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The Future of E-Learning: Designing Tomorrow's Education

Article · May 2006

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Mircea Georgescu
Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza
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THE FUTURE OF E-LEARNING: DESIGNING
TOMORROW'S EDUCATION

Georgescu Mircea, Ph. D. Associate Professor


University “Al. I. Cuza”, Department of Business Informatics, Faculty of
Business Administration, Iaşi, Romania

ABSTRACT

In today’s world, a new level of commitment is required in order to educate


the young generation and e-learning perhaps emerges as an important tool of
imparting knowledge and information. The challenge, however, is to provide a
suitable means to disseminate disparate information in a dynamic, open and
distributed e-learning environment.
While there still exists some uncertainty about its role in education and
professional training, there is a growing concern about the issues and strategies of
e-learning that may be faced by both providers and learners of e-learning in future.
E-learning is here to stay as the fast changing pace of technology, the shortening
product development cycles, lack of skilled personnel, competitive global economy,
the shift from the industrial to the knowledge era.
E-Learning seeks to mobilize the educational and cultural communities, as
well as the economic and social players in Europe, in order to speed up changes in
the education and training systems for Europe's move to a knowledge-based society.

JEL Classifications: D83, I20, I21, I28, I29, I31, J24, M14, M54

1. Introduction
E-learning becomes more and more important. Reasons are the paramount
importance of knowledge, life-time learning, globalization and mobility. Having a great e-
learning strategy and great programs is just no guarantee of success. Without a clear and well
thought out implementation strategy and plan, the e-learning efforts will most likely fall far
short of the goals, learners’ needs, and management expectations.
According to several forecasts given by Gartner Group or International Data
Corporation for example, E-Learning as a new buzzword for web-based education and its
commercialization seems to be a growing market in the digital economy. For this reason it`s
important to analyze this new and dynamic E-Learning market and the corresponding
changes on the education market.
Many authors agree that E-learning can be defined as instructional content or
learning experiences delivered or enabled by electronic technology (Commission on
Technology and Adult Learning; 2001:7). Functionally, e-learning can include a wide variety
of learning strategies and technologies, from CD-ROMs and computerbased instruction to
videoconferencing, satellite-delivered learning and virtual educational networks. In other
words, it is not just Web-based instruction or distance learning but includes many ways in
which individuals exchange information and gain knowledge.
Other authors define E-learning as E-learning provides the potential to provide the
right information to the right people at the right times and places using the right medium.
Tom Kelly, Cisco apreciate: “E-learning is about information, communication, education and
training. Regardless of how trainers categorize training and education, the learner only wants
the skills and knowledge to do a better job or to answer the next question from a customer.”
In conclusion what we must remember when we use the term E-Learning? E-
learning uses information and communications technologies (ICTs) to deliver content
(learning, knowledge and skills) on a one-way or two-way basis (The Conference Board of
Canada; 2001:17):
• One-way (asynchronous) technologies: technologies that deliver content
(learning, knowledge and skills) one way at one point in time. They include:
• Broadcast television that delivers learning content;
• Computers;
• CD-ROMs;
• Audiovisual aids;
• E-mail;
• Film;
• Internet/Intranet/Extranet networks;
• Video;
• Wireless technologies;
• Digital video disk (DVD).
• Two-way (synchronous) technologies: technologies that deliver content
(learning, knowledge and skills) two ways or more at the same time. They
include:
• ICQ/IRC—interactive conferencing and chat rooms;
• Teleconferencing;
• Internet/intranet networks;
• Web conferencing;
• Wireless technologies.
E-learning can be viewed as a mean of delivering three key outcomes: improved and
consistent rates of lifelong learning, improved productivity and improved innovation and
competitiveness. Another desired outcome is increased equity. The globalization of
education is increasing rapidly: students attend courses from all over the world, employees
work and study globally in multinational companies. Education around the world is
becoming strongly networked, and we are beginning to see fundamental changes taking
place in the organization of education. We no longer have geographical isolation at the
college and university level. The long-term implications are a worldwide network and a real
marketplace for university and college level education. Education might become a major
export factor between countries. The competition between universities is increasing more
and more and universities are under pressure to find "new strategies and business models" to
produce and deliver educational products.
Similarly, company training is influenced by the dramatic changes as well. The
business environment is going through a dramatic transformation due to the increased
complexity, and uncertainty of the radical changes in information technology, globalization,
changing customer demands (and customer knowledge), increased expectations for social
responsibility, and other changes that are placing new stresses on the organization and its
people. Multinational companies already train their employees via online learning networks
globally. E-Learning as a new buzzword for web-based education and its commercialization
(e. g., business strategies, technologies, applications, etc.) is a growing market. Companies
are spending more than ever on training to respond to a growing need for new information
and knowledge required to cope, manage, and drive the new-mega mergers, new business
models, re-engineered and reinvented organizational forms, and other changes of the
business environment.
Problems that characterize traditional international education, such as recognition of
qualifications, also apply to e-learning. But because the very nature of e-learning includes
distance and technological aspects, these issues may be more easily overcome. Learners
don’t have to go to school; instead, school comes to them.

2. Discussions
Due to their complexity, four types of e-learning applications are distinguished: drill
and practice applications, (intelligent) tutor systems, simulations and CSCL (computer
supported collaborative learning) applications. Applications are the core of an e-learning
system because they mediate standardized or individually configured e-learning content. The
basic components of an e-learning system which are essential for its functionality are called
the technical system.
E-learning has the potential to revolutionize the basic tenets of learning by making it
individual rather than institution-based, eliminating clock-hour measures in favor of
performance and outcome measures, and emphasizing customized learning solutions over
generic, one-size-fits-all instruction.
Depending on the technical realization computer based training (CBT) and web
based training (WBT) are distinguished (Hoppe, Breitner; 2003:4). Didactical options and
technological realization of WBT are usually more complex than those of CBT. E-learning
products applicable for mobile learning, i. e. for use with handheld devices like laptops or
personal digital assistants (PDA), are classified as mobile based training (MBT). Nowadays,
MBT is mostly a subgroup of CBT because the technical feasible is not fully exploited. But
the MBT sector becomes more and more important and complex. The technical system is
supplemented on the one hand by the manware, i.e. the people who use, administrate,
maintain and/or develop other components of the system. On the other hand it is
supplemented by the orgware, i. e. all organizational regulations and concepts concerning e-
learning and its management. Every part of an e-learning system which can be marketed
autonomously is called an e-learning product. E-learning products comprise on the one hand
hardware, software and content in terms of digital data, e. g. HTML or XML data. On the
other hand they comprise services in connection with hardware, software, content, manware
and/or orgware. E-learning products are offered by e-learning providers. The market for e-
learning providers is very intransparent due to the heterogeneity and the multitude of existing
providers.

Figure 1: Components of an E-learning system


Source (Hoppe, Breitner; 2003:5)
One reason is that many providers do not exclusively offer e-learning products but
belong to different market domains. Basically, commercial and academic research and
development e-learning providers can be distinguished.
E-learning products can be applied in a variety of ways that can often evolve beyond
their original intent. For example, e-learning products may be used to:
Deliver introductory training to employees, customers, or other personnel;
Offer refresher or remedial training;
Offer training for credentialing, certification, licensing, or advancement;
Offer academic/educational credit via college and university online learning;
Promote and inform an audience about products, policies, and services;
Support organizational initiatives by increasing motivation through easily accessible
learning;
Offer orientation to geographically disparate personnel;
Create a variety of essential and nonessential learning opportunities for personnel;
Provide coaching and mentoring through online instruction and collaboration;
Build communities of practice using distributed online training and communication;
Standardize common training through fixed content accessible to all users;
It`s clear that all the firms must use the new paradigm of e-learning rather the old
one. In the old paradigm the instructor is viewed as the center of all knowledge. The
classroom is seen as the place where all knowledge disseminates. And the course is viewed
as the preferred format for learning.

Figure 2: The old paradigm of e-learning


Source: Rosenberg; 2003:17
In the new paradigm, the employee/learner is viewed as a knowledge seeker, with
constantly changing learning needs and time frames. Online and offline services enable
greater access to the total set of knowledge and performance resources.
Figure 3: The new paradigm of e-learning
Source: Rosenberg; 2003:17
Since much of the growth in e-learning is through Internet and intranet-based
technologies, the reasons cited for using these technologies are especially significant. The
top three benefits of Internet/Web-based e-learning were employee control over learning, the
ability to reach more employees in different locations, and just-in-time learning (Table 1)
(The Conference Board of Canada; 2001: 12).

According to the part of an e-learning system they offer, e-learning providers can be
divided into different segments (Hoppe, Breitner; 2003:6):
• Content providers offer predetermined e-learning content. Content is either
standardized, e. g. business english vocabulary, or individualized respectively
individualizable, e. g. company specific simulations;
• Application providers offer e-learning applications. Often they cooperate with
content providers; sometimes, applications are offered as free or shareware. This relates
mainly to academic providers.
• Hardware providers offer e-learning hardware. In most cases, hardware is not
elearning specific. Hardware providers therefore often supply non-e-learning segments.
Special e-learning hardware can be required due to special type of data, e. g. video or virtual
reality equipment.
• Service providers offer e-learning services. E-Learning services complement the
mediation of e-learning content by e-learning applications. E-learning services can directly
relate to learning processes (examples are the provision of information and communication
platforms or of tutorial assistance). E-learning services can also have a supporting function.
Examples for supporting services are hardware support (e. g. hosting services), software
support (e. g. administrative support), consulting services (e. g. legal, economical or didactic
consulting). Furthermore, supporting services can result in training, marketing, controlling,
evaluation or certification related activities.
• Full service providers offer all-in-one solutions which comprise products and
services in relation with the whole e-learning system.
An increasing number of companies are adopting e-Learning. But in their rush to
take advantage of e-Learning’s benefits and promises, companies are finding that there are
significant barriers to adoption.
To date, the performance and reputation of e-learning have not lived up to the lofty
expectations set by the early realization of the enormous potential benefits of this marriage
of learning and technology. While much of the user dissatisfaction can be traced to the poor
quality of content and support, most of the frustration has come as a direct result of the
inflexibility and unfriendliness of the underlying technical infrastructure.
Experience, based on hundreds of implementations, finds four key factors
contributing to this dissatisfaction (Sun Microsystems; 2003:10):
• The (non) Human Factor—Initially, e-learning was seen not from the student’s
standpoint,but from the administrator’s – an opportunity to cut costs by
automating the learning process, cutting out teachers and staff by going directly
to the learner, reducing inventories of books and libraries, and reducing
classroom and building requirements.
• Inherited Paradigms—Rather than using the dynamic and distributed nature of
the technology to re-engineer the learning process, the most common strategy
employed by educational institutions to date has been to replicate existing
classroom and course design practices.
• Piecemeal Solutions—In the absence of any consistent vision of what an e-
learning platform should be or do, the inherited paradigms also led to the
patching together of existing technologies and systems, such as email,
whiteboard and video streaming, to deliver the same kinds of functionalities seen
in the classroom. The user got left with multiple systems, each with their own
passwords, interfaces, and navigation, increasing their frustration.
• Proprietary Systems—Although characteristic of the early stages of many
technologybased markets, the proprietary approach to e-learning has left many
early program administrators to feel trapped by underperforming, overly
restrictive, or sole vendor systems that ate up millions of dollars and still did not
meet the needs of a majority of the institution’s user community.
But, the figures are very impressive (The Forum Corporation; 2003:1):
The percentage of companies providing access to e-Learning for all employees
is expected to more than double in 2 years;
The number of companies providing learning communities that have
collaboration technology is expected to grow 150 percent over the same time
period, from 21 percent to 51 percent;
More than 60 percent of companies expect to incorporate 10 of the 11
components of an e-Learning system within 2 years;
Technology infrastructure is one of only seven major barriers to the adoption of
e-Learning; other issues pose even more significant obstacles.
The researches indicates that companies are moving rapidly to meet the demand to
make learning more relevant to their business priorities, their employees, and their
customers. Table 2 examines the current and future adoption of 11 aspects of an e-Learning
system.

Current usage Expected usage


(in 2 years)
Competency/skills assessment 64% 82%
Individual learning plans 48% 68%
Learning resources linked to organizational goals 55% 78%
Learning communities with collaboration technology 21% 51%
Process and technology to share individual knowledge 46% 66%
Technology to provide access to knowledge captured 44% 70%
Access to E-learning by the entire organization 34% 71%
Learning knowledge accessible through project or 35% 65%
human resource management system
Online registration and administration of learning 49% 81%
Electronic catalogues of learning resources 48% 77%
Tracking and reporting of learning and knowledge 48% 75%
Table 2: Components of an Advanced e-Learning System
Source: The Forum Corporation; 2003:2
It`s very important to say that E-Learning represents the convergence of many
factors from different fields, for example technological drivers, changes in society, changing
corporate training and the new learning paradigm in the context of life-long learning which
describes the shift from training to learning.
Conversely, the growth of E-Learning has an converging effect on the educational
market (figure 3). The once almost visible line between corporate training and higher
education is blurring. Distance education is causing this convergence. M. Kaeter suggests
that this convergence is creating a common battlefield for colleges, corporate universities
and for-profit education businesses. The development of corporate-college partnerships
around online learning offerings is opening up new roles for academic institutions to play.
Students benefit from being able to choose from among the best programs in the country (or
world), instead of being limited by geography and time.

Figure 4: E-Learning Convergence


Source (Seufert, S.; 2003 : 6)
The educational market landscape has developed several models to produce and
deliver educational products. Some have their roots in the academic sector, some in the
business sector. But, the line between both sectors, academic education and corporate
training, is blurring. As innovative E-Learning business models one may distinguish between
a "traditional university" in the transformation process focusing on implementing the new
learning paradigm and new ways of delivering education such as "Virtual Universities",
"University Networks", "Corporate Universities", "Education Providers" and "Education
Consortiums".
Fig. 5: Educational Market Landscape
Source (Seufert, S.; 2003 : 7)
3. Conclusions
E-learning affords small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as large
organizations, an opportunity to provide workplace learning, and it gives to the country a
chance to close its “digital divide” through the development of e-literacy. E-learning is being
spurred on by three broad drivers:
9 the global economic context;
9 the human capital context;
9 the information and communications technology context.
Different business models suitable for e-learning providers exist. They base on
combining core activities with revenue sources based on the market model. The assumption
only simple computer based e-learning applications can be exploited successfully is
incorrect. Huge potentials for combining several revenue sources with economies of scale
and low provision costs can be realized by offering e-learning services.
The promise of e-Learning is that it provides leadership with powerful new tools for
improving capability development, speed, and performance whether their organization
operates in one geography or many. Just as the rise of information technologies
fundamentally changed the nature of how work gets done in organizations, the emergence of
learning technologies is fundamentally changing the nature of how people learn to do that
work. The fundamental learning model hasn’t changed: Learning professionals still help
others learn how to do things they couldn’t do before.
To foresee future trends is difficult. Considering the development of the conditions
of e-learning benefits and use of e-learning will increase rapidly. Today, the following
reasons suggest sustainable business models also for complex e-learning products:
•Meaning and importance of knowledge permanently increases. There is a need for
high-quality learning content and applications which also allow the transfer of knowledge
into practice. This makes the advantages of e-learning more valuable.
•Working and educational environment are changing. People are required to adapt
quickly – and often on their own initiative – to frequently and rapidly changing knowledge
and technologies. The qualification of employees is more and more important. Life-time
learning is one keyword of modern job profiles. Learning products which allow fast and easy
diffusion and update of information are needed.
•Globalization is omnipresent. Companies are expanding worldwide and are
outsourcing functions and activities to other countries with different requirements. Mobility
of people is important in this context. Learning products are needed which allow learning
continuously and everywhere, i. e. mobile. This bares enormous potentials for hardware
providers who provide specialized mobile learning hardware, e. g. applications for laptops,
personal digital assistants and smartphones.
•Societies and especially learners are changing. The readiness to pay for education
already increases and a further increase is likely.
•Technical conditions are changing. The development and enhancement of
technologies enables price reductions. Hardware, software and network fees decrease. This
positively influences the relation between costs and benefits of e-learning.
The challenge for businesses is to realize the full potential of e-learning as a driver
of productivity and performance gains by making it an integral part of organizational
strategy and operations. For government, the challenge is to create a nurturing policy
environment for e-learning—first, by removing barriers that restrict access to e-learning’s
benefits and, second, by promoting industry self-regulation while balancing citizens’
interests and needs.

Bibliography
Commission on Technology and Adult Learning; A Vision of E-Learning for
America’s Workforce, 2001, available at www.astd.org;
Hoppe, G., Breitner, M., Business Models for E-learning, 2003, available at
http://www.wiwi.uni-hannover.de/Forschung/Diskussionspapiere/dp-287.pdf
Mason, J. From e-learning to e-knowledge, in Madanmohan Rao (ed.) Knowledge
Management Tools and Techniques, 2005, Elsevier, London
Rosenberg, M., E-learning. Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age,
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Rosenberg, M., J., Building a Succesfull E-learning Strategy, 2003, available at
http://www1.astd.org/tk03/pdf/session_handouts/W406.pdf
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at www.sun.com
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