E-learning: the challenges

Like so many over-hyped technology innovations, online learning has struggled to live up to vendor promises.

Suppliers would have you believe that the software can help your organisation to deliver vital knowledge in a timely fashion.

They claim staff can learn from their desk at a pace that suits them, at a cost cheaper than classroom-based learning.

But the reality is somewhat different. Less than half of organisations have a truly successful online learning initiative, according to analyst Gartner.

However, organisations are still keen to install e-learning systems.

Bayer UK business development consultant Karen Murphy is no exception. She was concerned by conflicting reports on the success of e-learning, so ran a pilot group in association with e-learning specialist Global Knowledge.

"I needed to demonstrate that people had learned online - and had to deliver the results back to the business group," explains Murphy.

Her findings showed that 91 per cent of students would use online learning again. The secret of Bayer's e-learning project, says Murphy, is a recognition of the user element.

While the same is true for all online learning projects, Michael Zastrocky, vice president and research director for education at Gartner, believes there is a clear distinction between e-learning in the corporate sector and academia.

"Online learning in private business focuses on the dissemination of information," says Zastrocky. "E-learning in universities should be more about building bridges to wisdom."

UKeU is a joint venture between the private sector and higher education establishments, and aims to provide an interactive learning environment.

Backed by £62m of UK government funding, UKeU was established to deliver UK degree courses online to students worldwide.

The project was first announced by the then secretary of state for education and employment, David Blunkett, on 15 February 2000.

Speaking at the launch, Blunkett said: "We want to create a new partnership between universities and the private sector, which will develop a novel means of distance learning and exploit the new information and communication technologies.

"It will concentrate resources from a number of partners on a scale which can compete with leading US providers."

Those leading providers include education e-learning specialists WebCT and Blackboard. Both have already developed online learning facilities with a number of UK universities.

A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, published in October 2000 and commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, suggested that UKeU could start operations in 2002 if tight development and implementation deadlines were met.

Sun Microsystems was awarded the contract to develop the online university's technology platform in October 2001.

At the same time, UKeU announced the first three pilot programmes that would receive funding, with the aim of delivering them in September 2002.

The first course on the UKeU platform, the University of Cambridge and the Open University's postgraduate certificate in Learning in the Connected Economy, finally went live on 1 March 2003.

The UKeU has since announced a series of degrees through partner universities, such as the University of Southampton, the University of Ulster and King's College London.

"Opening up e-learning to provide opportunities for students is the most important thing," states Zastrocky.

"It's a question of extending the reach to students who might not be able to take those courses."

UKeU may be up and running, but it has faced, and will continue to face, a number of issues.

PROJECT LAUNCH
From marketing to platform development, launching a project for UKeU can be a challenging business.

The University of Cambridge and Open University's postgraduate certificate in Learning in the Connected Economy was one of the UKeU's original three pilot programmes.

The course began in March, after a long and demanding road from completion to launch.

"The UKeU has had a very difficult start to its life, and being the first ever course to work on the UKeU's platform has been a very interesting experience - and not all pleasant," acknowledges Jake Reynolds, assistant director at the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry.

"This was the first time the UKeU was delivering projects online. So we watched it effectively build its systems and capacities as our project unfolded."

This included marketing, platform development and government guidelines for content development, all of which were limited when Cambridge first started talking to the UKeU.

"It's an important experiment and we wanted to learn," says Reynolds. He is unsure if he would readily participate in another pilot programme, but believes other universities will now benefit from the work that has already been carried out.

"We've learned something. We've seen the experiment fail and succeed - and eventually get back on course," he adds.

Reynolds is keen to work with UKeU on future online courses. And he is hopeful the pilot will help shape future courses for the better.

"The main thing the UKeU had to learn is perhaps, not technology management issues with their platform, but how to liaise with academic institutions."

COSTS
Universities hoping to deliver online courses will have to dig deep into their pockets, because e-learning development is a costly business.

Clive Mulholland, professor of technology enhanced learning at the University of Ulster, says the college has invested "millions and millions" of pounds in online learning. The university has spent about £3m on software and hardware alone.

"We believe it's the type of infrastructure that any modern university will require for their students, whether they're face-to-face or distance learning. We're just trying to position ourselves," says Mulholland.

Ulster is partnering with UKeU across a range of science masters programmes.

So what happens if the UKeU and online learning fails to take off and the University loses more than £3m from its investments in e-learning?

"It's not just a question of getting the money back," explains Mulholland. "It's a question of providing the services a modern-day student wants that's the difficult part."

Dr Jake Reynolds, assistant director at the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, says there is a popular misconception that higher education is just about making money.

"Universities don't really deliver courses to make themselves rich - they do it because they have a mission to educate people," he adds.

But someone has to foot the bill if online learning, and UKeU in particular, fails to obtain satisfactory student support.

"If the course doesn't break even, it's a loss which the various partners involved have to bear. In our case, these are the Open University, UKeU and Cambridge," explains Reynolds.

"If we're very successful over a five-year period, we may even see a surplus. I have my doubts because the market for online learning is a bit untested, and it's not as large as people originally envisaged in the dotcom days."

PEDAGOGY
IT Managers be warned: the preparation of a successful e-learning course is a science.

"Anybody can create materials," admits Dr David Good, programme director of undergraduate education for the Cambridge-MIT Institute.

"It's how you turn those materials into a successful pedagogy that's the real challenge."

Pedagogy is the science of teaching. And academics involved in the UKeU are eager to ensure that their knowledge can be effectively taught online.

IT managers who have struggled to push offline knowledge online are probably aware of the pedagogical challenge.

"As you create a new learning environment, using new technologies to support what you were previously doing, you discover that you actually don't know what you were doing before," says Good.

"You have old established practices which have evolved over time, which everyone is familiar with and work well, but are little understood."

As developers get their hands dirty with bits and bytes, IT managers and students often discover that the final IT model doesn't match the reality of teaching.

So how can early UKeU partner universities learn from Good's lesson and build a successful pedagogy?

Anne-Lucie Norton, director of King's College London's e-learning programme and responsible for the college's forthcoming war studies courses on the UKeU, says the key is working with a careful selection of partners.

"We have outsourced subcontractors that have been working with UKeU on one of their pilot programmes, so they are experienced with the platform," she explains.

Norton says there's a huge learning curve for the writers, authors and academics who need to be tutored in how to create content for this new and very different venture.

"It's the first time that a high-level academic and reading-based degree has been offered in this way," she says.

But she remains hopeful, and expects the course to attract worldwide interest.

FURTHER READING

Report slams e-learning hype

www.ukeu.com

mark_samuels@vnu.co.uk