A DIFFERENT KIND OF ELEARNING FOR A DIFFERENT KIND OF LECTURERS? A CASE STUDY ON A PART TIME PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME

The successful implementation of eLearning elements can be seen as the key factor to establish part time professional education programmes. Supported by these instruments, students can organise their workload completely by themselves - based on a given, well structured learning platform. On the one hand, the mix between eLearning and in-class lectures seems to be dependant only on the organisation of the programmes. But as we can learn from practical experience, there are some other elements that limit options to effectively adopt blended learning concepts. The focus of this paper will be on the lecturers as enabling or restraining elements for the implementation of different, sometimes blended learning concepts in professional education. We will present a small scale case study from the masters programme "Nonprofit Management & Governance". This quite new course of studies is one of a kind and is realised at the Centre for Social Investment in Heidelberg, Germany. The underlying hypothesis is that especially two characteristics (i.e. age and the level obtained in the academic hierarchy) of teachers have significant influences on the implementation success of eLearning elements. We will show differences in the individual behaviour and attitudes towards eLearning and will analyse them with respect to our research question. Our analysis can be used as groundwork for the generation of further informed hypothesis. It should not only give an overview - but much more a stimulus to take the particular teacher into account as a limiting factor when introducing new programmes.