XplanaZine

Is our familiar friend, the textbook, extinct? Many have argued that e-learning will put a silver bullet through its heart. Actually, just the reverse is happening. Textbooks provide the content so desperately needed in online learning. What is emerging is the need for new content items for facilitated e-learning. These are provided in the form of e-content. A brief discussion follows:

—Factors influencing demand for e-content for facilitated e-learning:

–Student demand for online education is increasing, and even the reluctant universities are compelled to offer courses either fully online or partially online

–University demand for online content is increasing, as virtual universities such as Fort Hayes, Excelsior, University of Phoenix, expand their offerings

–Access and connectivity speed is improving throughout the U.S., as well as overseas, making delivery possible

–Lifelong learning a necessity as individuals prepare themselves for career changes, technology shifts, and emerging opportunities

–Universities shift focus from academic endowments and expand in the area of continuing education units where each unit is a profit center, and thus they are responsive and pro-active with respect to the demand for e-learning (for degrees, certificates, and virtual conferences)

2—e-learning products that universities, training providers, and continuing education units cannot produce without delays, high cost, and problematic quality:

–Content: Even if a university possesses the content experts, time constraints and the lack of a mechanism to reimburse the expert for the use of intellectual property act as detriments. In addition, departments tend to be undercapitalized and cannot adequately pay the content expert for his/her time.

–Instructional products: Tests, quizzes, review questions, homework, study guides are difficult for the university to produce on a large scale, and further, there is a lack of standardization and a review process for ensuring high quality.

–Compartmentalization and turf issues: Because of extreme decentralization and an emphasis on independent scholarly work, it is extremely difficult to find out what content might be available, and how it might be used for general dissemination via e-learning methods.

–Teacher/Instructor guides (for facilitated or mediated learning): While a faculty member may be a content expert, it is unlikely that he or she is an expert in instructional design, and in the effective design and delivery of content in an e-learning environment.
–Adjunct Teaching: Content experts may be appointed as adjuncts, and thus their relation to a university is that of contract laborer. While this presents advantages to the university in terms of cost of instruction, it does not allow the university to fully develop products that could be useful to the student.