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eLearning in Action by Donald Clark
Article by R. Hamilton, C. Richards & C. Sharp for Authors

This report intends to examine two emerging technologies, E-Learning, and within that the expansion of the E-Book phenomenon. Through the study of various resources, for example academic journals combined with web information, it is hoped to identify current difficulties faced by those at the forefront of the Information Era. In addition, examine the growth industry and future trends of such technologies. The report makes no distinction between educational and corporate uses of E-Learning methods, but rather seeks to encompass both under the same umbrella. From this conclusions will be drawn.

Cisco Systems (2001) states that, "E-Learning provides faster learning at reduced costs, increased access to learning, and clear accountability for all participants in the learning process. In today's fast-paced culture, organisations that implement E-Learning provide their work force with the ability to turn change into an advantage."

Quite simply, E-Learning is using the power of the Internet to enable learning, anytime, anywhere. It's key purpose is to dramatically reduce the time in which people learn by providing up to date specialised information. This allows employee's to remain competent in their jobs without having to undertake expensive and time consuming courses. In fact according to Greg Priest from SmartForce - The E-Learning Company, E-Learning is 'dynamic', 'collaborative', 'individual', and 'comprehensive'. The E-Learning environment generally consists of the following elements.

E-Learning can take many forms for example, conferences and newsgroups held over the internet to the production of E-Books and other electronic learning devices. Furthermore online tutorials can be hosted over the web.

Recent technological improvements has made E-Learning a distinct reality with the use of increased internet access, desktop computers, and increased bandwidth. Currently there are two main delivery technologies which are used for E-Learning, and which provide the backbone for the educational programs. These are scheduled delivery platforms and on-demand delivery platforms.

Scheduled delivery platforms are restricted by time and place requirements. This category includes facilities such as multicasts, which are videos broadcast over a network, remote laboratories, again accessible through a network, and virtual classrooms, where live web based events are hosted. These E-Learning methods are based on the simulation approach. The classroom on the internet becomes a simulation of a real classroom, with interaction between tutors and students. This serves to make the user feel part of a community, all be it an online one as opposed to a real life situation. This is likely to increase the students' motivation for the course and offers help when the student has difficulties.

On-Demand delivery platforms enhance these features by providing content for the student twenty-four hours, seven days a week, making this form of delivery more flexible than the former, as it is available to the individual whenever they have a particular need. It includes web based training sessions, content on demand and interactive CD Roms, such as those which accompany specific training courses. Like scheduled delivery, on-demand platforms also offer access to remote laboratories.

"Electronic learning solutions can offer more collaboration and interaction with experts and peers as well as a higher success rate than alternatives." Hambrecht (2000)

Former US Dept. of state Robert Reich stated, "Classroom training is a 19th century artefact - if not an artefact of the medieval times." Furthermore he suggests that "it tends not to be tailored to the needs of a particular individual, whereas with E-Learning you can proceed at your own pace and carry out training when it is required and furthermore when it is convenient."

Hambrecht et al (2000) also detailed a study that compared online learning to the traditional classroom method. They concluded that online students not only had more peer contact with others in the class, but they enjoyed it more, spent more time on class work, and understood the material better. They also performed on average 20% better than students who were taught in the traditional classroom.

Internet Time Group (2001) documents another study carried out by Stanford University, USA. The study found that Hewlett Packard engineers who undertook Distance Learning Modules outperformed engineering students who undertook the same modules on campus. The findings from the study concluded that rather than the lecturer pouring content into the students heads, the Hewlett Packard engineers were encouraged to discuss subject matter and form their own interpretations. Glasser (2001) provides the following statistics, illustrating how humans learn and acquire skills. It can be demonstrated how this would contribute towards the effectiveness of E-Learning.

Additionally, benefits of online learning compared to traditional classroom methods can also be demonstrated below:

Further studies by Smith et al. (2000/1) focused on the effectiveness of flexible learning online compared to traditional learning. Data was collected regarding students' backgrounds, expectations and attitudes to learning. Students were taught using both traditional methods and online methods, and the study involved both part time and full time students. The full time students were allowed to choose their preferred learning base.

It was found that the flexibility of the individual students had a direct influence on whether or nor they opted for the flexible learning methods. In addition there were no significant differences on the effect on the performance of the individuals. These results matched findings found by Dewhurst et al (1999). The overall results indicated that online flexible delivery was as effective as classroom based methods.

A further study by Leurillard et al (1994) asked the question 'what affordances of multimedia for learning are.' Affordances is used to describe characteristics of the learning process. It is derived from psychology and Gibson (1979) states, "What we perceive when we look at objects are their affordances not their qualities"

They suggest that when creating an educational experience using interactive learning methods, care must be taken to maintain a story line. Furthermore tutors must be clear what kinds of learning activities are needed to understand a topic before attempting to create the affordances for that subject. In more general terms, the student needs their overall goals consistently defined and to be reminded of the motivation for learning.

Some academics predict that part of E-Learning's expected increase in the future can be attributed to the strongly held beliefs of some that 'knowledge will be the strategic weapon of the future.' Dillich (2000). She predicted that with increased improvements in E-Learning Systems even basic packages will be installed by the majority of commercial companies within the western world. Additionally it will grow and expand to include training and management solutions. This has already started to become a reality with many companies at the forefront of today's business world, recognising the cost effectiveness and convenience of such technology. Another future trend she envisaged is that chatrooms and collaborative applications will be designed to allow the learner to be 'proactive' as opposed to 'reactive'.

Leading experts appear to be in disagreement on predicting how big the E-Learning market will become. However the International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts by the year 2003 corporate E-Learning will attain a three-fold increase from 1999. Moreover leading expert Merrill Lynch (2001) suggests it is $4 billion in 1999, which will continue to grow at 40% annually. Figures by another expert Piper Jaffray (1999) claim "$46 billion by 2005 with a 50% to 85% gross margin". Despite these discrepencies what is clear however, is that they all believe that Education is in need of an overhaul and will become the next big application for the Internet.

Nevertheless even with these massive growth predictions E-Learning is still an emerging technology. In the US it accounts for less than one fifth of corporate training, of which eighty percent is for IT.

No matter how effective E-Learning can be it still relies on one thing, motivation. Without motivation, the learning process is likely to break down. Human contact and encouragement is one of the main driving forces in motivation. In fact, many CD-Rom training packages have failed because they removed the instructors from the learning equation. The environment in which we learn is another important factor to the success of E-Learning. Most employees' working environments are less than optimal for working not to mention learning. There are many distractions within the office and just as many if not more at home.

An additional problem forecast for E-Learning is that of cultural barriers. It could prove difficult to get people to accept change. Whilst E-Learning is still developing more studies should be conducted in finding out how many people within the educational and corporate sectors are willing to accept E-Learning as a standard. Coupled with this many people still prefer traditional methods of teaching, as we are still far more willing to interact with another human than with a machine. Whilst user evaluations have shown that the younger user is more likely to be comfortable learning over the web than someone from the previous generation. These needs of the older user must be taken into consideration when employing E-Learning within larger companies. The technology should be embraced but not to the detriment of those unfamiliar with using computers on a day to day basis.

Futhermore, many people are turning away from new technologies due to the downturn in e-commerce in recent months. Whether this current trend will continue is hard to predict, but at the moment individuals may be unwilling to invest either time or money in a venture which may not last to completion.

In the year 2000 learning became more of an issue associated with managerial practices than education for the younger generation. Increasingly those with power in large corporations are practising E-Learning methodologies in order to bring effective learning into the workplace. This attitude on the part of companies appears to be further increasing as time goes on.

"An E-Business does whatever necessary to improve the performance of its value chain. Last year E-Learning was primarily for employees. Next year we'll see a lot more E-Learning for customers, VARs and suppliers." InternetTime Group (2001).

However by the year 2002 it is forecast that the E-Learning phenomena will spread throughout academia, with the introduction of distance learning on many university courses, accompanied by online help and tutorials. An example of this on-line learning can be found at http://www.dcs.napier.ac.uk/~mm/socflex

Whatever the future of E-learning it is clear that it can only be developed further and with this development we will surely require further on going studies to be conducted on the continuing benefits of this emerging phenomenon.

In conclusion, Paloff and Pratt (2000), state that the key to successful online learning is, " The Key to the learning process are the interactions among students themselves, the interactions between faculty and students, and the collaboration in learning that results from these interactions. In other words the formation of a learning community through which knowledge is imparted and meaning is co-created sets the stage for successful learning outcomes."

Another emerging technology that is currently attracting a lot of interest is E-Books.

"E-Books are the most important development in publishing since the invention of the Gutenburg printing press" E-Book Press Room (2001)

Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st electronic book reading devices have been making appearances in Sci-fi movies and TV series. In a nutshell the E-Book is a lightweight electronic device for reading books, magazines and newspapers. It is approximately the size of a paperback book, weighing no more than 22 ounces, and has the capability to hold some 4,000 pages of words and images. In fact Gemstar, the company behind the next generation of E-Books, has agreements with every major publisher. Thus guaranteeing the E-Book user with the widest selection of the latest books and periodicals. In other words, the E-Book not only offers customers a new, more efficient and flexible way to enjoy the written word but also provides publishers with a new and cheaper medium to express their creativity.

October 1998 saw the first dedicated electronic devices for acquiring books and periodicals through the Internet. Such devices were primarily aimed at business readers who consume massive quantities of written material. From that point onwards the pioneers of the E-Book business, NuvoMedia Inc. and SoftBook Press Inc., lead the way with their respective Rocket E-Book and SoftBook platforms. This, however, was short lived and with the arrival of Gemstar-TV Guide International came the acquisition of these two leading companies. March of that year also saw the licensing of Gemstar's E-Book technology to the North American electronics manufacturer, Thomson Multimedia. The move resulted in the E-Book being readily available in America's more traditional electrical retail stores and thus reaching a larger market.

"Scientific studies and common sense confirms that people simply do not read long form content, or 'immersive' reading materials like a novel, on a PC screen. The reasons for this are not the display quality or font fidelity, but ergonomics; pleasure reading requires the ability to get into a comfortable position in bed or on a couch, away from the distractions of e-mail or other work that is present on a PC." E-Book Press Room(2001).

Quite simply, practicality is the main selling point of an E-Book. Unlike other computer platforms, the E-Book is no larger than a traditional paperback book. Nevertheless, it offers powerful electronic features such as note taking, key word searches, quick navigation, and a backlight for poorly lit rooms. This undoubtedly provides the user with not only a convenient system but also a much more pleasant reading experience. In fact, the E-Books built-in modem typifies this by allowing the user to downloaded and read latest editions before they are even available in print. Another important feature of the E-Book is security. Publishers have the opportunity to encrypt their work and thus making it much harder to hack than those available to PC's and other open platforms. "There's a bright future for E-Books when on-screen reading gets easier", Microsoft Reader (2001).

Microsoft are strong believers that on-screen readability is the only thing holding the E-Book concept back. In 1995, researchers at Microsoft began developing the software-based font rendering technology known as ClearType. This technology enhances the display resolution by roughly 300 percent and thus, improves letter shape and character spacing. The result is a more clearly defined image that closely resembles printed fonts. From this point on, Microsoft concentrated on combining its ClearType technology with the best qualities of paper based reading.

January 2000 saw the next stage of development with the announcement from Audible Inc. and Microsoft Corporation that Microsoft would integrate Audible's playback capabilities into the Microsoft Reader product.

"Our work with Audible will bring a new dimension to the rich reading experiences possible with E-Books. With Audible Ready TM Microsoft Reader, people will have the option to listen to books as easily as they can read them. "Dick Brass (2000)

Essentially this collaboration not only provides the user with a single application that can be used to hear and read titles but also give them access to thousands of hours of content from the audible.com store. As the Internet's largest and diverse provider of downloaded spoken audio, the audible.com site not only holds content from a variety of broadsheet newspapers but also numerous best-selling authors.

Kevorian (2001) from IDC states that "Content is going to be key in driving the whole dedicated E-Book device market in general"

There are many in the industry that believe E-Books failure to take off has more to do with available content than any other factor. Until now many publishing giants have concentrated on providing fiction and non-fiction titles. However, in March 2001, Harcourt College Publishers announced it had inked a deal with E-Book company GoReader to provide electronic college textbooks. Although the partnership is one of many attempts to interest consumers in E-Books, those who are involved feel the key is that they are targeting what has been until now an under served market. The GoReader eBook can hold up to 350 textbooks and offers features such as multicolour highlighting, note taking, and book marking. Another issue that could contribute towards the failure of this technology is the cost. Although each title would be 25% cheaper than the price of a physical textbook, the expected retail price of the GoReader is between $400 to $500 (£278 to £347). Nevertheless despite the expense the convenience of an E-Book could prove invaluable to some sectors of society. Katzmann (2001) suggests an example of this.

"We found in higher education that students do not enjoy long lines at the bookstore. They don't enjoy how heavy these books are and carrying around these massive backpacks, so we look at the solution as being an E-Book. Students can put every book they need for a four-year degree into the one device".

As can be seen Interactive Learning is a prominent emerging technology within the field of education. It provides the opportunity for students with family commitments, or jobs to learn from home whenever it is most convenient for them. This will enable many more individuals to enrol on university courses, either full or part time, whilst still retaining the tutorial support offered within a traditional university environment. This method can also encompass other new learning techniques, for example, multimedia which has been proven to be equally, if not more effective for teaching than contemporary methods in the facilitation of learning. Likewise E-Books give the individual an alternative way of studying, through more readily available information. In the future it may become possible for people to publish their own books, linking the technology with the user interactivities currently available through the Web.

Whilst at present both technologies are used primarily within the workplace for training employees, statistics show that both are likely to be used increasingly within the academic world. Indeed, by the year 2015 E-Learning may have replaced traditional teaching methods, especially with the emergence of the 3G mobile phone, which should blur distinctions between the PC and the phone to such a degree that E-Learning will be possible through this small hand held device.