.
Thus, a fixed progression schedule would be 4 years for the total programme. The 4 introductory modules are equivalent to 1 year at the full-time colleges and are largely the same for all students. Before taking the 4 remaining modules, equivalent to the 2nd year full-time study, the students may choose to specialise in one of 8 different branches of technology (e. g. mechanics, civil engineering, process engineering, electronics).
The NKI Distance Education Technical College Is largely based on printed materials (text books and study guides) and two-way communication based on assignments for submission and tutor feed-back by post. However, NKI puts large emphasis on student support. Thus, all enrolees will receive personal follow up by a specifically assigned tutor in the introductory phase of the studies. The tutor will phone the students on the tutors initiative and the tutor can be reached by phone and also by fax. After this first introductory period, students who are inactive or 'silent' for more than a month, are approached by the student advisors at NKI by post or telephone. The students may phone their tutors at any time. (For some background information on NKI follow up systems, see Rekkedal 1985.) The programmes also include laboratory kits and computer simulation software in some subjects. From 1995 the programmes include an optional set of video programmes in subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry. The video programmes cover the whole curriculum in these subjects and may be used for individual or group based learning (Haugan 1995). All students are also offered access to the Internet and use the Internet for electronic mail social and academic conferences, participation in news groups or for search of information.
Experiments, laboratory exercises and report writing are essential elements of many of the subjects of the technical college. To carry out these activities may cause some problems in distance learning. In the NKI Technical College the challenge of carrying out experimental work has been solved in different ways. Students participating in the local face-to-face classes can do their laboratory work in connection with these class meetings, arranged by the local public technical college. The students studying individually will have to travel to laboratory sessions arranged at specific times either by one of the cooperating public colleges or centrally by NKI. In some subjects, in particular in electronics, NKI has developed laboratory kits containing different electronic components to be used in various kinds of circuits. The kits demand specific measuring equipment that the students normally will have access to at their workplace. Students who don't have access to the necessary equipment may bring their kits to specially arranged week-end seminars and carry out their experiments under supervision of the NKI tutor.
The students may choose either to enrol for individual distance study or take part in so-called combined education (individual distance study plus local face-to-face classes). Local classes may either be open for any person who might be interested, or internal classes arranged in cooperation with a certain enterprise or a group of enterprises. The combined education classes follow the fixed progression schedule of part-time study, one module per semester, while the individual distance students may follow their personal time schedule.
All subjects in the programme are concluded by formal exams. The individual distance students may sit their exams at the nearest public secondary school. In that case, an employee at the school receives the examination material from NKI and administers the exam according to the NKI regulations. Students may also sit their exam at NKI centrally or at a local NKI study centre. Students who take part in one of the locally arranged classes take the exams together with their fellow students locally. In connection with the final examinations at the end of the programme, the students may follow specifically arranged exam preparation courses arranged by NKI centrally.
The flexibility of the different forms of distance study at the NKI Technical College could only be made possible through extensive cooperation between NKI, a number of public technical colleges, enterprises and industrial/business trade organisations. In the following we shall give some examples of different types and models of cooperation.
NKI has for many years offered the technical education programme with its internal exams and certificates. The NKI certificate has generally been accepted in business, industry, and colleges for further education as equivalent to the certificates from the public schools. However, the Ministry of Education has demanded that NKI students take public exams to receive full formal approval for their studies. To ensure that the NKI students can take the public exams, NKI has signed a contract of cooperation with one specific public technical college, Telemark Technical College. This involves cooperation in developing common curricula, development of text books and other teaching material, specification of laboratory exercises requirements, and developing, administering and marking examination papers. In this process of cooperation other public technical colleges have also chosen to take part, thus resulting in more common curricula, learning material and exams in the public system than was the situation before. All students completing the NKI Technical College will thus receive official certificates.
NKI cooperates with a large number of the public colleges all over Norway. These schemes of cooperation include local face-to-face tutoring, laboratory training, examinations and certification of the students.
One specific effect of this cooperation is that NKI students who have completed the first 4 modules (equivalent to the first year of the full time college), normally will be accepted for full time studies in the second year. In this way the local colleges are able to fill up classes more efficiently. In fact, many of the students who never thought of taking up full time study have gained self confidence through distance study to do so, and often because of their accomplishments as part time students, their employer offers them paid leave of absence for one year (sometimes with some financial support from the government). Clear statements from both principals and teachers at the local colleges show that teaching in the local classes of NKI adult distance students are especially challenging because these students are more motivated and make heavier demands on teacher qualifications than do the ordinary full time students at the college. The teachers also state that these students constitute great assets to the class when starting in the second year.
There are many examples of enterprises cooperating with NKI to upgrade the competence of their employees through offering the NKI Technical College as internal training. E. g. the Norwegian Telecom has offered the technical college to groups of their employees. In this case the curriculum has been specifically adapted to the training needs in telecommunications. The Telecom has also financed experiments with specific media and technology solutions in distance education, such as video conferencing (Holden 1994) and telefax applications (Rekkedal 1992). Enterprises such as Hydro, SAS and Oslo Energi has also arranged internal groups completing the NKI Technical College. Sometimes a group of enterprises co-operates with NKI to offer the Technical College to their employees. Although not necessarily included in formal cooperation with the employer, a large number of the students study at the NKI Technical College as a formal part of their internal education, and more than half of the individual students have their studies paid by their employer.
There are also examples of trade organisations co-operating with NKI to develop a new branch of technology within the Technical College. For instance the Norwegian trade organisation for Wood and Furniture Technology (URMI) has financed the development of curricula and learning material for one branch of the Technical College to cater for the organisation's specific training needs.
The NKI Technical College recruits annually between 500 and 1000 students. Evaluation studies have shown it to be a very successful example of a distance teaching programme, satisfying the needs of a group of adult skilled workers who would have large difficulties or no possibilities at all of completing their studies through other forms of education. The cooperation between NKI Distance Education and local colleges has been fruitful for both parties and stimulated common developments for higher quality.
Haugan, J. (1995): Teaching science for technology at secondary level: a video based approach in distance education. In Sewart, D. (ed.), Volume 1, pp. 105-108.
Holden, G. ( 1994): Multipoint video conferencing. Evaluation of video conferencing as a support to correspondence education. English summary in Holden, G.: Multipunkt videokonferanse. Evaluering av fjernundervisning via video. Bekkestua: NKI/SEFU.
Paulsen, M. F. (1995): The NKI Open Electronic College. In Sewart, D. fed.), Volume 2, pp. 433-436.
Rekkedal. T. ( 1985): Introducing the Personal Tutor/Counsellor in the System of Distance Education. Stabekk: NKI.
Rekkedal, T. ( 1992): Telefax som medium for toveis kommunikasjon i individuell fjernundervisning. (English summary: Telefax as medium for two-way communication in distance education). Bekkestua: NKI/SEFU.
Sewart, D. (ed.) (1995): One World - Many Voices. Quality in Open and Distance Learning. Volume 1 & 2. 17th World Conference for Distance Education. Milton Keynes: ICDE/Open University.