E-learning is the range of electronically supported courses which use computers to expand and support the overall range of courses on offer, and which can stimulate and document an individual’s learning progress. It has been one of the hottest topics in the global education sector in recent years. This forward looking approach to teaching has long been recognized as having enormous potential - however, it has yet to take off, particularly in Germany, despite the necessary technological infrastructure being available.

E-learning at CIT

CIT is one of the first universities in Germany to include e-learning as a core part of its courses. This does not mean that the lecturers have been replaced by e-learning, but that they have been supplemented in key areas - a concept known as blended learning. The CIT blended learning concept can be illustrated as follows:

The three bars in the diagram represent each of the CIT courses. CIT courses consist of lectures, tutorials and self-study (examination and lecture preparation) and can be allocated to one of the three course models. The classroom-based study model represents a traditional course without any e-learning teaching elements. The blended learning models include a low (BL I) and a high (BL II) portion of e-learning. In courses based on the blended learning models, lectures and self-study are provided and supplemented by a certain amount of e-learning. Alternatively, the tutorial rather than the lecture could include an element of e-learning.

At CIT, e-learning is used in particular to support the teaching of core knowledge. As this basic knowledge us usually taught at the very beginning of the course, the proportion of e-learning implemented in the first two semesters is correspondingly greater than during the rest of the period of study at CIT.