JETEN (Jun 2023)
An inconvenient truth? The (un-) importance of e-learning as a tool for sustainable education in Germany
Abstract
In the context of digitalisation, digital media, tools and technologies are becoming an integral part of everyday life. These digital tools are changing social communication as well as the living and working environment. With regards to these environments, the education system plays an important role: Society must be strengthened in terms of digital everyday life and qualified for the future job market. As part of a document analysis based on Mayring (2014), 207 research projects – funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) between 2000 and 2018 – were examined with regards to sustainability and outcomes. An in- depth qualitative analysis of the project reports and websites was conducted for 27 projects whose funding lasted from 2013 until 2018. The results of the analysis indicated that higher education was the funding priority. However, this prioritisation did not apply to teacher training programmes at universities. The results of the analysis showed that research projects with a focus on Open Educational Resources (OER) were particularly frequently funded. Common project outcomes were a collection of different materials and the creation of project websites. Despite numerous projects related to e-learning, a systematic research into the importance of e-learning tools in teacher training programmes was not identified. The dominance of research projects related to the OER topic promotes the enormous potential in terms of sustainability and digitalisation. However, the project results obviously remain unused in the context of higher education and teacher training programmes.
