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When I pursued my doctorate in 1980's, I relied on punch cards, mainframe computers, and libraries filled with card catalogs, microfilms and microfiche. It took me weeks to find Information what today can be found on my computer in seconds.

Technology transformed our lives, schools, libraries and work places. Today students expect to have information instantly available at their fingertips and e-learning became an integral part of education, not just a contemporary trend that will fade away. Students will have many distinct careers in their lifetime and will need to acquire new knowledge and perfect their skills. Lifelong education is essential to remain competitive in today’s ever changing and demanding market, and e-learning deems to be invaluable in obtaining the required training. International students often choose online courses to avoid travel costs, immigration bureaucracy, and cultural barriers.

E-learning (electronic learning) includes different methods of delivering instructions online and making it accessible for students from different electronic devices. E-learning uses media elements as text, photos, illustrations, animations, audio, or video to deliver digital content via Internet, satellite broadcasting on computers or mobile devices.

There are many different terms which are used interchangeably: technology-based learning, technology-based training, computer-based training, computer-based learning, computer-based instruction, computer-based education, Web-based training, Internet-based training, Intranet-based training, distance education, distance learning, distance training.

E-learning technologies should be considered as one more tool in the educator's toolbox. Some educators hate e-learning and think that it can never be superior to face-to-face learning. However, while some educators love online learning and see it as a panacea for all educational problems.

Distance learning will not replace face-to-face education. It will enhance on-campus lectures but won’t eliminate it. Educators shouldn’t worry that online applications, robots, or three dimensional holograms will replace them. It will always be demand for a live person, lecturer and facilitator behind any online course. The quality of education will never be the save without a live person.

Pedagogical and Instructional Design

Just how much thought is given to pedagogical and instructional design issues? Are MOOCs even reviewed for quality before they go public?

Not all MOOCs—especially the ones that are informal—probably need to go through a thorough and formal cycle of review for conformance to quality.

However, if a university is considering offering MOOCs as part of their formal curriculum, would it then not be worthwhile to develop a pedagogy that is unique to the institute and that delivers a quality product to their learners, even if it does so free of cost?

[|__http://www.tatainteractive.com/pdf/Designing%20MOOCs%20%20-%20A%20White%20Paper%20on%20ID%20for%20MOOCs.pdf__]

MOOC Dropout Rates

An excerpt from a recent article, titled “Coursera Takes a Nuanced View of MOOC Dropout Rates” from The Chronicle reads …“Although millions of students have registered for courses through Coursera, the company and its university partners have awarded only 280,000 certificates of completion. In general, the rate of completion in MOOCs is believed to be around 10 percent.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Visualization of MOOC Completion Rates

[|__http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Educational researcher Katy Jordan also compiled a

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Visualization of MOOC Completion Rates using publicly available data. Her research indicates an average 50,000 enrollments in MOOCs, with the typical completion rate of below 10%, approximately 7.5%, that amounts to 3,700 completions per 50,000 enrollments.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 10 reasons for the low completion rates

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One online survey lists down the top 10 reasons for the low completion rates, and lecture fatigue and poor course design figure at numbers 4 and 5 respectively in this list. Interestingly, the article from The Chronicle goes on to state that Coursera does not attribute the low completion rates to the MOOC format. Open Culture pointed out in their compiling of the top-10 reasons students dropped out of MOOCs, “the completion rates aren’t so much a problem for you; they’re more a problem for the MOOC providers and their business models.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1) Completing MOOCs takes too much time: Many respondents said watching online lectures and completing homework assignments was simply too much to incorporate into their schedules.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2) MOOCs assume students are well informed: Many complaints centered around an assumed “knowledge base” that was often essential to understanding the course material.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3) Some MOOCs were too easy: Students found these MOOCs lacking in challenging material, with some literature courses feeling “like a glorified book club.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">10 reasons

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4) Boring lectures: Having to watch web-based lectures drove some students away from MOOCs. MOOCs would be better served if they relied more heavily on interactive forms of pedagogy,” Open Culture wrote.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5) Poor course design: Despite ample instructions on how to access course material and lectures, some students found it difficult to navigate a MOOC and engage its curriculum.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6) Lack of constructive interaction: There were some complaints about online discussion forums with MOOC teachers and fellow students that weren’t nearly as helpful as traditional in-class exchanges.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7) Trolls: Peer review of MOOC assignments were often marred by rude students who made exchanges of ideas almost impossible with no supervision from MOOC educators or teacher assistants.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">8) Hidden costs: Students were surprised to learn that, despite MOOCs’ reputation as a free online educational resource, they were sometimes required to purchase pricey textbooks recommended by professors.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">9) Course shopping: Students, in their perusing of available MOOC offerings, would sign up for many courses and decide later which options they’d engage, and which options they would drop.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">10) Learning instead of earning: Students who sign up for a MOOC to enhance their knowledge of a subject might be unlikely to take the course’s final exam, meaning they’ve completed everything in a MOOC except for the final piece.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/top-10-reasons-for-low-mooc-completion-rates/2/

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">rate of completion

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The course with the highest rate of completion was "Functional Programming Principles in Scala," from Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, offered on the MOOC platform Coursera. According to Jordan's research, some 19.2 percent of the 50,000 students who enrolled completed the course.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At the other end of the spectrum was "A History of the World since 1300" by Princeton University, also hosted by Coursera, which reportedly recruited 83,000 students with just 0.8 percent reaching the end.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Five of the top six most-completed MOOCs relied on automatic marking alone, meaning that no peer assessment was required. Courses that relied purely on peer grading generally fared far worse in terms of the percentage of students reaching the end.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more: [|__http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/10/new-study-low-mooc-completion-rates#ixzz2p1UchRp6__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Inside Higher Ed

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">multiple reasons

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“In my opinion there are multiple reasons for the low completion rates (under 10%) of MOOCs.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a. The participant is not truly interested in the topic but wants to see what all the hoopla is about.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">b. With no psychological or financial investment, it is easy for the participant to become engaged in other activities/interests.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">c. Work is too hard for the participant’s level of preparation.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">multiple reasons

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">d. Participant is fatigued by the lack of instructional diversity and the absence of any meaningful engagement with either the instructor or the material. Methodology feels more like a classroom lecture on steroids with all interaction taking place, or not, with peers.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional design that provides for opportunity to engage with materials (not just the other learners) would allow for both deeper understanding and self-assessment of progress. Experience has shown that early student ‘wins’ are important to persistence. Difficulty at the start creates frustration and self doubt. There needs to be feedback from the ‘course,’ if not the instructor.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- John Ebersole

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">President, Excelsior College, Albany, New York

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No Instructional Designers

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Doug Holton from the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University also emphasizes on the lack of professional instructional design for MOOCs. He says ...

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Especially disturbing is that none of the major MOOC providers have hired anyone trained in instructional design, the learning sciences, educational technology, course design, or other educational specialties to help with the design of their courses.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">cMOOCs vs. xMOOCs

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">cMOOCs, as explained by George Siemens (MOOCs are really a platform, July 25, 2012) emphasize social networked learning. The learning experience (and the author can confirm this by way of participating in the Change 11course) is chaotic. This very nature of a cMOOC distinguishes it from an xMOOC, which uses the more traditional approach of learning via video lectures followed by short quizzes, assignments, and tests.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Components of a MOOC

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A syllabus that lists the learning objectives and defines the scope of the topics and accompanied readings, discussions, assignments, and quizzes or tests. The syllabus may also include a weekly schedule especially for discussions and assignment submissions.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">readings and video lectures

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then, there are readings and video lectures. In an xMOOC, these are mostly archived; in a cMOOC, the facilitators either give a presentation each week or invite a guest lecturer. While some of these presentations may be recorded and made available to the students, there are quite a few that are delivered in real time.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Discussions Forums and Assessment

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Centralized discussions forums (in xMOOCs) or distributed open spaces (mostly blogs, wikis, Facebook pages, and Twitter in the case of cMOOCs) is where most of the learner interaction happens.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Quizzes, assignments, and projects allow for self-evaluation and may, in some cases, lead to certification.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Course Design

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">faculty—who are most likely working on their own to put up this massively open and online course and who may or may not have the requisite technical know-how or enough experience teaching online.

[|__http://www.tatainteractive.com/pdf/Designing%20MOOCs%20%20-%20A%20White%20Paper%20on%20ID%20for%20MOOCs.pdf__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What would be an ideal course structure for a MOOC?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">granular courses are more digestible. Long pieces of lecture content (in text or video format) may not sustain the learner’s interest.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Granularity may also lead to overloading, with having to manage numerous learning units.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Linear Flow

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Academic courses are mostly linear with the learning outcomes and content spread across 8-12 weeks

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Nonlinearity in flow and organization of content brings is that it allows learners who may have joined the course late, or are lagging behind, to progress through the course at their own pace and yet catch up with their peers and faculty.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Open Educational Resources

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Open educational resources (OERs), such as open textbooks, learning objects, video recorded lectures from Ivy League universities such as MITs OpenCourseWare project, and resources from iTunes University, including the U.K. Open Universities OpenLearn materials, all available (as are MOOCs) to students anywhere and at any time, and generally for free.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">See more at: http://www.tonybates.ca/2013/10/23/is-there-a-future-for-distance-education/#sthash.FJrUbISb.dpuf

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Four Beyonds

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How will we know that the digital shift has finally begun? Watch for these four signs of change, what I call “The Four Beyonds”:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond Textbooks

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond Bookstores

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond Learning Management Systems

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond School

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">According to Adrian Sannier, within five years the world of education will never be completely different.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Adrian Sannier - the Senior Vice President, Product at Pearson eCollege.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/if-not-now-when

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EdX

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the initial edX courses was taught by Harvard faculty in fall 2013—Introduction to Computer Science I and Health in Numbers: Quantitative Methods in Clinical and Public Health Research. 200,000 people registered for this course and half of them were from outside of the United States.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Health in Numbers

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Health in Numbers course

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eight thousand people in India signed up. In addition to contributing to online discussion groups, 150 students spontaneously gathered in Mumbai to discuss the material, exchanging ideas and creating connections that they have sustained since the course’s conclusion. A meet-up in Bangalore featuring a Skype session with edX professors attracted a similar number of students from an array of courses who were eager to interact face to face.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/the-future-of-education

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Leverage Observations

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We intend to leverage observations made in the digital space to understand what we might do better in our own classrooms and classrooms around the world—an aspiration that is already being realized.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Insights into learning optimization from edX could translate into changes in the Harvard classroom.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.iop.harvard.edu/edx-and-harvard-undergraduate

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Introduction to Computer Science Course

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">David Malan of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences developed a technology to assess student-submitted programs. He used the same technology in the in-person version of the course taught at Harvard College. The improvement saved him valuable time, which he, in turn, devoted to meetings with his students on campus.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Changes

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Large introductory lecture courses, especially in the sciences, are an obvious target for change.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Conventional views of the success of a lecture-based model are already falling away.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">courses may break down into more segmented instruction; each student receives the lessons he or she needs and learns the material based on the recommendations of software that has been perfected from MOOCs offered through edX.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.iop.harvard.edu/edx-and-harvard-undergraduate

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">High School Students

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">12 students taking CS50 in the Wheaton School District. While these students will not receive grades from their high schools, Professor Malan said, “They will each receive a letter written by me saying that they took a Harvard computer science course.” Think those students will fare better in the admissions process?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Based on these certificates, Harvard could use MOOCs to cherry-pick the best and brightest.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Alumni

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harvard could also use the scalability of MOOCs to offer premium content to alumni.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MOOCs may enable Harvard alumni to continue taking Harvard courses, degree credits may blur, and a student concentrating in Applied Math could achieve the equivalent of a Masters Degree in Statistics post-graduation, certifying that with MOOC credits. Harvard could also offer exclusive content and accreditation to alumni, further increasing the appeal of getting into Harvard, as well as perhaps increasing alumni contributions.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wayback Machine

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">David Porter

[|__http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBHgwGpckiQ__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Is it possible to get a quality education without actually attending a school?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Introduction to E-Learning

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What is e-Learning?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">E-learning (electronic learning) is a term covering a wide set of applications and processes, such as Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms, and digital collaboration. It includes the delivery of content mainly via Internet, but also can be audio and video, satellite broadcast, mobile and more.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are many different terms which are used interchangeably: technology-based learning, technology-based training, computer-based training, computer-based learning, computer-based instruction, computer-based education, Web-based training, Internet-based training, Intranet-based training, distance education, distance learning, distance training.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Image: http://competitionuniversity.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=7

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Is E-Learning Something Completely New?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Learning at a distance is not new. Apprenticeships, classroom courses, and correspondence courses were used until the middle of the 20th century.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1890 - commercial and academic correspondence courses on specialized topics were widely promoted. To see the correspondence courses' ads, please visit Vintage Correspondence Course Ads

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1920s - over 4 million US citizens – far more than attended traditional colleges – were enrolled in correspondence courses, covering hundreds of practical job-oriented topics, with a completion rate under 3%.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1922 - New York University operated its own radio station and planed to broadcast practically all its subjects. Other schools joined in, including Columbia, Harvard, Kansas State, Ohio State, Purdue, etc. By 1940 radio courses had virtually disappeared.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1930s - talking motion pictures appeared - they were used to train millions of draftees during World War II in how to operate all sorts of equipment.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1940s - the University of Louisville was offering televised classes.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1951 - the Australian School of the Air has used two-way shortwave radio to teach school children in remote locations.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Schools of the Air used to transmit lessons to students via radio

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From 1960s till today, the new technology started to emerge:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Video courses

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Audio courses

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Computer-based, self-paced training (text-based and with multimedia)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • E-learning via the Internet.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1969 — the Open University was founded in the UK. The Open University revitalized distance education by combining correspondence instruction, broadcasting and publishing, residential short courses and support services at local and regional levels. Today, the Open University also offers online courses and has a strong community of students in many countries.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By 1994 - hundreds of colleges had distance education undergraduate degree programs, and there were 150 leading to advanced degrees.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2012 - The New York Times dubbed it 'The Year of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more here.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/styles/large/public/MoocClash.jpg?itok=lOvZHfgF

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How Can a Company Benefit from E-Learning?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Employees can learn:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • without traveling to class

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • at their convenience

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • based on their learning styles: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic & Tactile.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">E-learning provides for a company:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Cost saving — cost of education can be dramatically reduced.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Learning quality – e-learning can be more flexible (learning at a convenient time, learning spread over weeks, etc.) and can even provide a higher quality of learning.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Rapid training roll-out — e-learning can be delivered quickly across the organization. For example, engineers and programmers are expected to learn fundamentally new skills every couple of years.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">E-Learning Models

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Technical Training —you can teach how to use Microsoft Access and Excel, or C++, or how to be a System Administrator. This type of training can include: self-study parts, instructor-led parts, and simulation parts.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Professional Skills Training—you can teach negotiating, running meetings, coaching, and team dynamics skills to students. This type of training can be self-study (for knowledge transfer) and instructor-led (for skills transfer).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • New-Job-Role Training —you can teach employees how to perform a new job role. New managers, “new hires” generally require new knowledge and new skills. It can be partly self-study and partly interactive where the students work with an instructor and/or with other students.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • “Update” Training – You can update employees who have already been trained on the latest state-of-the-art developments. It can be self-study or instructor-led.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • “Tip of the Iceberg” Training – when employee needs to know “a little” about a topic but doesn’t need to become an expert. For example, a technical employee can learn the basics of marketing, a project manager – the basics of database, etc. It can be self-study or instructor-led.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Here are some examples of profession-specific and industry-specific topics:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> ◦ At his financial services job, as an office administrator, Zach has 5 required courses annually all delivered via modules in the learning center on the company’s intranet. He gets training on anti-money laundering courses, harassment in the workplace, electronic communications, and privacy awareness. He can choose training throughout the year and will receive raises for his efforts. Topics to choose from include product training (equities, annuities, life insurance, etc.), new system developments or changes to existing ones, how to do business plans, how to be more efficient in the branch, and more.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> •

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> ◦ As an account representative, Emily at Custom Resources Fundraising receives sales training specific to her target market. She is educated on the fundraising programs, percent of profits, and which fundraisers will work best for her prospects and customers. She receives training on how to use Outlook with Contact Manager and how to use Access and Word to merge database information. Additionally, she learns how to use Quickbooks to create invoices for her orders.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> •

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> ◦ For his new direct sales opportunity, Hunter can log in to the company’s back end office and get e-training on getting his business started, setting goals, time management, booking in-home presentations, how to recruit new associates, and financial management for his new independent business opportunity.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> •

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> ◦ For the hotel industry, training which is evolving for some corporations to e-learning includes these industry-related topics: Customer service, Safety, Food safety, Policies and procedures, and Diversity training which includes Gender equality, Sexual harassment, and Discrimination. (http://competitionuniversity.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=7)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Employees and e-Learning

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Research shows that e-learning works just as well as classroom learning.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Some employees may find it difficult to learn in e-learning environment.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Some things can be more effective when done in a classroom environment. For example, lab exercises which need access to real hardware.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">E-Learning as a Business  Tool

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Learning for learning's sake doesn’t happen in businesses. Your company is not the university environment, and e-learning training is mainly aimed to support the goals of your business; e-learning has to make your company more competitive.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For example:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • you teach C++ because your employees need it to improve their work skills

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • teaching negotiation skills your employees improves your company’s customer support

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • learning about the new product helps your employees to sell your company’s product better.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Company with a Small Budget  and e-Learning

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • E-learning doesn't always require a large budget.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • If you have a small budget, you should look at "renting" or "leasing" entire e-learning solution instead of building one. Or you might consider "renting" a part of your e-learning solution and building only part of it.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • There are many learning vendors who have e-learning courseware available from their web sites. You can contact one of them to deliver e-learning course to your employees.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • There are different ways to deliver e-learning inexpensive way. You can use a free learning management system as Schoology or Google Apps for education.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Classroom Courses vs. E-Learning

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The traditional learning solution involves gathering everyone in a classroom and presenting the material. It might be a simple presentation-style lecture class or a full-blown class with lectures, hands-on exercises, and group projects.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These traditional solutions have drawbacks:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The time it takes to gather all employees in a classroom.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The high cost of reaching all of the employees.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Earlier technologies for learning at a distance included CD-ROMs, audiotapes, and videotapes. However, in recent years the Internet became most popular e-learning delivery solution because of accessibility, familiarity, and convenience.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The 2012 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group reveals the number of students taking at least one online course has now surpassed 6.7 million.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Is Online Learning Strategic?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The percentage of institutions that agree “Online education is critical to the long-term strategy of my institution” reached its highest level in 2012 (69.1%).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How Many Students are Learning Online?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For the past 10 years online enrollments have been growing substantially faster than overall higher education enrollments. However, higher education made news this year when it was reported that the total number of students enrolled at U.S. higher education institutions had actually dropped.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • 6.7 million students were taking at least one online course in fall 2010.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Thirty-two percent of higher education students now take at least one course online.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Are Learning Outcomes in Online Courses are Comparable to Face-to-Face?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">25% of academic leaders rated the learning outcomes in online education inferior to those for face-to-face instruction

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What is the Impact of the Economy on Online Education?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The bad economic times can be good for higher education enrollments

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The decreased availability of good jobs encourages more people to seek education

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Employed individuals seek to improve their chances for advancement by advancing their education.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The economic impact on institutional budgets has been mixed: 47% have seen their budgets decrease, but 27% have experienced an increase.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What are Typical Barriers for Implementing e-Learning?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Natural resistance to change — people don’t like change. Some students view traveling to class as a vacation from work and could be annoyed by online classes.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New instructor skills — instructors need to learn new ways of teaching at a distance.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New technology – new technology creates more problems, requires constant update of software, hardware, and employees skills.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Course availability – sometimes it is difficult to find exact “off the shelf” e-learning courses, and you have to develop your own e-learning solution which requires more time and money.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Budget – in many companies, training budgets are set years in advance, and the funding is allocated for traditional training. As you move to e-learning, you’ll find that there are new costs.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What does E-Learning Need From Your Management Team?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Realistic expectations –e-learning takes time and effort by each individual student.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Leadership – managers should know how e-learning works and the best way to do that is to take several e-learning courses.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Support – some students need management encouragement to keep up their motivation.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How Critical is Leading-Edge Technology to E-Learning?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Using leading-edge technology is important but not critical. With a strong instruction design, you can make even an e-mail-based correspondence course work effectively. With a weak instructional design, you won’t be able to make the jazziest virtual classroom work effectively. Furthermore, in e-learning and in everything else, fancier things usually cost more than simple things.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Do You Need to Eliminate Your Classroom Training?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Classroom training does not conflict with e-learning. You can blend together classroom and e-learning.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How will Your Employees Respond to e-Learning?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Difference - E-learning feels different from traditional face-to-face learning experiences.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Unfamiliarity –some students will find it difficult to adjust to the new learning situation.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Lack of self-motivation –for some people it is hard to stay motivated while they’re learning away from a classroom.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Lack of time – one can’t take e-learning course and work. Some companies might expect their employees to take the courses before or after work.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Feeling of isolation – students can feel isolated without immediate presence of the teacher and other students.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Feeling of going against company culture --"Let me interrupt you for just a few minutes about an urgent work problem," says the manager while the employee is trying to take an e-learning course at her desk.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does Student Motivation Affect E-Learning?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Many people are accustomed to learning only in traditional classroom environments and find it hard to learn “on their own.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some key student motivations include:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The course teaches something that is critical to doing the immediate job.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The student is working toward a certification or a degree.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The student is required by management to prove that they completed a course.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How will Instructors Respond to E-Learning?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Teaching an e-learning course is harder than teaching a classroom course.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You should take into consideration the following global considerations:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Language –students from different countries speak different languages. You have two choices – translate your course or adapt it for the foreign students.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Time zone -- when it’s 8AM in New York, it’s 9PM in Tokyo. The solution is to emphasize some asynchronous communication: bulletin board messages, e-mail, etc.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Cultural differences – for example, humor.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What are the Basic Styles for E-Learning?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are 3 basic styles for e-learning depending on how the learning event is scheduled and how interaction with other people occur:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Synchronous learning

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Self-directed learning

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Asynchronous learning

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Synchronous learning--a real-time, instructor-led online learning event in which all participants are logged on at the same time and communicate directly with each other. In this virtual classroom setting, the instructor maintains control of the class, with the ability to "call on" participants. In most platforms, students and teachers can use a whiteboard to see work in progress and share knowledge. Interaction may also occur via audio- or videoconferencing, Internet telephony, or two-way live broadcasts.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Self-directed learning--a student works alone based on the material delivered over the Internet. There is no instructor or group of peer students to communicate with.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Asynchronous learning--learning in which interaction between instructors and students occurs intermittently with a time delay. Examples are self-paced courses taken via the Internet, Q & A, mentoring, online discussion groups, and email.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What is a blended course?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Learning events that combine aspects of online and face-to-face instruction. Students will spend half the time in a traditional classroom. The other half of the time students will be outside of the classroom using a computer to participate in online learning activities, assignments, discussion and email, and assessments.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">E-Learning Examples

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">William Horton Consulting

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Allen Interactions e-learning demos

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NYU SCPS Online(NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- key features of NYU SCPS online- a quick tour of the ePortfolio, Syllabus, Lessons, Forums and more.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summary

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • E-learning is learning that uses computer technology, usually via the Internet.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • E-learning enables employees to learn at their work/home computer without traveling to a classroom.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • E-learning can be a scheduled session with an instructor or it can be an on-demand course.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Employees can learn without traveling to class—you can save on travel costs.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Employees can learn at their convenience.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Employees can learn based on their learning styles.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Research shows that e-learning works as well as classroom learning. It is safe to say that in 5-10 years all companies are good candidates for using e-learning.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • You could spend hundreds, or you could spend multimillions.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The cost components for e-learning include the courseware, the course delivery expenses (including instructors), marketing/promotional communications with the students, administration and support expenses.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • The size and complexity of your training problem influencing your e-learning costs.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • You can’t avoid risk, but ROI lets you predict the risk.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • An e-learning success has to be thought in business terms, not training terms.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Barriers in implementing e-learning in you company might include people’s resistance to any kind of change, new technology, and budget constrains.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • You management should keep realistic expectations, provide leadership and support.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> • Using leading-edge technology is important but not critical. If your e-learning has global reach, you should consider: language, time zones, and Cultural differences (for example, humor).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">References

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Henderson A. J. (2003). The E-learning Question and Answer Book. New York, NY: American Management Association.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Sloan Consortium, Class Differences: Online Education in the United States, 2010.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Employee Training: E-Learning

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essentials of Online Course Design - http://www.marjorievai.com/WEBSITE-CONTENTS.html

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Module 1: Assignments

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Create a wiki for your e-learning course.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Post a link to your wiki at http://kcgi.wikispaces.com/Wikis

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Create your own fictitious company. Give me a brief description of your company (1 page). For example:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(your position) I am a CEO.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(your company’s name) The Electronic Widgets, Inc.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(your company’s brief description) It is a multinational company that sells high-tech widgets in other high tech products.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(employees) I have 800 salespeople in 20 countries. The Blue Widget 1000 has been our main product line for the last year-and-a-half.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Why do you need to develop online course for your company? Give me a problem description) We’ve developed a new product line--Red Widget 1100 which has new underlying technology, faster speed, and more competitive price/performance ratio. I have to teach my salespeople about the new Red Widget 1100 product characteristics—features, functions, and fees.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(course title) Create your e-learning course title.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The market for corporate interactive distance learning—now known as 'e-learning,' has boomed along with the growth in the Internet and corporate intranets.” ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jay Cross (2004) has normally been been credited with coining the term elearning in 1998. However, the term seems to have been in use as far back as 1997 when Aldo Morri wrote an article for Telephony Online, [|__A bright future for distance learning: One Touch/Hughes alliance promotes interactive 'e-learning' service__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #595959; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: