Contents |
Access refers to the ability to access a computer and compatible software necessary to undertake E-learning. The biggest fear so far of ICT technology is digital exclusion. Similar to most forms of exclusion, digital exclusion is organised on the same demographic lines inclusive of age, ethnicity or educational levels.
Rapid advances in information and communication technology ICT – particularly the development of online technologies – have transformed the nature of economic, social and cultural relations worldwide. In post industrial societies technological change has occurred and therefore new learning environments have changed the way universities operate. Universities are now promoting lifelong learning discourses. In recent years there has been much public debate on the educational access and equity of developing nations, this is particularly a contentious issue due to the increased amounts of technology currently involved in education.
E-learning is developed to increase the level of access of education through online courses overcoming geographic or physical impediments. E-Learning is also essential in equipping students with the technologically advanced, flexible skills now required to flexible labour market participation in the information age. The growing use of ICT to support learning and teaching in higher education offers both new possibilities and new challenges for facilitating access and equity for all students. The good thing about e-learning is that it assists in overcoming distance by providing remotely accessible learning opportunities and ways of interacting with fellow students and staff, and promotes students to learn in their own time.
A concern of e-learning is the widely recognised division between the information rich and the information poor, called the digital divide; this creates disadvantages that mirror traditional socio-economic inequalities. The digital divide includes issues of physical access to ICT, the technological skills to utilise it effectively, and the relevance and appropriateness of online content. In a university environment equity groups may or may not be further disadvantaged by ICT technology. It is hard to overcome access problems of e-learning as technology is continually changing.
Research conducted by the University of Technology in Sydney identified a range of physical, experiential, social, economic and institutional influences on respondents’ access to online learning. Equity groups were found to be disadvantaged in their access to ICT for use in their learning programmes. Key access issues identified include the need for reliable access to on campus facilities, particularly for students with no other access options, a lack of adaptive technology and modified equipment in mainstream campus facilities for students with particular disabilities, the cost of purchasing, maintaining and upgrading equipment for students of low socio economic status, the high costs of internet service providers and dial up fees for rural or isolated students. Poor levels of information literacy can lead to a lack of confidence to access available resources. Economic costs of maintaining personal ICT equipment with online capabilities. Cost is a significant barrier to access.
E-learning and access also addresses the possibility of the unfavourable conditions at home in which to study – leading to the increased reliance of public study spaces such as libraries which often have problems associated with lack of computers high printing costs.
Barraket, J. 2004. E-learning and and access – Getting behind the hype. In Researching Widening Access to Lifelong Learning, ed. M. Osborne, J. Gallacher and B. Crossan., 91-102. Oxfordshire: RoutledgeFalmer.
Ferlander, S. 2004. E-learning, marginalised communities and social capital: A mixed method approach. In Researching Widening Access to Lifelong Learning, ed. M. Osborne, J. Gallacher and B. Crossan., 180-192. Oxfordshire: RoutledgeFalmer
Jessica Strudwick 16:40, 27 Oct 2005 (EST)
