E-Learning & Virtual Education

Submitted By:

Onkar Mandhan Mehreen Jessani Sania Anwer Shaikh Samar

Section C Submitted to:

Asim Iftikhar

Institute of Business Management

E-Learning & Virtual Education

Table of Contents
Origin of E-learning ................................................................................................................................. 4 1960 - The early years ......................................................................................................................... 4 Computer based instruction ................................................................................................................ 4 Intelligent tutoring systems ................................................................................................................ 4 The advent of the World Wide Web.................................................................................................... 5 The 21st century.................................................................................................................................. 5 Introducing e-learning ............................................................................................................................ 6 Defining e-learning.............................................................................................................................. 6 Virtual Learning ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Goals of E Learning........................................................................................................................... 7 Current Scenario Overview of status of Virtual Learning in Organizations ..................................... 7 Current Forms of Virtual Learning .................................................................................................... 10 Which direction is virtual learning heading towards? ...................................................................... 12 Leading Trends in Virtual Learning ................................................................................................... 13 Virtual Classrooms ........................................................................................................................ 13 Peer-to-Peer Learning ................................................................................................................... 14 Blended Learning .......................................................................................................................... 15 Open Source Tools ........................................................................................................................ 16 E-learning versus instructor led training ........................................................................................... 17 Instructor led training ................................................................................................................. 17 Major Learning Tools in Current Practice ............................................................................................. 19 Why does e-learning matter? ............................................................................................................... 21 Drivers ............................................................................................................................................... 21 The knowledge based economy ................................................................................................... 21 A shortage of skilled workers ........................................................................................................ 21 Technology as enabler and driver of the economy ...................................................................... 21 The corporate university ............................................................................................................... 22 The global economy ...................................................................................................................... 22 Time-to-market ............................................................................................................................. 22 Cost savings ................................................................................................................................... 22 Need for flexibility......................................................................................................................... 22 2|Page

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Multidisciplinary operational excellence ...................................................................................... 22 Innovation ..................................................................................................................................... 22 Worldwide competition ................................................................................................................ 22 Why use e-learning ............................................................................................................................... 23 Advantages of e-learning .................................................................................................................. 23 Disadvantages of e-learning.............................................................................................................. 25 The value proposition........................................................................................................................ 26 Cost/benefits of e-learning ............................................................................................................... 26 Implementation Approach .................................................................................................................... 29 VIRTUAL EDUCATION AROUND THE GLOBE ......................................................................................... 29 VIRTUAL EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN....................................................................................................... 30 The Future ............................................................................................................................................. 31 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 32 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 33

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Origin of E-learning
Although e-learning has been around for decades, it has seen exponential growth in the last years, mainly because of the growth of the Internet. As a short introduction we present a retrospective.

1960 - The early years

Soon after computers were invented, psychologists and educators noted the educational potential of computers. Early computer-based instruction development focused on automating relatively simple notions of learning and instruction. However, the early group of computer-based instruction technologists split into two groups: the so-called applied scientists (engineers) and the so-called advanced researchers.

Computer based instruction

The first group of scientists focused on automating the simple notions of learning and instruction. During the decades, this group continued to develop and refine their tools, to include complex instructional constructs. However, throughout the development phases, costs were a major obstacle to the widespread use of computer-based instruction. Initially, the migration and adaptation of computer-based instruction, based on mainframes to minicomputer, workstations and personal computers, absorbed much of the energy of researchers and developers. With each succeeding technological innovation, new capabilities and features became available to enhance the technological supported learning process. As the tools matured and personal computer proliferated, costs were dramatically reduced. Recent instructional content incorporate multimedia capabilities and sophisticated authoring features. These computer-based instructions are characterised by tightly bound instructional content and logic.

Intelligent tutoring systems

The second group of researchers focused on the potential of information-structureoriented approaches to represent human cognition and learning. Rooted in the early artificial intelligence studies of how we learn and master skills, this approach led to the development of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). The functionalities of ITS are distinct from the more conventional approaches. The functionalities requires ITS to generate instruction in real time, on demand as required by the individual learners. Furthermore, ITS must support dialogue or discussion between the technology and the user. However, several factors also hindered the development of ITS technologies. The science of human cognition was relatively immature, and the complex modelling and rule-based systems require considerable computing power. The ITS systems are characterised by the tendency to separate control logic from instructional content.
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The advent of the World Wide Web

The Internet and the World Wide Web has reset the agenda for both the groups of development. As the internet developed, it provided a widely accessible communications structure built on common standards providing easy access to information and knowledge. CBI systems progressed from direct adaptations of CD-ROM to the Internet to Web-based authoring systems, embracing the separation of content and control as server-based learning management systems emerge.

The 21st century

Now, moving into the 21st century, the boundaries between an organizations management systems seem to blur. As we live in a knowledge driven economy, the human resources systems (assessment, evaluation, career planning and development), knowledge management systems (supported technologically by content management systems), and learning management systems are said to be merging into holistic intellectual capital systems.

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Introducing e-learning
E-learning is just one of the many terms which are used in literature and business about elearning. E-learning is defined by many people, in many ways, and as it is most important to gain a clear understanding of what e-learning is, we present some definitions and related terminology of the e-learning world.

Defining e-learning
As there are many definitions available, we present here only a few of them to gain some understanding.

Definition 1 Tom Kelly, Cisco: E-learning is about information, communication, education and training. Regardless of how trainers categorize training and education, the learner only wants the skills and knowledge to do a better job or to answer the next question from a customer.

Definition 2 M Danesh, E-learning provides the potential to provide the right information to the right people at the right times and places using the right medium.

Definition 3 Brandon Hall: instruction that is delivered electronically, in part or wholly via a Web browser through the Internet or an intranet, or through multimedia platforms such CD-ROM or DVD. Brandon Hall argues that, as the technology improves, e-learning has been identified primarily with using the web, or an intranets web. Increasingly as higher bandwidth has become more accessible it has been identified primarily with using the Web, or an intranet's web, forcing the visual environment and interactive nature of the web on the learning environment.

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Virtual Learning
Virtual Learning has become a part of many organisations knowledge management systems over the past decade, with a variety of different methods being used. Knowledge management is aimed at capturing, managing, and disseminating knowledge, in usable forms, as a corporate intellectual asset.
What organizations know will provide them with their single most important edge. (Shank, 1997)

Goals of E Learning
E Learning lessons are generally designed to guide students through information or to help students perform in specific tasks. Information based e- Learning content communicates information to the student. Examples include content that distributes the history or facts related to a service, company, or product. In information-based content, there is no specific skill to be learned. In performance-based content, the lessons build off of a procedural skill in which the student is expected to increase proficiency.

Current Scenario Overview of status of Virtual Learning in Organizations

At present, aspects like product features, quality, and pricing are more or less same among competitors leading to negligible or no differentiation or brand loyalty based on product. Knowledge base of the organization is the competitive edge now. Its all about knowledge management Quickly capturing and disseminating best practices, radical improvements, and information on key customers. There is a need for better virtual learning solutions which will allow information to be well structured and organized and to be delivered in the most efficient and fastest manner to the employees (The Herridge Group, 2002). The current technology allows the organizations for tagging, storing, and displaying precisely the right digitized information and learning at the job-site at the moment of need through their learning management systems (LMSs). The present learning management systems offer the functionality to initiate and exhibit content and to manage the communication between performers and the learning or performance resources (The Herridge Group, 2002). Present web based learning tools like audio-video, teleconferencing provide the base for effective virtual learning implementations such as CISCOs WebEx.

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Virtual learning is on verge of being revolutionised with the advent of new technologies such as open source tools, mobile learning technologies, Smartphones, PDAs, and personal learning environments. Hence, there is need of a radical improvement in the ways in which the virtual learning can delivered be delivered successfully and intermittently across all these platforms. According to a senior employee of CISCO, it is very necessary that the present virtual learning platforms are extended across all of these platforms which would foster collaboration and partnerships amongst the learners. These new approaches to the design of corporate learning and performance support are focussing on chunked, reusable content that relates directly to specific performance requirements. E-learning will not operate on traditional norms of what a standard education is; rather e-learning will be about meeting the learners needs for improved performance. (Wentling et al., 2000) The recent advancements in the various technology areas of delivering information across different locations and different platforms have converged to form virtual learning providing access to content anywhere, anytime increasing the value of the learning experience. Organizations across the globe have adapted to various variants of virtual learning and consider virtual learning as one of their long term reusable learning strategies. Knowledge management and performance management has become far more efficient and scalable. Currently, according to a senior employee, CISCO uses a global learning platform which is accessible to everybody, anywhere and has a central storage. The learning management systems in CISCO normally use technologies like Saba. The training and learning is learnercentric and specific in nature. For instance, every CISCO sales employee outside the U.S has to take the Foreign Acts training on the learning platform if he/she needs to sell any product outside the U.S. But, different organizations use virtual learning and e-learning according to their needs and business goals. These needs may vary for different organizations depending on which industry and sector of market they belong to. In January 2010 ASTD published a survey on E-Learning Trends which was conducted in November-December 2009 across 210 organizations. The most important question asked to the organizations was How does your organization uses e-learning. The result for this particular survey question is shown in the bar graph below (ASTD.Org, 2010).

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How do organizations use e-learning?

Customer service training General business skills IT(end user/desktop applications) Regualtory/Compliance Issues Task Specific Skills External customers/Clients Product Updates & Rollouts Salesforce Training Enterprise Transformations IT (network, infrastructure) Other 0 10 20 30 40 50

Uses

%age of total number of organizations which participated in the ASTD Survey 2010

It can be inferred that e-learning is extensively used by organizations for various purposes such as customer service training and sales force training. Rightly said by a senior sales employee of CISCO, sales force training is very crucial for updating the sales skills of the employees and also to educate the partners and clients involved in the whole sales ecosystem. These data indicate that virtual learning has become an unavoidable strategy of many of the global corporations. However, the changing landscape of technology and the economic & business challenges have forced organizations to explore new frontiers.

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Current Forms of Virtual Learning
Virtual Learning has become a part of many organisations knowledge management systems over the past decade, with a variety of different methods being used. This section will outline what is currently available to organisations. Virtual learning is delivered, currently, in the following two ways (IBM.Com, 2010).

Based on these two generic ways of delivering information over the internet, there are many tools and technologies which are currently being used in organizations for virtual learning and training. Some of these are simple, and some are more complex depending upon their degree of difficulty in implementation and the infrastructure required for delivering them in a normal mode across various platforms. Examples some of these elearning technologies are shown below:

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It is not uncommon for these different methods of learning to be mixed together. This can often reduce the limiting factors of one form of e-learning and increase the availability of learning materials on different platforms. Moreover, it provides the learner a wider range of options to access learning and training in a virtual environment. For example, Google Wave can be used by collaborators to edit a document simultaneously in real time and at the same time they can also carry on video messaging on some other application such as VoIP. These technologies or tools can be used for various training and learning purposes by the organizations based on their specific business and performance needs. Though most of the organizations, currently, use various tools for conducting in-house virtual learning and training, the most popular tools can be identified from the 2010 ASTD E-Learning Survey below (ASTD.Org, 2010).
What types of e-learning tools, functionality, infrastructure do organizations currently use ?
Learning Management Systems Assessment/testing tools Authoring Tools Web conferencing Off-the-shelf coursewares/libraries Audio conferencing Virtual Classrooms Video coferencing Blogs Learning Content Management Systems Other 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Types of Tools

%tage of total number of organizations partcipated in the ASTD Survey 2010

Each of these tools/technologies have their level of interactivity which depends on various characteristics such as the richness of the audio-video stream, ease of navigation, degree of engagement, availability, portability and certainly, look and feel. There are different levels of interactivity (low, moderate, high) depending on the e-learning method that is chosen. These are shown in table blow:

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Which direction is virtual learning heading towards?
Virtual learning, or for the fact of the matter, e-learning has come a long way in the last decade or so. There has been a tremendous transgression form the traditional computerbased training systems to more dynamic and rapid learning management systems. Furthermore, the arrival of Web 2.0, open source tools, virtualisation, SaaS, e-book readers, tablet PCs and social media has thrown up several opportunities to harness information and knowledge in the most cost-effective, optimized and efficient manner.

However, according to Gartner Education Hype Cycle 2009, the most interesting opportunities are yet to come or are in their due course of their mainstream adoption. The education hype cycle can be seen in the figure below (Jimdonovan.net.nz, 2009).

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Leading Trends in Virtual Learning

Virtual Classrooms Virtual Classrooms have been one of the most used synchronous method of delivering learning and training in most kind of local and global organizations. This method allows the synchronous teaching, lectures, simulation, demonstration and peer collaboration over the web. The main benefit of virtual classrooms is that users who are disparately located can come together online to listen, view and interact with the live instructors and their fellow learners in a scheduled event (The Herridge Group, 2002). The technology and infrastructure required for establishment of Virtual Classrooms, in most of the cases is available with the organizations and is affordable as well. However, the transition to virtual classrooms is mostly because of financial reasons than instructional. Organizations perceive virtual classrooms as the way to reduce travel time, cost of travel and importantly, the cost of replacing the instructor every time. Moreover, the virtual classrooms allow the organizations to develop a repository of reusable learning and training materials, hence increasing their knowledge base (The Herridge Group, 2002). Are Virtual Classrooms worth it? Though virtual classrooms provide learner-trainer and learner-learner interaction, it does not propagate personalization and collaboration of work and ideas as it might be in a regular classroom. Hence, if the goal of the learning process is to advocate team-work and collaboration virtual classrooms might not be the best answer. Moreover, the number of learners that can possibly participate in an online virtual classroom and still have some level of interactivity is, most often, lesser than that in the situation of face-to-face learning. However, virtual classroom is cheaper to develop in comparison to the asynchronous webmodules and in some instances, could be the best solution. For example Training on a new software deployment Allowing access to a particular expert for a short interval with the technology and facilitating a larger, geographically diverse group to participate. Short discussion for a key change. Advocating collaboration and communities of practice.
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But still, virtual class rooms have their own share of challenges, some of which are: 1. The content should be properly designed for the learners, the module tasks, and most importantly, the delivery mechanism. 2. 3. The facilitator should be appropriately trained and skilled in managing the learning technology and engaging the audience. 4. 3. There should be a high degree of reliability in the learning technology. 4. The training material should be more rich and interactive in nature and should not be just a cut and pasted content from an already existing classroom course. Conclusively, virtual classrooms can be considered as a cost-effective method of delivering learning with its own share of pros and cons.

HPs Virtual Classroom for Toyota Canada Toyota Canada utilizes the HP Virtual Classroom for various types of training purposes both in English and French. For every new car launch, a HP Virtual Classroom trainer starts going through a power point presentation displaying the novel features, changes in the new car and compares it with the similar releases from the competitors. Moreover, the product specialists, throughout this process can ask questions by using the hands-up feature from the facilitator.

(HP.Com, 2003)

Peer-to-Peer Learning

Peer-to-Peer or P2P signifies inclusion of collaboration tools and developing collaboration into virtual learning programs. P2P is a networking technology that enables the sharing of resource. The peers are the individual computers that make up the network (Hoffman, 2002). This technology facilitates the virtual learners to share information and data by allowing one computer to connect straightaway with another computer on a network

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without going via a file server. This inter-connection allows creating shared workspaces in which learners can easily collaborate, communicate and exchange ideas (Hoffman, 2002). Challenges of Peer-to-Peer learning o To ensure accuracy & validity of the available information? Internet is a deluge of information- how to sift out the most relevant and meaningful data? o To ensure privacy and data security on P2P links. To make it sure that only the designated learner can access the information displayed (Hoffman, 2002). Potential market for P2P: Collaborators and group learners dispersed across countries.

Blended Learning Blended learning is the method where the organization encapsulates different modalities of training such as instructor-led, face-to-face, self paced learning into single combined service. Most of the global organizations perceive blended learning environments as the solution to provide the learners the vastness of content, diverse style and the fastness of access to information and knowledge Blended Learning Offers: o Social benefits from classroom training, focusing on learning that gains the most from face-to-face interaction. o Individualization benefits of self-paced, online learning for content that requires minimum interaction. o Cost savings through minimizing the time away from the job and travel/classroom/instructor expenses. o Improved retention and reinforcement through follow-up mechanisms on the Web. o Greater flexibility to meet the different learning styles and levels of the audience. Challenges of Blended Learning o Though organizations have blended learning solutions, they lack a clearly defined strategy of implementing them for their particular needs. o Organizations lack an evaluation technique for tracking the progress of completion of tasks across various learning modalities within a single program.

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o The organizations need a clear cut strategy to make a smooth migration from the traditional methods to blended approaches of learning. o The organizations are always sceptical of migrating to a new learning technology being wary of losing the existing comfort level (The Herridge Group, 2002). What needs to be done

Develop a robust strategy for implementing blended approach. Formulate tactical evaluation techniques to determine the existing platforms
resilience to adapt and deliver blended learning. Determine and carry out a pilot study, beforehand, to know how the implementation of blended learning might affect the learning process of the employees and their overall performance. Ensure that the transition does not impact the satisfaction levels of the learners and the facilitators (The Herridge Group, 2002).

Open Source Tools

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At present, according to an estimation there than 40 vendors of open source LMS products (few of the most renowned are Moodle, ILIAS, eduplone, Claroline and SAKAI). Most of these open source learning tools have their own extensive developer base and dedicated communities and their effectiveness pose strong candidacy as alternatives to the existing expensive commercial learning products. Some of the characteristics that are in support of making a verdict regarding an Open Source learning applications are associated to cost savings, stability, performance and access to code. Moreover, for ensuring that users in the near future as well as the longer term have access to the best available applications, these Open Source software applications should be built on open standards (Carabaneanu, Trandafir and Mierlus-Mazilu, 2010).

E-learning versus instructor led training

E-learning is often compared to traditional class-room training or instructor-led training. To make the case, advantages and disadvantages of the two are often compared. However, it is not possible to plead against one or the other, rather to examine each learning situation carefully and evaluate which method is best to be used, or even more interesting to work towards a blend of both methods. Instructor led training Instructor led training is the classical formula of a teacher in front of a classroom full of students. This method has proven its value over many years, and this way of training is certainly not becoming obsolete. There are however a number of (new) circumstances and trends where this traditional way of training runs into problems:

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Distance: the strength of a classroom-based training is the intense interaction between the instructor and the students. But bringing together the people costs time and money. In the growing competitive market situation, these costs are often no longer justified.

Audience size and response time: a traditional classroom-training requires an instructor, and infrastructure. This is needed for a large group of students, but also for a small group of students. In this last case, the traditional instructor-led training is not an efficient solution. Even with an infrastructure and teacher at hand, the traditional training methods require some planning: planning of resources, of infrastructure, bookings for hotels, it is often difficult, maybe impossible to set up training now, immediately when the training needs are there.

Off-the-job time: Employees attending classroom training are off their jobs. In some cases, additional personnel are necessary to replace people participating in training. In the worst case, there are no replacement personnel and business might be lost. It could be argued therefore, to leave the path of traditional classroom training, to reduce the extra costs of this training and replace the instructor led training by e-learning altogether. However, e-learning is not a cheap alternative for ILT. It should be seen as a system enabling the building of capabilities across the enterprise. It should be the backbone of how a company thinks together. If cost reduction is the only objective, then the results of elearning might be rather poor. E-learning is best used as one of the assets to create and sustain a strategic advantage.

Research supports the intuitively appeal of technology based instruction. The speed with which individuals can progress through instructions varies by factors of three to seven, even in classes with carefully selected students. On average, a student in a classroom asks about 0.1 questions an hour. In individual tutoring, students may ask or be required to answer as many as 120 questions in an hour. The dilemma presented by individually tailored instruction is that it combines an instructional imperative with economic impossibility. With few exceptions, one instructor for every student is not affordable. Instructional technology promises to provide most of
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the advantages of individualized instruction at affordable cost while maintaining consistent, measurable, high-quality content.

Major Learning Tools in Current Practice

In current practice, organizations along with their in-house global learning systems also use various web 2.0, social networking, VoIP tools for virtual learning and training across the length and breadth of the organizational structure. However, each of these tools has its own share of challenges, strengths and weaknesses. Some of these aspects of the major tools in practice are shown below (Mason and Rennie, 2008):

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Why does e-learning matter?
As the industrial era gave way to information era, employees must now have critical thinking skills to identify process improvements, works as a team, change processes, products, tools and more. The average employee switches jobs many times, more than seven times is said to be probable. The need to learn new information (in its broadest sense) is unlikely to decrease. In this new knowledge based economy, the gap between the existing knowledge of employees and what is necessary to know is growing day by day. However, with the growth of the internet, online education is accessible to more people than ever: people in corporations, schools and universities, government and other sectors profit from its growth.

Drivers
In this information age, some drivers push e-learning technologies to the foreground. These drivers, enabling and pushing e-learning to companies indicate that the future will be about acquiring and acting on knowledge. As creating knowledge is the context for learning, the two will merge. Not only will companies focus on learning management, to centralize and strategically employ the benefits of their skills, they will also focus on their knowledge management. In the process of converting implicit knowledge (know-how) and experience into explicit knowledge (knowledge that can be shared with others, diffused within groups), new, actionable knowledge needs to be created. Marc Rosenberg states it as follows: Providing access to information that contains the collective wisdom of the company can be a powerful adjunct to training. So when we have a learning need that requires instruction, we use training, and where there is a learning need that more appropriately requires information, we can use knowledge management. The knowledge based economy Information is everywhere, overwhelming us and difficult to find when we need to use it. However, what is done with information is more and more important for organizations. Knowledge about customers drives the product development of an organization. Knowledge and experience differentiates one organization from its competitors, but only if the organization is quick enough to take the advantage. A shortage of skilled workers Acquiring and keeping good and qualified people is harder than ever. Organizations have to alter the way they look at employment, culture and benefits. Not only will employees demand a clear career development, only organizations that will succeed in satisfying their employees need for knowledge will succeed in the growing markets. Technology as enabler and driver of the economy
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No matter what function an employee has, he or she has become in the first place a knowledge worker. The information technology and telecommunications which are used on a daily basis are driving the need for e-learning and at the same time creating the means to accomplish it. The corporate university If knowledge becomes a corporate asset, then learning and training becomes a strategic initiative and a corporate advantage. Corporate universities are not only a training aid for employees, they are becoming profit centres, responsible for training a corporates complete ecosystem or customers, partners, channel partners and suppliers. Walter Baets states is as follows: More and more companies are starting their own (virtual) corporate university. The accent is put on an integrated curriculum focusing on skills and competencies, and closely related to company knowledge management. The global economy As employees around the world work either at home or at the office, learning resources and knowledge databases must be available 24 hours a day to cover every time zone. Time-to-market The time companies have to take their products and services to the market has been drastically reduced. New product introductions, training in new technology, on-demand tasks or skills references becomes a key asset in order to meet the organizations objectives. Cost savings According to researches, corporations may save from 50 up to 70 % when replacing traditional instructor led training with alternative electronic delivery. Need for flexibility When changes happen faster and faster, making a company flexible in every aspect is the only way to survive. Multidisciplinary operational excellence Excellence in all processes and projects is necessary to compete in the current market. Innovation Constant innovation has to be driven from within the company, empowered by the employees. The question on everyones mind should be: How can we do this better? Worldwide competition

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In a global market, not only the market has grown, also the number of competitors has grown exponentially. New strategies, differentiating an organization from another becomes more important in the growing market.

Why use e-learning

Advantages of e-learning
o Flexibility, accessibility, convenience: Users are able to proceed through a program at their own pace and at their own pace. Users can access an e-learning course anytime, anywhere, and learn only as much as they need. o Cross-platform: E-learning can be accessed by Web browsing software on any platform. A training program can be delivered to any machine over the internet or intranet without having to author a program for each platform. o Browser software and internet are widely available: Most computers have access to a browser, are connected to the organizations intranet or the internet. Inexpensive worldwide distribution: There is no need for a separate distribution mechanism.

o Ease of updating information: if changes need to be made to a program or courseware after the first implementation, these changes are made on the servers storing the program or courseware. Everyone worldwide can instantly access the update of information. o Travel costs and time savings: there are no travel costs for bringing remote employees to a centralized workshop.

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o Training efficiency is increasing significantly. Not only from a qualitative standpoint (i.e. pedagogical by the use of a new method, personalization, learner autonomy, memorization and follow-up, operational by learning by opportunity and the speed of the learning updates, and organizational by creation of knowledge sharing community) but also from a quantitative standpoint (i.e. learning elapse decreases, learning cost may be reduced and learning effectiveness is increasing).

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In the paper Six Steps to implementing E-learning, some other key benefits are summed up: No need for travel Alternative training mode from offsite personnel. Instructors are not held by geographic boundaries. More students can view a presentation at once. Shorter Development Cycles Faster delivery of appropriate training to applicable staff members. Higher rates of student completion than found in self-paced training. A more efficient mode of offering penetrating data. Flexibility to modify or change content and to make it accessible on demand. Cost Savings for the Corporation Reduction of internal training costs. Reduced time away from work for participants. Students retain knowledge better. LMS provides a tool for optimum intercommunication and data compilation. Dramatically reduce travel costs. Flat fee pricing structures give organizations unlimited access to training for one year.

Disadvantages of e-learning
Bandwidth limitations. Limited bandwidth means slower performance for sound, video and intensive graphics, causing long waits for download that can affect the ease of the learning process. Future technologies will solve the problem however. Loss of human contact. There is a general concern that as we move towards more computer usage, a terminal will replace a friendly face. Gradual introduction of elearning or the use of blended learning may be the answer to this concern.

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E-learning programs are too static. The level of interactivity is often too limited.

E-learning systems take more time and more money to develop then expected. This is indeed the case, as it is with any new technology that is implemented. It is easier by starting with an easy program and building on success. Not all courses are delivered well by computer. Some training topics are not best served by computer based training and require a more personal touch. Team building issues and dealing with emotional issues are two examples. Quality of learning. Progress in the field of e-learning has been relatively slow when compared to other fields. A lot of web-based systems are not better than systems that were developed 15 years ago. Still, focus is often on how to develop a lot of courses and not on how to improve the quality of learning.

Resistance to change. Introducing e-learning initiative in an organization is not an easy-to-do task. Resistance may be hard to overcome, lack of communication and commitment from champions within the organization may jeopardize the chances of a succeeding e-learning initiative.

The value proposition

Before we give a short note on the return on investment of e-learning initiatives, we give a brief overview of the market statistics for the next years. It is said that training services, such as system integration, needs assessment, hosting, maintenance and online mentoring will grow by 111 % by 2003. Furthermore, the services are expected to double their current market share reaching 36% by 2003. The delivery technologies such as LMS, authoring tools etc are expected to grow by 80%. In Europe, e-learning profits are expected to exceed 350 million by 2004.

Cost/benefits of e-learning
Because the figure of the return on investment is based on a purely, quantitative approach of an initiative, the figure may often be disappointing, because the most impressive results of an e-learning project are often to be found in more softer criteria. Often, organisations are recommended to make cost/benefits analysis, using four categories:

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Hard

cost savings, which include travel and lodging costs, on facilities, instructor fees, printing, distribution and storage costs which may be reduced. revenue impacts, including the opportunity costs of not having adequately trained personnel, the increased productive time on the job, a shorter time to deployment of a new product or service, the increasing sales effectiveness of selling partners and an increased revenue by introducing training for fees. competitive benefits: knowledge transfer is more accessible, training delivery is more consistent, knowledge may be certified on a large scale, expert can now perform the job, and they do not need to teach classes, morale increases through equal training capabilities.

Hard

Soft

Soft benefits to individuals: which include just-in time activities are available, employees know where they stand, which motivates them; learning priorities are clearly prioritised; progress is being watched an evaluated positively.

Often these wins are quicker and more noticeable on the soft scales for clear indicators that there is indeed a positive, quantitative result, a long term vision is needed when planning and starting an e-learning initiative. ADL suggests that technology based instruction (of which e-learning may be considered a sub-part) may reduces costs of achieving a wide range of instructional objectives by 30 to 60 percent. The time to achieve instructional objectives would be reduced by 30 percent and student skills and knowledge would increase by 30 percent. Furthermore, ADL claims that when using sharable content objects, investment costs may be reduced by 50 to 80 per cent. Therefore, however, the sharable content objects must meet the following requirements: Durable: the objects do not require modification as versions of system software change. Interoperable: the objects operate across a wide variety of hardware, operating systems and web browsers.

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Accessible: the objects can be indexed and found as needed. Reusable: the objects can be modified and used by many different development tools. As not many tools adhere to these standards yet, it is however difficult to say if these estimates indeed are correct. It becomes clear that e-learning does provide opportunities to either save money (rather in the long term) and to create a learning environment throughout the organisation, in which knowledge is shared among all employees. whole of an organisation: It is indeed correct to state that delivering the right knowledge at the right time to the right people impacts the
Executive

management: the data to optimise the organisational effectiveness, to simulate and react to business opportunities is available. Finance: the ROI of the training/education investment may be calculated by correlating learning with the business outcomes. Legal: the organisation is in compliance. Human resources: the tools are there to manage training, employee development and retention. Sales: the product/industry/customer knowledge that correlates to sales successes and failures is accessible. Marketing: brand building is possible based on the quality of the people and the product Engineering: the knowledge transfer tools to facilitate innovation and collaboration are available. Training: it is possible to change from a cost to a profit centre. Services/support: it is possible to ensure customer satisfaction by having the right knowledge available. Channel management: the time to market may be accelerated by providing instantaneous global product launches. Production: skill gaps and competencies are assessed and closed, making it able to achieve certification.

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Implementation Approach
When introducing e-learning into an organization, management support is necessary. In many studies, it is described as the key player for making an e-learning project successful. Here, we give a brief description of an implementation approach only. In Appendix C, a summarized version of Brandon Halls Six Steps Guide to Implementing E-learning is presented. After developing a clear vision of what and how e-learning and the organisations business concepts are related, a preparation phase may start. During this preparation phase, it is important to discover e-learning. This pilot project reveals probably the dos and dont for the organisation. Next a full implementation phase may take place, during which e-learning will be deployed throughout the organisation. Finally, the initiative must be supported throughout the organisation, by delivering and updating content and giving support to the users.

VIRTUAL EDUCATION AROUND THE GLOBE

SIEMENS

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. offers a variety of e-learning and e-classes through Siemens Medical Academy. IBM Extreme Blue Project Team, conducted during the summer of 2008, in creating a virtual education centre (VEC) in Second Life. The purpose of the VEC is to educate IBM employees, business partners and customers about products offered by the IBM storage and server technology organization. Showcasing this project at the e-Learn conference would provide the team with an opportunity to demonstrate the VEC, gather valuable feedback and input from researchers and developers at the conference, and identify future collaboration opportunities.

Online Examples..

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VIRTUAL EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN
In Pakistan, virtual education is relatively a new concept and it got formal acceptance with the establishment of the Virtual University of Pakistan in 2002. The virtual university of Pakistan was established by the Government of Pakistan to provide quality education throughout the country as well as overseas. The official document of the Virtual University of Pakistan states that its mission is to: 1. Provide world class education at an affordable cost across the length and breadth of the country through a uniform educational environment without differentiating between large cities and smaller towns 2. Offer academic programs that are equivalent or better in content and quality to those offered by leading institutions of higher education in the country. 3. Admit students solely on the basis of their educational qualifications regardless of race, colour, gender, religion, disabilities, geographical locations or age. 4. Provide its students with a rich and challenging educational experience that fosters their personal growth and supports their transition to responsible adulthood in a rapidly shrinking world. 5. Integrate liberal studies and professional education to give its graduates both breadth and specialization. 5. To give its graduates education that enables them to comprehend the complexity and dynamism of contemporary global processes and empowers them to guide those processes in constructive directions. It provides extended, affordable, quality higher education to all areas of Pakistan, based on the excellent telecommunication infrastructure. It would have a great impact on the socio-economic growth of Pakistan. Renowned professors and experts in various disciplines from major national universities and institutions develop the Virtual University courses and deliver lectures to VU students. They have extensive experience in the field with foreign qualifications.

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The Future
According to Market Data Retrieval (MDR) two thirds of colleges and universities offer long distance learning courses and the number of institutions offering accredited degrees have increased to 55%. New varieties of E Learning have emerged with help and push from emerging technologies. Besides distance learning now there is distributed learning. This term describes the educational experiences of individuals and groups that are distributed over geographies and cultures using variety of media delivery methods. This has moved education beyond the classroom to more interactive information by joining learning and experience together. This is developing into learning communities with their own focus on various branches, cultures and sub-cultures. It is a mind boggling explosion of information that is now available with lot of imagination and little effort. With collaborative tools E Learning is moving into virtual classes and virtual communities where the old methods of practice and test have melted into new interactive teachinglearning methodologies. Tuition on line has taken a new meaning where a varied help is now available both free and paid for on demand on any subject instantly. This has relieved pressure both on the teacher and the students. Future learning is now eLearning: Introduction and Planning - 4 - focusing on learning beyond the classroom and curriculum. Companies need to upgrade employees by offering re-training programmes. These are both costly and time consuming. By designing these programmes and content via E Learning methods both time and money are saved. The innovative method is also self promoting as it increases the curiosity level of individuals for self promotion and career enhancements. In the technical field too doctors and other professionals are getting a fair chance for keeping abreast of developments and discoveries and even participation in these activities through interactive delivery processes. Looking further, this being the global market era, the consumer is being made aware of immense openings, opportunities and bargains through this method. Medical tourism is one recent example of e-Learning where serious information and fun have been mixed for delivery of marketing content.

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Conclusion
Virtual education is an emerging concept that uses information and communication technologies for its delivery. It is an alternate to the formal system of education. It can cater large students body at all academic levels. It is flexible and convenient to the learners providing them exposure with emerging technologies. It is necessary to keep pace with knowledge explosion extending uniform opportunities of quality education to all segments of the society. It fulfils the students need of higher education at their doorstep. It enhances the performance level of the learners through selfdirected study. It offers need-base, informative and updated courses. Furthermore, it is a viable source of professional development in knowledge society. It integrates the nation extending the opportunities of higher education, uniform curriculum; technology based instructional methodology and equal opportunities of higher education to all. It develops census about socio-cultural development acting as an agent of social change. It can collaborate and promote cultural values to keep pace with the changing world in global village. Therefore, it can be used in reducing cultural conflicts among societies and nations. In Pakistan learners do face some problems such as password problems, computer vision syndrome (CVS), fingers joint pain, backache, dizziness & headache and electricity failure.

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How to Design Effective Blended Learning, by Julie Marsh and Paul Drexler, November 2001, brandon-hall.com.

Ravet S. & Layte M., Technology- based training a comprehensive guide to choosing, implementing, managing, and developing new technologies in training, Gulf Publishing company, 1998, Houston, Texas.

www.elearningmag.com an online magazine about e-learning.

www.brandon-hall.com an independent site, providing information about e-learning.

www.brandonhall.com/public/pdfs/sixstepguidebook.pdf - a six steps guide for implementing an e-learning environment in your company.

www.brandonhall.com/public/pdfs/monash_survey.pdf - a survey conducted for an academic study on how organizations use e-learning.

www.forbes.com/specialsections/elearning/ a complete article by Brandon Hall, about the economic; corporate and e-learners drives behind e-learning; including a benchmark study of best practises.

www.lakewoodconferences.com/whitepaper1.htm - an online-learning white paper written by Saul Carliner.

The Web and distance learning: what is appropriate and what is not, Report of the ITiCSE 97 Working Group on the Web and Distance Learning.

www.askintl.com/index.cfm/1,0,852,4797,666,0,html , The Distance Learners Bill of Rights, by Eric Park Eric Parks report on user expectations and e-learning.

knowledge.contentbox.com a solutions provider site, with lots of news and articles.

E-learning solutions, IT Works seminar by Luc Marolt (Anderson).

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www.elearningmag.com a site devoted to e-learning containing lots of resources.

www.brandonhall.com/public/faqs2/faqs2.htm - a list of FAQS concerning e-learning.

www.brandonhall.com/whitpaponcha?html a paper describing how to successfully implement an e-learning initiative (connecting e-learning implementations with change management).

http://www.alcatel.be/training/customer/whitepaper1.pdf - Learning in the e-world, an Alcatel whitepaper on e-learning.

www.brandonhall.com/public/marketguide/marketguide-062101.pdf - an overview of the key market players in the e-learning market.

www.masie.com a big player in the e-learning market.

www.informationweek.com/826/prelearning.htm - a comprehensive article about e-learning in organisations. Page 27

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ADL Shareable Content Object Reference Model, version 1.2, The SCORM overview, avialable at http://www.adlnet.org.

Enhancing enrollment of employees in e-learning, Jo Honor, June 2001, Synavant.

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