Do students have the ability to follow directions and ask questions and the ability to work on their own under the guidance of a faculty member?
Conclusion and future directions
The changes in our educational environment are reflective of shifts in our demographics, economic conditions, and technological developments. Web 2.0 tools are opening up educational opportunities for lifelong learning to a diverse global 535community. Emerging terms, course management and learning management systems, and issues related to the development and implementation of distance education and distributive learning are all elements resulting from these budding educational opportunities.
The next generation of CMSs and LMSs will be integrated portals that are smarter, track more information, and analyze learner data across functions such as e-mail, wikis, chats, forums, and so forth. They will include personal learning environments (PLEs), immersive, 3D learning worlds with better communication channels and collaboration for any time and any place learning with tablets and mobile devices.72 This will result in just-in-time, customized learning environments where the focus is on outcomes rather than traditional credit hours. This emerging environment is about the learners, the learners’ needs, and the integration and use of appropriate technologies.