Leaps and Bounds Through Elearning
Elearning has made leaps and bounds in the education system. The concept and the use of elearning were adapted in the mid 1980’s by several institutes in the United States namely: the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, the New York Institute of Technology, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Connected Education. Recently, the organization Independent Student Media was established for organizing Elearning institutes. By 2003, approximately 1.9 million learners participate in elearning at institutes of higher educations, a million of which are from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The number of people applying for elearning courses increase at a rate of 25 percent each year.
But what is Elearning? According to Wikipedia, Elearning “is an all-encompassing term generally used to refer to computer-enhanced learning, although it is often extended to include the use of mobile technologies such as PDAs and MP3 players. It may include the use of web-based teaching materials and hypermedia in general, multimedia CD-ROMs or web sites, discussion boards, collaborative software, e-mail, blogs, wikis, computer aided assessment, educational animation, simulations, games, learning management software, electronic voting systems and more, with possibly a combination of different methods being used.”