This book explores the realities of e-learning at several different levels: how e-learning is being used in different environments, the technologies of e-learning, design challenges raised by e-learning, learning theory and research affected by e-learning, and the economics of e-learning. With organizations investing thousands, even millions, of dollars in e-learning, this realistic portrait of e-learning provides executives, managers, and senior practitioners with an independent and balanced perspective on which to determine their investments, and researchers, instructors, and students with a broad picture with which to assess e-learning.
With this book, readers can achieve one of two things:
This book has sixteen chapters spread among six parts, each of which looks at e-learning from a different perspective and is written by an expert in that topic. Our contributors represent both academe and industry. After Part I, which sets the context, the following broad areas are explored: The Reality Versus the Hype of e-Learning, Technology Issues, Design Issues, Issues of Theory and Research, Economic Issues and Moving Forward. Brief biographical information on each contributor is included at the end of the book.
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Pfeiffer also recognizes the remarkable power of new technologies in expanding the reach and effectiveness of training. While e-hype has often created whizbang solutions in search of a problem, we are dedicated to bringing convenience and enhancements to proven training solutions. All our e-tools comply with rigorous functionality standards. The most appropriate technology wrapped around essential content yields the perfect solution for today’s on-the-go trainers and human resource professionals.
This book is dedicated to our parents, Bob and Beverly Oringel and Louis Carliner and Jodean Rubin, who instilled in us a love of learning and a desire to use that love to make the world a little better.
From Patti: My parents, both gone now, were writers, teachers, and lifelong learners. Bob Oringel wrote audio engineering textbooks and mentored new audio engineers. Beverly Oringel was a high school history teacher whose students kept in contact with her over many, many years. What they taught me influences my career and life every day.
From Saul: My father, Louis Carliner, had strong values around education, which are among his best-known lessons to me over forty years after his passing. Although she thought she was starting a second career for herself, in the process of doing so, Jodean Rubin introduced me to the field of training and development, which is where I have made my career.
Patti Shank and Saul Carliner
SAUL CARLINER
PATTI SHANK
Copyright © 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The e-learning handbook : past promises, present challenges / Saul Carliner and Patti Shank, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7879-7831-0 (cloth)
1. Computer-assisted instruction. 2. Internet in education. 3. Instructional systems—Design.
I. Carliner, Saul. II. Shank, Patti.
LB1028.5.E165 2008
371.33’44678—dc22
2007049557
Acquiring Editor: Matthew Davis
Director of Development: Kathleen Dolan Davies
Developmental Editor: Susan Rachmeler
Production Editor: Dawn Kilgore
Editor: Rebecca Taff
Manufacturing Supervisor: Becky Morgan
Toward the end of 2004, I came up with what I thought was a bright idea. For an article I was writing about the state of the industry, I surveyed people considered to be “thought leaders” in this industry. I wanted to see whether my experiences as a practitioner were mirrored by others. I sent a request for opinions and attitudes; I asked respondents to share their thoughts about trends affecting the field, frustrations working in the field, and rays of sunshine we could expect to see in future years. Responses arrived rapidly; I especially appreciated their candor. What was especially rewarding was the level of sharing and conversation among people whose work I admire. I synthesized their thoughts and added my own in an article published in the eLearning Developers Journal (Shank, 2004).
In fact, that conversation actually began many years earlier, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I had heard of Saul Carliner and very much enjoyed his writing but hadn’t met him until about seven years ago at an industry conference. After his presentation, I went up to introduce myself. We shared some laughs about the absurdities of the field and Ph.D. study, and promised to keep in touch.
It’s hard to appreciate at the time what influence any conversation will have on the course of your work or life. Saul and I kept in touch and developed a friendship over email, phone conversations, and meetings at industry events. He offered a great deal of heartfelt empathy and good advice while I worked through my Ph.D., a rare and precious gift. And we have since shared views, resources, and strong opinions about everything from stupid practices in the field to the best places to shop (and have even gone shopping together at the Container Store and Target).
Saul included me on emails soliciting input from others whose names I knew but had never met in person. Over time, I got to know some of these people as well by sharing resources and meeting them in person at industry events. One thing led to another and I asked many of them to contribute to the eLearning Developers Journal article. And many of them have written chapters for this book.
For the eLearning Developers Journal article, Saul questioned the “industryness” of this industry, saying that e-learning was being integrated into education and training and should no longer be seen as separate from it. In his view, this indicated its success, not demise, because the use of technology truly needs to be part of the everyday thought processes of people in the business of building learning. I couldn’t agree more. Much silliness (or worse) was done while online learning went from a (lunatic) fringe element to part of the everyday way of thinking about instructional delivery (and unfortunately, much of that silliness still prevails). If we no longer consider use of a technology for learning an either/or proposition, things are moving in the right direction. Instructional technology can, hopefully, be used to augment the whole spectrum of teaching and learning, from putting syllabi and references online to support a classroom-based course to self-contained tutorials on Microsoft Excel. We can have conversations among co-learners (including the instructor) during and in-between “class,” and extend learning beyond the classroom, where it can flourish beyond the content, activities, and assessments common to formal learning environments.
Technology needs to support informal learning as well, as this is how the bulk of learning occurs. The goal with informal learning is not to deliver instructional content but to help build competence and means to live our lives. When we see ourselves as builders of content, we too often kill the natural desire to learn. We need to support learning anywhere and everywhere competence is needed to solve life’s problems, even where there are no plugs and computers.
Sometime during 2002, Saul and I started talking about co-editing a collection of original essays on the business, technological, design, research, and philosophical issues underlying e-learning. We looked for writers who could provide critical assessments of the industry (or non-industry, as it were) for both academic and corporate e-learning professionals. This book started as a result of these conversations.
Continuing conversations molded the book and the ideas of the people who wrote these chapters and, hopefully, these conversations will initiate other conversations that mold where we are going next. Saul and I both feel this is greatly needed and hope these conversations will lead to changes in our field.
Patti Shank
January, 2008
On one hand, online learning is real, it’s happening, and its use is increasing.
On the other hand, online learning isn’t being adopted as widely or as quickly as some of the enthusiastic analysts have predicted. Consider the following:
This edited collection of original essays takes a critical look at economic, technological, instructional design, business, evaluation, research, and philosophical issues underlying e-learning, like those just described. Each chapter is written by an expert in that area and addresses a different issue, such as the struggle to implement standards, the practicalities in implementing learning objects, the business failures of many e-learning start-ups, the high dropout rates in e-learning, and the economic viability of online learning.
This book is intended both for the academic community and for experienced professionals.
This book has sixteen chapters spread among six parts, each of which looks at e-learning from a different perspective. Each chapter is written by an expert in that topic. Our contributors represent both academe and industry. They also represent four continents: Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.
Some of the authors critically analyze a situation, others analyze and advocate for evolutionary change, and still others analyze the situation and advocate for revolutionary change, such as a major facelift to instructional systems design (the bedrock of most design approaches) and an entirely new approach to research on learning, resulting from a need to change the approach to researching e-learning.
Regardless of approach, each chapter offers the following features:
The following sections describe the structure of this book in more detail.
This section has one chapter, Chapter 1, Thinking Critically to Move e-Learning Forward, written by co-editor Patti Shank, which explores where we are and where we’ve been, and why we need to consider these issues before moving forward. Specifically, this chapter introduces the landscape of e-learning today and why it’s in a slump. Next, it explores the boom-and-bust cycle of e-learning (previous booms of hype in the mid-1980s and early 1990s), how technology advances rapidly but the design of learning content moves much more slowly (although, with learning objects and shuttleware, some design changes occurred this time around), and introduces some of the debates in the field. Last, it explores what academics and corporate practitioners can learn from each other.
This part critically explores the e-learning that was proposed by the proponents of e-learning in its infancy in the late 1990s and the early part of the millennium, and the reality that ultimately resulted. As contributor Margaret Driscoll notes, the difference between the initial hype and the current reality of e-learning is not as black and white as many people suppose. Chapters in this part include:
This part explores some of the technical challenges that have affected the growth of e-learning in academic and corporate environments. Chapters in this part include:
This part explores some of the design challenges that have arisen as our collective experience with e-learning has expanded. Chapters in this part include:
This part explores some of the challenges that arise in transferring learning theory, which has primarily been developed for application in the classroom, to the online environment, as well as issues with the research—including a call for a radically different approach to research on e-learning. Chapters in this part include:
This part explores some of the economic issues that have affected the growth of e-learning in academic and corporate environments, as well as predictions for the future of e-learning. Chapters in this part include:
Bernard, R.M., Abrami, P.C., Lou, Y., Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Wozney, L., Wallet, P.A., Fiset, M., & Huang, B. (2004). How does distance education compare to classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 379–439.
Sitzmann, T.M., & Wisher, R. (2005). The effectiveness of web-based training compared to classroom instruction: A meta-analysis. In Proceedings at the ASTD Research-to-Practice Conference-Within-a-Conference. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.
This section has one chapter, Chapter 1, Thinking Critically to Move e-Learning Forward, written by co-editor Patti Shank, which explores where we are, where we’ve been, and why we need to consider these issues before moving forward. Specifically, this chapter introduces the landscape of e-learning today and why there’s still so much controversy about it. Next, it explores the boom and bust cycle of e-learning (previous booms of hype occurred in the mid-1980s and early 1990s), how technology advances rapidly but the design of learning content moves much more slowly, and introduces some of the debates in the field. Last, it explores what academics and corporate practitioners of e-learning can learn from one another.