26-06-2013, 12:32 PM
E-LEARNING: FROM A PEDAGOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
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Abstract
The steady growing innovations in the area of information and
communication technology have raised new concepts and possibilities in
different life aspects. In the field of further education and professional
training, electronic learning and Web-based education are perhaps the most
prominent ones. Proponents of this technology claim that e-learning courses
are at least as effective as corresponding traditional ones, and therefore
sometimes a very good substitute for it. Although there are so many
similarities between traditional and e-learning systems, confronting the
extended range of e-learning users -with very different prior knowledge of
the domain, backgrounds, learning styles, interests and preferences- is no
more possible with the “one-size-fits-all” approach. Hence, creation and
management of instructional content would be the major hazard in e-learning
industry. Contents should be provided considering social, cultural and
pedagogical characteristics of the learners. E-learning covers a wide set of
applications and processes. With such an extended scope, covering number
of available e-learning tools is extensive. Though, in recent years, features
and capabilities of authoring tools have been drastically improved. Concepts
such as “adapting to the needs of learners” and “personalized content” make
authoring tools play a more prominent role in the process of creating
learning contents. In this paper, we propose a new pedagogical perspective
in web-based learning environments. This perspective explores the most
prominent opportunities of the information technology era, in order to ensure
a more meaningful learning.
INTRODUCTION
“E-learning” is probably the most buzz term in current learning era. Numerous
universities and private institutes have launched this kind of learning in their long term
goals and invest mainly enormous capital in it. In early 1990s, e-learning appeared as
computer based learning and was proposed mostly by multi media CDs for learning
applications. Authoring tools have been in existence since the early days of
computer-based learning. By the late of this decade, as internet became a more popular
vehicle for delivering online learning courses, learning contents were networked
presented to learners in propriety formats and in large sizes. These days, a great number
of advertisements on benefits and advantages of online learning solutions, lead college
and university presidents to rush for converting their traditional learning system into the
online ones. Online learning clearly has a growing presence in higher education, and
this bold presence has contributed to the emergence of the new generation of e-learning
authoring tools designed specifically for the purpose of e-learning content development.
However, most of the published research in this area, only discuss benefits and
prominent properties of “e” enabled learning/training and concept of “learning” along
with its personal, behavioral, social and cultural aspects are merely studied [1,4,16].
Following recent trend towards personalization on the World Wide Web, proposing an
educational web-based system with the ability to adapt intelligently to the goals,
E-LEARNING: DEFIMITION AND TERMS
Many universities, institutes and in general learning centers are unsure what e-learning
means. The terms and definitions around e-learning can be confusing. Diverse range of
existing definitions makes it even more difficult to provide a comprehensive definition.
Some definitions are brief such as -“Use of Internet technology for Learning outside of
the classroom”[13]- and some stretch to a more detailed extend. The most comprehensive
and though brief one, which can be provided, is as follows:
“E-Learning describes the way new information and communication technologies
(ICT) are set to reinvent education and learning in browser-based systems in a
digital world”.
This diversity is however fueled by the gradual improvement of technology-based
training. In each step of this improvement.
MOST KNOWN PROS AND CONS OF E-LEARNING
In recent years, e-learning has had a blossoming impact on higher education. Over half
of all postsecondary institutions –90 percent of two-year public institutions, 89 percent
of four-year public institutions and 40 percent of private ones- have offered some types
of e-leaning courses in 2000-2001. Growth rate of online enrollments –from 19.8
percent in 2003 to 24.8 percent in 2004– is climbing up as well [16]. These numbers are
not only up, but also clearly indicate increasing popularity of e-learning among students
and educators. This pervasive welcome, however, has created sharply different views on
web-based learning both among academics and in the corporate world. On the one hand,
proponents point to empirical studies and cite that e-learning is at least as effective as
traditional learning. Enumerating its advantages, they conclude that e-learning is a
proper substitute for traditional learning. On the other hand, opponents point to lack of
direct contact between instructors and learners and its adverse effect on students’
performance. Identifying the learner, detecting and preventing cheating in computer
submitted assignments or exams are also limitations of e-learning systems, which are
repeatedly remarked by this group. They deduce that today’s e-learning technologies,
LIMITATIONS AND DEFICIENCIES
About 75 percent of online learning contents include Information Technology and
software application topics [17]. According to speedy growth of knowledge and
technology, such course materials are subject to rapid obsolescence. The need of cost
and time to update them is inevitably one of the disadvantages of e-learning systems.
As mentioned earlier, current authentication technologies do not allow practical
detection and effective prevention of cheating in final evaluations over the web or
computer-submitted assignments. Furthermore, Internet is the best place to be
anonymous and uncommitted [7], which makes it even more difficult to authenticate
students taking part in final exams and web-based courses. This limitation has obvious
adverse effects on the credibility of educational programs relying exclusively on online
technologies.