Over 2000 and 2001 the Flexible Learning Advisory Group (FLAG) funded a program of 9 research projects related to the implementation and use of online learning and delivery. This research has been managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, the principal research and evaluation organisation for the VET sector in Australia.

Summaries of this research are being published in the LearnScope Virtual Learning Community once a week between 4 September 2002 and 6 November beginning with the article What the FLAG research says about online learning published on September 4.

This week we look at Summary 6 - The relationship between online learning and e-business. This study looks at the connections between e-business and online learning and reflects on the resulting opportunities for the VET sector. The report summarises what the research has found as well as highlighting pointing to online learning being repositioned in practice as just one of many front-office student services in a VET organizations.

According to this report, many VET organizations increasingly view online learning as one component of an integrated e-business approach of a customer-focused organization. New business models from overseas and examples of national good practice as well as benefits, barriers and risks and planning strategies for Australian VET educators are also canvassed.

The relationship between online learning and e-business.

Project title and authors: E-business and online learning: Connections and opportunities for VET  (J Mitchell)

Project outline:  This study by John Mitchell examines the connections between e-business and online learning and considers the opportunities for the vocational education and training (VET) sector arising from these connections. The research involves a literature review, internet search, interviews and case studies. In particular, it examines new business models used both in Australia and overseas, and from both inside and outside the education sector, to
draw out relevant messages for VET providers in Australia.

The report is in final draft form.

What the research has found

Briefly, e-business is defined as doing business electronically and online learning is defined as the use of computer networks to provide access to learning materials, activities and support. The focus of this study is online learning as a delivery system, not the act of learning.

The report argues that, historically, e-business and online learning evolved separately within VET, although there are growing examples of convergence between the two fields. The report suggests that fostering this convergence will benefit VET.

The study highlights the development of a new business philosophy among many VET managers where flexible learning and its sub-set online learning are seen as components of the essential way of being in business; that is, to be demand-driven not supply-driven and market-driven not technology-driven. E-business is an aid in achieving these business goals.

The convergence of e-business and online learning in the Information Age

• There is an emerging interest in VET in using electronic technology to provide not just online learning but a range of other services for students as well as for functions such as marketing, enrolment and information provision. These new practices are early indicators of the growing convergence between e-business and online learning.

• Although much research in VET focuses on online learning, e-business is having, and will always have, more impact on the economy and on the education sector than online learning. Given its likely future impact, E-business deserves more research attention in VET.

• In VET provider organisations throughout the 1980s and 1990s, computing and networking for administrative purposes were generally kept separate from the teaching and learning uses of computing and networking, partially explaining the parallel paths taken by e-business and online learning in VET.

• In the mid-late 1990s, the Information Age - characterised by the spread of telecommunications technologies and electronically networked business strategies - provided the context for the growth of e-business. The Information Age is also creating the preconditions for online learning to develop within a framework where
  online learning is one of many online customer services available to students in the twenty-first century, delivered by flexible, customer-centric VET providers.

Online learning repositioned as a service of customer-centric VET organisations

• Online learning systems benefit from the performance of many business processes in the back office and the supply chain, often conducted electronically, providing a fundamental link between online learning and e-business.

• Online learning is being repositioned in practice as just one of many front-office student services in a VET organisation that conducts business electronically

E-business embraced by customer-centric, efficiency-conscious VET organisations

• A number of VET organisations in Australia are using e-business to improve efficiencies in their supply chain, to improve their customer relationship management, to integrate their back office functions and to improve their procurement practices. These e-business practices are impacting either directly or indirectly on the delivery of online learning.

• The attitude of an increasing number of VET organisations is that online learning is one component of an integrated, e-business approach of a customer-focused organisation is an alternative to another view in VET that an emphasis on pedagogy, instructional design and quality measures will have the major impact on the
  expansion of online learning.

New business models from overseas

Examples from overseas of e-business models that involve online learning include:

• providing customers with free online learning opportunities, to build customer relationships

• for no charge, teaching your customers online how to use your product, so they encourage others to buy the product

• using online collaboration to expand market reach

• providing customers with access to large databases of online learning and print materials

• implementing e-business by using online learning to teach staff about new systems.

Examples of good practice

• Some VET organisations, such as the Open Learning Institute in Queensland, Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria, WestOne in Western Australia and Central West Community College in New South Wales, are already part of the way towards bringing about a convergence between e-business and online learning. Their use of e-business practices impacts positively on the provision of customer services such as online learning.

• There is notable experimentation by VET organisations in customer relationship management (CRM) and online enrolments, and these new e-business practices often have flow-on benefits for online learning systems.

• Some VET organisations are using innovative partnerships and staff training schemes to foster the implementation of both e-business and online learning.

Benefits, barriers and risks

• The benefits of applying e-business principles and processes to online learning are different for customers and for the provider organisation. Benefits for customers include user choice and access to personalised services delivered electronically. Benefits for organisations include increased market reach, new ways to access the
  intellectual assets of the organisation and enhanced relationships with customers.

• Barriers to achieving the customer services and improved business efficiencies made possible by incorporating online learning systems within an e-business framework include costs, user resistance, technology availability, limited staff skills and organisational inexperience.

• Significant risks associated with e-business, such as vendor instability and premature technology obsolescence, privacy invasions and legal issues, need to be covered within a risk management program for embedding online learning within an ebusiness approach.

Educational, organisational, cultural and other factors

• It is no simple matter to merge online learning and e-business, as online learning on its own is a complex field. Additionally, educational issues regarding online learning are often interconnected with business, technological and marketing issues. For instance, there are ongoing debates in contemporary VET about business issues
  such as whether online content should be built in-house or the production outsourced or the content bought off-the-shelf. There are also passionate debates about the benefits of rival off-the-shelf learning management systems.

• Many organisational issues impact on the development of e-business models for online learning systems in VET, such as the range of new skills needed to develop, market and deliver online learning in an e-business environment. Managers are challenged by the rise of e-business, for instance by customers finding it easy to
  access online the new suppliers of electronic learning products.

• Recent research has identified the cultural characteristics of a major market for online learning products and services, as well as the cultural aspects of VET providers that could constrain development.

• Technology creates the opportunity for the use of e-business practices with online learning, but the technology is not always available and it keeps changing and offering more functionalities.

Planning strategies

• Australian VET educators often have considerable experience in planning and implementing online learning systems but not in planning and implementing ebusiness.

• A range of strategic business issues are currently impacting on the development of ebusiness in the education sector in Australia, which need to be addressed before ebusiness can flourish, including identifying the customer service imperative for e-business for each organisation considering an e-business initiative.

• Despite the complexity of e-business, it is possible to identify practical steps that educational administrators need to take in adopting e-business, in the following fields: business principles and processes; and technology design and approaches.

• Different business cases are needed for different e-business initiatives. For instance, a business case to implement e-business within a stand-alone, single-campus RTO will be different to a business case to implement e-business within all TAFE Institutes in one State.

• VET organisations considering the implementation of e-business and online learning are encouraged to examine the outcomes of this study carefully before embarking on any technology installation or new business practices.

• But there is no pressure to do things impulsively: the study shows that e-business is here for the long term. The study shows that e-business drivers like improved internal efficiencies, improved customer service and improved supplier relationships will be part of the future of business, including educational business.

• The study also shows that e-business and its linkages with online learning will vary from one organisation to the next, so instead of seeking a planning template, managers are advised to examine their own organisation, their markets and their partnerships, and to let this strategic analysis influence the identification of alternative
  directions.
   

Further information and, as they are published, a full report on this national strategy project is available at: http://www.ncver.edu.au/online.htm

This topic page also allows you to:

• Access other work published by NCVER in relation to on-line learning
  
• Conduct a search on published material in the field using VOCED, the UNESCO/NCVER international database for technical and vocational education and training research
  
• Link to other sites related to on-line learning

NCVER will be running a series of face-to-face forums on this research in all states in November and December 2002. Watch their site for details at http://www.ncver.edu.au