Challenge ?? ??Has the bubble burst on eLearning??? ?? with the failure of many high profile eLearning projects to ??deliver?? on their promises, we need to be looking more critically at what we are seeking to do and to accomplish.
??High speed capabilities meeting low speed needs?
Gems from Glyn Davis??
– eLearning is a marriage of information and technology
– student-centredness is the key to the future of eLearning!
– Need to focus on what eLearning does best ?? reach out (access) and enrich (quality, relevance etc.)
– there are many who got enthusiastic about the eLearning ??Goldrush?? ?? but it has left behind a number of ghost towns
– time now to move beyond this ?? initial enthusiasm is giving way to a more moderate approach grounded in educational theory
– in terms of the production life-cycle (introduction ?? growth ?? maturity ?? decline_ Davis considers eLearning is somewhere between the growth and maturity phase
Some recent ??failures?? in eLearning??
– SUNOIKISIS ?? collaboration of classics teachers ?? launched early 1999, claims that this heralded the beginning of a huge change in education ?? death to lectures etc.
– ??Fathom?? ?? an eLearning company established by Comombia University ?? ended up being shut down in 2003
Alternatives
– MIT with its ??anti-Fathom?? project ?? ??Open Courseware??
– Democratic approach is compelling ?? but the financial model that enabled it to happen is unlikely to be available to universities in Australia ?? so a different model is required
– At Griffith the emphasis is now on meeting student needs ?? one instance, all of the enrolment process is now online, reducing a lot of the frustration and barriers of access to learners
– Griffith research into their eLearning approach revealed students choose to study in two complimentary ways; (a) face to face and (b) accessing materials and forums online (eg a blended provision)
– Griffith has built a number of study centres ?? lots of study around the design of these centres. Compares with the way libraries have been used by students ?? very communal, social/interactive ?? not studying in isolation. Students use the room to meet, chat etc ?? rooms used to ??slow learn?? alongside the ??fast pace?? of the online environment.
