One of our departmental groups has been discussing the difference between online learning and e-learning. It's funny how phrases are used and not really thought about or understood, and to some extent this is what is happening to the jargon that is accummulating around online courses.
Online learning refers specifically to programs and courses delivered using the internet or some internal intranet - the materials are transmitted from some central server to the user, and the interaction happens in some real-time (or similar) timeline.
However e-learning refers to all the possible technologies that use electronic methods - computing, telecomms, tv, and media such as cds, video, DVDs and other devises. This is not necessarily done in real time, and in many cases can bear a resemblance to distance learning, when materials were sent out to the user and the work was done in isolation, with the results sent back to the institution that was delivering the course.
# posted by Mary @ 8:34 PM
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