This image of letters would seem to cast doubt on their capacity for innovation, especially in the sphere of the new technologies. If we pause to reflect for a moment, however, it becomes evident that this problem is merely a question of perspective: contextual observation, evaluation and analysis of the various possible resources have always figured amongst the scientific principles of the humanities.

The merit lies in having made communication and distribution resources available as sources for research and scientific endeavour, be it the development of analytical methods in film in order to linguistically establish visual elements of information; the study of sources in the human sciences, which decipher and evaluate ancient traditions by taking into account not only the content but also the outer form and context surrounding the creation of the work; or the philosophy of language, with its models on the correlation between mind and reality for the medium of language.

In their scientific discourse, Humanists have always associated the objective of media communication through reflection and analysis with the consequences of the mechanisms and intentions of production and the consequences as regards the content of the information passed on. In this respect, it would seem to be merely a question of time until the new technologies get to grip with the focus of analysis in letters.

The new technologies may, however, draw on the vast accumulation of experience in letters, not just as a subject of study but because these technologies also have numerous applications as a tool for creating and circulating information regarding research and teaching. In this way, they can make a valuable contribution as an instrument to support and improve education and advice in letters. Seminars with large numbers of students, the potential lack of adequate tutoring, the consequent—sometimes simultaneous—demand for less study material are just some examples of the everyday difficulties faced in letters that call for a rethinking of teaching and the concept of tutoring, in which there is a real place for the use of supervised e-learning.

In the umbrella project entitled “Humanities on the Internet” (GW-net), run by the University of Hamburg, a number of projects on integrating multimedia training elements into university education are being put to the test. So far, six pilot events, all different in theme and structure, have been developed into a seminar on integrated learning. In these events, the classic figure of the teacher in attendance was replaced by on-line educational offers that provide interactive learning. On this occasion, exams attended in person were not replaced by this distance learning.

This project has demonstrated the existence of enormous potential for students in the humanities, who are predisposed towards and interested in forming part of this kind of integrated training event. For this reason, the evaluation of the five GW-net seminars conducted during the summer 2003 semester and the winter 2003-2004 semester was that they were more than acceptable. 62% of students who attended the seminar felt that they had been positively influenced by the announcement of the e-learning system in choosing the seminar. The fact that the new communication media were taken into consideration seemed to them to be an added attraction and encouraged them to sign up for the seminar.

Another survey conducted at the end of the event demonstrated that there is growing interest among students, who approved of the new form of teaching in the integrated learning seminar. 81% of the students stated that they would unquestionably want to repeat the experience of attending a seminar with an integrated learning platform. Furthermore, 84% of the participants would recommend this new form of learning to other students.

The results of the GW-net project to date not only demonstrate the potential for introducing these new resources into letters, but also reveal other key aspects regarding the pre-requisites and determining factors to be taken into account in applying the concept of integrated learning in this academic field. There are a number of aspects, each of which has an impact on the others, as described below:

Target audience

Firstly, it is essential to ask oneself who the new form of seminar is aimed at. What infrastructure—both hardware and software—do students have access to, either at home or at university? Carefully designed distance learning often calls for an Internet connection with broad bandwidth for data transmission. It is possible, therefore, that video clips and large animation files may quickly come to cause problems for students without broadband access. Given the technical standards of the computer equipment that students in letters have at home, GW-net has discovered that the levels of complexity applied to converting multimedia teaching materials are largely unimportant.
To prevent technical problems in the use of the virtual learning and teaching platform, it is useful to draw up specific information on the hardware and software students will require, in addition to basic configurations (for example, type of browser, software version, etc.). Similar problems have also been found in the target audience’s IT skills.

Students’ level of skill has a direct impact on the level of complexity of multimedia material in the learning content and plays an important role in balancing the learning programming. It is essential that a student with limited IT skills should still be able to access the selfsame volume of material as a student with more advanced IT skills. Efforts should be made to ensure that technical problems are not a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with the material in this kind of learning.

Lastly, mention should be made of the type of learning that ought to govern the event. In other words, there is a need to consider the extent to which students are already experts and whether they have already taken on board the principles of acquiring knowledge in studying letters.

Content

For the concept of integrated learning to work, it is essential to be able to access the material supplied in a number of different ways. This is especially true of letters, in which learning occurs in the main through the use of a broad range of different learning methods. A good example of this is the link between the contents of some subjects and personal scientific knowledge, either already understood or yet to be addressed. Here we must ask ourselves how this form of knowledge acquisition in accordance with the principle of ‘learning by exploration’ can be turned into learning units that are useful for integrated learning. Questions concerning representativeness, and hence the possibilities for customising multimedia material to a field that is so complex and that involves so many different experiences, as well as the reuse of this material are key. The production of large volumes of teaching material is only worthwhile, in terms of balancing costs and benefits, if the material produced can be used over a long period of time.

Type of seminar

Introductory courses, practical experience and main seminars present completely different demands of support for e-learning components. For example, there are clearly far more participants on introductory courses than on the practical experience sessions, yet it is possible with the selfsame staff to provide closer attention through the learning platform than on introductory courses. Similarly, the orientation of the content also influences the type of seminar: firstly, the content of the subject matter dealt with at learning events becomes more complex as the course advances; secondly, an introductory course has a complicating factor in that a very different approach has to be taken nowadays to the teaching of knowledge, which has to be done through the link between the practical content in subjects and basic methodological knowledge. Even the type of knowledge taught and its checking play a key part in the design of an effective integrated learning seminar. For example, the teaching of declarative knowledge can turn into new resources for learning in a simpler way than the principle of learning by exploring.

Teaching goal

The teacher’s goal is of course a decisive factor in the success of the integrated learning concept. The objective of the use of this learning platform must be clearly defined and must be included in the later conversion phase of the seminar. Equally, the teacher needs to decide the balance they wish to achieve between distance learning and classes that students must attend in person. Lastly, the level of complexity of the multimedia material must also be established. At this point questions to do with the teacher’s skill at devising content arise, as do other issues regarding the subsequent use by students of this educational option.

The building of the concept of integrated learning taking into consideration all these aspects will make one of the more complex teaching tasks as regards the new forms of learning easier for academics in letters. This task is the construction of well-founded models expressly designed to aid individual learning that combine learning requiring personal attendance with distance learning.

The GW-net project “Humanities on the Internet” is to be managed in the Department of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Hamburg. A total of six partial projects, to be run at the same time and ending in late March 2005, will deal with introductory subjects and the use of the new technologies in teaching and research in letters. The main goals are to improve teaching and tutoring at the University of Hamburg, which has a large number of students; to teach skills to teachers and students alike; and to instigate a critical appraisal of information technology as a tool in letters. The GW-net project is to be conducted in the framework of the resources of the special programme “Project to Promote e-Learning and Multimedia”.