MODULE 1INTRODUCTION OF E-LEARNING

OBJECTIVES

In this lesson you will learn: Definition of e-learningIs e-Learning Something Completely New?How your company might benefit from e-learning Different e-learning modelsYour employees and e-learning coursesIs your company a good candidate for using e-Learning? E-learning as a business tool Company with a small budget and e-learning Classroom courses versus e-learningHow Many Students are learning online?Web sites and e-learning

OBJECTIVES

Are Learning Outcomes in Online Courses are Comparable to Face-to-Face?Typical barriers E-learning and your management team Leading-edge technology and e-learningClassroom training and e-learning Your employees and e-learning Student motivation E-learning instructors Synchronous learning Self-directed learning Asynchronous learning Blended e-learning courses SummaryReferences

WHAT IS E-LERANING?

+ E-learning (electronic learning) is a term covering a wide set of applications and processes, such as Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms, and digital collaboration. It includes the delivery of content mainly via Internet, but also can be via intranet/extranet (LAN/WAN), audio- and videotape, satellite broadcast, interactive TV, CD-ROM, and more.

WHAT IS E-LEARNING?

+ There many different terms which are used interchangeably: technology-based learning, technology-based training, computer-based training, computer-based learning, computer-based instruction, computer-based education, Web-based training, Internet-based training, Intranet-based training, distance education, distance learning, distance training.

IS E-LEARNING SOMETHING COMPLETELY NEW?

Learning at a distance is not new. Apprenticeships, classroom courses, and

correspondent courses were used until the middle of the 20th century. From 1960s till today, the new technology started to emerge:

+ Video courses+ Audiotape courses+ Computer-based, self-paced training (text-

based and with multimedia)+ E-learning via the Internet.

HOW CAN YOUR COMPANY BENEFIT FROM E-LEARNING?

Employees can learn:+ without traveling to class + at their convenience+ based on their learning styles: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic & Tactile.

Determine your learning style.

E-LEARNING MODELS

Technical Training —you can teach how to use Microsoft Access and Excel, or C++, or how to be a Linux System Administrator. This type of training can include: self-study parts, instructor-led parts, and simulation parts.

Professional Skills Training—you can teach negotiating, running meetings,coaching, and team dynamics skills to students. This type of training can be self-study (for knowledge transfer) and instructor-led (for skills transfer).

E-LEARNING MODELS

New-Job-Role Training —you can teach employees how to perform a new job role. New managers, “new hires” generally require new knowledge and new skills. It can be partly self-study and partly interactive where the students work with an instructor and/or with other students.

“Update” Training – You can update employees who have already been trained on the latest state-of-the-art developments. It can be self-study or instructor-led.

“Tip of the Iceberg” Training – when employee needs to know “a little” about a topic but doesn’t need to become an expert. For example, a technical employee can learn the basics of marketing, a project manager – the basics of database, etc. It can be self-study or instructor-led.

EMPLOYEES AND E-LEARNING

Research shows that e-learning works just as well as classroom learning.

Some employees may find it difficult to learn in e-learning environment.

Some things can be more effective when done in a classroom environment. For example, lab exercises which need access to real hardware.

IS YOUR COMPANY A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR USING E-LEARNING?

You should think about whether your company’s training situations are a good

fit with today’s strengths of e-learning. Click here to read an excerpt from Henderson’s

book. Try answering the same questions for your

fictitious company.

E-LEARNING AS A BUSINESS TOOL

Learning for learning's sake doesn’t happen in businesses. Your company is not the university environment, and e-learning training is mainly aimed to support the goals of your business; e-learning has to make your company more competitive.

E-LEARNING AS A BUSINESSTOOL

For example: + you teach C++ because your employees need

it to improve their work skills+ teaching negotiation skills your employees

improves your company’s customer support+ learning about the new product helps your

employees to sell your company’s product better.

COMPANY WITH A SMALL BUDGET AND E-LEARNING

There are different ways to deliver e-learning inexpensive way. For little cost, you can run short correspondence course using e-mail. You can send the assignments to the students as

e-mails or as attachments. The students can complete each assignment and e-mail it back to the instructor for comments and feedback.

Click here to read an excerpt from Henderson’s book.

CLASSROOM COURSES VS. E-LEARNING

The traditional learning solution involves gathering everyone in a classroom and presenting the material. It might be a simple presentation-style lecture class or a full-blown class with lectures, hands-on exercises, and group projects.

These traditional solutions have drawbacks:+ The time it takes to gather all employees in a

classroom.+ The high cost of reaching all of the employees.

CLASSROOM COURSES VS. E-LEARNING

Earlier technologies for learning at a distance included CD-ROMs, audiotapes, and videotapes. However, in recent years the Internet became most popular

e-learning delivery solution because of accessibility, familiarity, and convenience.

HOW MANY STUDENTS ARE LEARNING ONLINE?

+ For the past seven years online enrollments have been growing substantially faster than overall higher education enrollments.

+ Over 5.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2009 term;

+ Nearly thirty percent of higher education students now take at least one course online.

HOW MANY STUDENTS ARE LEARNING ONLINE?

HOW MANY STUDENTS ARE LEARNING ONLINE?

HOW MANY STUDENTS ARE LEARNING ONLINE?

ARE LEARNING OUTCOMES IN ONLINE COURSES ARE COMPARABLE TO

FACE-TO-FACE?+ 66% of academic leaders rated the

learning outcomes in online education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face.

ARE LEARNING OUTCOMES IN ONLINE COURSES ARE COMPARABLE TO

FACE-TO-FACE?

IS ONLINE LEARNING STRATEGIC?

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THE ECONOMY ON ONLINE EDUCATION?

+ The bad economic times can be good for higher education enrollments

+ The decreased availability of good jobs encourages more people to seek education+ Employed individuals seek to improve their chances for advancement by advancing their education.+ The economic impact on institutional

budgets has been mixed: 47% have seen their

budgets decrease, but 27% have experienced an increase.

WHAT ARE TYPICAL BARRIERS FOR IMPLEMENTING E-LEARNING?

Natural resistance to change — people don’t like change. Some students view traveling to class as a perk or as a vacation from work could be annoyed by online classes.

New instructor skills — instructors need to learn new ways of teaching at a distance.

New technology – new technology creates more problems, requires constant update of software, hardware, and employees skills.

Course availability – sometimes it is difficult to find exact “off the shelf” e-learning courses, and you have to develop your own e-learning solution which requires more time and money.

Budget – in many companies, training budgets are set years in advance, and the funding is allocated for traditional training. As you move to e-learning, you’ll find that there are new costs.

HOW CRITICAL IS LEADING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY TO E-LEARNING?

+ Using leading-edge technology is important but not critical. With a strong instruction design, you can make even an e-mail-based correspondence course work effectively. With a weak instructional design, you won’t be able to make the jazziest virtual classroom work effectively. Furthermore, in e-learning and in everything else, fancier things usually cost more than simple things.

DO YOU NEED TO ELIMINATE YOUR CLASSROOM TRAINING?

+ Classroom training does not conflict with e-learning.

+ You can blend together classroom and e-learning.

HOW WILL YOUR EMPLOYEES RESPOND TO E-LEARNING?

E-learning feels different from traditional face-to-face learning experiences.

Unfamiliarity –some students will find it difficult to adjust to the new learning situation.

Lack of self-motivation –for some people it is hard to stay motivated while they’re learning away from a classroom.

Lack of time – one can’t take e-learning course and work. Some companies might expect their employees to take the courses before or after work.

Feeling of isolation – students can feel isolated without immediate presence of the teacher and other students.

Feeling of going against company culture --"Let me interrupt you for just a few minutes about an urgent work problem," says the manager while the employee is trying to take an

e-learning course at her desk.

TRADITIONAL VS ONLINE

HOW WILL INSTRUCTORS RESPOND TO E-LEARNING?

Teaching an e-learning course is harder than teaching a classroom course.

You should take into consideration the following global considerations:

+ Language –students from different countries speak different languages. You have two choices – translate your course or adapt it for the foreign students.

+ Time zone -- when it’s 8AM in New York, it’s 9PM in Tokyo. The solution is to emphasize some asynchronous communication: bulletin board messages, e-mail, etc.

+ Cultural differences – for example, humor.

HOW DOES STUDENT MOTIVATION AFFECT E-LEARNING?

Many people are accustomed to learning only in traditional classroom environments and find it hard to learn “on their own.”

Some key student motivations include:+ The course teaches something that is critical

to doing the immediate job.+ The student is working toward a certification

or a degree. + The student is required by management to

prove that they completed a course.

WHAT ARE THE BASIC STYLES FOR E-LEARNING?

There are 3 basic styles for e-learning depending on how the learning event is scheduled and how interaction with other people occur:

1. Synchronous learning2. Self-directed learning3. Asynchronous learning

TRADITIONAL VS ONLINE

WHAT ARE THE BASIC STYLES FOR E-LEARNING?

+ Synchronous learning--a real-time, instructor-led online learning event in which all participants are logged on at the same time and communicate directly with each other. In this virtual classroom setting, the instructor maintains control of the class, with the ability to "call on" participants. In most platforms, students and teachers can use a whiteboard to see work in progress and share knowledge. Interaction may also occur via audio- or videoconferencing, Internet telephony, or two-way live broadcasts.

WHAT ARE THE BASIC STYLES FOR E-LEARNING?

Self-directed learning--a student works alone based on the material delivered over the Internet. There is no instructor or group of peer students to communicate with.

Asynchronous learning--learning in which interaction between instructors and students occurs intermittently with a time delay. Examples are self-paced courses taken via the Internet or CD-ROM, Q & A, mentoring, online discussion groups, and email.

WHAT IS A BLENDED COURSE?

Learning events that combine aspects of online and face-to-face instruction.

Students will spend half the time in a traditional classroom. The other half of the time students will be outside of the classroom using a computer to participate in online learning activities, assignments, discussion and email, and assessments.

E-LEARNING EXAMPLES

View e-learning examples athttp://www.horton.com/html/elexampleslist.aspx?ExampleID=23

SUMMARY

E-learning is learning that uses computer technology, usually via the Internet.

+ E-learning enables employees to learn at their work/home computer without traveling to a classroom.

+ E-learning can be a scheduled session with an instructor or it can be an on-demand course.

E-learning can help your business so that:+ Employees can learn without traveling to class—you

can save on travel costs.+ Employees can learn at their convenience.+ Employees can learn based on their learning styles.

SUMMARY

Research shows that e-learning works as well as classroom learning. It is safe to say that in 5-10 years all companies are good candidates for using e-learning.

The cost of e-learning can vary widely.You could spend hundreds, or you could spend multimillions.The cost components for e-learning include the courseware,

the course delivery expenses (including instructors), marketing/promotional communications with the students, administration and support expenses.

The size and complexity of your training problem influencing your e-learning costs.

You can’t avoid risk, but ROI lets you predict the risk.

SUMMARY

An e-learning success has to be thought in business terms, not training terms.

Barriers in implementing e-learning in you company might include people’s resistance to any kind of change, new technology, and budget constrains.

You management should keep realistic expectations, provide leadership and support.

Using leading-edge technology is important but not critical. If your e-learning has global reach, you should consider:

+ Language+ Time zones+ Cultural differences (humor).

REFERENCES

　 Henderson A. J. (2003). The E-learning Question and Answer Book ＆ New York, NY: American Management Association.

　 The Sloan Consortium, Class Differences: online education in the united states ,2010

　 Dr. 　 Maya : Module ３

ASSIGNMENT

+ The First Trading company[your position] I am manager [your company’s name] The First Trading Company [your company’s brief description] It is a multinational company that import and export different products. For example, Steel construction to Dubai, Cactus to Holland, Children's garments to USA and so on.

+ [employees] I have 6 employees in my company, who need to negotiate with clients to get orders and then give the orders to the factory to get the products, at last they should do some paper work to export the products to customers.

+ [Why do you need to develop online course for your company? Give me a problem description] Because we conduct trading company, so its important for us to creat our own website to show our products and services and informations and so on to show to all customers who intrested in our products from all over the world. And we can communicate with each other through online e-learning to talk about all the questions of products.

+ [course title] online hour