Scenario: Joan is a 32-year-old single mother with a 6-year-old daughter, Jill. At home that night, Joan is upgrading her skills by taking courses online. She lives in a small rural community and recently got access to residential ADSL which she uses to participate in her school's e-learning program. She completes her assignments, interacts with students and instructors on line. That night, she gets an e-mail update from her daughter's teacher with a monthly classroom update and a personal message about the effort that Jill has been putting recently. It's good news. The classroom update also allows Joan to register and book an appointment for upcoming parent-teacher conference.
Distance should not be a barrier to British Columbians who wish to gain a high quality education. E-learning can bring the classroom to students, from elementary school through college, and support career skills upgrading and effective lifelong learning. As the province evolves from a resource based economy, e-learning can help stimulate this development of skills which will drive the economic diversification necessary to support small communities - and do it in a cost-effective manner.
E-learning (or electronic learning) means providing education through a variety of applications and processes that can be Web-based, computer-based, or in virtual classrooms. It includes the delivery of content via Internet, intranet/extranet (LAN/WAN), audio and videotape, videoconferencing, satellite broadcast, interactive TV, CD-ROM, and more. In practical terms, e-learning can be thought of as using technology to deliver the right information and skills to the right people at the right time at acceptable standards and quality.
