City University’s regional conference brings importance of e-learning to the fore

In an era where competition between tertiary institutions remains rife, technology-enabled learning is no longer a differentiator, but an important part of the course, enhancing the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of ideas in and outside of the classroom.

The strong regional turnout at this year’s e-Learning Forum Asia, on May 11 & 12, at the City University of Hong Kong, sent the clearest signal yet that e-learning is now no longer the prerogative of universities in the developed economies of the world, but has become a major imperative for educators and institutions around the globe.

Of the 334 participants  who attended the two-day conference, over 200 of them were representatives from outside Hong Kong, including countries like Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia ,Singapore, and regions like Taiwan and mainland China

“We were extremely happy with the turnout at this year’s event. Despite the current economic challenges and the threat of swine flu, the strong participant number demonstrates how important e-learning has become. A forum like this is invaluable because it draws together global e-learning experts and education professionals who can share their experiences and exchange the latest ideas,” said Dr Eva Wong, Director of City University’s Education Development Office who hosted this year’s forum.

Ahmad Hashem, a professor at Kuala Lumpur’s Open University, who was attending the conference for the very first time, said the forum provided ample practical advice on how he could improve e-learning at his university, Malaysia’s leading open distance learning education institution.

“The emphasis of this forum is unique. In contrast to some of the other conferences geared more towards the academic implications of e-learning, this event offers concrete and useful suggestions, the sharing of methodologies and best practices,” he explained.

Michelle Santos, head of Building Blocks Development and Integration at Philippines’ University of Santo Tomas concurs. “This is probably the region’s only e-learning management system agnostic forum in the sense that it really doesn’t promote any one particular e-learning management system, but focuses instead on the sharing of ideas and how we can best learn from each other,” she said.

Knowledge sharing is important at the best of times, but academics say this is more pertinent now than ever before as universities grapple with how best to use rapidly developing technologies to enhance learning.

“e-learning has developed so much in recent years that we really need a platform on which to swap information and lessons learnt so far. This conference is an ideal opportunity to do just that,” said Dr Quach Tuan Ngoc from Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training.

Guest speakers were more diverse this year than ever before with representatives hailing from 8 countries or regions, a concerted effort by organizers to draw expertise from near and far.

Featured speakers included academics from notable education institutions such as the University of New South Wales of Australia, The London School of Economics and Political Science of the United Kingdom, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and Feng Chia University of Taiwan. And executives from leading software providers such as Blackboard Inc., the leader in learning management system and e-learning support , and iParadigms, the company behind the groundbreaking application Turnitin, the worldwide standard in online plagiarism prevention were among the presenter lists.

“The wide range of speakers enabled participants to tap into a cross section of views, giving a useful overview of the latest e-learning developments as well as addressing some specific and pressing issues,” noted Dr Wong. 

Discussion topics included the use of technology at the secondary school level, academic leadership in e-learning, national and institutional drivers for quality assurance and assessment, and how technology is supporting language learning.

Many of these themes resonated with the regional participants; many of whom are under pressure to identify the most relevant technology enabling tools in order to keep up with the rapid pace of e-learning development in their respective countries.

Malaysia’s Open University has, for example, tracked exponential student growth since its formation in 2002 with just 753 students. Today, the institution, which adopts a blended learning approach comprising online studying and face-to-face lectures, has a total of 82,000 students.

Meanwhile, the University of Santo Tomas, which already uses e-learning at its existing premises, plans to extend its virtual learning environment to a further three new campuses in the Philippines and two international campuses by 2011.

“e-learning will likely see a boom during the economic downturn,” Ms Santos pointed out, noting, the expenditure of running a distance learning programme are limited in terms of infrastructure, maintenance, operations and faculty training costs which is why this type of education has proved to be so attractive to students.

Though the Open University had initially expected the economic downturn to negatively impact the number of applicants this year, Mr Hashem says the university has, to the contrary, posted its best ever enrollment figures to date.

“It appears that working adults are really using this period to retrain themselves,” he said, adding, the recession is definitely presenting itself as an opportunity for e-learning.