Introduction chapter I introduction

Development is a continuous process. Each new development of larger social relevance brings new opportunities to the respective field. The field of education has no exception to this. To provide and get education is one of the characteristic that differentiate human beings from other living things, and for better education human beings are continuously improving their teaching-learning tools and techniques. Revolution of the human society had its impact on education. The development of information and communication technology (ICT) have brought psychological, sociological as well as technological changes in the field of education. The present boon of ICT has its own very special impact on education. This impact of ICT is noticeable in formal and informal education, traditional and professional education as well as at all levels of education. The most recent influence of the ICT in the field of education is recognized as e-learning. E-learning has many other nomenclatures such as computer assisted instruction, computer-based training, online education, web-based training, etc. E-learning is therefore quite some time new. It has brought new opportunities to education in all ways including libraries.

E-learning is commonly referred to the international use of networked information and communication technology in teaching and learning. The number of other terms are also used to describe this mode of teaching and learning. These include online learning virtual learning, distributed learning network and web-based learning. Fundamentally, all these referred to educational processes which utilize information and communication technology to mediate asynchronous as well as synchronous learning and teaching activities. On closer scrutiny, however, it will be clear that these labels refer to slightly different educational processes and as such they cannot be used synonymously with the term e-learning. These comprise lot more than online learning virtual learning, distributed learning, networked or web-based learning. As the letter “e” in e-learning stands for the word “electronic”, e-learning would incorporate all educational activities that are carried out by individuals or groups working online or offline and synchronously or asynchronously via network or standalone computer and other electronic devices¹.

Individualized self-paced e-learning online refers to situations where an individual learner is accessing learning resources such as database or course content online via an Intranet or the Internet. A typical example of this is a learner studying alone or conducting some research on the Internet or a local network. Individualized self-paced e-learning offline refers to situations where an individual learner is using learning resources such as a database or a computer assisted learning package offline (i.e. while not connected to an Intranet or the Internet). An example of this is a learner working alone off a hard drive, a CD or DVD.

Group-based e-learning synchronously refers to situations where groups of learners are working together in real time via an Intranet or the Internet. It may include text-based conferencing and one or two-way audio and videoconferencing. Examples of this include learners engaged in a real time chat or an audio-videoconference. Group-based e-learning asynchronously refers to situations where groups of learners are working over an Internet or the Internet where exchange among participants occurs with a time delay (i.e., not in real time)². Typical examples of this kind of activity include online discussions via electronic mailing lists and text-based conferencing within learning management systems.

In the present age of information technology, the learning sector has not remained untouched. With the use of ICT, E-learning has placed into academic system. E-learning has been accepted by corporate sectors as corporate E-learning is faster growing. E-learning is making similar impact in education also. E-mail is popularly accepted by the users similarly E-banking, E-commerce, E-business, E-trading and providing new dimension in technology while E-learning is newly coined terms.

There may be separate e-learning for distance education, which includes text, based material as well as electronic media.

Certain important aspects to be considered are:

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  E-learning is broader than on-line.
  
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  Distance learning is broader than E-learning
  
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  Electronic media represents CD-ROM and DVD (off-line media)
  
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  Non-electronic media represent print media.
  
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  E-learning through electronic media (CD-ROM and DVD)
  
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  Distance learning through electronic and non-electronic media. (CD-ROM + DVD + Print Media)
  

E-learning can be defined as instruction delivered via a computer that is intended to promote learning³. This definition can be broken down into the what, how and why of e-learning:

The higher education sector is in the midst of fundamental change. Never before has there been such intense public debate about the place of the university and its role in society. During the 1980s and 1990 there was significant growth in the number of student studying part–time and through distance learning. There has also been a dramatic growth in no-traditional learners, beyond the typical 18-24 year old mainstay of university demand. The growth in and essential of lifelong learning women returning to the workforce after child rearing a burgeoning retirement age population together have dramatically shifted the demographic reality of tertiary education⁴. It is not surprising then that flexible delivery has become something of mantra for tertiary students while also tapping into new national and global opportunities. This appropriate delivery trend has accentuated since the turn of the century with the emergence of new forms of distance delivery that draw upon advances in the various information and communication technologies (ICTs). Internet based delivery of education and no longer be regarded as a fad or the realm of the nerd. It is a vital tool in the quest of universities to face their new learner demographic⁵.

The renewed commitment to learners and learning and the possibilities that new and emerging ICT’s are creating. Such technology facilitated liberation of tertiary education and the opportunities it presently is exciting and on the way to transforming the learning landscapes. Particularly exciting is the increasingly sophisticated pedagogy these ICT support a pedagogy that is interactive engaging and capable of producing deep learning outcomes for a greatly expanded population of learners locally, nationally and increasingly globally⁶.

The single most dramatic effect of paradigm shift is learner sovereignty. The teacher role at least as defined by the instructivists now belongs to a bygone era. Students have much greater autonomy over their learning, in terms of when, where and how they learn. Interaction with fellow students and faculty are literally (and metaphorically) at their fingertips. An asynchronous discussion boards as the modus operandi, learner interaction is heightened. E-learning is very inclusive and democratic in this sense, in that everyone has an equally loud voice. Meanwhile, course materials are varied in format, media rich and constructivist in instructional design.

The harnessing power of ICTs, assessment tasks can be real world, authentic and engaging. Since content is developed in advance, faculty has more time to devote to individual students permitting shorter turnaround times on feedback. Importantly, as less time is spent in didactic content transmission, there is more time for reflection and critical analysis – important lifelong learning skills. Finally, learning online provides students with an opportunity to be part of a strong learning community⁷. This is the surprise package for some, although maybe not for those benefiting from the very successful online dating industry.

The failure of major universities around the world to suitably address the needs of learners, especially undergraduate learners, has been well documented⁸. In the absence of meaningful competitive pressure, universities have simply not changed significantly in meeting the changing and growing demands of their increasingly diverse learners. Advances and experience in the e-learning space, along with the growing ubiquity of access to greater bandwidth, are highly likely to change this. A growing optimism, tempered by a decade of experience and disappointments, is creating diverse e-learning environments and learning experiences that are likely to shake the foundations of teaching and bring on a new era of and commitment to learners and learning.

The need for e-learning has as many different answers as the number of different perspectives that people have. E-learning is seen as desirable form of perspectives. The specific need relate to, quite significantly determines approach to e-learning. It is, therefore, important to carefully analyze these and choose a position. Outline some of these below:

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  Teacher’s shortage: In many disciplines, shortage of qualified teachers is a problem plaguing most educational institutions. The quality of the available teaches is another major concern. Given the financially attractive opportunities in the industry and poor academic environment that is seen in most of the educational institutions, teaching jot is among the lowest in the preference list for many. While hardly anyone looks at e-learning as an alternative to traditional teaching, in this context. It is seen to expand the reach of the available teachers.
  
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  A3 (any time, any place, any pace) learning⁹: As mentioned earlier, for the need to come together at a fixed place at a fixed time is a major constraint. This is particularly true for those pursuing courses in part time mode, the just-in-time learners, adult learners, etc. the freedom to connect to the course setup at any time of once choice and from any place is a major incentive for e-learning. It also enables learners to take to studying when feels is the best time for them to study and hence provides for adapting the TLP to the learner’s individual characteristics.
  
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  Enhanced learning experience: This is very important, but often ignored and under-explored aspect. When exploited effectively, e-learning enables a high degree of personalization and a wide range of instructional methods. Powerful simulation environments, multimedia capability and high-end visualization support enables a learner to relate to the subject much more deeply and hence understand well.
  
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  Content creation: India, despite her IT prowess, is still a poor contributor of content in the Web. Part of the reason is that very few of our teachers are online. While one ones use online courseware from sources such as MIT Open Course Ware (OCW), one rarely consider contributing work to share with the world. Adopting e-learning enables and encourages one to do this naturally, some once work is already online, perhaps with a limited reach and once are comfortable with this, it is a small step to reach out to the world.
  
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  Enhancing quality of teaching: When one gets into practicing e-learning to any significant degree, one will be creating much of the course material electronically. These are a lot more reusable compared to written notes, used otherwise. These can also be shared with other teachers, can be improved over the years using user feedback and hence results in better quality of material¹⁰.
  
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  More systematic feedback and evaluation: Bringing assessment and other activities under e-learning enables to gather much more detailed feedback on various aspects of the course. These include quality of questions, quality of content, qualitative judgment on students’ performance etc. these can be used to enhance the quality of instruction at an institutional level¹¹.
  
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  Learning Environments: An effective deployment of e-learning would address many concerns including content creation, content delivery, assessment, collaboration and communication between faculty and students and among students etc. in addition, support for online assessment would need mechanisms to keep track of marks per student per assessment and also computing suitable weighted total. A learning management system, LMS, is an integrated application that provides all these and more under one umbrella. With one login, one can see and access all relevant aspects of a course¹². From an administrative perspective, one would need mechanisms to control access to the course allowing valid students and faculty. In general, a person can be a student of some subject and a faculty in another. Thus most LMSs today provide a user login mechanisms supporting role based access control.
  

There is an increasing recognition that successful learning required not just quality instructional content but an appropriate context that includes facilitation and an understanding of the learner. The teacher, who supervises the successful deployment an integration of the content into the teaching and learning environment, facilitates this context. The teacher’s role is to find, adapt and deliver knowledge using a variety of techniques appropriate to knowledge domain and the needs of the learner. In terms of e-learning, this suggests more away from self-paced instruction and fully online implementation models, toward what is being termed a blended learning approach.

E-learning should not be viewed as just a product, an identifiable artifact of learning objectives, content and interactions. E-learning as a product is a uncertain value until it is deployed in a context that includes its users, technical and organizational attributes the artifact itself has a limited shelf-life and needs to be modifiable, or it will succumb to the pressures of new curricula, changing demographics and favored learning styles and be discarded or completely reworked¹³. The implications for the concept of repository of learning object are that the database will need constant renewal.

The fact that learning content is almost certain to be used in very different ways and even modified by teachers underscores the importance of flexibility in its design. New authoring tools that allow teaching practitioners to modify selected materials and sequence these materials are becoming increasingly important. New series of Toolboxes recognize the need for custom disability that is growing along with teachers’ expertise to optimize it.

E-learning is defined as an interactive learning in which the learning content is available on-line and provides automatic feedback to the students learning activities. E-learning covers a wide set of applications and processes, such as, web-based learning, computer based learning, virtual class rooms, and digital collaboration. It includes the delivery of content via Internet, intranet/extranet, satellite broadcast, interactive Television, CD-ROM, DVD, audio and videotape, etc¹⁴. E-learning can be defined as instructional content or learning experiences delivered or enabled by electronic technology. It is a structured, interactive approach to educating and informing the students, employees, etc.

In 1980s, when computers were not in wide use, instructor led training was the primary training method, which allowed the students to interact with their teacher and classmates. It was costly and time bound training of traditional method of learning. As a result of technological advancement, by 1995 WINDOWS, CD-ROMs, power point, DVD came into use. The educational institutions and business organizations tried to make training more transportable and visually engaging via CD-ROMs and DVDs and anytime, anywhere usable training helped to support the traditional teaching methods.

First phase of e-learning 1994 – 1999: the advent of Internet and web browsers, E –mail, HTML, media players led to the development of e-learning with multimedia support. Intranet made easy the transmission of graphics & text, and image information across the world at a low cost and proved to be beneficial for companies and organizations, with a rapid speed of information transfer.

Second Phase 2000 onwards: During this period, with the access of high bandwidth and improved website designs live instructor led education through online in multidimensional environment has emerged, which is more cost effective and enhanced the learning with up to date interactive mode technology.

1.5.1 DELIVERY OF E-LEARNING

E-learning may be considered as a backbone for all educational programs, which can be delivered in two platforms. These are:

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  Scheduled Delivery Platform – Scheduled delivery technology is provided through multicasts, like video broadcast over the network, remote laboratories access, virtual class rooms (live web based classes, access to practical in the labs) etc., can be accessed through a network. Though this method of e-learning creates interaction between the teacher and student, it is restricted by time and place requirements.
  
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  On Demand Delivery Platform – The information is provided round the clock and at any place. It includes web based training classes, information resources and interactive CD-ROM services on demand. E-learning can be accessed by a browsing software on any operating system like, WINDOWS, UNIX, MAC, AMIGA etc., over Internet or Intranet environment, by downloading the free web browser software’s like Netscape, Telnet etc.
  

The development of E-learning has thrown up new problems focused on the copyright and intellectual property rights implications of electronic text. Students, researchers, staff, employees and other end users affiliated with virtual university or digital libraries should be allowed to print-on-paper excerpts of digitally available works on the same conditions according to which they may make photocopies of print material. The library authority has to discuss seriously with publishers on this aspect in order to evolve some mechanism profitable to users, publishers as well as authors. Users may be charged for each access, downloading from servers and/or each kind of digital library collection¹⁵. This would provide a reverse for publishers, authors and libraries.

Security aspect is the most pressing challenge of digital affairs. The Piracies of database, viral invasions, and parallel satellite networking stress are some of the issues for digital libraries are confronted as a way of routine.

Other major challenges are:

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  There is no mechanism available to establish standards for internet materials, instruction, design and quality of interaction.
  
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  Study materials are accessible only by specified students; licensing problems are unlikely to be serious barrier.
  
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  Since course materials are instructionally designed, it hardly provides for individual variations and further revision.
  
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  Dangers of increased learner isolation as students learn from the screen, and not through much interaction with their peers and teachers.
  
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  Crossing national boundaries creates logistical and organizational problems of distance teaching institutions. The facilities available and aptitude level of European students and developing countries are different.
  
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  Operating overseas can also expose one to the all problems of any international business, exchange rate fluctuations, restriction on foreign exchange, and the export of money from the country of operation to pay for services, sources from another jurisdiction, political turmoil, civil unrest and war etc.
  
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  Information providers are more interested in profit than quality services.
  
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  Lack of organization of information on Internet.
  
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  Not all sites are updated regularly.
  
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  Absence of monitoring mechanism to evaluate the course ware.
  
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  Lack of awareness about the use of electronic equipment.
  
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  Lack of human interaction, it is difficult to judge how much a student understood a particular topic. In teacher student face-to-face interaction, the teacher can know the level of understanding of each student and accordingly he can try to explain the problem with suitable examples. At present the interactivity in learning is not very much developed.
  
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  Lack of expertise not to many vendors/experts is available in the country and abroad as well. Overseas vendors charge too much and also reluctant to import techniques/technology.
  
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  Access to Internet in developing countries including India, may not be easy or widespread, in comparison to the developed countries.
  
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  Lack of motivation, in a classroom instruction the teacher and students interact in discussing and understanding the subject spontaneously, which creates motivation among the students towards learning. In e-learning, due to lack of motivation sometimes it may appear dull¹⁶.
  

A growing body of literature, learning and teaching is suggesting that learning is greatly enhanced when it is anchored or situated in meaningful and authentic problem-solving activities. This approach to learning and teaching is founded on the principles of learning by donning and experiencing. It places or confronts learners with authentic situations and scenarios which are motivating and which require learners to carry out tasks or solve problems and reflect upon their actions. While such learning designs are suited for any learning and teaching context of media, their effectiveness and efficiency can be somewhat constrained by the fixed time, space and pace limitations of learning and teaching in conventional campus-based classrooms setting. Similarly, printed by their inability to capture and carry much else other than text, picture and illustrations.

Information and communications technologies, on the other hand, afford wide range of opportunities to compute, store and distribute information and resources of all types and formats¹⁷. Along with text, pictures and illustrations, these include multimedia-based simulations of complex processes from all sorts of domains such as the biological and medical sciences, agriculture, engineering and educational practice which are not easily or cheaply accessible in real time and settings.

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  E-learning can manifest itself in four different ways: I individualize self-paced e-learning online, II individualized self-paced e-learning off-line, III group-based e-learning synchronously and IV Group-based e-learning asynchronously.
  
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  E-learning may also comprise combinations of the foregoing types of activities.
  
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  E-learning is growing in popularity in all areas and levels of education and training.
  
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  The critical attributes of e-learning include flexibility of time, place and pace of study.
  

University of Bristol advisors described 5 steps that lead to e-learning:¹⁹

First step is to identify the need for e-learning and then working out a strategic plan for the software development and e-learning implementation. Things that needs to be answered are:

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  Who will be the prospective users of e-learning?
  
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  What are their knowledge needs?
  
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  What does their IT understand level for the technology that one may use in our e-learning modules? For example, technology understanding of a school kid differs from that of a science scholar.
  

This is the time to reflect upon the pedagogy involved, and to re-evaluate and identify the specific learning objectives of the users' learning. Pedagogy is the art or science of teaching. Pedagogy is also sometimes referred to as the correct use of teaching strategies.

Identify the resources required, both hardware and software. Review the tools available. Calculate the budget for the overall project and the initial capital outlay.

This is the main stage of the whole project which involves designing and development. Obtain training and support. Acquire resources to support e-Learning (digital images, video, sound files etc) and finally, effective users induction/training in how to access and use the e-Learning.

Evaluate the efficacy of the e-learning by staff and users feedback and, if possible, evaluation by a external examiner