It's an exciting time to be involved with learning and online education.

The changes are coming so fast that the concept of e-learning is hardly sufficient. In fact, it marginalizes what has now become mainstream. The concept of New Learning might be more appropriate, encompassing a range of hybrid and online models.

Today, market forces, technology, and scientific research have been used to challenge the popularity of traditional, lecture-based education, which dates back hundreds of years.

Giving the debate more urgency: The U.S. federal government has jumped in, playing the nation's principal, pushing mandates on states and spending billions to influence winners and losers.

The rules of the game have changed. In a nod to the corporate world, measuring student outputs like skills and competencies are in vogue.

Nebulous inputs like fancy buildings, big endowments, and credentialed faculty have their place in the learning experience. But they must prove their worth in the harsh light of this new educational world.

In a recent speech in West Virginia, David Wiley, associate professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University, said our current school system is artificial and largely irrelevant.

Why? Most materials, research, lesson plans, support services, social life, and even prestigious college degrees can now be obtained online. Unfortunately, school administrators are unable to see the writing on the wall.

"The daily divide is the gap between the way our normal lives work and the way school works," said Wiley. "The gap is growing wider every day."

If Wiley is right, the future of education will offer more consumer choice for less money. Universities and school districts will no longer be the hub of learning but part of a larger educational network.

Teachers, using online platforms like Educadium's EasyCampus, will connect directly with students online and grant credits like new micro-schools.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers a taste of New Learning. Almost 80% of its courses are available free from its Opencourseware site.  In 2008, MIT's OCW launched a secondary education portal called Highlights for High School, which provides access to introductory high school-level courses.

The $64,000 question? Why will college students continue to pay $36,390 in MIT tuition and fees if they can get the goods for free? 

For now, MIT has no shortage of applicants. The status and prestigious social network that MIT confers on its graduates is obviously worth the price of admission. 

But that's hardly the case for state schools or smaller liberal arts universities. They have been cutting services and pushing through tuition increases far above the inflation rate.

Sooner or later, parents, students, and working adults will weigh the value proposition of traditional education and opt for less expensive, more convenient alternatives. The University of Phoenix is just the the first of many innovative, global educational companies.

New Learning has arrived. Get out the popcorn and enjoy the show.

This week, Educadium wrapped up two rewarding days at DevLearn 2009 in San Jose, California. It was our first tradeshow, and we appreciate all of the help and support given to us by the eLearning Guild.

We met with some inspiring instructional designers and organizations that are on the cutting-edge of the online learning revolution. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth.

Surrounding us were companies like Adobe, Articulate, and Raptivity, showing off their authoring tools, simulations, and e-learning solutions.

Our goal at DevLearn? Show how Educadium's EasyCampus Virtual School Builder platform integrates with and extends many of these rapid e-learning applications. Far too many first-generation learning management systems are inflexible and rigid. Not EasyCampus.

Instructional designers--masters of their content authoring tools--are often amazed at how much more effective they can be when they work within a powerful learning platform like EasyCampus. With the right course design, anyone can create an attention-grabbing,multimedia-rich virtual classroom that schools and organizations of all sizes need desperately.

Here are some other take-aways and observations:

• Even professionals are overwhelmed by the options for online learning. The market is changing rapidly, and costs are coming down like a free-falling elevator. Serious educators are most in need of a trusted partner to help guide them through the online thicket.
• E-commerce and e-learning can coexist happily. Attendees especially liked our EasyCampus CampusPay system to facilitate tuition-supported courses. Other companies at the show like Odijoo are relying on transactional models to help course creators profit from e-learning.
• When it comes to e-learning, everything is custom. Administrators and teachers have requirements (and dreams) for their online learning environment. Vendors that are not flexible enough to respond to custom educational needs, even for free products, will feel the pain.
• Game-based learning is not going away. Simulations, avatars, and story-based presentations will have an increasing role in e-learning applications, even if the execution is a bit spotty at times. When will Hollywood catch wind of this teachable moment and play a more active role?
• The flexible learning management system is the educator's secret weapon. If used wisely and combined with quality authoring tools, a cost-effective LMS like EasyCampus can be adapted for a range of uses and audiences--from e-learning to marketing. We're happy to exchange tips and tricks with up-and-coming e-learners and instructional designers.

We shared our pistachios and met some good friends at DevLearn. Now it's time to get back to building tomorrow's online schools and training programs. Drop us a line, and we'll show you how.

Educadium is in San Jose, California this week as part of DevLearn 2009, a vibrant e-learning conference put on by the eLearning Guild. Look for us at Booth 212, across from Adobe.

We're excited to preview some new, powerful EasyCampus initiatives. On Wednesday, Todd Harris will give a Master Class about how to incorporate course templates into a learning management strategy. Throughout the conference, we'll be showing instructional designers and educators how easy it is to create an online school or trainng program with EasyCampus.

If you're in town, please come to the Fairmont San Jose Hotel and say "hello." We'd love to see you!

Schools have made substantial investments in infrastructure and computer technologies. Almost all U.S. public schools have access to the Internet. Computer labs are the status symbols for the well-endowed private school. And teachers are integrating online courseware and exercises into their curricula.

So it's smooth sailing ahead, right? Maybe not.

Throwing money at technology is no substitute for confronting and adapting to the profound and disruptive changes looming on the horizon. The newspaper industry is the most recent casualty of the digital wars. Younger readers have little interest in newsprint. For them, information is available in real time on social networks and from online news sources.

Will learning and the physical classroom be transformed in a similar way?

New research suggests a rapidly changing educational world. By 2014, the majority of college students will take a portion of their coursework online. Lagging just behind, some 10.5 million K-12 students will learn online. Overall, the $17 billion U.S. market for self-paced electronic learning is set to grow to nearly $24 billion by 2014, according to Ambient Insight.

The social effects are sure to be profound. Parents will fondly recall a traditional classroom experience that will seem antiquated to their children. Instead of state-supported schools, private providers will lead the way. 

Sadly, we are likely to see more school consolidations and closures. Despite the federal subsidies, there just isn't enough student demand to support those ivy-covered classrooms.

We hope that educators get out ahead of market forces. Educadium was formed to help schools make the transition to the online world, and we know it can be done successfully.

But teachers and trainers who ignore the signs are in for a rude awakening--and maybe an early retirement.