What is e-learning? This question normally elicits a variety of responses depending on the experience and background of the person involved.  So, here are some definitions of e-learning on the Web found by Google.

Although "e-learning" is a fairly recent phenomenon - the term was only coined in 2000 - it is useful to look at its early origins as this will help to explain what e-learning is today and how it is likely to develop in the future.

History of e-learning

The roots of e-learning go back to the early uses of technology to support learning, in particular the use of training films, TV and videotapes. The Open University in the UK was founded on the belief that "communications technology could bring high quality degree-level learning to people who had not had the opportunity to attend campus universities".

In the 1980s, with the advent of personal computers, we saw the introduction of interactive, multimedia computer-based training (CBT) delivered on CDs or laser disks.

But it was in the early 1990s with the birth of the World Wide Web, that online learning began, when the Web was first used to deliver learning globally.

Most of the early online learning activity occurred in universities where access to the Internet was more prevalent. However, by the late 1990s companies had begun to see the value of online learning as a means of delivering training at low cost.

At this time we also began to a number of early "tools" not only to create online courses but also to manage online learning (i.e. learning management systems) as well as the large-scale production of off-the-shelf online courses.

At the peak of the dot com boom around 2000, there was enormous interest in everything "e". We saw the lift-off of "e-commerce" and "e-business", and the term "e-learning" was also coined at this time. Jay Cross, Founder of the Internet Time Group is attributed with the first use of the term. E-Learning became big business, and John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco Systems predicted in 2001: "E-Learning is the next killer app: it will make email look like a rounding error".

The great benefits of e-learning, promoted at that time, were that you no longer needed to spend long periods travelling to a location to attend a course; you could now have access to learning when you wanted it, at the time you wanted it – day or night, wherever you wanted it – at home or at work. It also meant that you could take the learning at your own pace - there was nobody to tell you when you had to do it.

However, despite all the fanfare, people soon began to become disillusioned with e-learning; it didn't seem to be delivering on its promises, and in particular large scale investments in corporate learning management systems weren't paying off. There were a number of reasons for this.

Firstly, e-learning was often considered inferior to traditional classroom-based learning. For many there needed to be a teacher present to add value to the whole process; just working through a lot of course content, however well designed or developed, wasn't enough.

Secondly, employees felt they were getting a raw deal. They weren't that enthusiastic about sitting at their computers ploughing their way through hours of online course materials - they soon get fed up. They wanted to be with other people: a teacher, fellow students. So they tended to drop out of online courses.

To address the need for socialising within learning, we saw the emergence of two trends in the (corporate) use of e-learning

Blended Learning: This was originally defined as mixing face-to-face (f2f) learning with online elements to create a blend of the two. Much has been written about how to create blended solutions, but there is no magic formula. The right blend will depend on a number of factors that includes the learning problem being addressed, the learners' profile, the budget and so on. Another term for "blended learning" is "hybrid learning" and this term is commonly found in formal education. The term has now moved on to mean offering learning using a variety of media, formats and approaches to learning.

Live e-learning: In situations where face-to-face learning was not possible, for instance where students were distributed in various parts of the country or world, systems and tools began to be used to allow remote learners to come together online at the same time with a tutor who led a learning session. The early tools were known as "virtual classrooms" or "online conferencing systems". Live e-learning is also known as synchronous learning or "real time learning" - to differentiate it from asynchronous (learning).

E-Learning today

For many people, then, this is the state of learning today:

online courses or blended solutions with a mix of face-to-face and online elements

learning management systems that manage students' learning (also variously known as course management systems, virtual learning environments and managed learning environments)

virtual classrooms, which supports the delivery of scheduled online sessions

That is the use of the technologies for formal learning.

However we are now seeing a number of trends - both business and learning trends as well as technology trends - that are influencing and impacting the concept of e-learning, and these will be considered in more detail in further Topics in the E-Learning Handbook:

the emerging use of Web 2.0 technologies to create E-Learning 2.0 and which support a more collaborative approach to learning

informal learning (or non-formal learning) which is where most of the learning that takes place in organisations

performance improvement and support which is focused on work-embedded support delivered at the point of need

self-managed learning where learners take responsibility for their own learning

mobile learning where learning in all its forms can be delivered to mobile devices like phones, PDAs and iPods

rapid learning development where learning solutions can be created quickly, easily and cost-effectively

So what actually then is e-learning?

The debate on what "elearning" is continues, as the recent blog posting (and comments) from Tony Karrer on eLearning Technology shows. 

One thing is for sure, "e-learning" is a very broad term. If you take a look at the definition of e-learning in Wikipedia you will see that it is is very wide ranging - it is certainly not just abut online courses any more.