E-Learning: A Virtual Promise?

CAPS.4 took place in Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, 2nd – 4th July 2003 and was part of a series of international biennial conferences on Human-System Learning. This fourth conference brought together, from many different countries, researchers, practitioners, educators and users with interests in the many facets of Human-System learning. The conference took the evocative theme of E-Learning: A Virtual Promise? and sought to identify and evaluate some of the consequences of the emerging learning environment within and between contributing disciplines. The widely perceived scope for increased pedagogical opportunities to enhance student learning, institutional objectives for growth in the face of intensified competition in the higher education sector and the expansion of mass education throughout the industrialised world, have all combined to lead to the rapid adoption of electronic technologies into the learning process. This has been transforming the learning environment, internationally, and is predicated upon expectations of the communications' capability, declining costs and continuous improvements in ease of use of these networking technologies. The potential for greater interactivity, flexibility, more functionality and lower delivery costs are powerful drivers and have put E-Learning on top of the educational agenda in institutions around the world. This conference aimed to explore these issues and to address critically the question of how far the promise of the New Electronic Learning Environment is capable of realisation.

The objectives of this conference were:
• To reflect critically on the realisation of the 'Virtual Promise';
• To facilitate engagement across boundaries in the e-learning community towards collaborative exchange;
• To "jump the learning curve" and move towards developing optimal applications of e-technologies.

In order to facilitate a dialogue on the benefits and limitations of contemporary developments in E-Learning, from diverse perspectives, the conference was structured around the following sub-themes, which comprise the major sections of these proceedings:
• Pedagogy & Flexible Learning
• Management, Organisation & Behavioural Issues
• Tools, Technologies & Systems.

Lorraine McKechnie,