Companies turning to e-learning

On-the-job training is taking on a new meaning as more and more companies turn to e-learning for support, according to experts.

E-learning is becoming more popular in the Middle East because it enables employees to tap into courses around their day, said Dubai-based Xpert Learning director Paul Gledhill.

"Instead of flying in an international speaker to talk about leadership, they can learn when they are ready for it," he told the GDN. "E-learning won't replace conventional learning, however," he said.

The e-learning industry is becoming increasingly attuned to the potential of open source. A US commentator has issued an open source e-learning report, and it's a serious discussion topic at conferences from Online Educa in Berlin to TechLearn in the US.

Kineo has long advocated the use of open source tools and technologies in the context of e-learning. In a new resource, available for free on Kineo's Web site, Kineo highlights some of the open source tools that can be harnessed for open source e-learning. Among these, Kineo provides an overview of eXe, an open source e-learning authoring tool, and of Moodle's functionality and potential for management and tracking of e-learning.

Kineo's managing partner, Steve Rayson, commented: "As advocates of open-source e-learning, we advise anyone embarking on e-learning development and deployment to think open source. This can range from using eXe, a simple but effective open source authoring tool, to Audacity, another great open-source tool for podcast editing.

Korea is increasing co-operation with Demark to improve lifetime learning and vocational education programmes, which become increasingly crucial to a nation's competitiveness in a knowledge-based society, reports The Korea Herald.

The two countries signed an agreement in November to boost exchanges in four areas: vocational training, e-learning, lifelong learning in general and education of adult teachers.

Joern Skovsgaard, senior adviser at the Danish Education Ministry, said the two countries have much to learn from each other to advance their education systems.