The focus for our e-learning

Our focus in the School should probably be upon communication as opposed to content. Research indicates that students want contact with a tutor, and this must be the essential core of any e-learning programme. Therefore we should focus strongly on communication tools and techniques, with content becoming secondary to communication. This approach may also help us to develop and establish e-learning more quickly as the focus will be on managing the communication and interaction between the tutor and students rather than on the resource-intensive content development and course conversion.

This requires different approaches and has different development needs. The aim would be to help teaching staff to handle the communication process, tools and scheduling etc. These processes also require instructional design input and systematic planning. This focus on communication also means that the teacher remains the key to managing student interactions and guiding the learning experience. The development of course materials can also be better managed if They are seen as one part of all the delivery solution rather than the core of the e-learning system.