History of E-Learning:
1. pre-1983
a) Classroom-based learning
 Fixed: in a classroom, at a given time, with an instructor and classmates
 High costs: travelling, accommodation; downtime in office hours
b) Traditional distance learning
 Distance education traces its origins to mid-19th century Europe and the United States.
 Use of postal system
 People who most benefited from such correspondence education included those with
physical disabilities, women who were not allowed to attend educational institutions,
people who had jobs during normal school hours, and those who lived in remote regions
where schools did not exist.
 1840, Isaac Pitman, Bath, England: started to teach shorthand by correspondence via the
new penny post system.
 1873, Anna Ticknor – "mother of American correspondence study": established the
Society to Encourage Studies at Home to provide educational opportunities for women.
c) Electronic support for distance learning
 The invention of educational radio in the 1920s and the advent of television in the 1940s
created important new forms of communication for use in distance education.
 Lectures, educational programs on TV, radio
 Through the use of video- and audiotapes
2. 1990 – 1999: Custom CBT (Computer Based Training)





E-learning began as CBT, meaning standalone CD-ROM training courses
Minority of the courses were well-designed, innovative, highly participatory, engaging,
instructionally effective; they contained simulations, user-controlled videos, animations,
audio-visual slideshows
BUT the majority of CBTs were created by programmers and lacked instructional design
components  it was soon realised that a teaching degree might be an asset when creating
e-learning solutions
Anywhere, anytime, no instructor is needed
Did not face the bandwidth problem that web-based training does
BUT


Very expensive: developed for a specific company, people, needs etc.
Very slow to develop: for a good course of 4 hours of seat time – 8-10 months is needed
(from initial needs analysis to final product)


Static, Monolithic: too difficult and expensive to modify (update) once they were finished and
deployed – authoring tools were programming languages, and the resulting courses were
unique software programmes.  it becomes quickly obsolete
Impossible for organisations to track user's performance
3. 1994 – 1999: Packaged CBT



pre-packaging CBT training courses and selling them on a mass scale (no customisation)
They typically provided IT skills training and some desktop-computing skills training
It is more cost effective that custom CBT and packaged IT training courses can be quite
effective
BUT

Business/professional skills have to be industry/business specific and customisable  for
these custom CBT is better even if it costs more
4. The rise of the Learning Management System (LMS)

Customers realised that they had significant numbers of high-cost, high-promise CD-ROM
courses going out to all sorts of location, but no one knew whether they were really used and
what impact they had 
A new feature appeared: student administration and data reporting
system



Automates the administration of CD-ROM based (and even Webbased) training
Launches and tracks CBT courses
Reports on the results (how many people used and for how long,
result of the tests etc.)

Learning Management System: attempt to administer, manage,
track and report on skills, classroom training and CBT across the
enterprise + helps to form learner communities (via the use of
chats, forums, e-mail etc.)
BUT it needs strict standards so that different content sources
readily plug-and-play on any administrative technology platform
(LMS)
5. 1999 – everyone moves to the Web, WBT



1999 is a breakout year for advances both in content and technology related to e-learning
Internet appears in the 80s and starts to spread in the early 90s: CBT  WBT (Web-based
training)
Most of the e-learning companies moved to Web technologies as quickly as possible.

Basic drivers for this transition:





Web-based training helped to justify the cost of the Internet
Learning could be taken anywhere anytime (No CD-ROMs are needed to be
distributed and stored, updated etc.)
The life of the course can be easily extended, content can easily be modified and
updated – it must be implemented once on a server (the training workstations do
not need to be updated one by one)
Central LMS management and control via easy-to-establish Web connections
enables training across the enterprise
But there were downsides of WBT as well:



Limited engineering technologies for Web-server based courses shot down much
of the interactive and instructional richness compared to CD-ROM courses.
Bandwidth continued to be a problem, server latency, network congestion
Wait times interrupted the learning experience.
6. The present


Technological advances (Java/IP network applications, high-bandwidth access) are
revolutionising the training industry:
high-quality, interactive, effective courses with simulations, live ILT via
the Web etc.
LMSs became the data-management backbone of e-learning, "making e-learning happen".
Theoretical background – Constructivism
Another factor that affected e-learning during the 1990s was the growing interest in constructivism.
According to Constructivism, learners are required to
a)
b)
c)
d)
solve complex and realistic problems (e.g. simulations)
work together to solve those problems (e.g. live e-learning)
examine the problems from multiple perspectives
take ownership of the learning process (e-learning allows the learner more control
over his/her learning experience – you can do it anytime, anywhere, at your own
pace, choose what you need, choose the depth of the course etc.)
e) become aware of their own role in the knowledge construction process
Instruction is becoming more learner-centred, non-linear and self-directed. Student's responsibility is
emphasised.
Learning happens via meaningful experiences and direct encounters.