E-learning

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Don't know how I will write the initial article for this. Either it will be very long or I will factor out different issues. -- DSchneider

• As opposed to the computer-based training of the 1980s, the term e-learning is most frequently used to refer to computer-based training which incorporates technologies that support interactivity beyond that which would be provided by a single computer. Wikipedia:E-learning

• In our view there are 2 kinds of defition, E-Learning is either:
  • a conceptually simple form of content-based computer-based training (and that shows in "e-instruction standards" like SCORM) plus addition of some e-tutoring.
  • any form of learning that makes use of information and communication technology.

History

See also: educational technology

• If one looks at modern content oriented main-stream e-Learning one can not avoid thinking that e-learning has been invented in the early sixties.

• [Who invented the term ??]

• In the mid-nineties, so called learning management systems came into existence.

• In the early 2000, SCORM and IMS data standards, in particuler the IEEE Learning Object Metadata Standard (LOM), IMS Content Packaging (and associated IMS Simple Sequencing) became sort of industry standards and also have been adopted by some decision makers and funding agencies in academia.

• In the mid 2000s, instructional design seems to be back. This shows in standards like IMS Learning Design or numerous publications on e-learning that focus on serious instructional design methods and instructional design models.

• At the same time, in academina, content-orient LMS have lost a lot of ground against LMS systems like Moodle, Groupware, weblogs, C3MS that favor more activity-based (e.g. socio-constructivist, situated pedagogies.

Typologies

See also the article on educational technology that introduces other, more general typologies.

Schulmeister (2005) makes a distinction between:

1. e-learning type A based on "manageable" contents that can easily made explicitvia standardized learning objects and self-learning .
2. e-learning type B focussing on a high percentage of complex contents based on implicit knowledge and that has to acquired through learning community of practice communities.

Debates

While e-learning is fairly well accepted in areas where CBT survived well, i.e. low-level training in industry and the military, the value of e-instruction-oriented models are hotly debated. It is interesting to notice that strongest criticism comes from the instructional design community and not from constructivist practicioners and theories who simply tend to ignore this form of educational technology.

E.g. Merril (in press), who always loudly claimed that "Information is not Instruction" makes it a program to ... "avoid enervative, endless, or empty e₃-learning (pronounced 3 sub-three learning) and replace it with effective, efficient, and engaging e³- learning (pronounced e to the third power learning)".

References

Merrill, M.D. (in press) E-Learning: Lessons Learned, Challenges Ahead (Voices from Academe and Industry). S. Carliner and P. Shank, Pfeiffer/Jossey-Bass. Preprint: http://cito.byuh.edu/merrill/text/papers/e3%20learning.pdf

Driscoll, M., Carliner, S. Advanced Web-Based Training : Adapting Real World Strategies in Your Online Learning, Pfeiffer. ISBN 0787969796

http://www.izhd.uni-hamburg.de/pdfs/Abschlussbericht.pdf