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Index of Links to E-Learning Websites.

Some ideas for getting started in understanding E-Learning.

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See Also: corresponding indexes of articles for Learning Organizations, Self-directed Learning and Knowledge Management web resources.

Preface

This page contains an index of websites providing information and resources concerning the use of networked technology to expand learning, including distance learning, employee education and training via internal intranets, etc. It is adapted from the content of a similar index posted on the internal intranet at Alberta Learning.

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E-Learning WebsitesSmall CyberCity Logo

The CyberCity Initiative aims to help Grande Prairians to learn about and prepare to participate and compete in the Information Revolution that is sweeping the developed world.

Below is a preliminary annotated index of links to tutorials, articles, websites, etc., that deal with the use of networked technology to expand the scope and pace of learning, including both distance and classroom learning, and which deliver staff education and training via internal intranets, etc. E-Learning provides what you need when you need it, puts people in touch with both information and experts from anywhere, and is individually personalized as to both content and learning style. E-Learning is learning that takes full advantage of the environment of the information age. If you have suggested additions to this list, please let us know.

See also - the CyberCity article "Learning: The Critical Technology for Today" in the digest of 1 April 1999 for a discussion of learning preferences and techniques, how adult learning differs from child learning, how teacher-centered learning differs from learner-centered learning, and the significance of the latter in the Information Age.

Most of these references are outside the City of Grande Prairie website, and are therefore linked so as to open a new window in your browser. To return here, just close the new window.

[Since the formal sharing of information, understanding and knowledge is often used in Learning Organizations, we have also posted corresponding indexes of articles on the Learning Organizations, Self-directed Learning and Knowledge Management web pages.]

Components of this index:

This index has been divided into the following components for convenience. Visitors should be aware, however, that quite a few references could have been justifiably included in other components, and some could have been included in more than one component of the list. The boundaries among these components and others are becoming more blurred as time goes on. The more significant and higher quality references have generally been placed toward the top of the list in each component.

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Introductory and background articles.

Below are links to introductory and background articles, current trends, etc.

  • Cisco Systems, which has long been exploiting internal intranets and other networking systems for employee training world-wide, posts Cisco E-Learning, an upbeat website devoted to learning in a globally networked corporation. It has links to practical definitions of E-Learning, how it is implemented and why it is important to countries, to businesses, and to educational institutions, etc. Their index, E-Learning in the News, posts links to articles and papers on corporate universities, businesses, predictions, examples, surveys, etc. Their Leading Practices index points to field training, the Cisco Networking Academy Program, real-life simulations, on-line seminars, successful examples, and a section on Transforming Education. The Measuring Success section identifies assessment tools, etc. A news release from Nov 1999 provides introductory information: "Cisco Announces E-Learning Initiative, Dramatically Shifts Company's Learning Model."
  • Forbes magazine has posted a May 2000 article by Peter Drucker, "Putting More Now Into The Internet." Drucker points out that "online continuing education is creating a new and distinct educational realm, and [that] it is the future of education." He says that "the means are finally at hand to improve productivity in education." In a related piece, "Druckers Disciple," Alexander Brigham discusses Corpedia's offering of a Drucker on-line course. See also: the Drucker entry in the related sources section below.
  • Lakewood posts "An Overview of On-line Learning" which is presented as a mini E-Learning course. It has helpful definitions, a quick reading pace and the pages load in a flash. A good place to start "at the beginning."
  • TeleEducation NB, "a province-wide distance learning network in New Brunswick and a world leader in distance education," posts "Learning on the Web." Part of the Distance Education unit of the NB Department of Education, "Learning on the Web" is "a guide as to how to proceed," providing "a decided focus on the learner and the teacher, and how they interact and participate together on the Internet. This [mini-course] has been designed to assist teachers, students, distance education facilitators and educational resource developers in using the Internet to its full potential."
  • InternetWeek magazine posts "Traditional Training Fades in Favor of E-Learning" (Feb 2000; 4 pp), which describes the merging of Knowledge Management and E-learning.
    • "In the fast-paced Internet economy, knowledge is a source of competitive advantage and must be ubiquitous and continuous."
    • "Knowledge management and e-learning are merging and leaving the traditional concept of classroom training behind."
  • Interactive keynote address by Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, "New Economy, New Education" at the June 2000 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC 2000). See also Intel's Education Destination website, which is "dedicated to supporting educators [who are] using technology to improve student learning," and an article on Intel's "Teach to the Future" program, a "worldwide technology education program to train 400,000 teachers in 1,000 days."
    • Barrett points out that the current market value of Intel, Microsoft and Cisco, largely developed in the last decade, is today about $1.3 trillion: more than the combined value of all the precious metals mined in the history of mankind. In a few years just three entrants in the knowledge industry have developed more value than millennia of natural resources development. Education needs to help prepare students to participate in this knowledge economy.
    • Motivating kids to learn has three ingredients. "If you can create a learning environment that fosters curiosity, one that challenges students and one that gives them some control over their learning and environment, the amount of time they'll spend [on that] subject matter and the retention of that subject matter goes up exponentially." Barrett elaborated on his optimism that technology can be used to achieve this better motivation and the associated results, and the necessity of technology literacy in doing that. "Everywhere [I travel], people are recognizing the same thing: you have to integrate this technology, you have to have technology literacy in your young people if you want to be successful."
  • Government Technology magazine posts in its July, 2000 edition, an article concerning a California initiative, "Education a la CART,"
    • "In partnership with education, business and community agencies the Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) will educate students and adults in a cross curricular, project-based environment that is academically rigorous and is facilitated through a business based instructional model."
    • Students will work several hours a week at CART in addition to their regular courses at school. They will develop their own proposals, work out their own solutions with help from mentors in business and government, and develop an understanding of real-world business and government practices which would be hard to duplicate in the classroom.
  • Suite 101 posts a good introductory article for teachers, "How to Succeed as an Online Facilitator." The article deals with skills and competencies, facilitation strategies, challenges, etc., all from the point of view of an experienced classroom teacher. They also post helpful articles and links pages. Their November, 2000 article "On-line Learning for Free?" provides some basic insight concerning "free" courses on the web.
  • The eSchool News On-line website posts an article "Maryland students use handheld computers to boost their productivity." The article focuses on the simpler handheld platform compared to laptops in use elsewhere. In an unrelated story, Greater Latrobe Junior High School students in Pennsylvania all use a modified, diskless laptop (project slides) connected via infrared beams to the school network. "Laptops for all at junior high," describes results compared to schools with labs and desktops. Writing scores are higher; otherwise, direct achievement improvements are elusive.
  • Paul Stacey has posted "E-Learning for the BC Tech Industry" on T-Net British Columbia. The article provides his "opinionated monthly column [from April, 2000] exploring the current use, future potential, and commercial value of e-learning in BC's high tech sector."
  • The World Wide Web Virtual Library hosts an Index on Distance Education with links to distance ed offerings, links to journals, newsletters and news groups, links to articles and organizations and related catalog listings.

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Commentaries on strategic, management and policy considerations

Below are links to commentaries on strategic, organizational, management and policy considerations, including the financial component and why e-learning is important. This component also includes some material on assessment/evaluation, mainly from financial and ownership perspectives.

  • The U.S. Web-based Education Commission has issued its December 2000 report, "The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice" (Table of Contents; Foreword and Executive Summary). The commission made significant recommendations to the President and congress, including the following:
    • Make powerful new Internet resources, especially broadband access, widely and equitably available and affordable for all learners.
    • Provide continuous and relevant training and support for educators and administrators at all levels.
    • Build a new research framework of how people learn in the Internet age.
    • Develop high quality online educational content that meets the highest standards of educational excellence.
    • Revise outdated regulations that impede innovation and replace them with approaches that embrace anytime, anywhere, any pace learning.
    • Protect online learners and ensure their privacy.
    • Sustain funding--via traditional and new sources--that is adequate to the challenge at hand.

  • "The question is no longer if the Internet can be used to transform learning in new and powerful ways. The Commission has found that it can. Nor is the question should we invest the time, the energy, and the money necessary to fulfill its promise in defining and shaping new learning opportunity. The Commission believes that we should. We all have a role to play. It is time we collectively move the power of the Internet for learning from promise to practice."

    • "The Commission believes a national mobilization is necessary, one that evokes a response similar in scope to other great American opportunities-or crises: Sputnik and the race to the moon; bringing electricity and phone service to all corners of the nation; finding a cure for polio."
  • Information Impacts Magazine posts "E-Learning: A Catalyst for Competition in Higher Education," an article by Walter Baer, Senior Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation. "[T]his article focuses on only one implication of E-learning: the acceleration of competition among higher education and training providers." The article also provides lots of links to the websites of e-learning providers and partnerships.
    • "The ability to offer E-learning broadly across time and distance blurs long-standing distinctions between higher education and post-secondary training, between degree and non-degree programs, and between nonprofit and for-profit providers of instruction."
    • "Like E-commerce generally, Internet-based E-learning shifts power from suppliers to customers ... ."
    • "E-learning also encourages the unbundling of different instructional elements: content development; course delivery; testing and evaluation; and administrative functions such as registration, payment and student record-keeping."
    • "For E-learning, as for other sectors of E-commerce, the Internet rewards those who enter early, adapt rapidly and are ready to seize opportunities as they arise."

  • As diagrammed to the right, the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) is collaborating with the Airline Industry CBT Committee, the Department of Defense Advance Learning Network and Educause's IMS project to establish requirements and technical standards for learning systems.
  • The American Council on Education (ACE) posts in its "Eye on Washington" section, "Developing a Distance Education Policy for 21st Century Learning" (March 2000; 12 pp.). Policy issues for learning institutions include:
    • intellectual property policy:
      • ownership of a distance education course,
      • institutional and faculty rights and responsibilities after a course is created,
      • faculty compensation, and
      • teaching-load and acceptance;
    • student access and privacy;
    • potential liabilities associated with distance education courses (including copyright infringement liability); and
    • accreditation and approvals beyond state and national borders.
  • Asynchronous Learning Networks (about) posts, in their Journal, "Higher Education in an Era of Digital Competition: Emerging Organizational Models" (1998; 20 pp) by Donald E. Hanna, Professor of Educational Communications, University of Wisconsin-Extension. Below are a few quotations from this excellent paper.
    • "Growing demand among learners for improved accessibility and convenience, lower costs, and direct application of content to work settings is radically changing the environment for higher education. ... This combination of demand, costs, application of content and new technologies is opening the door to emerging competitors and new organizations that will compete directly with traditional universities and with each other for students and learners."
    • "This paper describes and analyzes seven models of higher education organization that are challenging the future preeminence of the traditional model of residential higher education." The models are: (1) Extended traditional universities, (2) For-profit adult-centered universities, (3) Distance education/technology-based universities, (4) Corporate universities, (5) University/industry strategic alliances, (6) Degree/certification competency-based universities, and (7) Global multinational universities.
    • "Taken together, these organizational models are emerging as significant forces in providing education and training, and as powerful competitors to traditional universities."
    • "The thesis of this paper is that growth in worldwide demand for learning is combining with improved learning technologies to force existing universities to rethink their basic assumptions and marketing strategies. This new digital environment is further encouraging and enabling the creation of new and innovative organizational models of that are challenging traditional residential universities to change more quickly and dynamically."
    • "Throughout the industrial era, the [higher education] system has focused upon serving the educational needs of youth to prepare for a lifetime of work. Today it is clear that the future will involve a lifetime of learning in order to work."
  • The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology encourages and leads education improvement efforts "by helping educators, congressional leaders, and administrators utilize available resources ... in expanding and improving access to technology, and serves as a catalyst in bringing effective uses of education technology into classrooms across the nation."
  • Issues in Science and Technology, a publication of the National Academy of Sciences and others, posts in their National Academy Press, an opinion piece: "The Future of Higher Education: New Roles for the 21st-Century University," by James Duderstadt. The article points out that "changing times demand a new social contract between society and the institutions of higher education," and contains a suggested reading list.
    • "The nation is entering a new age--an age of knowledge--in which the key strategic resource necessary for prosperity has become knowledge itself."
    • "Worldwide communication networks have created an international market, not only for conventional products but also for knowledge professionals, research, and educational services."
    • "Ironically, the public expects not only the range of choice that a market provides but also the subsidies that make the price of a public higher education less than the cost of its provision."
    • "Most colleges and universities ... are evolving within the traditional definition of their role, according to the time-honored processes of considered reflection and consensus that have long characterized the academy. Is such glacial change responsive enough to allow the university to control its own destiny?"
    • "There are a number of themes that almost certainly will factor into some part of the higher education enterprise: (1) learner-centered, (2) affordable, (3) lifelong learning, (4) interactive and collaborative, (5) diverse, and (6) intelligent and adaptive."
  • The Kawartha Pine Ridge School Board is connecting Ontario students through the use of high-speed fibre communications lines provided by the Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs) and Ontario Hydro. Article is "Bringing Home The World."
  • The Malaysian National Information Technology Council's E-Learning Working Group Resources web page contains links to on-line resources, including "Report of the Working Group on Electronic Learning," which is available as an MS WORD v7 document.
    • "As a prime force in the shaping of the workplace of the next millennium, information and communication technologies will allow us to exploit the window of opportunity ... to re-shape teaching and learning towards the realization of a knowledge society."
    • "Properly managed, E-learning promises to fulfill the need to move education and learning into a new era of growth, commensurate with our progress to fully developed status. E-learning is the new engine of growth for education."

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Institutes, centers, research projects, etc.

Below are links to E-learning institutes, centers, research projects, programs and departments, mainly at universities. Links to more advanced and academic papers dealing with instructional, organizational, financial, management and ownership issues are also contained here, especially when they refer to the higher education context. This section contains links to a wide variety of resources describing the practical, theoretical and other aspects of e-learning, including examples, case studies, etc.

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Papers and articles at consultancies

Below are links to papers and articles at consultancies, and other links with mainly commercial or business considerations.

  • The Internet Time Group consultancy posts E-Learning (a brief introduction with links to several papers, PowerPoint slide presentations, etc.), and The E-Learning Page (an index of links to other websites, articles, papers, conferences, groups, mailing lists, etc.) dealing with e-learning. Their focus is on corporate learning rather than education.
    • "E-Learning is what corporate training can become in the next three to five years. It combines today's emergent best practices with a vision of loosely organized corporate ecologies, a business climate of permanent white water, breathtaking advances in technology, and a shift of power and responsibility from organizations to individuals."
    • "Personal portals connect us seamlessly to customers, colleagues, and learning resources. Smart systems and personalized [agents] track our preferences, performance, accomplishments, and learning signatures to recommend learning experiences we may enjoy. Collaborative filters suggest links enjoyed by others in one's professional and social communities."
    • "Collaboration, learning portals and skill snacks [will surely] have replaced industrial-age training [by 2002]."
    • "Learning styles and multiple intelligences are a given. Howard Gardner says that differences in learning style 'challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way.' While eLearning can't determine the right method to present this particular lesson to this individual, it does increase the odds of success by providing multiple paths for learning."
  • The Learning Space Foundation (about), in collaboration with the University of Washington, Washington State University, the Kent School District and others, posts on-line tutorials for teachers and much more.
  • TEAMS Distance Learning brings "exemplary learning opportunities to K-8 students, teachers, and parents across the United States through nationally televised satellite broadcasts and the Internet. Learners use instructional technologies to access a combination of the best features of time-dependent (synchronous) video-based instruction along with time-independent (asynchronous) computer access to multimedia and the Internet." TEAMS is a service of the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
  • Washington Technology magazine posts "Vendors See Virtual Classrooms as Real-Time Business," in which John Chambers is quoted saying that education would be the next killer application over the Internet. "Education over the Internet is going to be so big, it is going to make e-mail look like a rounding error," said Chambers, chief executive officer and president of Cisco Systems, the San Jose, Calif., networking equipment giant.
    • "[The] e-learning market [will] grow to $5.5 billion between now and 2002, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 95 percent."
  • The TELUS Learning Connection, an Educational Internet Alliance, "provides support for all Alberta teachers in the effective use of the Internet as a teaching resource and tool."
  • EdSurf, "The Online Distance Education Learning Resource for Adult Students," posts a News Center, listing current distance and e-learning headlines with links to articles, an "Adult Education: In the News" section with e-learning course offerings from universities and others, mailing lists, books, and more.
  • Lucas Learning creates software products that engage children in meaningful exploration and discovery. These products "place value on freedom, self-discovery, and choice -- not "the rules." Rather, the learner experience consists of kids doing, exploring, and creating. Learning takes place through interaction and direct experience, not simply by finding the "right answer." A teachers section provides lesson plans; and a parents section describes the challenge of providing a rich educational experience in the context of a computer game using Star Wars characters.
  • The U.S. Geological Survey posts "The Learning Web," with sections on Adventures in the Learning Web, Teaching in the Learning Web and Living in the Learning Web.

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Sources of Related Information

Most of these references are outside the City of Grande Prairie website, and are therefore linked so as to open a new window in your browser. To return here, just close the new wndow.

  • The on-line magazine Learning Circuits (about) has posted a couple of articles in the March 2000 issue dealing with emerging re-usable learning objects (RLOs) or re-usable information objects (RIOs). "Learning Object Pioneers" provides some informal case studies from Cisco, Honeywell and American Express; and "A Primer on Learning Objects" provides some of the background for re-usability and modularity.
    • "The fundamental particle of next-generation e-learning--the learning object--is in various stages of design, construction, and use by pioneering organizations."
    • "At the core [of Cisco's building block approach] is the re-usable information object (RIO), a learning nugget that contains content, practice, and assessment components.
      • Each RIO is defined as a concept, fact, process, principle, or procedure--and tagged appropriately.
      • Several RIOs--as few as five and as many as nine--are combined together to create a Reusable Learning Object (RLO).
      • If a RIO can be equated with an individual component of a learning objective, an RLO is the sum of RIOs needed to fulfill that objective.
      • Each RLO, which also includes introduction, summary, and assessment items, is designed to meet a learning objective."
    • "RLOs can be sequenced to create a full-blown course on a particular subject. And RIOs can be combined together to build custom RLOs that meet the needs of individual learners."
    • "Learning technology experts note that while the approach is theoretically sound, the proof in the pudding will be successful establishment of industry interoperability standards. Otherwise, they say, a learning object will be orphaned as soon as it strays from the database from which it came."

  • Learning Circuits also post "The Learning Management System Guess" - Tom Barron's comments about picking a system to handle registrations, scheduling, tracking, assessments, etc., for your learners (employees, customers and/or suppliers) and course offerings. Some systems also offer content creation, budget planning and tracking, financial and other reporting, equipment inventories, learner profiles and more. Most systems require customization; and pricing can be a zoo.

  • The eSchool News On-line magazine (about) is a commercial website that posts "school technology news and information that meet the specific needs of K-12 educators ... [including] news reporting, ... case histories and ... examinations of how technology and the internet are actually transforming K-12 education."
  • The Science Learning Network (about) is a "partnership among six science museums and Unisys Corporation that integrates educational resources offered by these science/technology centers with the power of telecomputing to provide new support for teacher development and science learning."
  • The Handbook of Engaged Learning Projects notes that "technology is an increasingly popular tool for learning. These classroom projects were designed by K-12 teachers to demonstrate engaged learning and effective use of technology." It was a collaborative effort involving Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Education Office and Friends of Fermilab.
  • The Lesson Stop, edited by Therese Sarah, contains an extensive archive of lesson plans and other freely available on-line resources. She also hosts the Lesson Stop Newsletter, with timely suggestions on many topics.
  • A non-credit awareness initiative, "LD In Depth" provides extensive information and education concerning learning disabilities in its Resource Guide.
  • Eduprise.com, an e-learning services company which assists higher education institutions and corporations in rapidly deploying e-learning systems (about), hosts a free biweekly mailing list "Need to Know" covering technology, education, and training in today's learning organizations. Their 13 Sept 2000 edition contains a summary of a Chronicle article, "Accreditation Guidelines Are on the Way," which points out that accreditation guidelines need to be flexible in terms of delivery while focusing on what is learned.
  • E-LearningPost hosts a daily page of "Daily Links to Corporate Learning, Community Building, Instructional Design, Knowledge Management, Personalization and more." The information is also available as a daily newsletter.
  • TeleCampus (about) posts links to a large variety of on-line course offerings from universities, colleges, corporations, etc., as does Petersons.com.
    • "It was Sally Tilousi who first dreamed up the idea of bringing broadband to Supai. The director of the village Head Start office, she is facing federal requirements to ensure that her teachers are all certified by 2005. Trouble is, only two Havasupai tribal members have ever graduated from college, Tilousi being one of them. The degree programs are far away in Flagstaff, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Family obligations and lean finances keep her staff rooted here."

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