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Main Story

Vol 9, Issue 2
April 14, 2008

CiTE’s attendees learn what lies ahead for eCollege and for eLearning

eCollege’s and Pearson’s CEOs revealed their vision for the road ahead During CiTE – The eCollege Users’ Conference, eCollege's new CEO, Matt Leavy, and Pearson PLC CEO, Marjorie Scardino, delivered exciting promises of increased development and innovation to eCollege’s clients. In two separate addresses to hundreds of attendees and eCollege customer institutions, both Matt and Marjorie revealed their bright vision for eCollege’s future.

Educators, administrators and other eLearning professionals gathered for numerous breakout sessions, workshops, networking opportunities and 4 keynote addresses from education’s leading minds in Denver, Colorado. CiTE brought together a record number of eCollege users, building eLearning communities and sharing innovations for the future of online education.

Developing innovation, continuing service

Matt Leavy, formerly of Pearson Education’s strategic operations group, opened CiTE 2008 with the annual State of eCollege keynote address Wednesday afternoon. Marjorie Scardino, Pearson’s chief executive since 1997, joined Kendrick McLish, eCollege’s Vice President of Product and Marketing, and Will Etheridge, CEO of Pearson Education, for a question and answer period during Thursday afternoon’s Coming Attractions from eCollege general session.

While Matt, Marjorie and Will all acknowledged the significant successes of eCollege over the past 10 years, they see greater achievements in the future of this Pearson company. Their vision includes a significant increase in eCollege’s research and development budget, a shift toward more complex and customized learning applications and continuing eCollege’s commitment to the support of its customers.

“While many things have changed in the past year at eCollege, and many will change in the future, much of the eCollege learning solution will remain the same,” said Matt Leavy. “Service and reliability will remain the bedrock of the eCollege learning solution.”

Improving education for a better tomorrow

In addition to the increased resources and greater access to global resources that Pearson brings to eCollege, Matt, Marjorie and Will also indicated a shift toward more dynamic learning tools in the eCollege platform. “The release of eCollege.NExT makes way for many more innovations from eCollege,” said Marjorie. Among the coming innovations are increased support for Web 2.0 technologies and more flexible and in-depth analytics for online education.

When asked why Pearson had such an invested interest in eCollege, Marjorie replied that “Pearson is an education company, in the broadest sense of the word. Penguin, Financial Times and Pearson Education each deliver education in various forms. Pearson’s goal is to improve the world through education. Technology, such as the eCollege learning platform, is at the center of Pearson’s dream for the future of all learning.”

Invoking a more integrated and imaginative future for learning

Dr. Mark Milliron and Sir Ken Robinson entertained and informed attendees in their separate keynote addresses during the annual eCollege users’ conference. Both Dr. Milliron and Sir Ken invoked a brave and imaginative future in education. Their visions were both more technologically innovative and supportive of students’ creative talents.

Dr. Milliron, author and learning analyst, explored the increasing complexity of modern education within the disparately technologically savvy now students learning together. In addition, Dr. Milliron discussed how blended learning, mobile devices, gaming, high-impact presentation technologies and analytics have brought new challenges and opportunities to the learning environment.

Sir Ken delivered his core message that the key to the future lies in new approaches to developing the creative talents of all students—not just "the creatives." Sir Ken’s presentation explained why he feels that education should do much more than train workers. “The aim of all learning,” he asserted, “should be the cultivation of critical thinking about life, art, culture and humanism.”

The three day users’ conference delivered on its promise of gathering the brightest minds in eLearning in an open forum where ideas could be shared and solutions learned. Each CiTE attendee left the conference Friday afternoon with fresh perspectives and new approaches toward achieving their teaching and administrative goals. These exciting conversations will be renewed and enlivened further at next year’s CiTE.