FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION

The revised version of the Theory and Practice of Online Learning, edited by Terry Anderson, brings together recent developments in both the practice and our understanding of online learning.

Five years have since passed between this new edition and the first version. Five years is certainly a long time in this business as this second edition illustrates. The improvement in versatility and sophistication of the technologies that have been coming into common use has been so significant that a revisit of our knowledge of learning technologies and their application was becoming increasingly necessary. Anderson and the other authors of this text have responded to the need and have done the higher education community a great service by bringing it out in the electronic open access format under a Creative Commons License. Those of us from the other world are beneficiaries of this generosity and intellectual benevolence.

Online learning has begun to embed itself as a part of our educational environment, especially in the higher education and training sectors. The practice is not widespread yet but the growing number of institutions and individuals resorting to this innovation seems to be increasing exponentially. This increase is not limited to the developed world; colleagues in the developing world are equally enthusiastic about mediated learning for any number of reasons, including expanding access and providing flexibility to populations hungry for learning and training.

This revised publication with new knowledge and additional chapters is a great help for many of us who are still very much on the learning curve in our understanding of online learning.

Raj Dhanarajan
Vice Chancellor
Wawasan Open University
Penang, Malaysia
4 April 2008