Thursday, November 16, 2006

Time to Go eLearning Way

I have heard probably n times (where n tends to infinity)that the reasons we do not want to go use eLearning is because of time and cost. Needless to say, some of the people who believe they do not have time for eLearning or creating online learning materials, can spend on average 2 hours daily on a computer researching why time is a constraint in their dreams of having an online course sometime. Miraculously. I argue that we cannot have all the time to do all the things we want to, rather we create time to do the things that we value. The next time I hear someone say there is not time to create online learning experiences, I will translate it to I do not see the value of eLearning. For any good purpose, if any professor can have time to prepare learning materials for an face to face classroom session, and have them typed - and even goes an extra mile to have presentation slides done for the course, that professor has more time than is demanded for in creating a online learning course. Only a reorganization of priorities and energies is needed. One thing I however agree on, without contradicting myself, is that the initial time investment is enormous. But the gains once that is done it terms of man-hours is enormous.

I would apply the same argument for the cost. In life, we do not have all the money to buy everything - else we would not be having all these budget committees. But where do we direct our monies to? What have we done with the little we have? Have we tried to collaborate with other like minded partners in the pursuit for eLearning?

There are new and emerging cheap options that can be used to deliver eLearning. If this options are explored further, I believe eLearning can take off in a big way. But until then, I do not have more time and money to write another sentence in this blog.

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