The fortunes of online learning have fluctuated over the past ten years. Touted in the 1990s as the learning vehicle of the future, it was seen as the key to overcoming the limitations of traditional classroom-based learning. Proponents argued that "virtual classrooms" would ultimately replace the school classroom and university lecture hall but, in the years following the millennium, enthusiasm for online learning waned. The problem was that the reality rarely lived up to the promise - many early online learning programmes were badly designed and delivered, suffered from technical faults and often not did not meet the needs of students.
Today, however, online learning is experiencing a revival. Some observers are calling this the "second wave" of online learning, in which the mistakes of the past have been analysed and eradicated from new, more user-friendly programmes. At the same time, new technologies are being developed, with everything from weblogs to mobile phones being brought into the learning process. As a result, an increasing number of learning
programmes at universities, business schools and companies are shifting their focus away from the classroom. In an article in THE Journal, a magazine that covers the application of technology in education, Kim Jones, vice-president of education at Sun Microsystems, suggests that the "digital campus" is now truly on its way. "Thanks to some innovative technology trends, the educational landscape is transforming," she explains. The key is not so much the technologies themselves, as the way in which they are being drawn together into a unified network, thus creating "a seamless, secure, collaborative environment for learning, achievement and administration that is available to everyone".
Not everyone is convinced, however. In an article in the Electronic Journal of E-Learning from late 2004, a team led by Djamshid Tavangarian and Markus Leypold of the University of Rostock in Germany reported on a survey of online learning programmes at various levels, and were strongly critical of what they found. "Current e-learning systems on the market are limited to technical gadgets and organisational aspects of teaching," they commented. "As a result, the learner has become de-individualised and demoted to a non-critical homogeneous user." They criticised online learning programmes for being insufficiently flexible, particularly when it comes to allowing users to configure the programmes and add their own content, and berated designers for being too wrapped up in technology and failing to provide adequate support for learners. "Our demand to designers of e-learning systems can only be to drop their preoccupation with technical gimmicks and instead try to achieve a true understanding of the learning process," they concluded.
Preoccupation with technology is one of the criticisms levelled at online learning programmes, but there are others. Early online learning programmes were often surprisingly inflexible, and encouraged a linear approach to learning through techniques such as reading a succession of case studies and providing written answers online, precisely at a time when classroom learning was moving away from this model towards more interactive and participative learning. Surveys of students showed high levels of dissatisfaction with some programmes, particularly over the lack of learning support and feedback from instructors.
To counter these criticisms, supporters of online learning point out that failures were always going to happen in the early, pioneering phase of the 1990s. Craig Taylor, vice-president of the US human resources consultancy Talentkeepers, argues that today's online learning programme designers have themselves learned from earlier mistakes, and are rapidly moving to a consensus on best practice. "More and more people are adopting the good ideas and building on them," he says. "Norms are emerging. Winning ideas from instructional design methods to profitable business models are beginning to achieve broad support."
The first wave of online learning saw everyone scrambling to do something different, but today, says Mr Taylor, the trend is towards standards and replicability. He sees the introduction of standards in the future as being particularly important, for these are essential if quality is to be improved across the spectrum. Although refinements continue to be required in terms of content, service and technology, Mr Taylor is confident that the online learning industry is moving in the right direction.
Further, the technologies that Professor Tavangarian and his colleagues dismiss as gimmicks are in fact being deployed to address one of their team's key criticisms - the inflexible nature of some online learning programmes. Wikis, weblogs, podcasting, online games and simulations, and mobile and wireless technology are all being deployed, albeit sometimes still on an experimental basis, to encourage greater interactivity and participation.
Online simulations, where users can shape the learning environment with their actions, are proving particularly successful. Here, notable advances can be seen over earlier classroom-based simulations.
For example, in the classroom-based version of Markstrat, a marketing and strategy game, learners were provided with environmental and other information, took decisions, recorded these and passed them to the instructor, who then fed data into the simulation and informed learners of the results their decisions had produced. These classroom games always entailed pauses, while the instructor mediated in the game and determined outcomes of actions. Online games and simulations, however, function in real time, allowing for a more authentic and realistic learning experience.
Not all participative technologies need to be so complex, however. The University of Exeter's online MA programme in leadership asks learners to keep a weekly diary or logbook of their thoughts and ideas about each module as they work through its various stages. These logbooks then become an important source of user-generated knowledge. Assessment is based on the quality of ideas, rather than on conformity to a set of "right" or "wrong" answers. Similar programmes at other institutions invite learners to share their ideas with each other, thus enabling peer-to-peer (p2p) learning, a feature which, according to post-programme satisfaction surveys, students themselves tend to value highly.
The critical yardstick by which any online learning programme must be measured is fitness for purpose. The content and technology used must be suited to the needs of the learners, and support and feedback must be available at times and via channels that suit them.
There are considerable benefits to students of being able to do library research, communicate with instructors or look up notes for lectures at any time or from any location but, in order to do this, they need accessibility, ideally on a 24-hour basis. This in turn requires educational providers to rethink their relationship with students. Instead of students coming to them and resources being provided in a single spot, the provider now has to reach out to students, forecasting their needs and making sure materials and support are available when required.
As a result of this change in outlook, the distinction between online learning and classroom learning may itself be beginning to break down. Increasingly, observers of the education industry are noting trends such as mentored learning, where the learner sets the pace and is mentored or coached by the instructor.
Another phenomenon that is attracting interest is blended learning, where a combination of classroom teaching and online learning is used. Here, online learning does not so much replace classroom teaching as complement it. "There is not one model of teaching that fits all purposes," says Ingeborg B¿, president of the European Distance and E-Learning Network. "It all depends on different factors that have to be assessed before choosing the methods of teaching. You have to define and describe your target group, the learning conditions, the subjects and the organisational aspects. As a rule, most students like a combination of face-to-face and e-learning." Online learning has the advantages of independence and allowing students to proceed at their own pace, while face-to-face encounters bring social advantages and improve oral communication skills. The exact balance, though, must depend on the topic, the learner and the environment.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the second wave of online learning is that it is challenging the whole educational sector to keep pace. New technologies and the styles of learning that they have enabled are causing educationalists everywhere to rethink their approaches. Those institutions that stick rigidly to classroom-based models without considering an online element to their courses risk being left behind. And while those that stake their whole future on online learning and turn their back on the classroom entirely are undoubtedly taking risks, institutions that consider a blend of both approaches, and focus on the needs of the student rather than the needs of the instructor or the institution itself, will win.
Online learning is not easy to manage, and requires attention to detail in both design and execution. But the hard lessons of the past have been learnt, and a new approach to online learning is emerging that is both more practical and more deeply rooted in the core principles of education. Classroom teaching may never be entirely supplanted; but there is no doubt that online learning is here to stay.
