The JISC Learning and Teaching committee launched the e-Learning Programme in October 2003. This now has four development strands which together will provide a major impetus for e-learning in UK post-16 and higher education. It includes the funding of projects to provide for an improved technical framework, support the development of tools for e-learning, encourage regional and subject-based collaboration, and offer opportunities for experimentation with new technologies. The e-Learning and Pedagogy strand of the Programme aims to contribute to this change process by focusing on the ways in which a better understanding of pedagogical approaches can help practitioners in making appropriate use of technology.

We began by seeking to answer some fundamental questions about e-learning. How can we best define e-learning? Is it possible to describe e-learning activities in more systematic ways? How can we refine our understanding of effective practice? How can e-learning be implemented in conjunction with more established approaches to supporting learning? How can innovators in e-learning learn from each other and exchange good practice? Our first projects have attempted to provide answers to these questions and set a solid foundation both for this publication and for future work in the e-Learning Programme.

‘Effective Practice with e-Learning’ offers a summary of the findings from these projects, integrating these with case studies to illustrate e-learning in context. We have concentrated here on understanding learning activity, moving beyond an understanding of e-learning as simply providing ‘learning objects’ to seeing the technological revolution as central to contemporary teaching and learning processes. Our second important emphasis has been on effectiveness – that is, considering carefully how, when and where e-learning can contribute to improving the quality of provision. We have done this by exploring the principle of the ‘e-learning advantage’.

We hope that this guide will provide colleagues in post-16 and higher education with a timely opportunity to reflect on the value of e-learning, by offering examples which can inspire them individually. This will not happen on a larger scale without encouragement and support from institutions, and the guide can also be deployed in the context of institution-wide professional development strategies.

This publication owes much to the vision of Sarah Porter, Head of Development, JISC, and to the energy and engagement of Sarah Knight, e-Learning and Pedagogy Programme Manager, who has integrated the outcomes of the initial projects into this publication. Finally, thanks are due to members of the e-Learning and Pedagogy Steering Group and the e-Learning and Pedagogy Experts Group for their valuable contributions. Our aim is that this guide, and other programme outcomes still to follow, will contribute to the achievement of one of the key strategic aims of JISC: ‘to help the sector provide positive, personalised user learning experiences and to aid student progression’.

Peter Findlay
Chair, e-Learning and Pedagogy Steering Group
JISC Learning and Teaching committee