E-Learning with Hands-On Labs in Higher European Education

”Learning by doing” has incontestably the highest enduring and motivating effects in learning. It challenges the exploratory aptitude and curiosity of a person. In higher education in information technology, exploratory learning is hindered by technical situations that are not easy to reproduce and to verify. Technical skills are, however, mandatory for employees in this area. On the other side, theoretical concepts are often compromised by commercial implementations. The challenge is to contrast and reconcile theory with practise. In two European Union funded projects we designed, implemented, and evaluated a unique e-learning approach, which realises a modularised teaching concept that provides easily reproducible virtual hands-on labs. The novelty of the approach is to use software products of industrial relevance to compare with theory and to contrast different implementations. Pilot applications in several European countries demonstrated that the participants gained highly sustainable and profound understanding about the learning objects.