Directions for Future Research in On-line Distance Education
More detailed study of the range of research into online learning currently being conducted with an eye toward the identification of future trends. More...

500 Courses Now Available
MIT's Open Courseware project has now reached the 500 course plateau, including a nifty logic course that's guaranteed to pickle your brain. More...

e-Learning: Emerging Issues and Key Trends
Good summary report on trends in e-learning, including the greater emphasis on quality, wider adoption and influence of standards and learning objects, and the growing acceptance of blended learning. Makes recommendations regarding Australia's Flexible Learning Framework, suggesting it should begin to focus more on process rather than product. More...

Teaching Courses Online: How Much Time Does It Take?
Everyone knows that it takes a lot of time to teach online, but just how much time is that, really? That's what this study proposes to answer, and the answer is: "between 3 ½ and 7 hours per week" for classes of 25 students. More...

Online Learning 03 Monday
Jay Cross is blogging Online Learining 03 in Los Angeles. Today's installment includes a summary of a talk by RIchard Saul Wurman, a survey of mobile learning technology, and a number of photos. I don't know why people say "Cool is dead." Cool is not dead. Cool is where opportunity lies - though to be sure the terrain is not for everyone. More...

Thirty-two Trends Affecting Distance Education: An Informed Foundation for Strategic Planning
The title of this piece is interesting - I think I'll start plugging my own work in the titles ("a amart review of learning", "a wise critique of metadata..."). I also consider the methodology odd, consisting as it does of (mostly) citations in offline sources. More...

e-Learning Forum Wiki
The e-learning Forum has a wiki. A wiki is a site like any other website, but is unique in that anyone may edit and add to the contents. This wiki appears to have been around for a few months but most activity has been in the last few weeks. More...

Dollar Benefits of E-Learning
The evidence is this: "We launched a complex product a year ago, and we found that sales folks who'd completed all four e-learning modules had sold 25 units in a 30 day period while those who hadn't averaged 17 units in the same period of time." Sales folk? Oh well. More...

The 2017 national survey of online learning in Canadian post-secondary education: methodology and results

Tony Bates, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2018/08/03

This article (17 page PDF) summarizes the process and results of the 2017 pan-Canadian survey on online learning. The main result: "Online learning and distance education were clearly alive and well in Canada in 2017." That said, "most institutions reported that lack of adequate resources was a major barrier to online learning. More...

What Are Narrative Podcasts? Why Use Them in eLearning?
Jeff D'Anza, Learning Solutions, 2018/08/01
Narrative podcasts have their predecessors on radio newsmagazine shows and I've heard a bunch of them on CBC shows such as The Doc Project, Out in the Open, Now or Never, and Podcast Playlist. "They tend to lean more heavily on production effects, such as the use of music and sound effects, as well as narrative storytelling techniques such as multiple characters, scene setting, backstory, hooks, framing devices, and cliffhangers." I hate them because they're really hard to do well and so often not done well. More...