DIIA Instrumental in Major e-Learning Report

In November 2001, at the request of President Larry Faulkner, DIIA Director Dr. Judy Ashcroft became the UT Austin liaison with Dr. Robert Zemsky and the Learning Alliance at the University of Pennsylvania on The Weatherstation Project. In the following three and a half years, many members of the Division supported this project, and on June 24, the final report was released and became the lead headline in ACADEME TODAY: The Chronicle of Higher Education's Daily Report.

"The boom in educational technology has not lived up to its promise of revolutionizing the classroom and making higher education more profitable, two professors conclude in a report scheduled to be released today," the Chronicle proclaimed. In the full report, Thwarted Innovation, available at the Learning Alliance site, the executive summary states that the study answers the question: "Why did the boom in e-learning go bust?" The researchers found no truth in three myths of e-learning:

If we build it they will come;

The kids will take to e-learning like ducks to water;

E-learning will force a change in the way we teach.

The researchers concluded that e-learning will become pervasive only when faculty change how they teach.

Of the 51 participants that concluded the study, 23 were DIIA members. "Dr. Zemsky is very pleased with UT's efforts," said Dr. Ashcroft. "In fact, we provided some of the turning points for both the research design and the interpretation of the findings."