A Bit of Background on Online Learning From the early days of the Internet

A Bit of Background on Online Learning

Examples of elearning

From the early days of the Internet, people have used it to send email and files, search for information and "talk" to one another in newsgroups. As the World Wide Web made using the Internet easier, more people came onboard and more information became available. The information now contained pictures and diagrams, sound and video. Everyone continued to talk to everyone else in web forums and chat rooms. There was a great deal of community building among people with common interests, many interesting tools built to help people work together over the Internet, and a lot of learning going on.

Then came "Online Learning". Online learning, in its most controlled form, collects tools and methods that Internet users have used all along and packages them in an orderly box. This makes it easier to show a lot of people how to learn online, and to track their progress. Everyone follows the same method and is not wandering about the Internet, "out of control." The private sector embraced e-learning first; public education followed suit.

These days, many people are introduced to the Internet by way of taking an online course. They may not be aware of the resources which exist online, out of the e-box. Many others have been using the Internet for email and surfing, but have not explored the online tools which can put online learning at everyone's fingertips. Still others, who know what they want to learn and have already tapped the web's resources to the best of their ability, want a formal course packaged in a box.