Key issues debated at the Tata Interactive Systems' Higher Education Forum
E-learning specialists from higher education institutions including the London School of Economics, the Open University, De Montfort University, Cranfield University and Imperial College, London, debated key issues relating to e-learning within the higher education sphere at the Tata Interactive Systems Higher Education Forum.
E-learning specialists from a number of higher education institutions including the London School of Economics, the Open University, De Montfort University, Cranfield University and Imperial College, London, debated key issues relating to e-learning within the higher education sphere at the Tata Interactive Systems Higher Education Forum. The Forum took place at the Tanaka Business School within Imperial College, London, at the end of March.
David Lefevre, senior learning technologist at the Tanaka Business School, began proceedings by outlining the lessons that his organisation had learnt from implementing pre-study e-learning programmes allied to its accounting courses.
Harish Ravat, a senior lecturer in the faculty of business and law at De Montfort University, examined the use and value of e-learning in the context of four types of online assessment:
• Diagnostic - to find out what students know.
• Formative - to support the students.
• Summative - to use the assessment as part of the students' final marks.
• Synoptic - correlating each test's result with the student's marks for his/her entire programme of study.
The third speaker, Toby Thompson, of the Centre for Executive Development at the Cranfield School of Management - part of Cranfield University - explored the 'knowledge interface frontier'.
"Those involved in e-learning are operating at the 'frontier' because this technology is still relatively new," said Thompson. "And, as history teaches us, living on a frontier can be dangerous.
"There are still many unanswered questions about e-learning, such as where is its place within 'learning'; who owns it, and who should own it?
"We - the academics - tend to be the problem," he added. "We are used to operating in lecture theatres, which are designed to be operated by an 'expert' - and our students expect to be 'taught' - yet these are foreign concepts when it comes to e-learning.
"This technology is helping times to change. E-learning is helping students to move from being the consumers to being the producers of the 'learning product'," Thompson said.
"We are getting a new type of student - who is completely 'at home' with technology," agreed Ravat, "and, having experienced e-learning at primary and secondary school, these students want to continue using e-learning in higher education. However, today's academics may not be geared up to meeting the needs of this new type of student."
"Our experience of e-learning is highly positive," Lefevre pointed out, "and, among its 'side benefits', is that it has streamlined our administration. Faculty, administrators and students all now have access to a particular online course whenever they want it - thus reducing queries and, consequently, administration workload.
"Since introducing e-learning programmes as pre-course study material for the Business School's students on both accounting and MBA courses - and allowing the students access to online tutors to help them - our lecturers have been impressed by the significant decline in students' 'silly questions' which waste time in class."
The Tanaka Business School turned to Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) to build the online courseware for its 'Weekend MBA' programme. The programme comprises a number of 'cycles' within two blocks of study and each cycle begins with online learning, followed by a period of classroom-delivered learning and, finally, the application of that learning in a practical setting.
"We use e-learning to teach the basic facts before the students come to class," said Lefevre. "We've been delighted with the quality and content of TIS's work - and there is no question that it is being highly effective helping the students to learn what they need to learn."
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