4.1: Introduction
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Learning Outcomes
“In the life of the human spirit, words are action, much more so than many of us may realize who live in countries where freedom of expression is taken for granted. The leaders of totalitarian nations understand this very well. The proof is that words are precisely the action for which dissidents in those countries are being persecuted”. – Carter (1977)
The world is shrinking rapidly. The Internet has brought the world together in ways that nobody would have expected. You can now attend a college halfway around the world, with students from any country with Internet access. People will telecommute to their jobs more in the future, while their companies compete globally (elearners.com). Many countries around the world are experiencing increasing diversity amongst their populations (Wentling & Palma-Rivas, 2000). While this is having a major impact on organizations within the business sector (Thomas, 1995), higher education institutions are also feeling the effects of increasing diversity within student populations (Smith, 1995). The last decade in particular has seen an increasing trend towards globalization (Farrell, 2001) particularly with the introduction of the World Wide Web and the Internet. As a result the tertiary education landscape has changed considerably as institutions seek new and innovative ways to meet the needs of a growing and increasingly diverse student population (Rumble & Latchem, 2004). Online learning, or e-learning, is an increasingly popular method being used by institutions to meet the requirements of the changing learning landscape (Dimitrova, Sadler, Hatzipanagos & Murphy, 2003).