One-Stop Guide to NCREL's Educational Technology Resources

Theoretical Framework

E-learning, also known as Internet-based hybrid learning or distance learning, is one of the most significant new learning technologies to emerge in the last 10 years. A growing body of research, program evaluation, theory, and policy analysis is documenting the rapid introduction of e-learning in postsecondary institutions in the United States and around the world.

As a response to this growing interest, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) is introducing the E-Learning Knowledge Base, which provides a review and synthesis of current literature on e-learning. In view of the increasing number of collaborative environments available to educators, and their growing potential for supporting online learning communities, NCREL is researching the effectiveness of various environments and strategies and synthesizing the results into procedural knowledge that the region's educators can use to apply online collaboration in the classroom and in professional development activities.

This review and synthesis of current literature on e-learning marks the beginning of a 5-year commitment to surveying and summarizing resources from this rapidly growing field. In particular, NCREL will make every effort to provide easy access to publications on e-learning policy and practice. Informing K-12 leaders and decision makers on the full range of issues concerning development and deployment of e-learning is considered a critical priority.

The deployment and diffusion of online learning in U.S. schools is becoming an almost irresistible force. Accordingly, it is now important to give careful, systematic consideration to details that will have lasting impacts on our educational system. Careful consideration must be given to all aspects of e-learning and online education that may impact the quality, efficiency, equity, and educational choices available to all America's students--regardless of age, race, religion, or socioeconomic standing--anywhere, anytime.

Today, developments in telecommunications link microcomputers in America's schools into local-area networks (LANs) and expanding wide-area networks (WANs), all tied together by the conduit that is provided by the Internet. According to the most recent report from the National Center for Educational Statistics, "By the Fall of 2000, almost all public schools in the United States had access to the Internet; 98 percent were connected" (Cattagni & Farris, 2000). Computer-aided learning (CAL) on mainframes has seemingly become a ubiquitous, new version of computer-based learning, being delivered anywhere, anytime via the global Internet.

The evolution of Internet use in K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions is having a profound impact on the evolution of computer use and the curricular integration of new learning technologies (Valdez et al., 2000). The Internet itself is a communications channel offering the potential for communication and collaboration. Online courses provide a significant and influential medium through which standards-based teaching and learning, online collaboration, and acculturation to evolving norms for participation in virtual communities are quickly becoming realities.

The NCREL E-learning Knowledge Base grew from an initial review of both print and online literature from a wide variety of disciplinary sources. During the course of the literature search, it became increasingly obvious that a wealth of this material was available as full-text versions through URLs on the World Wide Web. It appears that because of the unique nature of work in e-learning, the best literature may very well be available in online forms.

The number of high-quality online e-learning resources available on the World Wide Web is apparently so large that the research team decided to refocus NCREL's resources and time on creating an interactive knowledge base consisting entirely of full-text online resources. Also, references are made to a limited number of important print sources here and in five other introductory narratives prefacing major categorical sections that divide the knowledge base.

The underlying structure of the NCREL E-Learning Knowledge Base is based on the notion that two types of dynamic structures may account for the relative effectiveness of learning outcomes resulting from human interactions with technology systems. These two types of dynamic structures are discussed by Kemmis, Atkin, and Wright (1977) as "d-structures" (what is learned) and functional or "f-structures" (dimensions of the online learning environment constraining and conditioning learning opportunity and learning outcomes).

The Kemmis conception of "f-structures" is reminiscent of philosophical notions about thought forms, like Platonic ideals or John Dewey's pragmatism and the correspondence theory of truth. Dewey (1995) argues that true ideas are ones that agree or correspond to an observed and objectively verifiable scientific reality. Interpreted either ideally or pragmatically, "f-structures" are apparently "black-box" phenomena that only exist in the mind. As such, "f-structures" are not externally observable or verifiable and have little apparent value for increasing understanding of learning that may or may not result from human interactions with technology systems.

However, the conception of functional or "f-structures" is elaborated by Kemmis et al. (1977), who offer a powerful schema useful for understanding human learning (with or without technology systems) and for gaining a much clearer understanding of environmental factors that influence the effectiveness and shape the outcomes of computer-aided learning (CAL).

Kemmis et al. (1977) discuss four general classes of "f-structures" that frame the learning process enabling computer-aided learning. These are:

Subject-matter "f-structures"
Pedagogical "f-structures"
Operating system "f-structures"
Milieu "f-structures"

Although the research behind this precedent-setting, 3-year, national study of computer-aided learning in the UK looked at interactions between students and distributed terminals on mainframe computers in the mid-1970s, the parallelism with today's online learning delivery systems and e-learning is striking. Today, in place of mainframes accessed through terminals (often over great distance via the telephone networks), we use vast distributed systems consisting of networked microcomputers serving as terminals that load and run online learning programs from Web servers situated (often at great distance) on the global Internet.

Only minor changes are required to modify the terminology describing the four classes of "f-structures" to bring this important contribution to learning theory in line with today's technology systems. The conception of computer operating systems is easily broadened to describe complex technology systems, consisting of software, hardware, and human components. The four classes of "f-structures" were modified to become the five dimensions of this E-Learning Knowledge Base:

The foundation of the NCREL E-Learning Knowledge Base is a searchable, online annotated review of literature containing more than 350 active URLs linking directly to their full-text sources. (Visit the online Knowledge Base.) These online resources vary in scope and complexity from single, article-length publications published in a growing number of high-quality online publications to complex Web sites that house content roughly equivalent to a published journal or book.

The five dimensions of the knowledge base are links to the corresponding five sections in the Web site. Each section begins with an introductory narrative that contributes to the review and synthesis of the available print and online information resources on e-learning.

The e-learning synthesis and its deployment on NCREL's Educational Technology Resources Online (NETRO) Web site are designed to invite visitors to access and review the written and online resources in a way that suits each person's individual need-to-know. Users can explore the resources in the Web site using any order or strategy that helps them address their questions about e-learning. E-learning is changing rapidly, and the site will be changing with it. New resources will be added periodically, and the preliminary conclusions offered by NCREL's synthesis may change as important new studies and policy documents are released for publication. The knowledge base is growing rapidly, so users are encouraged to come back often to check for new resources and modifications.