Other socio-Economic aspects of the innovations

E-learning standards

 Content and technical standards need to be adopted that will optimise interoperability with other institutions in areas such as the creation of learning databases, information databases such as libraries, administrative systems and learner support strategies as well as the facilitation of interactions among learners and teachers. Building an educational repository that provides access to learning objects requires standards and structures that can facilitate object storage, retrieval and aggregation to suit the needs off learners or the pedagogical intentions of instructional developers.

There has been a move to produce standards for Instructional Management Systems. This initiative, the IMS Project (www.imsproject.org) has led to a comprehensive set of guidelines, which relate to the interoperability of computer systems in the educational field. Several standards currently exist in open distance education: AICC, SCORM and IMS for example. They are intended to ensure systems' portability. The lack of definitive LMS standards and evaluation criteria in educational software and electronic learning management systems is still noticeable and makes decision-making very difficult.

Globalisation

The e-education market, particularly in higher education, has grown considerably in the last years. With globalisation, one questions whether the very survival of institutions is under threat. Globalisation generates a requirement for stronger local strategies and policies. Increasingly, knowledge and information are the driving forces behind the new social structures. Consequently, the objectives of education and training systems will need to be shaped to cope with the rate of change.

Universities face a significant and growing competition from other and new types of e-learning providers. They are undergoing fundamental changes as sources of knowledge; they are tasked with mass education programmes in their undergraduate programmes. In the higher education market traditional universities not only have to compete more and more with other universities but also with virtual and commercial organizations and companies, all offering the same type of courses.

Other socio-cultural factors influencing learning processes

Intercultural differences are evident in e-learning, specially in international contexts. The main socio-cultural influences between the different countries with respect to the use of ICT come from different aspects: varying cultural and language  background, ICT skills and attitudes, varying between universities (so countries), demography, age and gender. Nevertheless, despite the cultural differences of the single countries, there are  similarities between students at all the institutions, specially universities.

Intercultural awareness can be developed through distributed collaboration as information and experience are exchanged about local environments, structures of institutions and civic and cultural protocols. Multilingual presentations is not a problem at one level. It is the enormous resources required to transform and translate content into a range of languages. It is however unclear that where partner institutions operate within a limited international range and where there is little previous experience of different cultures how within projects such as these there is enough time for analysis of, reflection on and experience of differing cultural biases.

It is recognised that networking can provide a European dimension, sharing international learning experience in education and training by cross-border delivery of courses. A sense of community for the students from different countries working together on e-learning projects usually emerges. It gives educators, trainers and learners with different worldviews the opportunity to exchange ideas and information and learn from each other, thus expanding each participant’s global view and gaining a broader perspective on a specific subject as well as on the world in general. It helps to develop the habit of intercultural communication for learning and non-learning purposes, so raising tolerance for difference and inter-cultural awareness and broadening or breaching cultural, social, and political boundaries.

Funding & commercialisation

Generally speaking, institutions cannot successfully fund the development and deployment of technology-based instructional management systems and learning tools, except on a very limited basis. Institutional leadership requires that new models for development and deployment of these systems be provided, as the competitive nature of the virtual environment is such that it constitutes a serious threat to the stability and viability of traditional educational institutions.

In other sectors the situation is not much different. Many students in upper-secondary adult education usually do not have the financial means for top-level IT-equipment and fast internet-connections. Implementing and servicing electronic learning managements systems (LMS) has proved a task far too ambitious for an average sized school: Running a server with a LMS has to be outsourced and serviced by experts to guarantee a reliable and working system, including a hotline and support for teachers and students alike.

The need for a financial plan, gathering funds from both the public and private and private sector looks convenient

Implications for LLL

Lifelong learning is a key concept linked to e-learning. Nevertheless there is more literature about the potentials of ICT and e-learning than realities. For instance, it is said that e-learning will enable a close link to be established and maintained between the University, its alumni, and the business world. In this sense the alumni will become a vector through which lifelong learning can be promoted, but this is a promise just now.

In general it is assumed that the integration of new technologies will enable the university to position itself in the market more successfully not only at the level of undergraduate education but also in the field of lifelong learning. It is more and more important the extension of the student group to the mature student in the framework of open learning, continuing education and/or lifelong learning.