E-Learning in the university: When will it really happen?

21 Sep 2010.   4716 visits

Authors
Ann-Louise Davidson, Assistant Professor, Concordia University
David Waddington, Assistant Professor, Educational Studies. Concordia University

eLearning has enormous potential in education, and there is an urgent need to take stock of the possibilities that it offers. Despite this urgency, research on eLearning is still in a nascent stage and there is a degree of conceptual confusion in the field that is difficult to tolerate.
It is clear that there is a lot of ground left to cover and that many obstacles remain to be overcome before we implement a type of eLearning that both integrates innovative pedagogy and coheres with new trends in digital technologies.

This paper offers a critical examination of eLearning in the university setting. We focus on the following question: ―Do our current ways of using educational technology allow us to achieve genuine eLearning in the university setting?‖ We analyse this question critically in two ways. In our first critical analysis, we underline the dissonance between the officially prescribed learning technologies and the way in which students use technology outside the classroom. In our second critical analysis, we examine the effectiveness of the technologies that are currently being used in this setting to encourage learning, collaboration, and the development of higher-order thought processes. We conclude with several recommendations for those who would like to engage critically with eLearning in the university setting.