E-learning: Roles in Distance and Traditional Postgraduate Engineering Courses

Abstract

E-learning has been receiving increased attention since the advent of the Internet, following the hype of “online everything”: from administration, to communication to business to education. The promise of e-learning has, however, fallen short of statements like those of J. Chambers (CEO of CISCO Systems) that said in 1998 that “the biggest growth in the Internet, and the area that will prove to be one of the biggest agents of change, will be e-learning” [1]. This is not to say that e-learning should be abandoned as a concept. It appears however that a new level of seriousness in understanding and exploiting its particular strengths is required. The future of learning technology may be promising, but its evolution is unclear. This paper investigates the role and potential of elearning in both instructor-led (synchronous) and online (asynchronous) course delivery as well as blended variants within the context of new engineering postgraduate degrees in the EU. The discussion draws on a series of case studies, primarily focusing on the EDUCATE! multi-institution, EU project, which is developing an Environmental Engineering MSc based on e-learning.