eLearning: Introduction and Planning
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1. Introduction
The old correspondence courses were the first Distance Learning coursesbut with the advent of Internet in the eighties, E – Learning became new mantrafor delivering higher education courses over really long distances.The Internet opened new possibilities and now any type of learningcontent, be it for school, graduate or masters level, employee training, researchactivity or any other type of academic offering is called E – Learning.E – Learning has already established its credentials and its popularity canbe gauged from the fact that delivery is not restricted to just plain text but hascrossed boundaries to video creating virtual class rooms via video conferencing.The introduction of a variety of technologies has made it possible to convert itfrom impersonal to highly interactive medium of pedagogy (the art and science ofteaching).
Training in key business and professional skills in today’s competitiveenvironment cannot be ignored if you want your employees to develop and helpdrive the growth of your company.The worldwide E – Learning industry is estimated to be worth over 38billion euros according to conservative estimates; although in the EuropeanUnion only about 20% of E – Learning products are produced within the commonmarket. Developments in internet and multimedia technologies are the basicenabler of E – Learning, with content, technologies and services being identifiedas the three key sectors of the E – Learning industry.
2. Goals of E – Learning
E – Learning lessons are generally designed to guide students throughinformation or to help students perform in specific tasks. Information based e-Learning content communicates information to the student. Examples includecontent that distributes the history or facts related to a service, company, orproduct. In information-based content, there is no specific skill to be learned. Inperformance-based content, the lessons build off of a procedural skill in which thestudent is expected to increase proficiency.
3. The Future
According to Market Data Retrieval (MDR) two thirds of colleges anduniversities offer long distance learning courses and the number of institutionsoffering accredited degrees have increased to 55%. New varieties of E – Learning have emerged with help and push from emerging technologies. Besidesdistance learning now there is distributed learning. This term describes theeducational experiences of individuals and groups that are distributed overgeographies and cultures using variety of media delivery methods. This hasmoved education beyond the classroom to more interactive information by joininglearning and experience together. This is developing into learning communitieswith their own focus on various branches, cultures and sub-cultures. It is a mindboggling explosion of information that is now available with lot of imagination andlittle effort. With collaborative tools E – Learning is moving into virtual classes andvirtual communities where the old methods of practice and test have melted intonew interactive teaching-learning methodologies.Tuition on line has taken a new meaning where a varied help is nowavailable both free and paid for on demand on any subject instantly. This hasrelieved pressure both on the teacher and the students. Future learning is now
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