Manifesto for eLearning Published
Sheffield (UK), January 2011 - The results of discussions by the delegates at the European eLearning Summit, organised by Learning Light with support from learndirect and Creativesheffield and held in Sheffield, have been published in the form of a manifesto for eLearning. The manifesto is intended to help delegates pursue dialogue with their national governments to establish a single, independent and impartial body representing the corporate eLearning sector.
Although developed within a European context, the manifesto focuses specifically on the corporate eLearning sector in the UK. Delegates to the Summit from outside the UK are encouraged to adapt the manifesto to the situation in their own countries and use this to pursue the aims stated at the Summit.
The manifesto outlines the opportunities and challenges currently facing the eLearning sector; explains the eLearning sector's offering to "UK plc", and sets out what the Summit delegates believe needs to happen.
This includes: continued investment in the country's technical infrastructure - including access to high-speed broadband for all; the adoption of system interoperability; widespread e-assessment; simplified technical and funding infrastructures; a change to UK government procurement policy with regards to eLearning materials and systems; and support for the eLearning sector as an export driver.
The key elements of the manifesto are
- Europe's economies face challenges including
- demographics: Europe's population is ageing and its workforce size is shrinking.
- competition: BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa) countries are competitors, but they also provide opportunities that demand a significant ramping up of skills in our workforce.
- environmental damage: Costs and environmental damage of travel, facilities, and resources are involved in delivering "traditional", instructor-led training.
- eLearning is uniquely equipped to meet these challenges, yet its value is largely unrecognized. eLearning and learning technologies can make a significant contribution to addressing these challenges by
- giving Europe's economies the competitive advantage derived from engaging and effective eLearning that delivers flexible, innovative, just-in-time, and just-enough learning solutions;
- equipping organisations to cope with the increasing speed of change and competition;
- providing cost-effective, location-independent, and environmentally beneficial learning;
- working at all levels of the employee hierarchy from "hard-to-reach learners" to "industry leaders", eLearning is able to address topics at all levels and of all complexities.
- As a result, the eLearning industry must
- share its successes and evidence the benefits that eLearning can offer;
- demonstrate how it improves performance by providing effective and engaging training and learning on an immense scale and in rapid time;
- provide tool sets to support and influence the effective adoption of eLearning and provide evidence of its benefits.
- To help it do this, the industry needs the government to understand the role that corporate eLearning currently plays in
- enabling choice, freedom and flexibility for learners and businesses;
- facilitating community and communication;
- providing value for money and efficiency within a tight fiscal climate;
- building on the rapid roll-out of superfast broadband.
In this process, the government needs to
- acknowledge that the eLearning industry comprises principally innovative small-and- medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This implies that government procurement policy must enable these SMEs to be given free and fair access to government contracts. Government procurement of learning services must focus on engendering an open and innovative market.
- view eLearning as an export opportunity: It is vital, if UK eLearning companies are to continue to win overseas contracts, that they have the kudos of supplying the UK government. UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the body that works with UK-based businesses to ensure their success in international markets, needs to recognize the potential of eLearning exports to the corporate training and learning market, as much as it does to the education market.
- alter government education policy so as to recognize the huge changes in society driven by Internet adoption and how this impacts upon learning. Today's students will spend up to sixty percent of their waking hours online, living their life - and learning will need to be there.
"This manifesto represents an accord among key members of the eLearning community, not just in the UK but across Europe", says Learning Light's David Patterson. "It will form the basis of a number of discussions which Summit delegates are scheduled to hold with government officials in 2011."
