Are virtual campuses a natural
evolution towards collective
intelligence in Higher Education ?
Bénédicte Champagne
Haute Ecole Provinciale de
Hainaut –Condorcet
Evolution of population in French universities
Higher Education is in deep mutation
Open Networking
• Bologna
• Fast & cheap communication
Serving local communities
• Anti-globalization
• Political issue
OECD/France
International
Conference
Higher Education to
2030:
What Futures for
Quality Access in the
Era of Globalisation?
New public responsability
• Entrepreneurial strategies
• Driven by project development
Higher Education Inc
• Commercial issue
• Private-public funding
On-line version : http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/59/56/41809568.pdf
Stakes versus intranet solution
Political/
Economical
 Common points with
Socio-cultural/
pedagogical
corporate :
Common structure
Staff – Management –
customer
 Common values:

« Satisfaction » of the
customer,
 Financial aspects,
 Innovation & learning
 Internal process

 Development of intranet
solutions : « virtual
campuses »
Virtual campuses : a solution ?
Looking backwards :
 Internal communication
Multiple ways of communication
(email, forums, online notices,
…) misused
 Information management is
weak
 E-learning
 Often limited to on-line version
of syllabi
 Oriented, presented & perceived as
a technical/informatics project
 Few merging between social &
technical issues
 Restricted investments in
training

 Virtual campuses started in
1995 -2000
 Usually proposed services :
 News platforms
 Pedagogical platforms
 Files repositories
Relation to information have changed
 Internal communication  tool of facilitation of the
regulation of the institution
 Multiple information editors
 Internet users become information contents
generators
How to transform a virtual campus
in a (more) efficient intranet ?
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE CONCEPT
-KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
-ICT
-LATERAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Concept of collective intelligence
Definition from MIT collective intelligence center:
 Intelligence is :




The ability to learn or understand
To deal with new or trying situations
The skilled use of reason
The ability to apply knowledge to adapt to one's environment
 Collective intelligence is :
 Group(s) of individuals doing things collectively that seem
intelligent
 Groups addressing new or trying situations
 Groups applying knowledge to adapt to a changing
environment
Deep changes in Higher Education
 Lateral management <> classical hierarchical
management
 Strategies of knowledge management (formal &
informal contents)
 Implication staff & students in the move and collection
of their contribution in many ways
“… large groups of people (“We”) can, and
should, take responsibility for traditional business functions that
are currently performed by companies, industries and experts
(“Me”) …”
We are smarter Than Me, Wiki Books, Barry Libert & John Spector
HEPH - Condorcet
(Haute Ecole Provinciale de
Hainaut – Condorcet)
STUDENT POPULATION : 9500
STAFF POPULATION 900
PHYSICAL SITES : 23
CENTRAL SITES : 3
ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS : 3000 ADDITIONAL USERS
A global management of communication & security
Learning
&
research
network
Internet
Belnet
HEPH – Condorcet
Eduroam
Servers
Centralized management of
communication & security
Task force
Life cycle of the project
Management
Departments
Teachers
Students
Administrative staff
Evaluation &
adaptation
Design of a project
Training of the staff
& information
management
support
Management
approval
On-line Platform
Platform Services
 4 users profile :
 Students - access to academic department information and classes
 Teachers - access to staff information, academic department information, teacher
specific services and courses
 Non – teacher staff –access to staff information, academic department
information
 Managers
 On- line services :
 Academic email address and mailing lists
 General information & news
 Open-source software library
 Library services
 Courses
 Virtual offices
 Forums
 On-line surveys and forms
Ecampus global services
Pedagogical Platform - Moodle
On-line surveys – Home made
& lime survey platforms
Authentication :
LDAP/AD
News/Information – Joomla
Content edition – JCE toolbar
Profiles Management – GM Access
On-line forms - Chronoforms
Calendar - JCAL – pro Software library
Two strategies combined:
Central Authentication Services - CAS
-Open-source softwares
-Home made development
Collaboration spaces- Sharepoint
Communication services
Mail – Mail Daemon
Mailing lists – home made development
Knowledge management
 Procedures repository
 ISO certification
 Formal & informal knowledge
 FORUMs
 Social departments
 Support service to teachers
 Translation in knowledge contents
 On-line forms
 To compile data about institution’s life
Training/support to information management

Dedicated team : 2 approaches



Technical use of the information management system –
administrative/department staff


Focus on information management & web-edition
Pedagogical innovation based on technologies




On-line contents
Classical training sessions (2h, 10-12 persons, hands-on session)
3 programs based on the integration of Moodle : basics, scenarized sequence
workshop and specific activities workshop (on-line tests, forums, …)
Discovery PCs training : basic level
 Management of the personal computer
 Basic use of Office/pdf and ppt
 Use of a web browser and email
Focus on individual pedagogical project
Other tools for teachers

Screencast, podcast, bibliography management, mind mapping, …
User’s contribution at the evolution : first steps
 « Suggestion link »  Quality management
department
 FORUMs
 Advertisement system
 Participation to surveys
A continuous communication & support
 Regular meetings with administrative/department
staff
 Communication with management about
information management and communication
strategy
 Attention to keep services users friendly and close to
the users
 Regular evaluation of final users
Special thanks
Guy Leroy, Christophe Devos, Steve Colin, Vincent
Dewez, Denis Moreaux, Vincent Boulanger,
Christian Verscheure, Michel Villers, Benjamin
Lombardo, Olivier Lerycke, Pierre Destatte, Michel
Poriaux, Yohan Deschryver, Gérard Godfraind, …
Thank you for your attention
1, 2, 3 …Ready for questions