Automating e-learning: The higher education revolution

Abstract

As educational institutions throughout the world increasingly offer courses via the Internet, a global lifelong learning economy is emerging in which institutions must compete for students worldwide. This competition is especially noticeable in the offering of postgraduate courses aimed at satisfying the continuing professional development needs of practitioners in a wide range of disciplines. Fifth generation distance education (The Intelligent Flexible Learning Model), incorporating the use of automated response systems and reusable learning objects' databases, has the potential to provide students with a valuable pedagogical experience at significantly lower cost than traditional approaches to distance education and conventional face-to-face education. Such e-learning initiatives will be irresistible to students, politicians and the business community alike - the higher education revolution is inexorable.