micro presentation :: Keep watching: 30. E- learning : a substitute for classroom learning?

E-LEARNING: SUBSTITUTE OR SUPPLEMENT?
M.Anandakrishnan
Emerging Trends

The opportunities to pursue educational objectives through e-learning are emerging worldwide at a very rapid rate and in many different forms. They are variously described as e-courses, web courses, virtual learning, on-line courses, digital courses etc. The learners are attracted by their convenience and affordable cost to acquire additional knowledge and qualifications. Yet the process has not yet matured to the level of confidence seen in the conventional system of teaching and learning.
The material for e-learning is made available in many forms such as CDs, Internet, Intranet and sometimes in combination with other forms of distance learning. The programmes offered through electronic media deal with a large variety and levels of subject knowledge and curriculum. Some are not particularly related to any curriculum but offer learning opportunity in the broad areas of subject knowledge by additional material or novel approaches to dealing with a subject or a topic. The Internet is full of such material for use from kindergarten to postgraduate levels.
There are also several sites which offer stimulating discussions, experiments, problems, quizzes, and explanations on a large variety of subjects relating basic sciences, mathematics, humanities and social sciences, engineering and technology, and skill oriented subjects. The web also contains several types of library material in various languages in electronic form useful either as references or study guides.
Definition of e-learning

There are many different ways e-learning is defined. Some of the definitions are listed below:
“The convergence of the Internet and learning, or Internet-enabled learning.”
“The use of network technologies to create, foster, deliver, and facilitate learning, anytime and anywhere.”
“The delivery of individualized, comprehensive, dynamic learning content in real time, aiding the development of communities of knowledge, linking learners and practitioners with experts.”
“A phenomenon that delivers accountability, accessibility, and opportunity allowing people and organizations to keep up with the rapid changes that define the Internet world.”
“A force that gives people and organizations the competitive edge to allow them to keep ahead of the rapidly changing global economy.”
“ The use of the Internet and/or proprietary intranets to deliver, administer, and measure the effectiveness of training, instruction, and information dissemination. It can be an alternative delivery system or supplemental support to more traditional instructional systems such as the classroom, computer-based training, print self-study, and the like”.
If designed and delivered correctly, e-learning can do all these things. The problem with most interpretations of this term, however, is that they focus too heavily on the technical side, less so on the dynamics of the learning process. The real challenge in e-learning is keeping in mind the people for whom it is designed. How do people learn? How do people acquire and retain skills? How do people access information to help their development? Only after these questions are addressed the technical side—the electronic delivery—is adapted to the learner.
Choice of e-courses

A person wishing to pursue e-learning may have many different objectives. Some may wish to acquire additional knowledge on topics or subjects in a random manner. Some may want to strengthen their understanding of their conventional courses by enriching them with additional information and newer methods. Some may take a few web-based courses for credit to be counted partially or fully for degree or diploma requirement.
The e-learning resources may have been developed and posted on the web by educational institutions that also offer formal courses on the same subjects in their institutions. Some of the web resources may be in the electronic form only for programmes offered by educational or commercial organizations. Many of the resources may be contributions of individuals or groups on a variety of topics or subjects without any formal curricular structure. Some of these resources may be freely available while many may require formal registration and access rights. In general the e-learning happens in the distance mode.
Features of Distance Learning
Distance learning courses are likely to fail if they are delivered as if they were traditional courses. Pedagogy must drive the choice of instructional technology, not the other way around. Compared with a human instructor, technology is less adaptive. Once a plan of integration is implemented, it is less likely to change it according to student's reactions. This is why instructional design plays an important role in bridging pedagogy and technology. Subject contents have to be well organized and strategies for teaching via a chosen medium have to be well thought out. Instructional design can help educators making the best use of technology; therefore guarantee a successful integration. There should be consistency between various courses developed by various instructors/designers. The general look and process of content exploration should be standardized. In a classroom, an instructor can adjust his delivery if he feels that a concept was not communicated clearly. Online, this type of adjustment is usually not possible. The design process must anticipate and meet potential concerns/ ambiguities.
Instructional Design

E-learning is the fusion of technology and education, and most often, the instructional designer's greatest role is that of bridging the concepts between the content and the technology. This vital role ensures that graphic designers and programmers properly develop the concepts of an expert in the subject matter keeping in view the pedagogical requirements of e-learning.
Instructional Design is the systematic process of translating general principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials and learning. It is a systematic approach to planning and producing effective instructional materials. It is similar to lesson planning, but more elaborate and more detailed. It includes instructional specifications using learning and instructional theory to ensure the quality of instruction. It is the entire process of analysis of learning needs and goals and the development of a delivery system to meet those needs. It includes development of instructional materials and activities; and tryout and evaluation of all instruction and learner activities.
In general, Instructional Design needs to move in the direction of flexibility and learner-empowerment if it is to keep up with technological and institutional changes It is a systematic approach to course development that ensures that specific learning goals are accomplished. It is an iterative process that requires ongoing evaluation and feedback.
Content Development
The process of content development focuses on the most effective way to present the concepts and explanations. It begins with the learner and the learner experience Quality of course is ensured. It gives structure to the student's process of working through course material. A current concern in e-learning is development time. Proper use of technologies an speed up development. It should create a transparent process to track and utilize the experiences of development teams.
The development of contents for e-learning requires a mature level of subject knowledge as well as the technical tools available for presentation. Course materials, which are in pure text form, tend to be monotonous. Excessive use of graphics and sound presents difficulties in accessing them if the learning does not have sufficient bandwidth.
If there are courses developed and tested by reputed institutions and available for adoption by others, this would help to save considerable time and effort by individual institutions attempting course developments on their own except for purposes of additional content if needed. There is a trend in advanced countries to form consortia of institutions and assign the responsibility for developing courses in different subject to the best person available in one of the consortia institutions. The member institutions may adopt such courses for credit by the students in addition to other courses offered in the formal mode. The concerned institutions wishing to offer credits for e-courses should properly evaluate their contents.
Academic Audit

With the growing proliferation of the e-resources, it will be helpful if there is a method of academic auditing of those courses, which are offered for the purpose of obtaining formal qualifications in the form of a certificate, a diploma or a degree. This will be useful for the protection of the interest of the learners as well the employers. For this purpose each country may establish an assessment system with clearly defined norms and standards of the content and methodology for the e-courses. This will prevent spurious programmes with unjustifiable claims.
Limitations OF E-LEARNING

More and more organizations today are considering the potential of e-learning as an alternative means of improving and maintaining the knowledge and skills of their students, teachers and employees. To ensure success, it is important that organizations understand both the capabilities and the limitations of e-learning. Because development budgets are limited it is equally important that e-learning planners and developers become acquainted with successful e-learning applications, rather than start blindly and from scratch.
E-learning is one of many education/training delivery system alternatives to classroom instruction. The Internet has made it possible to develop knowledge and skills and to deliver information with a degree of efficiency not often possible with traditional classroom instruction. It can reduce or eliminate such constraints associated with classroom instruction as: class scheduling, instructor staffing, student travel and lodging, time away from the job, training materials reproduction, distribution, and inventory.
However e-learning has its constraints and trade-offs. Some of the key constraints to consider are:
Level of Interactivity. The most common limitation is the lack of sufficient opportunity for interaction between the learner and the subject expert. It may not be possible always that the expert who developed the course will be available for interaction especially if the number of registered users is very large. This may be possible in some of the more advanced level courses where the teacher is accessible on line or on mail contact for a small group of students. Some face-to-face interactivity is possible using facilities such as teleconferencing and on-line discussions. However, other connectivity issues often come to bear in such applications. Sessions must be scheduled in advance and are impacted by time-zone differences among participants.
Clearly, a high level of interactivity is desirable; but, seldom is it possible to achieve a level of highly adaptive interpersonal interactivity akin to that which can be provided by a live classroom. Some interactivity options that work well with e-learning applications include interactive question/answer sessions; multiple choice quizzes and tests; on-line demonstrations and presentations Whatever be form and content in which the e-courses are offered there is a need to over come some the severe limitations of these courses from effective learning.
Bandwidth. Bandwidth refers to the rate at which the user's Internet connection can transmit (upload) and receive (download) information. In designing an e-learning application, the temptation is to exploit every feature of the content. For example, viewing "movies", if included in the lesson, is possible using a technique called streaming video. But, if the user does not have sufficient bandwidth, downloading and display can cause awkward pauses that may make the movie presentation jerky. Each e-learning method that developers contemplate should take into consideration the bandwidth connectivity available to their end users.
Infrastructure Support. Like any other delivery system, e-learning requires a certain investment in hardware, software, and support staff. While much of the hardware/software investment may already have been committed as part of the organization's existing Internet or intranet facility, there remains the need for ongoing investments in support resources to develop and maintain e-learning components.
Hence the institutions offering the e-courses and those availing such courses should ensure the interactive process by establishing study centres in which there will be a course mentor to assist the students on a regularly scheduled basis. The problems of bandwidth shortage can also be overcome by equipping such study centres with sufficient capacity. Such study centres can also serve to conduct examinations and tests as needed in a reliable manner.
Another major limitation in availing the e-learning facilities sometimes is the high cost associated with them. This is generally the case offered by foreign institutions. Though this may be less than the cost of studying abroad it may still not be affordable to many aspiring learners.
Yet another limitation is the acceptability of these courses by prospective employers or by academic institutions for further studies. Generally the programmes offered fully or partly through the web are not accredited by standard accrediting agencies. There is a need for a national policy either for accreditation mechanism for web based programmes or for a recognition process based on academic auditing for equivalence to similar approved courses..
Some Concerns
Virtual universities use web technologies to deliver courses for diploma and degrees. But several concerns about the value of e-learning are being widely debated. The classrooms of students listening to live lectures by professors are giving way to courses taught on the Internet, via e-mail and on CD-ROMs. Stanford offers virtual master's-degree engineering courses. Oxford offers an online course on computers and historical research using electronic databases. Harvard also offers a Web-based computer course. At Duke, business students can earn a global executive MBA, which combines online learning with live class sessions. In Pennsylvania, Penn State University has launched an online program called the World Campus. Universities of Colorado, Kentucky and New York all have various online education and virtual-university projects under way. More than 50 colleges and universities from 16 Southern states launched the Southern Regional Electronic Campus with more than 100 online courses. Most of these publicly supported virtual universities say that their purpose is to help students overcome geographical barriers to an education. They also stress that the courses and degrees are aimed at the career learners, who are over the age of 22, don't want to live in a campus dorm and typically work during the day. Virtual universities are also seen as a new form of cost-effective education.
It's clear that governments are looking at distance education as an alternative to the high cost of traditional education for college-bound students. Faced with thinning budgets and demographic projections that show a bulge of students about to enter the post-secondary education system, state colleges and universities are scrambling to make room and find professors. To fund online-education programs, some governments have been turning to the private sector for help. Michigan Virtual University is looking to "strategic partners," such as the automotive industry, to help fund its program. In 1998 Microsoft, Hughes Aircraft, Fujitsu and MCI announced plans to spend $300 million on a fiber-optic network that would connect California State's 22 campuses in exchange for the right to sell a projected $3.8 billion in high-tech products over the next decade to students and universities. The original plan was shelved after students and faculty heavily opposed the deal. It is presumed that the corporate sponsors are not donating funds for virtual universities out of purely altruistic reasons. Many of the firms see online education as a way to train their own workers and as a pipeline for new recruits. By providing funds, they hope that through online education they can maintain the kind of training today’s workers requires and also to retain the best and brightest. Some companies, such as Microsoft and AT&T, are creating their own corporate universities and then teaming up with established colleges to teach courses online to their workers.

At the less familiar level the Jones International and Western Governors' universities (WGU), students can earn online associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees. But these two institutions differ from the better-known universities in a major way. Neither owns a building or has a library, and the number of full-time faculty can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Advocates of online education point out that students are no longer limited by geography in order to further their education. Colleges and universities can add courses to meet demand without the expense of brick and mortar. But not everyone agrees on who benefits the most from virtual universities, nor is everyone happy with the changes that are occurring.

For instance, most established institutions, such as Oxford and Harvard, have shied away from offering undergraduate degrees online, citing the campus experience, with its rich social milieu, as the best way to educate students fresh out of high school.
More troubling, according to critics, is the lack of accreditation standards for virtual universities and unclear guidelines pertaining to the intellectual property rights for courses developed by professors and then mass marketed to students on the Internet. Without more rigorous standards and rules, some professors fear our colleges and universities will become an automated education system that churns out digital diplomas at the expense of real education, while scholarly teaching becomes a software commodity that can be commercialized for profit.
States, with their massive investments in public colleges, have been some of the most ardent supporters of virtual universities as a way of broadening access to higher education without the traditional costs. But setbacks, both political and programmatic, have taken some of the luster off of virtual learning. Not surprisingly, many professors are worried about the headlong rush into online education. They fault many of the merits of virtual universities, starting with the basic premise of learning online. They call it a sorry substitute for education, pointing out that nothing can match the quality of the classroom experience. As the number of students taught online by single professor increases, the quality drops further.
Studies show that some students in online courses feel more isolated than typical students and are more likely to drop out. Advocates of online education counter that classroom teaching can be boring for many college students. Just think of all those students dozing off in the back of the class, they say. Besides, online education appeals to self-motivated students, who don't mind taking classes from their home and studying after work or once their children are in bed.
But college courses shouldn't be reserved for certain classes of students, according to Mark Smith, associate director of government relations for the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). "Society has a responsibility to provide education to all students. It's one thing to deliver courses to students who are committed and another to deliver to freshmen right out of high school." Professors have also questioned the cost-effectiveness of online teaching. AAUP has reported that courses taught on the Internet actually require more class time, not less, resulting in the need for more instructors. And critics do not agree that lower tuition costs will result from e-learning. Stanford's online engineering courses cost 140 percent of the school's normal tuition, while Duke charges $85,500 for its quasi-online MBA program.
Adding fuel to the fire on the issues of cost, choice and online education is a report from The College Board, the organization that develops and delivers the nation's Scholastic Aptitude Tests. The report entitled "The Virtual University & Educational Opportunity - Issues of Equity and Access for the Next Generation," concludes that information technology may deepen the divide between educational haves and have-nots. "Virtual universities will help only those who have the necessary equipment and experience to be comfortable with technologies," cautions the report. "Students who come from low-income and minority backgrounds are less likely to have been exposed to computers at home or school. A virtual university may widen opportunities for some, but not for those at the low end of the socio-economic scale."
However, WGU's Edwards said that virtual universities aren't so much about saving money, but about saving time. "With competency-based learning, a student who is highly competent only has to take the classes he or she needs, which reduces the time spent on getting their degree." In the long run, that will also reduce the overall cost of education for the student, he added. Currently, tuition costs at WGU are the same as the states' brick and mortar institutions.

Lower Standards
Professors have opposed virtual universities in a number of ways. At the University of Washington, 900 faculty, students and administrators signed a letter to the Governor protesting the state's ambitious plans for a virtual university. At UCLA in California, only 30 percent of the faculty followed a requirement that they post on the Internet a syllabus for every course they teach. Last March, Jones International University became the first virtual college to receive accreditation from one of the nation's six major regional accrediting associations. That move encountered strong opposition in the form of a letter from Dr. James Perley, chairman for the Committee on Accrediting of Colleges and Universities at AAUP, to the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, which accredited Jones International. In addition to noting that Jones International had only two full-time faculty and no library, the letter denounced the fact that more than 90 percent of the students were simply taking a few courses or seeking certificates, not degrees. Perley pointed out that Jones International failed to meet several other primary criteria for an accredited institution, including proof of academic freedom (most courses are prepackaged, taught by "content experts" and not the professors who developed the course material themselves). Perley claims that online education does not give faculty the primary responsibility for such fundamental areas as curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction.

Another troubling aspect of online education to professors is the issue of intellectual-property rights. With software as the tool and the Internet as the medium, some professors anticipate that in the not-too-distant future their knowledge may become a commodity that can be downloaded by hundreds or thousands of students and some publishing firms commercializing the courses for profit.
One of the most vocal detractors of online education and virtual universities is York University (Ontario) Professor David Noble. Writing about the automation of higher education in a series of articles entitled, "Digital Diploma Mills," Noble blasted university administrators for the "commoditization of the research function of the university, transforming scientific and engineering knowledge into commercially viable, proprietary products that could be owned and bought and sold in the market ... Once faculty and courses go online, administrators gain much greater direct control over faculty performance and course content than ever before."
Not all faculty are as anti-technology as Noble; in fact, AAUP points out that it is not opposed to technology-delivered instruction per se, but with the quality of instruction provided by virtual institutions. AAUP is also very concerned that policy-makers and administrators are shortchanging higher education as a whole in order to finance online education initiatives. "We don't think the issue is about less cost," said AAUP's Smith, "but cost shifting. You cut professors to increase IT spending."

Some virtual universities run into some difficulties as they attempt to grow due to lower-than-anticipated enrollment figures. In fact, high costs seem to be having a significant impact on performance of virtual universities on account of financing to develop curriculum, hire academic advisers and construct local centers where students could access their online classes or take tests. Meanwhile, new developments, including training-simulation CD-ROMs that replicate real-world conditions for students, are proving to be far better teaching tools than any classroom or textbook. Finally, the fact that schools, such as Oxford, Harvard, Duke and Stanford, are entering the field of online education adds brand-name legitimacy to the movement.

National Guidelines

With the availability of enormous variety of web based courses increasing around the world there is an urgent need to establish national guidelines for the recognition of such courses for the purpose of promoting high quality programmes on the one hand and preventing exploitation of gullible learners from the spurious offers. The guidelines would include the nature of courses that could be offered in the electronic form without loss of knowledge content. Such of those courses, which require hands on practical or laboratory experiences, may be excluded. The guidelines may spell out the nature of study centres with facilities for seamless and interactive learning. The academic auditing and accreditation norms may be included.
Conclusion
The dangers associated with spurious courses are real and require well defined norms, standards and guidelines. The growth and success of e-learning is closely linked to the design of quality learning, enabled through the use of technology. Instructional designers play the pivotal role of bringing together these disparate fields - for the benefit of students, instructors, and organizations. Many of the concerns of online learning drop out rates, learner resistance, and poor learner performance can be addressed through a structured design process. The resulting benefits - reduced design costs, consistent look and feel, transparency, quality control, and standardization - make organizational investment in Instructional Design a simple decision.
The process of e-learning is under rapid evolution. There are severe constraints in taking full advantage of the opportunities available mainly due to the absence of approaches to their validation and recognition. Considering the current constraints and limitations and the reservations voiced on the value of e-learning, the prospects of it becoming a viable alternative to regular class-room learning is somewhere in the future. In the meantime it offers substantial scope for supplementing the knowledge and skill acquired through conventional systems.
micro presentation :: Keep watching: 30. E- learning : a substitute for classroom learning?

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