eLearning is using any form of Internet communication to learn. This ranges from as little as posting reference materials for a class to teaching the entire class online. With such a wide gambit, it becomes necessary to know what's best for you and your organization.
Here we will explore that concept a little bit, and see just where it takes us. I'll also focus on the projects that I have already started, and those that have worked best for me.
Supplemental Materials
This is perhaps the most common form of eLearning today: supplement your learning environment with addtional (generally optional) reading that can be found online. Reference materials are abundant on the Internet, and in varying degrees of reliability, so why not tap into it?
Of course, this leads into the need to proper sources and determining the accuracy of such. Focus on the taletell signs of good sources, so you don't have students basing their entire research on information found in unreliable or questionable material.
Supplemental Exercises
Many students find that they don't have time to work on the material given them in the time allotted. So, they need homework. Online materials make delivery of such homework less of a burden then printing out loads of paper, and it's easier to deploy in a short amount of time. I often use online sources like Blogs or Moodle to deliver homework to students for my technology classes.
The Complete Package
It may sound easy to set up an online course: you just type up your lecture, give them homework, and then sit back and wait for the students to get the job done. Well, in theory, that works. Unfortunately, theories generally don't work in the real world. Think about how you deliver lectures: do you focus on every aspect that the students could learn, or do you focus just on the aspects that the students need? Those are very different lectures, and as such makes the online lecture more intense and complete. That means time... lots and lots of time.
You also have the problem of communication: how do you keep in contact with your students? eMail works to an extent, but it's not perfect. And then there are the questions of synchronous vs. asynchronous communications. How do you work through all that, and keep your sanity? There is a lot of analysis that needs to go into developing your complete online solution.
Synchronous eLearning through Second Life: I'm focusing here on using Second Life as a learning venue. Second Life is a virtual world that has people represented as Avatars. They can make them look however they would like, and there are a number of things you can do in Second Life. I'm working on building a campus for my students. The idea is to give them a central location to check up for updates, new information, and still give them the feeling that they are in the classroom.
The first step is to get land. I found that Caledon is an excellent location as the residents are generally more educated and therefore less likely to engage in distracting behavior. It also gives me the ability to show video rather easily, so that students can watch a video together, even if they are several countries apart. This means presentations, whiteboards, etc. can all be utilized through the world of Second Life without too much trouble. Also, the theoretical land availability is almost limitless as new servers are placed online, so you never really run out of campus space. And parking is not a problem. ^_^
But what is a problem? Being able to watch a student's desktop and answer their question. Currently Second Life does not have an option to provide a Virtual Network Computing experience through the world, and as such it creates a challenge. Also, getting students into the technology in order to start using Second Life can be challenging. That means a base requirement for those students that use the online campus.
Moodle: Moodle is probably the best learning management system I have ever seen. Not only is it full featured, has plugins for Second Life, but it is also open source (hence the features). I use moodle for my class assignments, tracking students, asynchronous communication, etc. It's in general a fantastic system that has, at least in my mind, no equal.
VNC: The classes that I teach require students to use a computer, follow instructions, and complete the tasks. This also means that they quickly and easily get lost or mixed up, and as such have trouble keeping up with the lectures. They need to have the instructor check to see what they are doing, so that the instructor can then correct them, and explain what they did, why it happened, why it didn't work, and what to do to fix it. Unfortunately, there isn't a method for that in Moodle or Second Life that makes it possible.
Enter VNC. VNC, or Virtual Network Computing, allows one person to take control over another person's computer just by connecting to their VNC server. With Windows and Mac machines, this means they have full access to the same window that you are using. Linux machines by default generate a new X Windows session with each login of VNC. So any VNC client will be able to access another machine if it has a server installed. Students can access a central virtual lab environment without having to purchase the necessary software, and the instructor can not only control access to the clients, but also view their same windows through an instructor client. It's a win-win, when coupled with Moodle and Second Life.