eLearning Industry Association of Victoria

After 18 years of traditional teaching, Brian Edgar moved into a predominantly electronic teaching role in July 2007. As Professor of Theology at Asbury Theological Seminary in the USA, Brian teaches most of his classes from home in Lilydale, Melbourne, to students across the USA.

Through Asbury, Brian and his students use the open source software Moodle to teach, learn and communicate. Each class has its own section where members are given their reading and assignment work, and where they can hold discussions with each other and their teacher.

“Intuitively, I believe it enhances their learning but I don’t have any independent evidence of that. However, student feedback indicates that they believe it helps their learning,” stated Brian.

Brian and his students can log in whenever it suits them, rather than having set lecture times, so there is great flexibility. At the same time, Brian can monitor each student’s online access so he actually has greater awareness of their progress and efforts than he did in lecture situations.

“I find I have more contact with students than I used to, and it is much easier to spot someone who is not coping or falling behind,” said Brian. “Students also understand there is a group there willing to help them so they are more willing to ask for help, and sooner.
It is also harder for students to skip class online!”

Students can also see if Brian has accessed their work and discussions, even when he doesn’t leave any comments for them. This gives them confidence of his interest and availability, as well as ensuring everyone logs in regularly.

Asbury Seminary offers graduate courses to train people in a range of pastoral roles across a range of Christian denominations. Students tend to be more in their mid 20s or older.

“Older students make for a greater depth and maturity in the discussion, which I love,” said Brian. “I expect this sort of eLearning would work at least as well with under-graduates. In fact, I think younger students would understand the technology better so eLearning may be even better for lower levels of academia than higher levels.”

Many students are already involved in their community or with a family so the extension programs are an important option for them, and the college offers the same option to faculty as part of their commitment to the online process. Asbury has 65 fulltime faculty, of which four roles are currently off campus.

Brian teaches on campus two or three times a year, but these are separate classes to those he conducts online although some students may be in both classes. Brian and his students sometimes chat via Skype to see each other, but the lack of visual contact doesn’t hinder the relationships between the class members.

“Some people tend to find online learning impersonal,” said Brian. “But that’s not so, perhaps it is even more personal online. Most of my on-campus students I never really knew, but I know all my online students.  It is compulsory for my students to relate their studies with their current life so they are all answering questions and entering discussions at least once or twice a week.

“And I have a lot of one on one time with my students. In fact, I sometimes find the distance allows students to tell me more than they would have in a classroom – it’s almost confessional.”

On-campus classes at Asbury also make use of online discussions and resource sharing so the distinction between on and off campus study is already blurring.

“Teaching on campus was enjoyable and a valuable experience,” ponders Brian. “But a change is a good thing and I am excited by the online possibilities. The online teaching is very enjoyable to do and the personal flexibility is a great lifestyle!”

A workshop sponsored by the eLearning Industry Association of Victoria concluded that an educational service or product requires one or more of the following attributes to be considered as eLearning:

• Means of delivery (e.g. intranet, CD, self-paced learning, video conferencing)
• Nature of the content (e.g. interactivity, portability, multi-media, instructional design)
• Administration function (a computer based administration system, often called a LMS) in conjunction with other eLearning attributes)
• Assessment function (e.g. electronic assessment, automated reporting) in conjunction with other attributes

Through a workshop and subsequent survey, the Association has developed a picture of the developers and distributors of goods and services in the Victorian eLearning sector.

According to the census, there are about 100 businesses in Victoria directly involved in providing eLearning goods and services, as well as other businesses for which eLearning is not their core business activity.

For this census, eLearning has been defined as the use of ICT to achieve or enhance teaching and learning outcomes. eLearning is not, of itself, the technology involved, nor is it the delivery of eLearning but is an essential value add. eLearning uses technology to enhance the teaching and learning experience.

The elearning industry is both emerging and vibrant, and it is interesting to note that each business serves three to four market sectors on average, with the Government (non education), secondary and university sectors being the most common sectors. Having said that, all sectors are well represented by the industry although a much lower proportion is involved in the preschool and primary sector.

Through the census it became clear that there is a significant amount of activity in eLearning consultancy and professional support services – it isn’t just an industry selling products or specific services. Many suppliers work with clients to devise the best use of their software, with some eLearning businesses purely advising on the use of eLearning technologies and concepts.

Approximately half of the sector’s focus is on design and manufacture of eLearning tools.

As we indicated in the November edition of eLearn, the eLearning sector is serviced by many smaller businesses.
In fact, 56% have only one or two full time equivalent employees working in eLearning, and many have part time staff. It is important to note that for many businesses, eLearning forms only part of their income and often a small part.

Just under one third of eLearning sales are made within Victoria, and 21% is sold overseas. Interestingly, this figure jumps to 56% of sales within Victoria when only businesses with one or two full time employees working in eLearning.

While it is great to see Victorian businesses contributing to the larger community, there is potential for increasing sales within Victoria for many eLearning businesses.

The final conclusion of the report was: the industry is clearly an industry that can be distinguished from its context with a clear potential for development and significantly adding to the Victorian economy.

What the census did not reveal was the users’ side of the industry. Our suspicion is that much of the eLearning is produced and consumed outside of the industry. The Association is exploring this dimension of the industry and we hope to have a clearer picture of this for our next edition.

The Association website has had an online survey asking “Our top 5 concerns for the eLearning Industry in Victoria currently are…”.

Currently the responses fit into the following classes (in order of importance to respondents):

Content: this includes lack of Australian-authored content, lack of government support for content areas (such as the Arts), keeping up to date with multimedia content design and development, and the low quality of materials (which, in turn, reflects on the industry).                                  

The Buyers’ Side of the market: including several concerns about the domination of the market by a relatively few buyers (especially government and government-sponsored agencies), an uninformed market and the low budgets available for some buyers including schools, TAFEs and RTOs.

The Sellers Side of the Market: including the dispersed nature of the market (one respondent used the word “Balkanisation”!), and the lack of a public profile of the industry.  The lack of standards was also mentioned.

Software Issues: These also included the lack of standards, dealing with open source software and off-shoring being practiced in some areas.

One respondent called for more policy leadership from the government and another for high speed broad band available to all.  The survey will be open for a little while longer.  If you want to include issues not raised here, please visit the website: www.eLearning.org.au

For the eLearning Industry Association defining eLearning is important. A workshop sponsored by the Association defined it simply as:

Learning assisted by the use of information and communication technologies.

Many of us suspect that the “e” will eventually be dropped over time as the ICT become a core part of the learning process.

The ICT is used as content itself (in the form of things like multimedia), it can help to deliver that content, monitor and administer the learning process, and be integral to assessing the learning.

Other terms have also crept into the lexicon. These include “blended learning” and “flexible learning”. What do we mean by there terms? Is it different to the eLearning as understood at the workshop or are they simply approaches to delivery that include eLearning? Are there other words that have emerged and what do we mean when we use them? Are there nuances here that we need to take into account?

So many questions to kick off our blog; what do you think?

Steve Grocott