E‐learning is a subject that has been attracting a great deal of interest recently and so the publication of this book by Ian Roffe, Professor of Learning and Innovation in the Centre for Enterprise at the University of Wales, is very timely. I opened the book, hoping to find much to inform my practice. As both an educational manager in the field of e‐learning and a contributor to the literature of the field I am continually being challenged by the need to keep up with new developments. Having the opportunity to review a book that has so recently come off the presses therefore, held interest for me from several points of view. Yet although the book provides a very extensive coverage of the subject, I found reading it mildly frustrating. The problem was not that the book did not seem to have much to offer, but that what it offered did not match my initial expectations of what it would contain.
Targeting its readership is a problem for this book and the first indication that that could be the case is given by the title. It is not clear from the title whether this is a book about e‐business or about e‐learning. Nor is it clear whether the innovation referred to in the title is innovation in the application of e‐learning or innovation that e‐learning is used to support. The words in the title seem to have been chosen more to enhance the chances of the title being picked by someone “Googling” to find a book on “e‐learning”+“e‐business”+“innovation”+“enterprise” than to tell prospective readers what to expect inside. The main thrust of the book is, in fact, the business of e‐learning. However, the book covers a lot more besides.
Roffe deals with his subject at a level of detail one generally does not find, nor even expect, in a work of this type. Despite its orientation towards business and training, the book recognises the many varieties of e‐learning and takes into account differences that may be observed between the corporate training, professional education and university and vocational education sectors. It covers the topics that one would expect to find in a book with a business orientation: marketing, quality and innovation. However, also delves into topics that are much more the province of the educational specialist than the business entrepreneur – topics such as learning theories and educational evaluation.
Books that attempt broad coverage of emerging fields often seem superficial. However, that is not the case here. Roffe goes into each topic in considerable depth. What's more, his treatment of each topic is balanced and up to date. The text is extensively referenced and it is obvious that the author is very familiar with the current literature. Why, then, the frustration? To explain, I need to describe what I regard as the book's two main weaknesses.
The first weakness is the relative lack of guidance on how the concepts and principles that are introduced may be applied in practical situations. This book offers a very conceptual treatment of the subject. It goes into great detail in explaining concepts such as digital signalling rates, activity based costing. However, the theoretical treatment of these concepts is not balanced by similarly detailed explanations of their practical application. There are no case studies of any significance, relatively few illustrative examples, and, in the area of costing, no worked examples. Readers from industry will therefore, have to work hard to contextualise the concepts being described to their own situations.
An example of the type of theoreticisation of the content to which I am referring can be found in the chapter on quality, value assurance and value enhancement. In this chapter, Roffe explains the importance and potential of customer relationship management (CRM). It is a topic that is likely to be of considerable interest to readers, given the well‐known difficulty that many providers of e‐learning are experiencing and attracting and retaining students. Roffe provides an easy‐to‐understand description of CRM and also explains the important role that technology is able to play in supporting that function. However, the single example he offers is the Amazon.com site. Although this site undoubtedly represents an excellent example of a CRM system, it is not an example of the type of system that any e‐learner provider is likely to implement in the foreseeable future. Virtually no educational provider could possibly afford the size of investment that Amazon has made in its IT infrastructure. This is the type of gap between theory and practice and is evident in many places throughout the book.
The second weakness is that the perspective from which the book is written changes continually. At one point what is being described will be written from the perspective of the marketing specialist, at another point what is being described will be written from the perspective of an educator or trainer. The perspective adopted at any point in the book is manifested in terms of the way topics are addressed and the discipline‐specific jargon such as “value proposition”, “student‐centred learning”, and “perceived user‐value”. These changes in perspective can occur quite abruptly – even within a section. Their importance is that they are likely to result in readers who are looking for a book that provides practical advice, losing interest in what is being explained.
The combined effect of these two factors is to leave the impression that this is a book intended more for readers wanting to learn about the field of e‐learning rather than readers working within the field of e‐learning, and I therefore, found myself wondering where the author saw as the book's main readership lying. I came to the conclusion that this is primarily intended as a university textbook. There is a large and growing market for textbooks on e‐learning, and this particular book would serve that market well. The book would also be useful as a background reference for researchers undertaking projects in the field of e‐learning. However, as a handbook for practitioners, it is likely to be found somewhat disappointing. It repeatedly offers the reader glimpses of new possibilities, but provides few signposts as to how they may be reached. To be really useful for practitioners, the book requires more illustrations, more case studies, and a greater focus on implementation processes.
In deciding whether you should consider adding this book to your bookshelf, you need to ask yourself what you are hoping to gain from it. If you are looking for a general text for a course in e‐learning, then this may be just the book you are after. If you are starting out on a piece of research into any aspect of the business of e‐learning and want a general reference in the field, then the up‐to‐date coverage and extensive referencing will commend the book to you. However, if you are the proprietor of a small to medium size enterprise looking for a set of practical guidelines on how to market your new e‐learning training enterprise, then you may find that there are other books that would serve your needs better.
