Stephen Downes

"At a recent e-learning conference," writes the author, "one of the presenters said it was okay if students didn't complete a course.... Upon closer examination though, e-learning isn't failing. Instead, the existing course paradigm is failing." I don't think it was me who said that, but it could have been - I've said it enough over the last few months and years. I like this analysis of why courses represent a poor base structure for online learning (quoted from the article):

CRLF
• I don't want to be tortured with useless information;CRLF
• I can't always know when I'll need to know something;CRLF
• Learning is great, but I need to know how it fits into my job;CRLF
• Sometimes learning objectives are just plain dumb - What I need is good reference material;CRLF
• I'd like to show my boss that the training improved my performance. CRLF

CRLFOnline learning is supposed to be learner centered, isn't it? And yet, so many online learning providers cannot even address learner needs when it comes to the basic unit of online learning.CRLF