WSOY's major eLearning project – Opit – is now online. The new Internet-based environment has been developed by a team of textbook, eLearning, educational, multimedia, and IT specialists from eWSOY, WSOY's Educational Material Unit, and Elisa Communications.
"Our aim with Opit is not to try and replace the traditional classroom with a virtual equivalent, or traditional textbooks with virtual textbooks, but rather to offer a set of new opportunities for both the classroom and the textbook," says Jorma Kaimio, President of WSOY.
Opit users are given a personal password, which enables them to access the system at home, at school, in the library, or elsewhere.
The current version of the Opit environment contains material for project-based work and material for the main subjects covered in grades 3, 4, and 7 of Finnish comprehensive schools. Opit is already in use as an ASP service in schools in two of Finland's largest towns, Tampere and Turku, and negotiations are under way with schools in Greater Helsinki and elsewhere.
Opit has been developed to meet both current school needs and future challenges. The plan is for Opit to include material for students ranging in age and needs from pre-school kids to young adults attending vocational colleges by 2005.