ELearning and Educational Technology in Tertiary Education: A Help or a Hindrance?

The Australian Government has a multibillion dollar national policy, the National Broadband Network to provide internet access for all Australians. eLearning and educational technology are significant new approaches to delivering higher education to Australian higher education students. Such approaches are dependent on National Broadband Networks to deliver the resources using computer based learning. Worldwide Blackboard Learn, a provider of computer technology dependent on eLearning management systems, claims to have more than 20 million plus users of their learning management system. With the current emphasis on eLearning some important questions need to be asked and answered. These questions are, is this new learning paradigm a help or a hindrance to student learning in higher education, are the clams made by the providers of such resources supported by independent research evidence indicates and what effects actually occur with the end users, such as lecturers and students, the actuators of the new learning paradigm in higher education?