“Learning… is not making deposits in one’s data bank. It is more like mixing a new ingredient into the soup of perception and cognition.” (Davis, Sumara, and Luce-Kapler, 2000, p. 197)

The Failure of e-learning

By its very name, e-learning1must involve learning. That is certainly the hope and message of e-learning providers, who want to sell their products and services to corporations, educational institutions, and the general public. The web sites of e-learning providers are replete with claims of effectiveness, huge savings, and transformations in individuals and organizations. One e-learning provider even claims that the use of its services will result in “shock and awe”!

Yet, the e-learning industry is in crisis, and, there is a rapidly growing literature on “the failure of e-learning.” For example, a 2000 study of 40 Global companies by the Forrester Group found that, unless forced, the majority of workers in the study (68%) would not sign up for voluntary online courses. Even when online courses were compulsory, over 30% refused to sign up (cited by Dublin and Cross, 2003). Another study indicated that, of those who do sign up for a course, between 50% and 80% never finish the course (Delio, 2000). A recent detailed analysis of the literature (over 100 articles) on the failure of e-
learning indicated many different problems at all stages of implementation (Romiszowski, 2004).