Chapter 4: The Rationales for eLearning in HE

Introduction
You have reached the webpage for discussion of Chapter 4 of the DCU eLearning Strategy Staff Consultation Document. Below is a summary of Chapter 4 and a link to complete chapter (in pdf format). You are invited to make any comment you have on this chapter below by clicking on post a comment below.

Summary
This chapters reviews the reasons put forward for the use of eLearning in Higher Education. The key points to emerge are:

• Worldwide, universities report many different and sometimes opposing reasons for engaging in eLearning.
• Enhancing the quality of teaching and learning (for both on-campus and off-campus) is a dominant rationale for engaging in eLearning.
• The key issue in the use of eLearning for enhancing quality will be identifying and refining those technologies/methods which greatly enhance teaching and learning without significant additional cost, especially in terms of staff time
• ePortfolios are emerging as a widely used technique because (a) they can align teaching and assessment in an organic way; (b) they allow for a wide range of student outputs or artefacts and (c) they can be used in the assessment of a wide range of learning outcomes.
• The flexibility offered by eLearning (for both on-campus and off-campus students) is seen as a major reason for engaging in eLearning. Blended programmes (which are taught both online and face-to-face) are seen by many universities as a way of harnessing this flexibility in a way that is close to their current practice. In addition, along with enhancing the capacity of staff in eLearning, blended programmes can make small programmes viable by enlarging the catchment area and/or attract a higher quality student.
• In many instances, eLearning represents a significant ‘step-wise’ gain for students and staff with disabilities. Further gains can be achieved for relatively low inputs.
• A number of universities have reported that the use of e-assessment for large cohorts of students has resulted in cost savings after a relatively short period.
• Fully online programmes (usually aimed at off-campus students) can result in significant cost-savings when compared with comparable programmes delivered in the traditional face-to-face manner as long as there is a sufficiently high student enrolment. However, the management of online programmes has to be significantly different from the organisation of traditional on-campus programmes if the cost-savings are to be realised.
• The cost of developing eLearning content is falling (see Chapter 3) and online programmes cost much less to administer than traditional distance education programmes. These two factors make the financial risk associated with developing and delivering a fully online programme much less than was the case heretofore. It is therefore likely that, over the coming years, there will be an increasing number of fully online programmes aimed at off-campus students being offered by higher education institutions from both within and outside Ireland.

Chapter 4 (in pdf format)