Do you remember the headlines? ‘E-learning is the next killer app’, ‘Campus based universities will be relics’. Although there has been a stalling in the much-hyped ‘revolution’ in e-learning, I believe the long term impact is going to be great. What I see, at least in universities, is a much more in-depth and reasoned approach to using a wide variety of e-opportunities for learning purposes.

The possibilities, modes, expectations and even the way we think about learning are changing with the increase in use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Nowhere is this seen more than in universities, who are under cost and quality pressure from every which way. The deployment of information technology continues to be a compelling and competitive issue for the foreseeable future.

Government and funding agencies continue to be intensely interested in the potential, development and embedding of e-learning. With the demise of generic initiatives such as the eUniversities Worldwide Limited (UkeU), attention is returning to the role of individual institutions under a climate of facilitation rather than direction from the higher-level agencies such as the government. Hence at the University of Leicester, we’ve been strategising and planning like mad for the next stage of our development.

Almost every university in the world is planning a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), for one reason for another. And, in the UK, following the lead of the overwhelming dominant Open University (OU), almost every one is attempting some form of e-learning. You might have noticed the OU has stepped up its advertising in response to the need to develop its 21st century image. In addition, there are new competitors and an increasing range of universities inside and outside the UK offering e-courses in English – and an increasingly sophisticated and discerning customer base.

However, many recent e-learning initiatives have failed or wasted large amounts of money because resources, time scales, the need to focus on human rather than technical developments and the need to change sufficiently quickly have all taken universities by surprise. Recently, the early focus on technological infrastructure has given way (now that many technical issues have been overcome or at least better understood) to emphasis on methods of teaching, connectedness and in blending newer and older approaches to learning.

However, real development beyond projects by innovators has so far been modest and there is considerable evidence that most universities and colleges are still struggling to engage a significant percentage of students and staff in e-learning.

You might like to consider how many of these reasons might apply to your organisation.
1. All universities are vulnerable to a wide variety of pressures; many have few resources to draw on and a high resistance to change.
2. E-learning, whether or not it is combined with other forms of teaching and learning or not, is complex and involves shifts both in understanding and behaviours. At present there are few direct reasons for academics to become involved in innovations in teaching as time for research competes on a daily basis.
3. E-learning can be viewed as impersonal, constraining and insufficiently adaptive to the needs of a wide variety of learners. This view has come about mainly as a result of the very simplistic approaches used in the earlier days.
4. To date, much of the focus has gone into the development of technologies or policy and not into the human elements, scaling up, the embedding and transfer of innovation and the associated management of change.
5. Research into distance learning conducted over thirty years, identified what works, what doesn’t, what constitutes excellence and what adds real value to student experiences. Most is relevant to distributed e-learning. However, such knowledge is of no value if it cannot be embedded into the everyday teaching processes of the organisation.

Research has shown that there are several reasons for the slow pace. Firstly, distance and e-learning requires more up front investment but offer a low cost and sustainable model over several years. Costs associated with e-learning include capital and direct costs of the technology itself, the development of resources involving a number of professionals and the considerable cost of academic and technical staff development. Any attempt to scale up through ‘hand crafting’ (in a way that is possible in campus based learning) is uneconomic and unsustainable.

Secondly, academic staff are naturally reluctant to change their methods of teaching and learning without a deep understanding of why and how, out of concern for quality and benefits. There is still a belief that e-learning is about technical ‘solutions’ rather than innovation.

Finally, the costs of e-learning attract rather more attention and challenge than the investment in more conventional learning infrastructure. On-campus costs are often in legacy systems and buildings, and the systems themselves are physical rather than electronic.

So can you relate to these? Are they reasons to give up now? I think not. Let’s get off our little mountains and join the fresh new world of e in the 21st century. We already have we have fabulous digital resources and we can reclaim the knowledge domains as our very own. We can play to our strengths and encourage others to play to theirs. E-learning can promote the growth of academic trade and working together across sectors. Now we know what the problems are, we can tackle them.

Surf it!
www.e-learningguru.com/articles/hype1_1.htm
Is it all a cycle?

http://www.thelearningalliance.info/WeatherStation.html
A well researched and argued view of what happened in the US to their e-learning push

Dr Gilly Salmon is Professor of E-learning and Learning Technologies at the University of Leicester. Prior to this appointment, she worked at the Open University Business School for 15 years. Gilly can be contacted at gilly.salmon@le.ac.uk

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