Educational Online Services
The development of the internet as a whole has spouted growth in the use of ICT in education generally. In compulsory education and higher education the use of the internet in all subjects for research is a just a standard way of working.
In recent years technology built upon the internet has been developed to enable anyone with internet access to learn online using specially designed courses that allow the student to study at the time, place and speed that they desire. Learndirect is an example of this. I believe that this is a great development because it gives students extra choice in choosing how to learn. It also provides courses for those who physically are unable to attend an educational establishment thus benefiting disabled people tremendously. However, I also believe that there is a downside to this way of learning. Students can miss out on developing their social skills and their ability to work in a team, this can only be achieved using conventional methods of education.
Due to even more recent technological developments, VLE’s (Virtual Learning Environments) or similar systems have come into existence. These systems are usually used and sometimes even developed by universities themselves to improve the learning experiences of all students.
More and more organisations are implementing e-learning into their corporate training programmes. COROUS which was established by the Open University in 2000 offers a consultancy service that provides strategies for businesses who want to use e-learning techniques in training courses. They provide some of the UK's biggest corporate names with learning services, click here for a full list of their clients.
The BBC website is an amazing online service that provides
an incredible amount of free online learning resources. They have even produced a guide that provides an
introduction to some of the learning resources available, ranging from health
to history. This guide can be downloaded
here.