WEB-BASED TRAINING

Web-Based Training

Web-Based Training

Web-based training (or electronic learning or eLearning) is a term that encompasses all forms of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) or very specific types of TEL such as online or Web-based learning. Nevertheless, the term does not have a universally accepted definition and there are divides in the web-based training industry about whether a technology-enhanced system can be called web-based training if there is no set pedagogy as some argue web-based training is: "pedagogy empowered by digital technology".

The term web-based training is ambiguous to those outside the web-based training industry, and even within its diverse disciplines it has different meanings to different people. For instance, in companies it often refers to the strategies that use the company network to deliver training courses to employees and lately in most Universities, web-based training is used to define a specific mode to attend a course or program of study where the students rarely or never meet face-to-face, nor access on-campus educational facilities, because they study online.

The worldwide web-based training industry is estimated to be worth over thirty-eight (38) billion euros according to conservative estimates, although in the European Union only about 20% of web-based training products are produced within the common market. Developments in internet and multimedia technologies are the basic enabler of web-based training, with consulting, content, technologies, services and support being identified as the five key sectors of the web-based training industry.

Early Web-based training systems, based on Computer-Based Learning/Training often attempted to replicate autocratic teaching styles whereby the role of the web-based training system was assumed to be for transferring knowledge, as opposed to systems developed later based on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), which encouraged the shared development of knowledge.

As early as 1993, Graziadei, W. D. described an online computer-delivered lecture, tutorial and assessment project using electronic Mail, two VAX Notes conferences and Gopher/Lynx together with several software programs that allowed students and instructor to create a Virtual Instructional Classroom Environment in Science (VICES) in Research, Education, Service & Teaching (REST). In 1997 Graziadei, W.D., et al., published an article entitled "Building Asynchronous and Synchronous Teaching-Learning Environments: Exploring a Course/Classroom Management System Solution". They described a process at the State University of New York (SUNY) of evaluating products and developing an overall strategy for technology-based course development and management in teaching-learning. The product(s) had to be easy to use and maintain, portable, replicable, scalable, and immediately affordable, and they had to have a high probability of success with long-term cost-effectiveness. Today many technologies can be, and are, used in web-based training, from blogs to collaborative software, ePortfolios, and virtual classrooms. Most eLearning situations use combinations of these techniques.

The term Web-based training 2.0 is a neologism for CSCL systems that came about during the emergence of Web 2.0[20] From an Web-based training 2.0 perspective, conventional web-based training systems were based on instructional packets, which were delivered to students using Internet technologies. The role of the student consisted in learning from the readings and preparing ...