What the hell is E-Learning?

Within the university environment, the term ‘e-learning’ is tossed around like week-old jello in a food-fight. Many vendors tout their e-learning solutions, but what exactly is e-learning anyway?

IMHO, e-learning has been a whisper of a promise. It’s something we’ve been promised, like flying cars, but have yet to see in our driveway. It takes the basic learning experience – a student who wants information, interacting with a teacher having that information – and enhances that relationship in the unique ways allowable by the Internet.

It sure as hell isn’t an e-book – you can turn pages in a book yourself, you don’t need a $500 computer for that.

It isn’t an electronic gradebook or classroom management program – while nice and potentially useful, those help the teacher and give the student no real direct benefit.

It isn’t an email program and chat capability – both can help enhance communication, but you can’t really teach with them.

No, e-learning is an enhancement of the classroom experience. It captures the lecture, the examples scrawled on the board, and the illustrations from the text, and expands them as only the Internet can. It adds true interactivity (the kind where you can manipulate the environment or scenario given to learn new things). It offers specific, targeted help when and how that help is needed. It answers to the needs of the student, not of the teacher.

The folks at www.College-Cram.com have the right idea. Their library is chock full of tutorials, formula solvers, and other programs that deliver the promise of e-learning right now.

I hope that means there’ll be a shiny new flying car in my driveway tomorrow morning.