There is increasing demand for affordable, accessible and timely education and training. The rapid growth, availability and uptake of information and communications technology (ICT) over the last two decades has opened up opportunities for the promotion of e-learning to help governments meet these demands.
E-learning in this study refers to learning which is facilitated by electronic technologies. This includes courses or components of courses that are provided online.
In this study we compare the experiences of two countries which have facilitated the implementation of e-learning by driving national policy agendas to ensure that citizens, enterprises, government agencies and educational institutions engage with online technologies. The primary aim is to increase our understanding of political interventions, and practical issues faced by organisations, practitioners and learners when engaging in e-learning.
This report is organised into six separate chapters which deal with arrangements for the two countries.
In Chapter I, we set the context by emphasising the importance of elearning for the knowledge-based economy. We also present a brief overview of major differences between the Australian and Korean arrangements for e-learning. This chapter also details the purpose of the study and organisation of the remainder of the report.
In Chapter II, we review policies and strategies adopted by Australian and Korean governments to create the appropriate environment to enable the development of e-learning. In Australia, these include the Strategic Framework for the Information Economy, and associated national and state and territory action plans for education and training for schools, universities and vocational education and training (VET)sectors. It also includes the establishment of web-based services like www.education.au and EdNA (Education Network Australia) Online. In Korea, the National Informatization Framework (NIF), represents an endeavour by the Ministry of Information and Communication to build information and communication technology infrastructure in Korea. In addition, the Korean Government has also provided support for information and communication technology education of students at all education levels, but in particular for those at primary and secondary education. The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development has legislated for the establishment of cyber-universities whose main purpose is to provide higher education programs via e-learning. The Ministry of Labour has implemented the Employment Insurance Reimbursement Policy to encourage uptake of elearning in Korean enterprises.
In Chapter III, we present statistics on the uptake of information and communication technology in Australia and Korea. Although both countries are highly ranked against Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) comparator countries on various information and communication technology statistics, Korea has shown exceptionally rapid growth in terms of internet access and internet usage. Its performance has placed it among the leading countries in this area.
In Chapter IV, we discuss findings from existing research and case studies which help to improve our understanding of the implementation of elearning in Australia and the issues associated with teaching and learning processes. It is clear that both teachers and students need motivation to engage with the methodology, and require appropriate skills and resources to participate effectively. However, it is also clear that the research findings are mixed about the effectiveness of e-learning strategies in terms of educational achievement. The information provided for Korea in this chapter adopts a macro-perspective in terms of policy directions and the expansion of e-learning in primary, secondary, and higher education, online universities and colleges, corporate training and general public education. Support for these findings are provided by the results from case studies presented in Chapter V.
In Chapter VI, we provide conclusions for the study. To this end we make the following general observations. We conclude that the implementation of e-learning in Australia and Korea must be understood in terms of different starting points and approaches to government intervention. Despite these differences, both countries have displayed substantial endeavours to provide infrastructure, funding and resources to make it possible for e-learning to grow and prosper. In addition, high levels of internet access and usage means that individuals are also in a position to participate in e-learning. However, the implementation of e-learning in educational institutions and organisations, raises similar practical issues for teaching and learning in both countries. These relate to student and teacher motivation, and their confidence and skill in using the technology. It also relates to the ability of on-line methodologies used in isolation to provide effective mechanisms for providing and recording feedback to students, and for providing effective communication channels between students and their peers and their teachers. The need for administrators to provide appropriate recognition of the changing patterns of work for teachers is also another major issue for training systems.
It is clear that government intervention in the form of funding initiatives in Australia or specific legislation and funding initiatives in Korea have driven the expansion of e-learning. However, the proportion of programs which are solely delivered online is low in Australia, and although the proportion of such programs is much higher for Korea (especially in corporate training organisations and cyber-universities), there is an increasing preference and acknowledgement in both countries of the benefits provided by a blended learning approach.
Although the cost of development and production of e-learning materials is an issue for Australian and Korean organisations, it seems to be more serious for Korea. This is because any materials that are purchased from other countries must be translated into Korean. However, Australia has the benefit of purchasing materials from other English-speaking countries.
The shortage of human resources specialising in e-learning is also another major problem in Korea. In Australia this situation has been addressed in part by providing training in use of new technologies, and the development of strategies to facilitate online learning for existing teachers and trainers. Strategies for recruiting overseas specialists in information technology have been aimed at the increasing expertise for the ICT industry...