Marco Rimanelli

There are numerous attempts towards proper quality measures or quality standards for e-learning: authors of e-learning content need those standards to define their products; administrators and decision-makers need them to make proper choices; and the e-learning community needs them to provide exchangeability and comparability. Quality measures are needed also by students and teachers. Looking for quality measures of distance learning, not necessarily within any certified quality standards framework, is lately an important research target, involving multiple attitudes and theoretical frameworks. There is still strong need to classify measure types for the broad e-learning quality assessment. This essay enumerates the key quality conditions to be taken into account in e-learning projects. Then it focuses on the main issues defining every e-learning system and at the same time drawing the set of contexts of e-learning potential. Within each context (institutional, methodological, communication, technological, evaluation and management) the paper defines two extremes and looks for the “golden mean”, somewhere in the middle. Despite the unquestionable effectiveness and applicability of distance- learning in many (or most) of the above contexts, one can point out a list of instances of misuse or wrong application of this educational tool. The second part of the paper examines the most popular failures of didactic content, like misattribution, over-estimation and various other limitations.

This analysis provides a typology of all cardinal failures of distance-learning as new “seven deadly sins” to enable better learning from these errors. The essay’s thesis stresses that e-learning systems should be not technology-dependent, but should be tailored for human users and open for changes of content-receivers. The conclusion proposes a three phase approach for distance-learning modeling and implementation: intention, presentation and reaction. Achieving such end has been recently attempted  with mixed results in the USA by Saint Leo University near Tampa, Florida, which since 1997 has enhanced teaching excellence and standardization at both its traditional campus and Distance Centers by evolving new academic technologies for On-line,  Blended and traditional courses, while migrating in time through different web-platforms (BISK, Learning Studio/Pearson and recently D2L/Courses) to mitigate most failures of distance-learning.