What is e-Learning?

e-Learning typically involves some form of interactivity, including online interaction between the learner and their teacher or peers. e-Learning opportunities are usually accessed via the Internet and its associated tools and software. However e-Learning is evolving to include an increasing use of a wide and diverse range of other technologies and tools. These include video and audio conferencing, mobile phones, data projectors, digital cameras, global positioning systems and interactive whiteboards.

Why should the tertiary sector use e-Learning?

e-Learning can increase the relevance and efficiency of tertiary education by allowing it to be more flexible in terms of where, when and how learning occurs. It also increases relevance by assisting students and teachers to acquire relevant skills for the 21st century workplace and society.

e-Learning is no longer associated just with distance learning, but is about using relevant technologies as part of a suite of approaches to provide the best and most appropriate ways of supporting learners’ engagement and achievement. e-Learning offers teachers’ new approaches to teaching that overcome barriers of distance and time. This provides expanded opportunities for learning beyond the classroom, and provides for more varied and deeper learning.

e-Learning makes it easier for people to study at work, home or on campus. It helps to improve communication, and significantly improves access to information. A wide variety of tools, content and approaches are offered to accommodate diverse learning styles.

e-Learning offers students opportunities to:

• become confident and skilled at using ICT now and in the future, at home, at work, and in the community
• develop literacies and competencies that are needed in order to contribute to and effectively participate in the 21st century society and workplace
• gain relevant and appropriate qualifications
• experience work-related learning and, for some, enter into specialised study and careers in digital technologies
• provide lifelong learning opportunities by making formal learning available at home as well as in the workplace and community; and
• make informed choices about how, what, where and when to learn.

Learning in the 21st Century, on the Ako Aotearoa website, features video clips of tertiary students talking about their experiences of e-Learning. They also provide a good introduction to the topic for general audiences and can inform educators and organisational leaders and managers about e-Learning from students’ perspectives.