Crosstalk Seminar - Why E-Learning Projects Tend to Fail

Abstract
In Why the E-Learning Boom Went Bust, Robert Zemsky and William F. Massy observe that the great excitement of e-learning in the 1990s has given way to a "pervading sense of disappointment". E-learning developers in the 1990s fully embraced the spirit of the dot.com bubble: long on promise and short on delivery. While I agree with their assessment, the reasons Zemsky and Massy give - and the solutions they propose - are not very helpful in guiding us to real solutions to real problems. I will attempt to identify some specific problems with e-learning development and diffusion, problems that are independent of the dot.com bubble/bust. They are based on my own experience and from teaching the MIT subject Media, Education, and the Market Place. I will cover the following topics:

• Software development is inherently a high-risk activity (Capers Jones 1995).
• E-learning development requires software engineers, educators, and artists, a volatile but a necessary combination.
• Like any other innovation, e-learning applications must be diffused through the society of target population of users, something rarely if ever done right (cf. Rogers 1962, Diffusion of Innovation).

About the Presenter
Shigeru Miyagawa is Professor of Linguistics and Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at MIT. He was on the original MIT committee that proposed OpenCourseWare and presently serves on both the OCW Advisory Committee and the MIT Council on Educational Technology.