E-learning needs work

NEIL PORTEN studies the options for educational courses over the internet - and decides to stick with his ringbinder for the time being.

Part-time study is a fact of life for many New Zealanders. Other commitments such as work and family mean squeezing in study whenever the time is available - on the bus, after the children are in bed, in the lunch break. For convenience and sheer practicality, correspondence or distance learning is the only way many people, myself included, can do it.

But are the courses taught completely through the internet any good? The problem is where to begin.

The variety of overseas and New Zealand providers of online courses is immense. For this article we decided to focus on how New Zealand compares with other countries in the promotion of online learning, and what you can find out about online learning at our universities and polytechnics by going online.

E-learning grew out of the distance learning programmes offered by open universities and correspondence colleges. Distance education is feeling the effects of globalisation and the power of technology and the web to bring people together. Traditional education providers - universities and polytechnics serving their local catchments of people - are threatened by aggressive institutions elsewhere. Potential students are attracted by internationally recognised courses and well-known "brands" of universities. E-learning is a weapon used by the aggressors and to fight back the traditionalists are taking it up too.

The British Government is backing an e-learning initiative to the tune of £62 million ($213 million) over three years. The public/private partnership e-University will market courses from member universities. Limited courses will be offered from January next year.

In 1997, 18 universities from Europe, the US, Asia and Australasia (including the University of Auckland) set up Universitas 21 to challenge courses offered by corporations and for-profit distance learning providers. Universitas 21 established an Asian-based joint venture last year and will offer business and technology degrees through the internet from January 2003.

In 1999 Australia produced a report called The Way Forward for universities in the information economy. Australia has EDNA to "promote the internet for learning, education and training in Australia", and Open Learning Australia.

In New Zealand, fresh from the Knowledge Wave conference that looked at harnessing technology and Kiwi innovation to improve economic performance, things are not so well advanced.

The Minister for Information Technology's advisory group report on the knowledge economy discusses the importance of information and computer technology in schools, but not its role in delivering tertiary education. A report by the tertiary education review committee Teac makes a brief mention of the delivery of courses over the web.

Except for a couple of notable exceptions (see Education online), our traditional tertiary institutions are not doing much in the e-learning field. Online courses are not generally promoted as distinct from other courses.

Some institutions have gateways to their online courses but bar non-enrolled net visitors from seeing even basic course descriptions. None of this is much use to prospective students curious about what a web-based course is like.

Would I consider an online course? Possibly. There are two key points to consider - the design of the course material and the level of support given to the student. Online courses are not a "cheap" option for universities and polytechnics.

A high level of investment is needed in employing course creators who can use the full array of web design tools (animation, hyperlinks, interactivity) to develop unique online programmes. Shoehorning classroom-based material onto web pages is unacceptable.

As in distance education generally, online students need prompt and understanding feedback and support from their tutors.

Online learning could have its place for courses where multimedia features such as music, movies and animation can really enhance the learning material.

Where discussion is important - say in tutorials or in smaller postgraduate courses - the use of web-conferencing and real-time forums would be valuable. But these advantages and others are dependent on suitable subjects, excellent web design and robust and widespread technology. Few tertiary institutions are pushing fully web-based learning.

In the future, given engaging content and a soothing e-mail from my tutor the day before an assignment is due, I could be sold. For now, I won't be swapping the ringbinder for a laptop.

Links


Universitas 21

EDNA

Open Learning Australia

Advisory group report on the knowledge economy

Teac's report