Norwegian Digital Learning Arena - Simulations and Technologies for Science and Supporting Open Education 2.0
NDLA, the Norwegian Digital Learning Arena, is proud to participate in two sessions during Online Educa Berlin 2014. On Thursday Dec 4 our Technology editor, Rune Mathisen, will coach a lab session about Simulations and Technologies for Science. On Friday Dec 5 the head of NDLA, Øivind Høines, is panelist in the debate session Supporting Open Education 2.0. What, Why and Where, contributing with NDLA: A Model for Sustainable Public Innovation Through Collaboration in Learning.
NDLA is a joint venture to produce and give access to open educational learning resources for upper secondary education. The project was established in 2007, and by November 2014 NDLA offers extensive and diversified learning resources for 42 subjects. 5 new subjects are under production, among them Chinese. The long-term ambition is to cover all curricula and learning targets in secondary schools.
NDLA seeks collaboration with similar initiatives in other countries, and has partnerships with Khan Academy and PhEt to translate learning resources into Norwegian. The overall aim is to give access to open digital learning resources of high quality and promote active and collaborative learning. Most material is licensed under Creative Commons. By 2014 NDLA has about 170 000 unique visitors during a week, which is impressive compared to the total number of 200 000 students in secondary education in Norway. From 2012 to 2013 there was a substantial 46% increase in visits, and a steady growth continues in 2014.
NDLA was initiated by 18 out of totally 19 county authorities in 2007 to produce and distribute digital learning material. This was a response to an educational reform (Kunnskapsløftet 2006) establishing digital skills as one of 5 basic skills beside reading, writing, listening and calculating. The government also introduced students’ right to free learning material in upper secondary education (Norwegian Education Act §3.1), giving the school owner, the county authorities, the responsibility to supply students with printed and digital learning material. There was a scarcity of digital learning resources at the time, and when the Department of Education invited county authorities to apply for project funding, the joint initiative between 18 counties to establish NDLA was realized. NDLA is now funded by county authorities. It only costs 410 Nkr (48 Euro) per student to produce and sustain the total number of learning resources on ndla.no.
NDLA has been nominated to international prizes both for its open learning resources and for its innovative distributed organization with employees and partners living and working all over the large country. NDLA won the Boldic Award 2014, a prize for distant learning in the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Thursday Dec 4 IMM33 16. 30 – 17.30
Simulations and Technologies for Science Education
Lab session chaired by Rune Mathisen, Editor of the resources in NDLA Technology
Friday Dec 5 OPN 48 12.00 - 13.30
Supporting Open Education 2.0. What, Why and Where
Øivind Høines, Head of NDLA
“NDLA: A Model for Sustainable Public Innovation Through Collaboration in Learning”