The educational modality known as e-learning has revolutionized current pedagogies, adapting to different socio-cultural contexts and learning styles. In this sense, this type of education not only seeks to deliver distance learning by leveraging ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies), but also aims to ensure that its teaching methodologies and mechanisms respond to the specific conditions of the learner. Based on this, it can be stated that the new educational trends present in e-learning address a growing need for specificity regarding content.
Although e-learning shares many characteristics with distance education—and although both terms have been used interchangeably by governmental entities and academic circles to describe asynchronous education that uses new information technologies as the medium for knowledge transmission—some differences can still be identified, which give e-learning its own specificity. In this regard, it can be said that e-learning has its own path of development and evolution, closely linked to the widespread adoption of ICTs.
Distance Education: Relationship and Differences with E-learning
The origins of distance education can be traced back to the early 19th century, emerging as a response to the lack of education faced by some minority groups following the massive migrations brought on by the Industrial Revolution. The first initiatives originated in England, often in the form of booklets designed to promote self-instruction, supplemented by correspondence tutoring. This type of education experienced significant development during and after World War II, as many educational institutions across Europe had been destroyed and an effective substitute was needed, particularly given the growing demand for skilled labor.
A turning point—or rather, a transition—between distance education and e-learning occurred in the 1980s. The new pedagogical approaches implemented for distance learning no longer aimed solely for students to acquire knowledge through tutoring and self-instruction, but also sought to have all participants in the learning process (students and teachers) use tools that enabled synchronous interaction despite physical distance. Additionally, these approaches began incorporating interactive tools to facilitate greater knowledge flow. One of the most representative examples of this new educational wave was the use of videoconferencing. This process accelerated in the 1990s, leading many educational institutions to build their programs entirely around methods and techniques adapted to the digital media revolution.
Looking back at how distance education emerged and developed, it becomes clear that e-learning was already being foreshadowed, as a framework was created to promote greater interaction between the different participants in the educational process using tools that allowed for learning in a synchronous context. However, as previously mentioned, e-learning has certain distinguishing features that conceptually set it apart from distance education, giving it a unique identity based on the following essential characteristics.
Characteristics of E-learning
Today, information and communication technologies have permeated all levels of education. From short courses linked to workplace tasks to full professional degree programs, this new teaching paradigm has taken hold, driven by the mass adoption of ICTs in educational settings.
This model must adapt to new ways of learning and knowing, while also taking into account the changes in how information is transmitted, assimilated, and accessed.
Given this, the new paradigm addresses the growing need among today’s “information consumers” for more personalized and immersive educational experiences. It compensates for the lack of a physical environment and direct communication channels between individuals and their peers or instructors. In this sense, one of the specific characteristics of e-learning is its reliance on information and communication tools to provide students and educators with a more personalized and seamless experience in scenarios where physical classrooms are replaced by “virtual classrooms.” This specificity can be summarized in three main features:
- Collaborative and Continuously Constructed Learning: The use of tools like Google Drive and learning management systems (LMS) platforms allows knowledge construction to move beyond a one-way process. These tools create communities within both synchronous and asynchronous contexts, enriching the learning experience by enabling greater interaction between students and instructors, and facilitating better information flow. In short, the strength of e-learning lies in its interactive potential and its capacity to foster effective and fluid communication.
- Response to Current Needs: Modern societies move at an increasingly rapid pace, partly due to the accelerated transmission and assimilation of information. Ironically, there is less time to attend physical classrooms and directly interact with all educational actors. E-learning addresses this shortfall in educational processes by adapting to increasingly flexible course structures and schedules. Furthermore, this new pedagogy places the learner at the center of the educational process, making them responsible for their own learning according to their own pace and capacities.
- Independent Development: As previously discussed, the emergence of e-learning can be seen as a transition or continuation of distance education. However, its unique identity comes from being a phenomenon inherently linked to the development of ICTs, enabling the creation of true learning communities. Based on this, it can be affirmed that e-learning is the natural result of the implementation and enhancement of ICTs in educational environments—rather than merely a continuation of traditional distance education methodologies.
Final Conclusions
Throughout this article, we have explored the main characteristics of e-learning, as well as its emergence and development in relation to distance education. Although there is a connection between the two models, e-learning has specific components that establish it as a distinct educational model. Its implementation has led to a profound transformation in both learning methodologies and tools. This transformation involves not only the use of ICTs throughout the entire learning process but also a fundamental change in how individuals acquire and consume information in educational contexts.
This change is particularly marked by the demand for increasingly accessible and personalized learning experiences, requiring students to take a more active role in their own education. Ultimately, it can be said that the success of e-learning lies in its establishment as a new trend in training individuals across different contexts. Moreover, it has succeeded in replicating the spatial and interactive features of educational processes on the web. In this way, genuine learning communities have been built, coming together in “virtual classrooms” and thereby enhancing the educational process by recreating the functionality of traditional institutions.
