Hand Model (Picture by Thourn Heng)
E-Learning Boom
As society move from the industrial age to the information age, many aspect of society needs changing. For example, educational institutions are changing to fit the needs of more learners. Traditional education is extending beyond the classroom with e-learning online. With e-learning, many people can learn at anytime, any place, and at any pace using course management systems (CMS).
In 2005, McGee, Carmean, and Jafari expresses concern for the development of the next generation of CMS. They mention that the current system of CMS needs to be studied more along with the current user’s needs. Moreover, they suggest that there needs to be speculations and studies on the future user’s needs. Future users do not only include end-users of the CMS, such as students and instructors. Future users should include everyone and anyone who is involved in the process of creating the next generation of CMS, such as CMS software developers and CMS stakeholders.
Five years later, Nagel (2010) reports that “The Future of E-Learning Is More Growth.” In Nagel’s report, he mentions that “electronic learning, by dollar volume, reached $27.1 billion in 2009 and predicting this figure will nearly double that by 2014, with academic institutions leading the way.” North American purchases accounted for 43 percent of the large expenditures and the purchase was made by PreK-12 and higher education (non-profit and for-profit).
With the increase of e-learning in non-profit and for-profit educational institutions, what does the future hold for traditional education? Will there be a hybrid between traditional and e-learning education in the near future? Or, are we going to all lean towards e-learning because of the flexibilities and pacing for the learning?
McGee, P., Carmean, C., & Jafari, A. (Eds.). (2005). Course management systems for learning: Beyond accidental pedagogy. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.
E-learning is not just learning anytime and any place, if you allow me to change your wording a bit, learning at anytime from any place. Far too often, people fail to see the convenience of learning form any corner in the world, professors, not just in the United States, but the world. That is amazing, you can literally have access to the best minds in any given filed at any given time.
ReplyDeleteIn such a faced paced world, e-learning seems to be a very convenient means of obtaining an education. In my opinion, people would get an education and then go find a job and work. In today’s day and age, it seems that people are gaining experience in the workplace as an intern or other such ways and at the same time completing courses online. In the past, it was more difficult to further your education with limited time. With the flexibility of online learning, anyone can continue in their work field and at the same time further their education.
ReplyDeleteI almost feel it to be unwise for any institution to completely change education to strictly an online environment. It is still a growing concept and research of its success is just recently being discovered. In addition, just like traditional teaching, it must be used in an effective manner in order for the learners to gain the necessary knowledge needed to pursue a career in the field they are studying.
This world is face paced and ever changing, however e-learning will never completely take the place of traditional teaching. CMS have evolved since their first introductions. I believe vendors are starting to take note of what is needed and not just producing a "bigger and better" just for the sake of producing another product. Consumers have to speak up so that these systems can be tailor made and not one size fits all.
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