E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and Practice

Rating:
Summary: More responsive tertiary education [perhaps]
Review: Perhaps it is not surprising that the authors of a book on e-learning are Canadian. Canada, like Australia, has had perennial problems with educating a population spread over vast distances. It is natural that Canada would have an intense interest in a means of providing remote higher education.

The authors argue that e-learning is not some mirage of the dot com boom. In this book, they explain that it can be a fundamentally disruptive technology. That if correctly implemented, it can empower a more economic and effective teaching of specialised material, irrespective of the actual subject of the material.

The application of e-learning to higher education is seen as better than for general primary or secondary education. There, the material is much the same across a nation, and traditional teaching methods are adequate. But for tertiary education, across an entire nation, there might be only limited demand for certain subjects, making it inefficient for every university to offer those.

They don't claim that there are exclusive pedagogies to be used in e-learning. Rather, that it lends itself to varied approaches, several of which can be effective.