The E-Learning Roundtable -
Serving up a Smorgasbord of BC E-Learning: March 26th, 2004
By Paul Stacey
These past couple of months the Premier's
Technology Council (PTC) has been assembling and tapping in to BC's
e-learning expertise. Formed in August 2001 the PTC provides advice to the
Premier on all technology-related issues facing British Columbia and its
citizens. Several of the Council's five reports to date have made note of
e-learning and its potential to improve access to quality education for all
British Columbians. The reports are all available at the PTC web site.
On February 3rd, 2004 the PTC organized an E-Learning
Roundtable hosted at Royal Roads University. This round table brought
together over one hundred and fifty e-learning practitioners from K-12,
Post-Secondary, First Nations, Government, and Corporate sectors. The e-learning
round table was structured to gather and share best practices, discuss
e-learning issues, and find ways to develop the burgeoning online learning
industry in British Columbia.
The level of interest in this event was
incredibly high. One hundred and fifty people is a big roundtable and apparently
many more were interested in attending! I expect the next PTC Report, due out
sometime around June, will contain a compilation of the many recommendations
made at the roundtable on how government can support e-learning initiatives and
remove barriers. Recent initiatives like BCEd
Online in the K-12 sector, BCcampus
in the post-secondary sector and eLearningBC
in the corporate sector attracted considerable attention.
BCEd Online is an umbrella organization whose
goal is to build strong and mutually beneficial partnerships among K-12
stakeholders and provide leadership in the development and management of online
content, including courses and learning objects. BCEd Online acts as an advocate
for learners, teachers and administrators by seeking to inform and influence
government policy and programs for online learning. It also provides
professional development opportunities for educators engaged in online learning
activities and coordinates activities involving the private sector.
BCcampus, an initiative of the Ministry of
Advanced Education, promotes collaboration among BC's colleges, university
colleges, universities and institutes in online program development and
delivery. BCcampus is developing a portal to provide a single access point for
learners who want to take post-secondary online courses and programs from any of
the 27 public post secondary institutions in the province. A range of
accompanying student services are also being put in place including online
application, course registration, help desk, lounge areas, etc. BCcampus has an
Online Program Development Fund which institutions can apply for as seed capital
to develop programs, courses, virtual labs, learning objects and other essential
components of an online learning experience. While the funds go directly to
institutions the current guidelines support innovation around institutions
partnering with BC e-learning companies for project deliverables.
eLearningBC is a marketing and business
alliance of entrepreneurial BC e-learning companies. As part of its input to the
PTC e-learning roundtable eLearningBC submitted a Marketing Strategy
Report which establishes the potential for this emerging sector, makes
recommendations, and backs it up with market research.
Recommendations in this report include:
- put in place a full-time paid e-learning
marketing champion
- focus short term marketing on Canada and the
US and long term marketing on international markets
- target three to five vertical sectors, like
the 2010 Olympics, rural communities, health care, ...
- look at e-learning opportunities and
synergies related to BC strengths in gaming and simulation
- support consolidation among the numerous
small industry players
It will be particularly intriguing to see if a
set of key policy and infrastructure steps are taken to enhance and grow
e-learning as a vibrant BC industry. Government tends to focus on e-learning as
a public service and invest in its use in K-12 and post-secondary. While this is
important, BC is also uniquely positioned to capitalize on e-learning as a
component of its high tech sector.
A potential vehicle to help move the industry
forward is Leading Edge BC http://www.leadingedgebc.ca.
Announced in Dec. 2003 Leading Edge has received $8.3 million from the province
to aggressively market B.C. as an internationally competitive location for
technology investment, research and job creation.
Leading Edge wants to put BC on the map for
investors and site locators. This is good news for e-learning where an infusion
of investment, business model, and ROI know how could inject the sector with
additional vitality.
The site locator aspect of the mandate is
particularly intriguing. In terms of "attracting" business to BC I
believe the marketing message is that BC has the technical and creative talent
in place that can help businesses "go digital". From that perspective
one possible target that could benefit the e-learning sector is
"publishers". Traditional publishers have been slow to capitalize on
the e-learning opportunity. Perhaps BC is the place for publishers to establish
divisions focused on converting physical assets to digital assets, infusing
those assets with rich interactive media, and deploying the digital assets in
new markets.
One of the big challenges with BC e-learning is
"eating our own cooking". The BC e-learning industry would be very
well served if even one of the local big industry sectors embraced e-learning as
an essential ingredient to global success. I deeply wish corporate e-learning
would shift from an internal employee centric model to an external customer
centric model where e-learning is positioned as the means of educating and
keeping customers. Balancing engineering prowess with a focus on adoption, use,
and customer satisfaction is where e-learning shines. E-learning can be a key
marketing, sales and customer relationship tool.
On a smaller scale a select group of
eLearningBC companies are working with BC rural communities, starting with
Keremeos, to identify the most promising economic development opportunities for
the region, the knowledge and skills required to make those economic development
opportunities a reality and apply BC e-learning company products and services to
help the community achieve those opportunities. The results of this work are
intended to be repeatable and exportable to other communities in BC and
elsewhere.
BC is a hot pot of e-learning simmering away. I
encourage you to get involved. Taste test some BC e-learning products and
services. Cook up your own e-learning. Help shape the west coast fusion form of
BC e-learning.
Paul
Stacey, is Director of Development for BCcampus, a collaboration of
post-secondary institutions in British Columbia providing a central portal for
online access to post-secondary online learning courses, programs and resources.
Paul also helps host & produce LearningTimes
an online community for education professionals. Contact: Paul
Stacey
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Stacey
E-Learning: An
opinionated monthly column exploring the current use, future potential, and
commercial value of e-learning in BC’s high tech sector.
E-Learning
Archive: an index and links to all the E-learning columns Paul has written
for T-Net going back to April 2000.
