Hi, I am Dolly Bhasin from Delhi, India. I have been working on using elearning for capacity development of professionals. Elearning is probably the only magic mantra to develop the required professionals in a short time in large numbers to meet the growing demands of the Knowledge based economy. Specially in the Service sector - Travel, SMEs, Healthcare, ITES, Legal, etc..
The current elearning systems are focussed on either supporting or replacing traditional education systems. The approach is more focussed on TEACHING and supporting teaching, wheras in my opinion the fundamental difference in eLearning vs e-education is the change of focus from TEACHING to LEARNING.
Whereas, teaching is more focussed on lectures, notes and assessments; the learning centres around developing the skills and knowledge. Over 80% of the learning in a lifetime of a human being actually happens out of the traditional educational environment. It is this area of concern, for which eLearning can very effectively fulfill a very effective role by its correct application.
I have been researching with same and am conceptualising a project to overcome the barriers to current learning. The project is TRAVARSITY and is up for collaborative research and seeking funding. The project aims at bringing all stake holders of a vertical industry or a value chain to identify the knowledge and skill requirements and then defining and developing repositories for same, which could be distributed through multiple convergent communication mediums like web, CDs, IPTV, Audio streaming and Webcasting/podcasting.
I would like to invite you all to join and participate in the above project and help develop a new kind of learning environment which is knowledge and skill development driven rather than the traditional marking and grading systems of rote learning and academic approach.