A Moving Target: eLearning Vendors Take Aim in a Changing Environment
Everyone knows that technology d'esn’t stand still. But eLearning companies
are busily vying for their share of a very crowded market. How do you define
this space? Frequent new product launches, company alliances, and changing interpretations
of product categories may keep us guessing for some time to come.
The online learning product landscape is changing. Products are morphing into
new “shapes”; companies are acquiring their competitors to expand
functionality; users are finding themselves looking at learning management systems
(LMS) that are enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that are application
service providers (ASP) that are community portals... and so on. Faculty who
simply want to put courses or course components online have to wade through
a host of available choices.
The labels can be confusing: course management systems, learning management
systems, competency management systems, portals, Web-based instruction, collaboration
tools.... To further complicate matters, one person’s definition of any
of these might be different from someone else’s. What exactly is eLearning?
What differentiates a learning management system from a course management system?
To help make sense of the eLearning landscape, we’ve taken a snapshot
of today’s market—a brief inventory of eLearning companies who offer
products in four broad categories (see table, page 30). As a guide to understanding
the product categories and related technologies, we’ve also provided a
basic glossary (page 32) of current online learning labels, standards acronyms,
and buzzwords.
Toward a Common Understanding
To encourage some common application of terms and functions, standards groups
have been diligently working to develop standards for eLearning products. Ideally,
these standards will allow for interoperability of eLearning components, such
as quizzes and tests, content modules, and student records and data. Standards
should allow users to share and manage their learning content and data regardless
of the product with which the material was created.
For the purpose of our online learning product inventory, we use the term eLearning
as a general, over-arching category for online learning tools, products, and
systems. The eLearning market space can best be described by outlining major
functions. Below are some of the things eLearning products can do for teaching
and learning. They allow instructors to:
- Organize and catalog learning resources for retrieval as needed by learners.
- Perform needs assessment of students’ skills to determine possible
areas for remediation and to provide a starting point for instruction.
- Present course material (text, graphics, and links to external sites and
materials such as CD-ROM-and-textbook Web sites).
- Provide uniform training materials with single-point rollout and update
them (instructors can more easily make changes to a single Web “workbook”
than update numerous printed workbooks).
- Tailor delivery of course material to meet individual student needs.
- Track student progress through material.
- Provide anytime/anyplace access to course material. (An exception to this
is synchronous communication, such as shared whiteboards, text or audio chat,
and group browsing—all of which require that participants be logged in
at the same time.)
- Relegate to an asynchronous environment items and tasks that can (and perhaps
should) be done outside of class, thereby enhancing F2F class time.
- Create visually appealing interfaces to courses and training, allowing for
branding.
- Evaluate student progress.
With products merging and vendors offering a myriad of services besides the
simple delivery of learning materials online, back-end functionalities are becoming
more prominent. In many cases, the true value of the new alliances cannot be
fully realized unless an institution decides to wholly embrace a particular
product or product line. Then the back-end functionality—ease of access,
seamless integration with student records, smooth interface between tasks—can
be fully appreciated.
To an individual instructor, the usefulness of many of the “new and improved”
features may not be clearly apparent at first. As in the “olden days”
of Web-based instruction (the mid-to-late 90s), it is again becoming important
for instructors to communicate with their network administrators and academic
administrators to help determine which products are truly going to provide a
good return on investment.
While the instructors’ needs may be simply for an online course manager,
the back-end features (such as a smooth—perhaps even real-time—interface
with the registrar’s computing system, single log-in portal access for
students to their financial and other records, and minimal IT maintenance and
overhead) are all considerations that might impact which particular product
or suite of products is best for deployment at a given institution.
Issues for Teaching and Administration Shape the Market
Administrators often see adoption of eLearning as potentially providing access
to new or larger off-site markets. But, what they don’t always realize
is that online courses, at least the way they are created and delivered in most
higher education environments, involve increased interactivity among faculty
and students, resulting in increased workloads for faculty.
eLearning implementations may, in such cases, actually result in a potential
reduction in the number of students that can be served effectively by an individual
faculty member. And while such interactivity can arguably result in better learning,
it d'es not necessarily result in cheaper learning. Finding an eLearning solution
that efficiently integrates with existing back-end systems can minimize some
of the additional workload.
How can instructors be creative with eLearning? To answer that question, it
might help to first look at the more typical uses of eLearning products, such
as consolidation of access to online resources (bibliographies, Web sites, journals,
and articles), communication via e-mail, and discussion of course material asynchronously
outside of F2F class time.
While these are certainly good uses of eLearning technology, there are those
who are embracing the opportunity to rethink how they have traditionally taught
material. In the process, they are coming up with creative ways of having students
interact with the material that would not have been possible without eLearning.
They are designing courses that allow for specified release of information
and learning modules based upon performance criteria: once a student has shown
mastery of a particular topic, subsequent topics are automatically released.
Instructors are providing pre-F2F class preparation via self-tests and automated
feedback. They are having individuals or groups search for Web sites and resources
and create annotated Webliographies to share with others. They are creating
collaborative environments for learners, utilizing one or more features such
as synchronous application and document sharing, group browsing with audio voice-over,
whiteboards, and two-way audio and video.
The accompanying eLearning inventory may help you appreciate the evolving nature
of eLearning. It includes 30 of the current eLearning players. It is not an
inclusive list, and it d'es not reflect endorsement of particular products.
It is provided simply as a means of helping readers understand what types of
products are out there and possibly as a starting point for comparison. Products
are listed with their associated URLs and include a few descriptive words from
the companies’ own Web sites.
|
Course
Management |
Learning
Management System |
Portal |
Turnkey |
What they
say about themselves... |
ANGEL (CyberLearning
Labs Inc.)
www.cyberlearninglabs.com |
C |
|
|
|
helps educators
manage course material and communicate quickly, easily, and effectively |
Anlon Academic
www.anlon.com |
|
C |
|
|
technology-enhanced
campus courses in highly accelerated time frames |
Aspen Enterprise
Learning Platform (Click2Learn)
www.click2learn.com
|
|
C |
|
|
helps to deliver
information, instruction, and performance support to employees, partners,
and customers |
Blackboard
www.blackboard.com
|
C |
C |
C |
|
enterprise
software products and services that power a total e-Education Infrastructure |
Campus
Pipeline
www.campuspipeline.com
|
3 |
3 |
C |
C |
software and
services to help institutions of higher education direct and build their
version of a unified digital campus |
Convene
www.convene.com |
|
C |
|
|
placing training,
dynamic information, key documents and more into the right hands at the
right moment |
Collegis
www.collegis.com |
3 |
3 |
3 |
C |
comprehensive
services to help colleges and universities manage their technology and provide
focused, turnkey continuing education programs
|
eCollege.com
www.ecollege.com |
C |
C |
C |
C |
eCollege designs,
builds, and supports high quality online degree, certificate/diploma and
professional development programs for colleges, universities, school districts,
and state departments of education |
eSocrates
www.esocrates.com |
|
C |
|
|
allows companies
to leverage their employee knowledge to improve business processes, operational
efficiency, and employee performance |
eWebUniversity.com
www.eWebUniversity.com
|
C |
C |
C |
C |
develops proprietary
technology that enables and enhances…online learning |
Education
to Go
www.educationtogo.com
|
3 |
3 |
3 |
C |
to provide
students who are unable to access traditional classrooms with flexible and
affordable courses of the highest quality |
Educator
(Ucompass.com)
www.ucompass.com |
|
C |
|
|
content
delivery and publishing, communication, and evaluation capabilities |
Element
K
www.elemenk.com |
|
C |
|
|
best-in-class
content, a state-of-the-art LMS and responsive, knowledgeable service |
Embanet
www.embanet.com |
3 |
3 |
3 |
C |
integrator
of scalable eLearning solutions…hosts Angel, Blackboard, First Class,
IntraLearn, Prometheus, and WebCT |
First Class
(Centrinity)
www.centrinity.com
|
C |
C |
C |
|
enables educational
institutions to improve overall communications and the collaborative process
among educators, students, and the community |
IntraLearn
www.intralearn.com
|
C |
C |
|
|
combines the
functionality of expensive LMS's into a single enterprise-class, field-configurable
software application |
Jenzabar
www.jenzabar.com |
C |
|
C |
C |
single log-on
entry point providing an intelligent, integrated, and Internet solution
for your campus |
JonesKnowledge.com
www.jonesknowledge.com
|
3 |
3 |
3 |
C |
scalable,
online course management and delivery platform, hosted on Jones' servers,
with 24/7 technical support |
LearnerWeb
(MaxIT)
www.maxit.com |
|
C |
|
|
automates
the training management function |
LearningSpace
(Lotus)
www.lotus.com |
C |
|
C |
C |
distance learning
platform integrating live, asynchronous and self-paced content delivery |
Mentorware
www.mentorware.com
|
|
C |
|
|
infrastructure
support for the entire eLearning lifecycle |
Southrock
www.southrock.com
|
|
C |
|
|
Web-based
technology to manage the entire learning process |
SCT
www.sct.com |
3 |
3 |
3 |
C |
end-to-end
solutions that...support higher education's administration of teaching and
learning |
The Learning
Manager (TLM Corp.)
www.thelearningmanager.com
|
|
C |
|
|
