By Tony Bates. E-Learn–World Conference on E-Learning is an international conference organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) and co-sponsored by the International Journal on E-Learning. More...

By Tony Bates. No institution can now afford to ignore demographics in its strategic planning, and in no area is this more true than in plans for online learning. Traditional distance education (print-based and until very recently, online distance education) has mainly attracted older students with already some experience of higher education. It has been seen as an ideal area for continuing professional education, and the growth of online professional masters degrees is evidence in support of this belief. More...

By Tony Bates. If you have read all previous nine posts in this series, you should now be aware of the following:

1. Online learning can be done well, or it can be done badly.
2. Online learning is a professional activity, with evidence-based best practices. You need to be aware of these best practices if you want to succeed in your online teaching.
3. There are certain conditions where online learning is likely to work, and others where it will be difficult to succeed.
4. You need then to choose the appropriate mix of online and face-to-face learning, dependent on the context in which you are working.
5. There are many different approaches and technologies that can be used in online learning. The best choices will depend on your specific learning context but you need to be aware of the choices.
6. Moving to online learning opens the opportunity to rethink the design of your teaching; indeed you will need to change from a lecture-type approach to a more interactive learning approach if you are to succeed online.
7. It is important to work with professional instructional designers and media producers if you want a high quality online course or program.
8. The technology, and to a lesser extent, the pedagogy of online learning continues to evolve.
9. Thus although, at least in the beginning, it is important to follow best past practices, you also need to be aware of new developments and the potential for innovation in your online teaching.
10. Really, in the future, online learning will not be considered different or separate from ‘teaching’. It will be an integrated, normal component of all teaching. So you might as well get to learn to use it well as soon as possible. More...