An updated review of the concept of eLearning. Tenth anniversary

Abstract

The continuous advances in technology cause innovation-acceptation-consolidationobsolescence flows regarding the knowledge and technology management strategies, both ad hoc and planned, of the corporations and also, in a different scale, of the individuals. Teaching and learning processes are not obviously unaware of this situation. The irruption of Information and Communication Technologies as educational tools mean both a conceptual and a methodological turning point in the way that institutions, educational or not, face training processes and learning management, especially with regard to the concept of distance education, which evolves, in a more or less significant way, when it adopts Internet as media; that is how the eLearning concept rises. However, from the first eLearning experiences, too much settled on the concept of platform or Learning Management System, up to the present times, there have been significant changes, again in both technological and methodological levels. It is important to underline, among others, the influence of social media in the daily habits of users. This way, an increased demand of learning personalization it is shown, as so as a complete connectivity with other peers, an unlimited access to resources and information sources, a complete flexibility in the way, place and time they access, and a natural and necessary coexistence of both formal and informal learning flows. Thus, the “traditional” eLearning platforms, despite their large penetration and consolidation, need to evolve and open themselves to support this rich fan of possibilities demanded by the users, ceasing to be the centre technological attention to become another component into a complex digital ecosystem oriented to the learning and knowledge management, both at institutional and personal levels. It is therefore necessary to make an updated review of the eLearning concept and its definitions that have been provided from the experience and perspective of our research group GRIAL (Research Group in InterAction and eLearning), coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the “Current status of e-learning systems” paper.

Keywords

• Ecosistemas digitales de aprendizaje
• eLearning
• mLearning
• TIC
• LMS
• PLE
• MOOC
• Factor humano
• Enseñanza+Aprendizaje
• Gestión del conocimiento y de la tecnología