Information and e-learning

Citation

Williams, P. and Quinsee, S. (2005), "Information and e-learning", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 57 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ap.2005.27657baa.001

Information and e-learning

E-learning is a subject that has fast become a “hot topic” for politicians and others involved within the education sector. Rapid advances in technology and increasingly cheaper hardware have meant that the potentials of e-learning appear to be more easily realised. Both the Department for Education and Science (DfES) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) released consultative e-learning strategies in 2003, illustrating that they regarded e-learning as more than just a mode of delivery but a key factor shaping the development and future of education for the next five to ten years. Universities too have been attempting to embrace the demand for new modes of learning facilitated via online technologies. As the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) study of 2003 (Browne and Jenkins, 2003) noted, now most universities have a campus-wide online learning environment and many have e-learning strategies. However, it is hard to find agreement as to what the actual nature of e-learning is. There is no common definition and even at times no common understanding of e-learning – does it encompass video and audio technologies; is it more than merely another way of delivering lectures to students; will it result in job losses and derelict campuses; what is the relationship between e-learning and content or knowledge management? Often institutional contexts and needs dictate the answers to these questions rather than a broader, common framework for the implementation and understanding of what e-learning means.

For library and information professionals the concepts behind online learning are often not new. Staff working in this sector have been used to technology driving forward or leveraging change and are often more responsive to the benefits of new ways of working. This is in contrast to many academic staff who regard the notion of technology leading pedagogic development as an anathema. Often, however, rather than the technology or pedagogy driving the educational agenda, they work hand-in-hand to enhance educational opportunities for all. Familiarity with online journals and databases gives information professionals a head start in embracing the challenges and potentials of utilising e-learning within the curriculum. E-learning can represent a unique opportunity for library and information professionals to become more involved with learning and teaching activities. It can foster the creation of new roles and cross-disciplinary teams. Library and information professionals are pivotal to ensuring that academics and students capitalise on the new wealth of online resources available to them and look for new methodologies of enhancing traditional teaching activities through greater access to resources. They also play a key role in ensuring that all users of online learning have the basic skills required of them to embrace the flexibility and independent learning that online technologies encourage.

In this special edition we have provided a snapshot of a number of key issues relating to online learning that will be of interest to the information professional. We move from considering changes in the literature and research on distance learning – now often conflated with online learning – to addressing issues of information management and institutional change. We also include articles which consider specific case studies as illustrative of the forms of research currently undertaken into the use and development of online learning in the curriculum. This diverse selection of articles illustrates the wide impact of e-learning and the myriad of areas that it encompasses. It helps explain why we cannot have a single, common definition of e-learning by representing the complexity of interrelationships that e-learning has. If we are truly successful in embedding e-learning into our day-to-day activities as academics, information professionals or students, then perhaps in five years time we may not even be using the term “e-learning” at all.

This special issue of Aslib Proceedings covers a multitude of issues related to e-learning. Williams and colleagues provide a review of the literature encompassing a number of these. It offers a short history of distance education, describing the media used, and reviews the literature on achievement, attitude, barriers to learning, and learner characteristics. The literature shows that using a variety of media, both to deliver pedagogic material and to facilitate communication does seem to enhance learning. Similarly, attitudinal studies appear to show that the greater number of channels offered, the more positive students are about their experiences. With regard to barriers to completing courses, demographic variables appear less predictive of completing an educational programme than life circumstances, attitude and the degree of social support received.

In contrast to this broad overview, various case studies are presented. Ali and Proctor describe how a group of English language schools in Pakistan (the “City School” consortium) ensured that all its pupils had access to the most modern of information and communication technologies (ICT) courses. The article discusses the decision to implement its “ICT revolution”, the nature of the programme, how it was organised, the materials required and the outcomes of its implementation including its outstanding success with pupils and their parents. ICT courses now integrate, effectively, subject teaching in a variety of subjects including, for example, geography, science, and mathematics. Older pupils use standard computer application packages and languages to develop more specific skills and abilities. Disadvantages are also acknowledged. These include the reduction in the school timetables of time given to subjects previously thought worthy of extended time. Inevitably, the children lose time previously given to such subjects as music, art, PE, etc.

Kendall’s paper is focused more on one particular “e-system” and its impact. This is an interactive online tutorial aiming to improve student citing and referencing practice. An action research approach was used, involving three cycles of activity. The first used a checklist to identify the most frequently occurring errors made by users. The results showed a high number of errors, despite the instruction received by students, and the need to start the tutorial at an unanticipated basic level. In the second cycle, the students’ performance was compared before and after using the tutorial. Usage was monitored through WebCT tracking facilities and usability testing undertaken. Results informed the third cycle, involving adoption of the tutorial as the standard departmental practice, further support for staff and students and more use of WebCT for other teaching. Improvements were found all round, showing what Kendall describes as a “qualified success” in the use of online learning for this purpose.

Quinsee and Sumner’s paper, also a case study, examines how introducing an institution-wide managed learning environment impacts on the processes of organisational change. City University was used as a case study interviews with leading members of the institution providing an exemplar of the change process and institutional plans for a future strategy. Research interviews with key decision-makers offered a valuable insight into the process of institutional change within the university. One of the most significant features of all these interviews was the recognition that institutional change is a complex evolutionary process. The over-arching message that came out was that the e-learning process, and the study itself, has made senior decision makers reflect on their role within the institution and the role of the managed learning environment (MLE) in this cycle of change – described in the paper as “one of the most truly revolutionary, unanticipated outcomes of the e-learning initiative”.

Akeroyd discusses the practical content management of information resources within the context of emerging e-learning systems, examining some approaches and asking questions about the validity of current thinking. Akeroyd argues that much of the debate over this topic has been at a technical level and is focussed on the specific issues of ensuring interconnections between resources identified in the learning domain and those held in learning resource repositories and elsewhere. Much learning, he asserts, is unstructured and open, and that students within HEIs will continue to need library portals to enable access to the totality of information resources that they require. In the same way, tutors will continue to search in an ad hoc way comprehensive library collections. Thus content stretches from the unstructured to the dynamic and free form, while learning can be precise, directed and dependent on the one hand and open and content free on the other.

Eynon reports the main findings arising from discussions with academics based in higher education institutions (HEIs) who use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning. The main themes discussed are: how ICTs are being used in academia; the motivations of academics to adopt ICTs in their teaching; the difficulties they have encountered when doing so, and the factors that may influence the further adoption of new technologies in higher education.

A clear motivating factor for academics was to use ICTs to enhance the educational experience in some way and to overcome some of the difficulties associated with teaching ever-greater numbers of students. Academics highlighted the need for greater collaboration with software developers in order that future programmes and technologies would be developed that could accommodate the varied demands of educators. They felt they should have a greater role in shaping institutional strategies in this area; and a prescriptive “top down” strategy was thought to have a potentially damaging effect on the future adoption of ICTs for teaching and learning.

Importantly, Eynon also explores non-use of electronic resources. She concluded that non-use was not simply down to practical issues, but that there may be other good reasons, such as a lack of student demand, and inappropriateness of subject matter. What is apparent is how important local context is in the use (or non use) of ICTs for teaching and learning and that academics need to be part of the process when developing future policy and technological developments in e-learning.

Finally, Andretta examines the competences associated with e-learning under the umbrella of information literacy, on the premise that e-learning needs to be underpinned by information literacy skills to foster independent learning, predispose the students towards a lifelong-learning attitude, and equip them to deal effectively with information overload. Implications of implementing an information literacy policy are explored from the point of view of the information literacy tutor or educator working within the higher education environment. The UK perspective on e-learning is also presented and compared to other national approaches. Andretta asserts that the British Government aims to foster the type of lifelong learning skills associated with the information literacy approach. However, a comparison between the UK e-learning model and the information literacy education initiatives in other English-speaking countries illustrates a need for the UK to implement a more cohesive information literacy policy.

Peter WilliamsCIBER, School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London (peter.williams@ucl.ac.uk)Susannah QuinseeE-Learning Unit, City University, London (s.quinsee@city.ac.uk)