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Introduction to e-Learning

Last updated: 27 September 2010
Published in: Managing your digital resources |
Tags: e-learning |

We understand that the term ‘e-learning’ can be confusing. Aimed at practitioners who are just starting out in incorporating e-learning into their teaching, this document will demystify the term, outline key terminology and its relevance, and introduce commonly used e-learning terms.

What is e-learning?

There are many different definitions for the term ‘e-learning’, which can confuse those at the early stages of exploring e-learning. However, JISC uses a definition whose meaning is deemed to be most accurate:

“e-Learning can be defined as 'learning facilitated and supported through the use of information and communications technology'. It can cover a spectrum of activities from the use of technology to support learning as part of a ‘blended’ approach (a combination of traditional and e-learning approaches), to learning that is delivered entirely online. Whatever the technology, however, learning is the vital element.”
JISC e-learning definition from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elearning

The term ‘e-learning’ therefore essentially covers the use of computers and technology as a vehicle for knowledge exchange within teaching and learning.

What does the ‘e’ in ‘e-learning’ represent?

We are often asked this and the answer is that the ‘e’ used to represent ‘electronic’ but nowadays it merely signifies the use of technology. In some circles within the education sector, some refer to the ‘e’ as ‘enhanced’.

Benefits of e-learning

An immediate potential benefit of considering to implement e-learning is that it can be seen as an additional avenue with which to support teaching and learning practice. E-learning covers such a wide sphere that it is difficult to point out any benefit as a given, so any benefits should initially be termed ‘potential’ benefits. However, many cite the following as broad benefits that e-learning supports:

The ability to provide distance learning (learning not on campus)
A blended learning/teaching approach (using face-to-face and technology)
The use of technology to support a wide range of educational activity

Our sister service JISC infoNet has some useful examples by way of case studies for tangible benefits of e-learning for teachers, learners and institutions. Look at the end of this document for the links.

Learning theory

When talking about e-learning the phrase ‘learning theory’ often crops up. Learning theory in the context of e-learning refers to the use of learning models and/or frameworks that may be used when planning, designing and building work, in order to help define the process of work.

Uses of e-learning

At this point in the document you may be asking what ‘real-world’ uses does e-learning potentially have to offer to the practitioner? The answer is that e-learning provides many opportunities including large scale online delivery of modules and courses.

Each practitioner will have their own goals and so providing an exhaustive list of possibilities is difficult. However here are some uses of e-learning to get you started.

Uses for those very new to e-learning include engaging your students to use the web as:

A source of research material (whilst also building critical literacy skills) to support study
A platform for discussion
A resource for finding and using other people’s educational materials such as those created under the Open Educational Resources initiative or those which you have to ensure you seek permission and/or a licence to use

Uses for the next steps include creating multimedia rich resources to engage your students with. This can include for example:

Producing interactive web pages hosted on your institution’s VLE
Including multimedia elements into teaching materials to add context on a subject to help achieve the learning objective
Using the VLE to build tasks
Offer collaborative opportunities via the VLE
Online assessment

Legal considerations

When producing learning materials, especially where component parts have been sourced from the Internet, practitioners must consider the copyright and other legal ramifications, as well as their own institutional policies on such practices. Our sister service JISC Legal are able to advise within this area.

Common e-learning terms/tools

There are countless tools, techniques, people, acronyms and resources associated with e-learning. Below we cover some of the ones we think you are likely to come across.

Tool / Term	Description
Virtual learning environment (VLE)	An online space provided by the institution to support e-learning. All forms of digital media can be delivered using its various tools. There is a wide range of VLEs on the market.
Personal learning environment (PLE)	A concept of understanding that individuals utilise a range of networks – combining both institutional and personal networks and devices to learn.
Blackboard	Example of a VLE that is commonly used in the UK.
Moodle	An Open Source VLE that is commonly used in the UK.
Podcast, either video or audio	A method of delivering multimedia content. The video podcasts are sometimes called vodcasts/vidcasts.
RSS	A method used to push and pull content across the Internet. Particularly useful for subscribing to a podcast http://web2practice.jiscinvolve.org/rss-2/
Face-to-face teaching	A method of delivering teaching and learning that is normally used to distinguish between the classroom teaching environment and online.
Learning object	An object such as an audio file. Courses are typically made of many learning objects
Blended learning	A method of delivering teaching and learning that involves both face-to-face teaching and the use of technology together at the same time. For example the internet may be used to support a session that includes interactive tasks for the learner.
Distance learning	Delivering teaching and learning remotely, typically using technology and the internet Multimedia resource are often incorporated to provide context to text-based resources.
Discussion forum	A communication tool for posting messages/work/comments/opinions. Often text-based but some do offer the ability to use multimedia.
Blog	A way of posting educational material online, normally organised by date and topic category. Images, video and audio can be shared in this manner. Blogs typically allow commenting, which can be a useful feature for teaching and learning.
Wiki	An editable tool for working with others that has a trackable history of changes (wikipedia is the most popular example). Much like a blog, its strength is that can be used to share multimedia resource.
Web 2.0	Essentially leveraging some of the more recent developments to support better interaction including social features. Many of these web 2.0 services provide community tools for sharing and commenting on resources, such as video.
Web service	A web delivered service that can be used for many types of activity including the storage and delivery of multimedia. Examples of web services include YouTube and web storage.
Netbook	A laptop that is very lightweight, portable and is often cheaper than most laptops. In order to achieve this, typically size and power are sacrificed. They can be used to create, use, manage and deliver multimedia.
e-book reader	Used to read digital e-books. Many of these readers can play audio books and/or read text out loud.
Flash player	A plug-in piece of software that adds functionality to the browser. Many e-learning resources have been created using Flash and most web videos at present use this technology.
Mobile learning (use of mobile phones and other handheld devices)	Using mobile devices including mobile phones to facilitate teaching and learning.
Open-source software	Software that is provided under a license that permits the user to have access to the source code. Open source software can be used to create, consume and delivery multimedia. An example is the audio editing tool ‘audacity’ which is very popular for creating and editing audio podcasts.
Creative Commons licensing	A way to share copyrighted work within a documented license scheme. Creative Commons licenses are increasingly applied to teaching resources that are typically made available using the internet.
HTML	The structural code that makes websites. Multimedia is typically delivered from websites that are built from HTML. Websites in turn allow us to produce e-learning for teaching and learning.
Scripts	Bits of code that add additional functionality to a website or service. Scripts can be created to support teaching and learning. For example, JavaScript is used to increase the functionality of the browser which can be used to create interactive based activity.
Web browser	A browser is a piece of software that allows us to interact with the web via a computer. Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox are two popular examples of web browsers that provide access to e-learning material and multimedia resources
Social media	Social media tools are used to communicate between people on the web and can be used to support teaching and learning. For example it is often desirable to use social media tools to facilitate online community opportunities including learner collaboration.

Support

There is a wealth of technical and research based support surrounding e-learning. Many institutions have some level of e-learning support provision and it is worth seeking this out to better understand your institution’s strategy and policies regarding support. Furthermore it can be helpful to find out if others in your institution or locally are working on similar things. Many locations throughout the UK have regional support groups covering most aspects of e-learning.

Support is also provided on a national basis, with JISC and JISC Advance being the largest groups working across all institutions. JISC and JISC Advance have a number of services and programmes including JISC Digital Media that support all aspects of e-learning including topics such as: digital media, training, planning, strategy, funding and research opportunities.

Further resources

JISC infoNet, Tangible benefits of e-learning for teachers, learners and institutions. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC, JISC e-learning programme. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Use of VLEs with Digital Media. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Audio and Video Production: Recording Lectures, Seminars and Events. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Pedagogical Uses of Presentation Software. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Image Editing Software. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Using a Budget Digital Camera for Teaching, Learning and Research. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Copyright and Still Images: Frequently Asked Questions. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Finding Images on Flickr. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Screencasting: Broadcasting On-screen Activity. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Audio via Blackboard. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

JISC Digital Media. Creating an Audio Podcast. Available at: [Accessed: 23 July 2010].

Last updated: 27 September 2010
Published in: Managing your digital resources |
Tags: e-learning |

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