Learning about eLearning

Introduction
ELearning is learning that uses the Internet and associated web-based applications as the delivery medium for the learning experience. It's not, or rather shouldn't be, learning that uses Internet and associated web based applications solely as the delivery medium for information because when that happens not much learning takes place unless the student is a self-learner. I've taught for almost sixteen years and I know that most aren't.

Information Delivery
Don't get me wrong. The fact that we can get so much information from the Internet is absolutely incredible. Sure a lot of the time the quality of the information is poor but if you're willing to spend the time looking then you will discover quality information. I was recently researching into learning theory and went to a conference on the subject. Gilly Salmon from the U.K. gave out her web address with links to all her publications. (1) I went to the site and had instant access to everything that she had written. Can you imagine what it would have been like twenty years ago? Inter library loans, waiting for weeks for requests to be authorised, waiting for the postal service to deliver the articles. What a change!

Student Learning
The delivery of information over the web is very, very useful but I know that most students don't learn by having information thrust at them. I've never walked into a classroom, put down a pile of workbooks and asked students to read them and take an exam. This means that eLearning cannot be about posting a mass of course material on a website and expecting students to learn by reading that material and taking an exam. For most students this simply will not work. That's why we need to talk about the web as a delivery medium for the learning experience.

Think about the times that you've been taught in a classroom. If the teacher was good you will have had a learning experience. Your teacher will have made you feel at home in the classroom. They will have encouraged and fostered your participation. They will have helped you when you got stuck on some particularly difficult problem. They will have delivered the course in a variety of ways to maintain your interest and to cater for all the different ways that students learn. More than this you will have enjoyed the company of your classmates and learned from being in the classroom with them. Most students are willing to help one another out.

ELearning in Practice
As one professor has put it we shouldn't give up classroom teaching until have something better to replace it. (2) Delivering much more information is not better. I don't think that we'll ever get to the point where we've totally given up classroom teaching (although I'm working hard at converting my teaching material for eLearning!). We are, however, already at the point where a lot of classes are offered over the web. Many of these classes are free. (3) This is all well and good as long as the providers are providing a learning experience. In other words eLearning needs to make students feel at home, encourage their participation and deliver material in a variety of ways to maintain interest and cater for different learning styles.

Theorists are already showing that it is possible to construct an eLearning course in such a way that students' emotional and learning needs are met. (4) There are a number of companies providing platforms for delivering eLearning. (5) Whilst most of these platforms don't do much more than offer a way to manage students and post material in HTML format a little ingenuity using, for example, Macromedia eLearning tools such as Flash and Authorware means that dynamic content can be delivered to students and a range of learning styles catered for. (6) Furthermore, students can be encouraged and supported in their learning through the use of email, bulletin boards and chat rooms.

Conclusion
These are exciting times and eLearning is still in its infancy. The worldwide Internet population is already massive and as home connection speeds increase there will be more scope for delivering eLearning experiences including the use streaming audio and video and interactive classrooms. (7) This will bring benefits not just for self-learners who can find the information that they need but also for those learners who need something more akin to traditional teaching.

References
(1) http://sstweb.open.ac.uk:8282/oubs/gilly/ [21.8.02]
(2) Maish, Nichani. Empathic Instructional Design. http://www.eLearningpost.com/mt/features/archives/001003.asp [21.8.02]
(3) http://www.wannalearn.com/ http://www.free-ed.net/ 21.8.02]
(4) http://sstweb.open.ac.uk:8282/oubs/gilly [21.8.02]
(5) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm [21.8.02]
(6) http://www.macromedia.com/resources/education/ [21.8.02]
(7) http://www.cyberatlas.internet.com/[21.8.02]




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