INTEGRATING AN ONLINE E-LEARNING COURSE INTO UNIVERSITY'S LEARNING BY DEVELOPMENT MODEL (A FINNISH CASE STUDY)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe and assess the reality of Laurea's LbD-pedagogical framework and its connections to a "Relese"-online course, financed by the European Commission. This study is focused on those who would like to start their own business in order to return to the labour market but do not have necessary entrepreneurship skills, competencies and know-how to do that. Approach - This is a qualitative case study related to a "Relese"-online course and its implementation in Finland. Student- and teacher feedback as well as the course results form the basis for the study. The e-learning course consisted of introduction lessons, workshops about different areas of business life, online-counselling, evaluation and feedback. At the end of the course each student provided an individual business plan. Findings - From a Finnish point of view there were quite many challenges in the "Relese"-online course. It should be clearly defined, who is the right target group unemployed, those working and wanting a career change or students that are about to graduate. The reason being they all need a different kind of a course and materials. Those that created their business plans had a lot of enthusiasm and found the course meaningful. Conclusions - The course content should be changed towards one with more practical materials and more appealing contents with closer co-operation with the Labour and Employment Ministry. Entrepreneurship does not have real appeal in Finland and thus structural changes would be needed, but combined with practical up-to-date elements, (such as social media and creating web-sites) it could be a success.