E-learning at italian universities

For the whole of the twentieth century Italian universities retained an educational model which emphasised the offer size, concentrating on individual disciplines and offering no competition (between disciplines or between the various universities). Rapid social changes and, in particular, increased demands for education, began to call into question the efficiency of such a model. High drop-out rates, growing unemployment among graduates, the prolonged duration of study courses and the inability to meet the requirements of the country's job market are only a few of the symptoms of an ailing system. In order to revitalise the system, the Minister for Universities issued a decree in 1999, followed by 2 further decrees in 2000, which laid down the new framework for university education. The previous one-tier binary system consisting of a single educational level with two parallel pathways (degree courses and university diploma courses), was replaced by a two-tier unitary system which consists of a single learning path divided into two levels. Moreover, the reform has given great autonomy to the individual universities in deciding which courses to run and which methods and educational technologies to use. An immediate consequence of this didactic autonomy has been the diversification of the educational courses on offer, combined with the experimentation of new distance learning courses. It is these latter courses which will be analysed in the current paper. The paper presents data concerning distance learning degree courses on offer at Italian universities in the last 3 academic years and then considers the evolution of the e-learning market in the Italian university system; it also makes some general considerations about methods and technology used by the universities.