Research is the best learning medicine

IMC AG is a sought after partner in research projects about promising learning technologies

Saarbrücken/Sevenoaks, May 2009 – IMC AG is participating on three national and international research projects for identifying innovative web-based learning technologies – both financially and through the taking on of development work and coordination roles. IMC, as a specialist in learning technologies and  whose roots lie in a university environment, has access to both know-how and experienced co-workers in this field. “IMC is making a contribution through its dedication to providing companies with sustainable, effective learning solutions to ensure that Germany remains an internationally competitive location”, declared Dr. Volker Zimmermann, the IMC board member for New Business.  IMC is investing about one million Euros of its own funds as part of the three currently running projects.

The PROWIT project
Combining business and learning processes is a central focus of the PROWIT project (process-oriented Web 2.0-based integrated telecommunications service), promoted by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Companies are increasing their use of Web 2.0 services such as wikis and blogs but seldom integrate them into their own business applications. Therefore the potential of new telecommunications technologies for the planning, implementation and execution of business processes is often not fully exploited. The objective of PROWIT is to establish a new context-sensitive and ubiquitous service for business process management. This is why IMC is developing the Process Collaboration Platform, a knowledge community covering all aspects of business processes, consisting of a number of individual services. The community integrates learning as well as exchange of knowledge and information among co-workers with the business processes operating inside the company. The project partners on the Research and Development side are DFKI Saarbrücken, IDS Scheer AG and Technical University of Darmstadt. The application is being tested by companies like KAESER KOMPRESSOREN (Coburg) and Hitachi Power Europe (Duisburg). The project was launched in January 2009 and is planned to run for a period of three years.

 
The European ROLE project
The ROLE project (Responsive Open Learning Environments) is part of the 7th framework programme for research. The project was initiated in February 2009. The objective is to place learners in a position to put together their own personal learning environment (PLE). This PLE can consist of a number of different learning tools, learning services and learning resources. ROLE provides learners with recommendations concerning which learning components and services are most suitable for achieving a certain competence level, and helps to assemble an appropriate learning environment . IMC has developed a number of learning widgets for this purpose, which can be subscribed to via the desktop or a mobile device. Many of these widgets combine the services of the Learning Management System CLIX and the Content Community SLIDESTAR. In the course of this development there has also been the use of new integration standards between the IMC web applications and web communities such as OpenSocial. Learning components, learning tools and learning services can be individualised and personalised through the adaptation or new development of existing web-based software. In addition to technical development, pedagogic models are also being tested during the course of the project.

The SABINE project is on its way
At the end of March the IMC SABINE project received sponsorship confirmation. The objective is to provide employees in the respective phases of their lives with exactly matching offers to make career choices, or to enter into further education or retraining. The IMC web technologies are being developed at the interface of job placement, recruiting, competence management, learning and social networks as part of THESEUS, a funding programme initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs.