It is difficult to write a short guide to e-learning technology - particularly to software applications for e-learning. The whole area is subject to rapid change and development with new programmes being brought out every month. And it is hard to define just what is educational software. Some of the best e-learning programmes I have seen have used ordinary business or communications applications. All I can do here is to point to a few of the more commonly used programmes and try to give a feel for the field. For me pedagogic design is much more important than software but it is certainly true to say that all applications enable or hinder particular pedagogic approaches to a greater or lesser extent. Although much is talked about user friendliness (with many disagreements as to just what this means), my experience suggests users will persevere with the most dreadfully designed systems if they really have the motivation to use them. What is important is that the systems work - there is nothing as discouraging for the first time user of an e-learning system to find that it does not work (and this happens all to often).

Firstly I will look at internet based systems. Up to five years or so ago, most e-learning programmes were being delivered by CD ROM and although there is still a great deal of learning materials being produced and distributed through CDs, most e-learning programmes today use the internet.

9.1 Internet based learning technologies

Most e-learning systems use the World Wide Web for delivering hyperlinked content. Many systems have some form of editor for creating and editing content and many have a content management system (CMS) for managing content. Content varies greatly in design and interactivity. I will look at this issue a little more in the section on e-learning content.

Discussion and Communication

Most e-learning programmes use some kind of systems for communication and discussion. These can vary greatly between basic email to group bulletin boards and collective work areas.

In practice how much these facilities are used varies greatly, much being dependent on the pedagogic design of the programme. I have seen complex e-learning sites with little discussion taking place on the bulletin board areas, On the other hand I have seen entire e-learning programmes being delivered using just group communication software - or groupware.

On-line tests

Many e-learning technologies allow students to participate in on-line tests - often in multiple choice format. Many also have some form of programme to allow teachers and trainers to create tests and provide feedback to learners on how they have done.

Simulations

Simulations are an increasingly popular form of learning software. Of course, they vary greatly in complexity. Some can be quite simple like for designing and testing electrical circuits; another common application is simulation of controls of machinery. Airlines use complex simulators for training pilots and simulations are commonly used in the medical field and for complex or dangerous applications and working environments.

Scenarios

There are many learning applications developed around scenarios. Learners are invited to respond to a particular scenario or situation and depending on their response, the application then poses new problems or issues to confront.

Virtual environments

A growing area is the provision of entire virtual environments for students to explore and to undertake different tasks. These environments may be simulations or may more resemble games than learning software.

Games

Educationalist have become increasingly interested in the potential of games as a learning environment. A friend of mine is presently developing a learning application allowing engineering students to design, tune and race cars on the internet.

Web logs

Web logs - commonly known as blogs - allow individuals to publish their own web sites with easy to use interfaces and tools. At first they were seen as web based diaries but as blogging has spread, many new educational uses have been developed. As well as individual blogs it is now easy to set up class or group blogs.

Portfolios

There are an increasing number of products for learners to create and maintain their own portfolio of learning achievement.

9.2 Managing Learning

The applications listed above are all for delivering learning. There are also many applications for managing learning. Many of these are for registering and tracking students, for permitting access to different areas and for setting permissions to functionality etc.

One area of growing importance is programmes for sequencing learning. Increasingly e-learning courses are not being produced as one big block of content but as smaller objects - often called learning objects - which are held in a database. Sequencing tools then allow e-learning designers to put together different learning objects to meet the needs of particular learners or groups of learners. Reusing leaning materials can save much money.

Another increasingly common learning management application is materials repositories. These are just what they say - databases providing access to different learning materials and learning objects.

The use of standards is very important in allowing reuse of learning materials. For more about this see the section on standards, below.

Of course there are many more functions built in to most e-learning systems which are beyond the scope of this guidebook. One hidden, but very important, function is user authentication - allowing the system to know who the user is and to distribute that information to other parts of the system.

9.3 Learning Management Systems

Obviously, any particular e-learning programme is quite likely to combine a number of the different applications listed above.

Over the last few years Learning Management Systems (LMSs) or Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) for e-learning have become very popular. Learning Management Systems or Virtual Learning Environments are essentially integrated suites of software providing a variety of functionality for managing learning, developing and storing learning materials, developing learning programmes and enabling communication.

Baumgartner et al (2002) put forward the following features as the key constituents of an LMS:

• It is browser-accessible. The Learning Management System should be based on a standard-protocol (TCP/IP) and a standard web browser.
• The learner can interact via the browser with the teacher, the system and other learners. Also, the authoring options as the learning management features can be operated without any plug-ins/viewers/additional products.
• There are basic features for administration and the administration of users can be administrated. The system must offer an authentication feature. The system must offer rights managements for roles, groups, and permissions. The system must be multilingual.
• Communication must be supported electronically both within roles and between roles. There are basic features for at least authoring of tests and assessment. There are features for course management, and content management.

There are literally hundreds of LMS or VLE systems to choose from, all claiming to offer one or more unique features and varying hugely in price. There are also a growing number of excellent, free Open Source VLEs (see section of Open Source below).

Personally, I have mixed feelings about LMS and VLE systems. On the one hand, they do make it very easy to set up and manage as e-learning course. On the other hand they incorporate far more functions than most SMEs would require to meet their learning needs and it can often be quite difficult to move from one platform to another. Some of the best e-learning practice that I have seen relies of very simple software such as group email or web logs.

9.4 Don't forget everyday business applications

With a little imagination, many learning needs can be met using everyday business applications like word-processors or spreadsheets. This is especially so if it is these applications that are the subject of learning! And for communication, email remains a powerful, ubiquitous, standards compliant tool, stunningly easy to use and very cheap!

CD ROMs and 'stand alone' applications

There are still many learning applications available that do not need a web interface. Of course without access to the internet, electronic communication is limited, but these applications can be used in addition to web based learning systems, used by learners working on their own or used in conjunction with face to face teaching.

One of the most common uses of CD ROMs is for language learning. But there are many other covering all kinds of different subject areas. CD ROMs can be particularly useful for accessing information about products or for dictionaries and encyclopaedias.

As storage devices become more powerful, some have predicted we will all be able to carry round our own personal learning environments stored on a memory stick. The memory stick will not only contain our personal data, but also all the software we need for learning.

9.5 Standards

Versions of all the applications we have described above can be found for any of the major operating system - Windows, Apple or Linux, although some vendors limit their software to one or another of these systems.

However there is a big danger of lock-in, especially with LMS and VLE systems. What is lock-in? This is when a particular system uses proprietary standards or designs to prevent or make it difficult for you to move your data - student records, learning materials, records of communications etc form one system to another. Many years ago I advised a doctors surgery on implementing a new system. They had paid a large sum of money to a company who had implemented a system which did not meet their needs. Now they found it completely impossible to move the patient records from that system to a new one and were forced to re-enter all the data.

A second big issue here is learning materials. There are growing repositories of publicly available free learning materials on the web (see section on learning materials, below). But these are rendered useless if your system will not allow you to use such materials.

How can you guard against these dangers? One answer lies in using standards compliant applications. There are a large number of increasingly sophisticated standards agreed for different e-learning applications. The QTI standard covers web based tests. The SCORM and Learning Design standards cover content and sequencing. Ensuring that any applications you implement are standards compliant will help you access learning materials, potentially allow you to add new features and functions to your system as you need to and guard against the danger of being locked in to any one proprietary system.

9.6 Key issues

• What sort of learning applications might be appropriate for learners in your enterprise?
• What sort of learning applications might be suitable for the training needs in your enterprise?
• Do you need a Virtual Learning Environment or can your learners' needs be met through simpler solutions?
• How can you use your business software applications to support learning?