e-Learning in context

At a national level, government initiatives in all four UK countries have promoted e-learning as a means of empowering and engaging learners. Increasingly they also focus on the practitioner as an active ‘innovator’ of new practices and techniques.

In the learning and skills sector in England (which incorporates all provision in education and training from 14-19 and adult and community learning), the ‘Success for all’ (DfES 2002) initiative has focused attention on ‘putting teaching, training and learning at the heart of what we do’, encouraging the identification and sharing of best and innovative practice through Learning and Skills Beacon awards for high performing providers.

The establishment of the National Learning Network (NLN) for the further education sector in England and continuing investment in infrastructure have prepared the way for an e-Learning Strategy through which the benefits of technology can be brought to bear on everyday practice. The ILT Champions’ Programme and the Ferl Practitioners’ Programme continue to support staff development in the use of learning technologies, making inroads into establishing the skills practitioners will need to teach with technology.

In Scotland, the joint funding councils established a Joint e-Learning Working Group, a key finding of which has been that e-learning should be focused on learning, not on technology. The councils have subsequently committed £6m over two years across further and higher education to invest in projects which will embed transformational change, thus supporting the Scottish Executive's ambition of achieving ‘the best possible match between the learning opportunities open to people and the skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours which will strengthen Scotland's economy and society’.

Education and Learning Wales (ELWa) has also identified the potential of e-learning in supporting ‘the most exciting, creative, fulfilling and enduring activity in the world – that of learning’. Investing in the National Learning Network materials, raising awareness of the benefits of integrating these materials into learning programmes, and raising the ICT skills level amongst practitioners in Wales are the key priorities over the next two years in the e-learning strategy for Wales.

The Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) in Northern Ireland views the integration of e-learning into the curriculum and the development of strategic leadership as the key to transforming educational institutions. Through collaborative partnerships between providers, innovative approaches to e-learning, for example, in e-assessment and e-mentoring, are being explored to improve what the sector can offer to the learner, to employers and to local communities.

A similar drive towards raising standards in teaching in higher education in England was signalled in the White Paper ‘The Future of Higher Education’ (DfES 2003), which claimed that teaching had for too long been ‘the poor relation’ in higher education. Again a more ‘innovative’ approach to teaching and learning was encouraged. The White Paper also set an agenda for increased flexibility in higher education courses to meet the needs of a more diverse student population. On the ground, the impact of e-learning strategies is beginning to be felt in new initiatives at classroom level, while a new generation of research and development units has sprung up to ensure that the potential for enhancing teaching and learning with new technologies is fully explored.

Adult and community learning, a sector distinct from further and higher education in role and ethos, occupies a vital role in widening participation, encouraging lifelong learning and in providing all, especially disenfranchised, adults with the skills and access to technology they require as citizens in an information age. The sector now has membership of the National Learning Network, but in 2004, still has limited technical infrastructure and is at the developmental stage in terms of strategies for teaching and learning with information and communications technology. However, in some areas, notably learndirect and UK online centres, its experience in the delivery of learning through technology exceeds that of other providers.

These sectors are at different stages of development and confidence with regard to e-learning and as a result may have differing perceptions of what constitutes ‘effective’ practice, given their separate target groups, aims and functions. In all of these cases, however, the role of e-learning in supporting learning, raising standards and widening participation is either explicitly expressed in government initiatives, strategies and policies, or is implied by the emphasis on flexibility, choice and the increasing value of the importance of the learner’s experience.