As opposed to the computer-based training of the 1980s, the term e-learning refers to computer-enhanced training. E-learning is usually delivered via a personal computer. It includes learning delivered by other communications technologies. Methods include online lectures, tutorials, performance support systems, simulations, job aids, games, and more. Effective e-learning is often a blend of methods.

E-learning, therefore, is an approach to facilitate and enhance learning through both computer and communications technology. Such devices can include personal computers, CDROMs, Television, PDAs, MP3 Players, and Mobile Phones. Communications technology enables the use of the Internet, email, discussion forums, WIKIs, collaborative software, classroom management software and team learning systems (see also online deliberation).

E-learning may also be used to suit distance learning through the use of WANs (Wide Area Networks), and may also be considered to be a form of flexible learning where just-in-time learning is possible. Courses can be tailored to specific needs and asynchronous learning is possible. Where learning occurs exclusively online, this is called online education. When learning is distributed to mobile devices such as cell phones or PDAs, it is called M-learning.

Supporting learning online

Some view e-learning as a means to effective or efficient etc. learning, due to its ease of access and the pace being determined by the learner. Others point out that e-learning software developers tend to limit their focus on course delivery and content, while online education institutions require a much wider range of educational services.

Others are critical of e-learning in the context of education, because the face-to-face human interaction with a teacher has been removed from the process, and thus, some argue, the process is no longer "educational" in the highest philosophical sense (for example, as defined by RS Peters, a philosopher of education). However, these human interactions can be encouraged through web-conferencing programs such as Macromedia Breeze.

Further, continual advances in technology allow a wider range of learning experiences such as educational animation to be made available to support online learning.

E-learning systems such as Blackboard, Moodle, ATutor, ILIAS, often work towards a student-centred learning solution, building upon a social-constructivist pedagogy.

Blended learning

Not every e-learning resource, usage or provision is necessarily 'exclusively e-learning', sometimes a hybrid 'blended learning' solution is available, either combining distance learning with direct contact 'close at hand' human educational resources, or combining software driven resources with human intervention (whether remote or local, computer mediated as through email or chat or non-computer mediated as face to face or telephone or combining software driven resources with any other educational resource radio, books, tapes, etc.) Advances in technology have allowed for the growth of collaborative web-based learning opportunities. Asynchronous activities use technologies such as blogs, wikis, and discussion boards that feature threaded discussion, and allow participants to contribute when time allows. Synchronous activities occur with all participants joining in at once, as with a chat session or a virtual classroom or meeting.

On the practical side some e-learning is about organizing the topics to be taught and creating multimedia CD-ROMs or web sites. An important advantage is generally seen in the fact that hyperlinking is possible and having interactive parts illustrating difficult things or for doing exercises. In higher education especially, the increasing tendency is to create a Managed Learning Environment (MLE which is a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) combined with a Managed Information System (MIS)) in which all aspects of a course are handled through a consistent interface that is standard throughout an institution, giving students a consistent user interface.

Often a design approach is implemented which involves creating or re-using Learning Objects. These are self contained units that are properly tagged with keywords, or other metadata, and often stored in an XML file format. These are put in a database and creating a course requires putting together a sequence of learning objects.

Pedagogy of e-learning

One important point is to help teachers organize their pedagogical perspective. Some institutes for Higher education are devoted to this mission (training, counselling, funding, development, etc.).

More recent approaches focus on dialogue, interaction and collaborative activities - courses still contain content but it is of secondary importance or is generated by the students. An open source course management system that makes this approach easier is Moodle. This advocates Social-Constructivism as a pedagogical perspective, whereby learners construct their knowledge through discussions, thereby enhancing their thinking skills.

Four main pedagogical perspectives that are often used when developing e-learning are:

Cognitive perspective - which focuses on the cognitive processes involved in learning as well as how the brain works.

Emotional perspective - which focuses on the emotional aspects of learning, like motivation, engagement, fun etc

Behavioural perspective - which focuses on the skills and behavioural outcomes of the learning process. Role-playing and application to on-the-job settings.

Social perspective - which focuses on the social aspects which can stimulate learning. Interaction with other people, collaborative discovery and the importance of peer support as well as pressure.

Organizing the content

Basic questions

• For whom do we create e-learning content
• What do they need to learn
• How do we organize the content
• Which tools / platform do we use? For creating? For delivering?
• How do we address different learning styles?

Instructional design

see main article: instructional design

Creating media

• Text
• Pictures
• Sound
• Video
• Educational animation
• Interactive exercises

Binding it together

Most often HTML is used to bind together the different e-learning media. Sometimes XML based files are created which are then rendered to HTML/CSS/JavaScript by using an XSLT transformation. However often proprietary technologies are used like Macromedia Flash, an authoring tool, which leverages the JavaScript-like language called ActionScript to enable advanced functionality and interactivity. Data conferencing applications are sometimes used to share and manipulate e-learning media.

One standard for presenting e-learning content is SCORM whilst other specifications allow for the transporting of "learning objects" (Schools Interoperability Framework) or categorizing meta-data(UKLOM).

Online learning

Online learning descends from computer-based training, interactive multimedia (dating from laser discs and more recently, CDs with online learning) and integrated learning centers. With the internet boom since the mid 1990s, the concept of online learning has spread broadly. Online Learning can be thought of as a subset of the broader e-learning category because it refers specifically to content delivered via the Internet or Intranet.

For the younger children, there are free learning sites ranging from those that provide worksheets such as to those with interactive exercises. But, it is left to the parent to provide continuity, determine progress, and to assemble an overall program.

There are online subscription services for children that track the children and provide assessment, placement, continuity, and reports.

There are online universities ranging from legitimate distance learning systems to fly-by-night degree-mills.

Businesses use online learning to provide cost-effective training to their employees, partners, and customers.

As the number of students taking online classes continues to grow at a quick pace, the second wave of online college students is different: they are students who know the ingredients of a good online class, who are picky about which ones they sign up for and who will drop a class if the teacher turns out to be a dud. They are the new, savvy consumers of online education. In response to their higher expectations, providers of online education are incorporating increasingly sophisticated teaching approaches such as educational animation that address the challenges of presenting dynamic content to learners.

Nearly 3 million students are believed to be taking online classes at institutions of higher education in the United States this year, according to a report from the Sloan Consortium, an authoritative source of information about online higher education. The explosive rate of growth -- now about 25 percent a year -- has made hard numbers a moving target. But according to Sloan, virtually all public higher education institutions, as well as a vast majority of private, for-profit institutions, now offer online classes. (By contrast, only about half of private, nonprofit schools offer them.) Sloan tracks degree-granting institutions, but no one's keeping tabs on the thousands of corporate and vocational e-learning programs.

Fuelling this growth is the convenience that online classes are much more convenient, particularly for people who work full time or have families. The costs to students are typically the same as for traditional classes -- and financial aid is equally available -- while the cost to the institution can be much less. And the Sloan report, based on a poll of academic leaders, says that students generally appear to be at least as satisfied with their online classes as they are with traditional ones. In addition, the academic leaders say they believe the quality of online learning is equal to or superior to face-to-face instruction.

Most professions have online accreditation as this point.

The K-12 online learning space has grown recently from a spate of virtual schools and virtual charter schools. Companies like Etrafficsolutions and Learning.com are spearheading the drive to bring the traditional "brick and mortar" schools into the 21st century by integrating an online technology curriculum into the classroom and measuring student progress in using and mastering the e-learning technology.

Degree programs

A growing number of physical universities, as well as newer online-only colleges, have begun to offer a select set of academic degree and certificate programs via the Internet. These programs range from Associate’s degrees to Doctoral programs with available emphases in everything from Business Administration to Criminal Justice to Nursing. While some programs requires students to attend some campus classes or orientations, many are delivered completely online. In addition, several universities offer online student support services, such as online advising and registration, e-counselling, online textbook purchasing, student governments and student newspapers.

Online courses generally require a computer with a broadband connection.

Life Long Learning (LLL) on the Internet

One of the big new markets on the Internet will be that of education. However, beware the hype. You will find that many educational providers, both public and private but especially the institutions that like to think they're at the leading edge of technology, will offer you computer - Internet - delivered courses. Unfortunately, the problem isn't just the computer technology - as governments are wont to suggest. That can do anything you want it to - and the Open University, as one example, has spent literally tens of millions of dollars (perhaps even hundreds of millions) exploring this and developing solutions.

The real problem here is the technology of distance learning, something that the Open University is well aware of - it is its livelihood. As yet it has not found a cost-effective means of making the best use of the interactive capabilities of computer education over the web or Internet. The current material can be equally well delivered by the mailman, and such printed material is much cheaper to support. Even so, as an indication of the investment levels needed, it still costs the best part of one million dollars for each major course. It does use electronic communications for some parts of its business, including general communications and submissions of the student exercises. In particular, we make considerable use of electronic conferences to bring students together. Distance learning students often feel isolated, and giving them an electronic conference - so they can talk with fellow students - helps to ameliorate this. Paradoxically, though, the greatest advantage is that such computer conferences typically stimulates them to set up a self-help group in their local neighbourhood, where they go to meet face-to-face in the local bar. Indeed, one of the great counter-intuitive facts about electronic communication between individuals is that it works best if the individuals can - from time to time - actually meet face-to-face; rather than, as normally recommended, when they are so remote that they never meet.

Computer aided Instruction (CAI)

The real problem is that the main providers have not yet managed to productively incorporate Computer-Based-Teaching (CBT) or, as it is often now called, Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) into their offerings. Thus, even with Open University material, what you typically get is large chunks of text which could be in any textbook (though in fact, in the case of the Open University, it is especially developed so that it is focused on the specific job in hand - which makes the education content more powerful). Between these slabs of text activities are inserted, which the students complete, to consolidate what they just learnt.

It now increasingly uses PC-based systems to also allow them to test themselves, usually on the basis of multiple choice questions, to see how much they know. It then provides a degree of feedback; explaining whether they are right or wrong and, if wrong, what the real answer was. Truly effective Computer-Aided-Instruction comes, though, when this feedback is used to manage the progress of the student. Thus, in theory at least, depending upon how well they have learned the lesson you may allow them to skip the next unit - because they already understand enough. Perhaps more likely, they may have learned it so badly that you have to return them to the beginning of the previous section. This all about managing the student's individual progress.

Some software for doing this is available, in crude form, but as yet it needs to be significantly enhanced. More important - and this is a killer - you have to put very much more effort into developing the material content it uses - typically providing at least three times as much (where you have to cater for all the alternative answers!) and in particular the interactions with the management system. This is where most systems currently are held up. CAI is not a cost-free solution!

Forecasts have suggested that the organisations who should find it easiest to get round problems - and produce the most popular education programmes using technology very similar to that now available in the games market - would either be the IT multinationals (especially Microsoft) or the Hollywood studios. The logistics of it are very much like making a movie - and in fact the most expensive part is indeed making the moving pictures which illustrate the programme. In fact, this does not appear to have happened; yet.

Certification

In general, the first problem - and possibly the most insuperable in the shorter tem - for the individual and for the many small providers, will be the vast choice available. It will be difficult to trawl through the literally hundreds of thousands of offerings to find one which matches your individual needs - even with the new artificial intelligence agents - let alone find guaranteed quality. In the case of education it is not just your money you may waste but your time, and that is often much more valuable. So we're likely to see the emergence of various initiatives to host certification authorities.

A good starting point is with the Open University, which is a world-leader in distance-learning. You can find it at:

See also

• Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative
• CALL (computer-assisted language learning) (for a more historical perspective)
• Collaborative learning
• Computer-based training
• Distance education
• Educational technology
• E-learning glossary
• Learning management system
• M-learning
• Microlearning
• Networked learning
• Online deliberation
• Videobook
• Virtual Campus
• Virtual learning environment
• Web-based training

References

• Athabasca University, Theory and Practice of Online Learning, E-Book under Creative Commons License
• Thomas Toth (2003), Technology for Trainers, ASTD Press. ISBN 1562863215

Experts

• Stephen Molyneux, Professor - United Kingdom

External links

• Epic.co.uk: E-learning white papers
• Semantic Pedagogy

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