E-Learning has been around for more than half a decade now. Many Filipino organizations, especially in the academic sector, have been getting on board the e-Learning wagon. Those who have not are also planning to implement some form of electronic learning. So to help us all understand how e-Learning is changing and moving our world, let's examine the trends we have witnessed in the past five years or so. Schools that have been embracing this technological breakthrough for a number of years would make the best “specimen”:

 Trend: Customization

       When e-Learning started, there weren’t many options. Content came in a pre-designed "box". Learning Management Systems were not even prevalent. Basically, what you see was what you got. Now, sophisticated Learning Management Systems give us the option to input our own ideas and creative style into an already existing course; authoring tools allow us to create specialized content from scratch. We now hear about Intellectual Property in the e-Learning world. Schools, like La Consolacion Manila, who plan to release their own customized content for certain specialized courses now boast of ownership of content and imputing professors styles into the learning design. So who needs the boxed approach? This brings me to another trend.

 Trend: Off-the-Shelf Content

      Since we have already discussed the advantages of customizing one's own content, we now go into the so-called "canned" courses. These are titles already available in the market, pre-designed and ready to use, so to speak. The trend nowadays is to use off-the-shelf courses for 3 categories. The first is for general subjects such as Finance, Accounting, etc. These courses are not specialized enough for the schools to create their own trademarked course. Because finance and accounting principles have not changed over the past many years, there is no need to "reinvent the wheel". With AMA Education Systems, they adopted these online courses and were able to deploy eLearning to their students in the shortest time available. On the other hand, another category of subjects that are frequently subscribed from off-the-shelf catalogs are those that changes so quickly. The reason is because schools cannot invest too much time, effort and resources in subject areas that keep changing. Perfect examples of these are software and IT related subjects. Software versions become obsolete every 6 - 8 months and so do their respective training materials. So instead of continuously having to update your content, you might as well just subscribe to what is already available. This is a fact well-known by Lyceum of the Philippines students with the recent upgrade of their curriculum from Office 2000 to Office 2003. The last category is for courses that need the stamp of approval from a governing body. For example, Oracle course content must, of course, come from Oracle themselves. It is impractical for schools to use Oracle courses that are not at least recognized by Oracle. And because San Sebastian College values vendor certification for their IT students, they make sure that the eLearning subjects they subscribe to are vendor-accredited.

The end-result and major advantage of using off-the-shelf content is the low cost, applying the principle of economies of scale – using the same course for a large number of learners brings down the cost per learner as evident with almost all of STI schools’ implementation of Office Productivity e-Learning courses.

 Trend: Learning Management System (LMS)

    A few years back, Learning Management Systems (LMS) were too expensive. Almost all schools could not afford a decent LMS. Now that LMSs are more affordable and schools are realizing the benefits of maximizing the features of the said software, most academic institutions have chosen to upgrade their LMSs. Some major considerations of schools in choosing an LMS are the following*:

    Compliance: Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP), who is now ISO-certified, is very     particular on international compliance. The two major governing bodies for accreditation are     AICC and SCORM. Therefore, TIP specifically chose an LMS with the approval of these     international eLearning committees in line with their being a recent ISO-certified academic     institution.

    More Features: As mentioned earlier, schools are learning to maximize the features of their     LMS. An LMS is not only used to deploy courses and assign users but there are now endless     possibilities. Some of these include being able to post and read announcements from     professors and/or students, upload any document or file that the professors want their students     to review, and provide the school a cost accounting function to check the school’s e-Learning     system profitability.

    Integration: Almost all schools now are computerized. Enrollment is the most common and     probably the first to be computerized. At Isabela State University (ISU), plans of computerizing     their entire system, from enrollment to report card retrieval is in line with having a complete     eLearning system, with an LMS that allows automatic grades retrieval. In addition, their     eLearning courses provide students access into the electronic learning world.


 Trend: Intranet and Online Availability

    San Beda Alabang has always pride itself in providing up-to-date system in the delivery of     courses for the academic development of its students. Four computer laboratories, inclusive of a     Macintosh lab, are host to their e-Learning system. San Beda College Alabang also believes that     blended learning is the way to go. This is why the e-Learning courses were made available, not     only to classroom program, but to online program as well – making the courses accessible even     from the students’ home.

 Trend: Simulations

    30 years ago, eLearning was delivered in static pages. The most "technically savvy" detail of a     course would be graphics. If you present that now to students, they will surely get bored in less     than a minute. With their exposure to all sorts of 3D video games, students will not contend with     just static pages and graphics. They need to practice to learn. That is why simulations are very     important to schools. Schools make sure that before subscribing to e-Learning courses, they     check out how the content is delivered, how the learning design is arranged and if the     methodology of teaching is effective. At EDNAS School Dagupan and San Carlos, Pangasinan,     their grade and high school students are learning IT subjects through the use of actual software     simulations imputed within the e-Learning course. As a result, they have seen a remarkable     increase in the learning curve of the students as they now "learn through practicing".

    In these dynamic times, IT, and more specifically, e-Learning, will be ever-changing. But these changes need not be cause for concern as they make technology in our schools better. All you     need is an open mind to accept change, support from the management and a vendor who will     help you through it all. Because at the end of the day, a successful e-Learning world benefits all     of us.

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