In 2000, Goldman Sachs Global Equity Research recommended e-learning to potential investors “as an emerging industry that utilizes high technology to provide and administer corporate training, higher education, and K-12 education. Its rapid growth is propelled by the Internet and the enormous opportunity embedded in global education” (Derman, Parekh, Berquist, Elliott, & Chung, 2000, p. 3). Though considered a high-risk investment, the pay-off in the past 10 years has proven to be worth the risk for many of those who invested in the companies recommended by the 2000 Goldman Sachs Equity Research team.
As technology has continued to revolutionize much of the way people live, work, play, and learn, terminologies also continue to emerge to define the techno-existence of people in the 21stCentury. The purpose of this paper is to explore three definitions of e-learning to better understand what it is and how its use is contributing to adult education.
Definition One
According to the Ageless Learner website (2006) “E-learning is the unifying term to describe the fields of online learning, web-based training, and technology-delivered instruction” (para 1). E-learning is a noun in this broad definition that leaves room for diverse interpretation and speculation. The website expounds by adding “Internet-enabled learning…use of network technologies…delivery of...learning content in real time” (Ageless Learner, 2006, para. 4) and explains that e-learning should be learner-centered rather than technology-centered because the purpose is learning, not technology.
This author wonders if this definition is limited to what the Internet can provide. “Technology-delivered instruction” could encompass other media, but the website does not further illustrate anything other than Internet-based technologies, so it is unclear if other media are implied or intended.
Definition Two
According to Bennet and Bennet (2008) “eLearning is any virtual act or process used to acquire data, information, skills or knowledge. In the context of our research, eLearning is enabled learning, learning in a virtual world where technology merges with human creativity to accelerate and leverage the rapid development and application of deep knowledge” (Definitions, para 10). This definition uses e-learning as a verb; in other words, e-learning is something a person does. Technology is a means of transportation that facilitates the act of learning.
This definition, though more wordy than definition one, is still broad, and leaves readers to speculate many possibilities of “virtual processes”. Definition one emphasizes Internet or online, whereas definition two emphasizes a virtual world. This author believes a virtual world may be online but is not necessarily so. She has played a computer-generated virtual game in real-time but that was not Internet.
Definition Three
According to the Ministry of Education in Wellington, New Zealand (n.d.) “e-Learning refers to formal and non-formal education that uses electronic delivery methods such as internet-based learning delivery packages, CD-ROM, online video conferencing, websites or email to manage the relationship between teacher and learners” (Definitions, para 7). This definition is written as it relates to post-secondary education. As in definition one, e-learning is used as a noun. Unlike definitions one and two, definition three emphasizes electronic, the “e” in e-learning, and lists several types of electronic means, including the Internet and online as in definition one, plus email, video conferencing, and a non-online source, CD-ROM. One distinction of this definition from the other two is the additional comment of teachers and learners using e-learning technologies to manage their online relationships (Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand, n.d.).
Synthesized Definition
This author believes e-learning is a combination of all of the above definitions, including the observation by the Goldman Sachs Global Equity Research team in 2000. Borrowing from the inspiration provided by the Ageless Learner website (2006), Bennet and Bennet (2008), the Ministry of Education at Wellington, New Zealand (n.d.), and Derman, Parekh, Berquist, Elliott, and Chung of the Goldman Sachs Global Equity Research Team of 2000, plus this author’s personal ideas of what constitutes e-learning, this author offers the following as a personal definition: E-learning is an innovative, emerging branch of formal and informal learning that is evolving to meet the modern needs of a technologically advancing world through means of electronic delivery methods. Those methods include Internet (which includes online courses, podcasts, video conferencing, discussion forums, blogs, and email); internal networks; CDs, MP3s or DVDs and other digital audio and video files; simulation programs; and mobile-enhanced programs (including PDAs and mobile phones [with audio and texting capabilities]). Some of these means are interactive and many exist in ‘virtual’ real-time. E-learning uses technology in many ways to enable learners to acquire, develop, and apply knowledge, skills, data, or information.
Conclusion
E-learning encompasses a broad range of concepts and components and is not easily defined in a rapidly evolving technological world. E-learning is both a branch of learning (noun) and an action performed by learners (verb). Computers, the Internet, mobile devices, CD, MP3, and DVD players are some of the electronic modes that make up the “e” in e-learning. Formal distance educational opportunities are expanding and maturing as technologies advance in the 21stCentury. This author could not locate a definition for e-learning in a bound dictionary with copyrights as recent as 2009, but an Internet search netted nearly eight million results (Google, 2010). This paper examined three of those definitions, and integrated their ideas into a synthesized, personal definition of e-learning.
References
Ageless Learner. (2006). e-Learning. Retrieved from http://agelesslearner.com/ intros/elearning.html
Bennet, A. & Bennet, D. (2008). Mountain quest institute. Mountain Quest Institute. Retrieved from http://mountainquestinstitute.com/definitions.htm
Derman,D., Parekh, M., Berquist, T.P., Elliott, C., & Chung, C.J. (2000) Internet e-learning:
United States. Goldman Sachs Global Equity Research. Retrieved from
Google. (2010). Google: Definition of e-learning.
Retrieved from http://google.com/Search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF8&rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS356US356&q=definition+e-learning
Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand. (n.d.). Profile & Trends: Finding out more about tertiary education.
Retrieved from http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/ publications/series/2531/54560/2
Definition of e-Learning
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