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The article sets out to identify common prejudices on e-learning. Its pedagogical surplus depends on the methodical-didactic design. The authors back their verdict by experiences of learners in an online-based course. Learners judge new-mediasupported learning as being intensive, communicative, but time-consuming. E-learning requires self-discipline, selfmotivation, self-organisation, good time management and basic technical competences.
The aim of wider-benefits research is to record the complexity of benefits and other effects on both the personal and the societal levels deriving from the individual’s educational efforts. The central issue is: “What changes are affected by learning interventions?” Schuller/Desjardins 2010, p. 229). The exploration of the wider benefits of learning is still in its infancy. Pioneers in this field of research are, in particular, to be found in the UK – the Centre for Research on the Wider B…
The DIE (German Centre for Adult Education) programme “Learning in Social Spaces”, the social quarter approach is a key element of the inclusion matter. Focused on the social environment, continuing education can include the local community and the resulting participation and networking potentials. The article discusses extracts of interviews conducted with representatives of adult education centres in Berlin and Hamburg, revealing the extent of social space orientation work in the context of i…
Within the federal programme »On-Site Learning«, the General Bureau of Education in Aachen is responsible for the municipal coordination of educational counselling in ten communities. The presented three-pillar model includes the qualification of educational counsellors, training for educational guides for and the compass training guidance as an associated information medium. The concept aims at improving the transparency of publicly accessible educational counselling as well as approaching edu…
Based on data collected in the OECD project »Social Outcomes of Learning (SOL)«, empirical research findings and resulting policy recommendations were generated in the report »Improving Health and Social Cohesion through Education«, which are presented in this shortened and translated version. Due to the overall sparse empirical evidence of benefit research, future research forms and necessary methodological approaches are outlined.
The Author presents a shortened version of the report »The Social and Personal Benefits of Learning: A Summary of Key Research Findings« by the »Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning (WBL)«. The wider benefits of early childhood education as well as school, university and adult education are examined. The wide range of positive educational benefits contains crime prevention as well as a reduced nicotine consumption or increased tolerance.
The report includes a slightly revised version of a lecture held during the opening ceremony of the German Continuing Education Day in Berlin in 2012. The author focuses on the day’s central idea: surplus value of continuing education and pleads for the use of the benefit concept, which includes the individual’s perspective, as well as the concept of profit with regard to the social and organizational perspective.
Jyri Manninen presents empirical data on the »wider benefits of lifelong learning« collected in Finish adult education institutions (adult education centres, folk high schools, university summer schools, study and sport centres) in 2007. To present the results, a model concept on the wider benefits of learning was developed, which includes a quintuple classification of the term »benefits«: 1. »relevant benefits for the learning process «, 2. »direct benefits«, 3. »skills and competences«, 4. »a…
The article describes how community learning, a special form of adult education in Ireland, generates benefits for both the individual and the society. The authors’ elaborations are empirically based on the reports »At the Forefront«, »Community Education: More than just a Course« and »Sowing the Seeds of Social Change«, conducted by the Irish National Adult Learning Organization (AONTAS).
