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The purpose of this paper is to examine current practice in blended learning – notably the view of blended learning as a synthesis of different approaches to the delivery of learning in order to create high impact learning.

An exploration of the development of blended learning over the years, especially how it is being affected by developments in learning delivery technology and learning design.

Learning architecture and design ought to be enhanced by the thoughtful use of various new tools, strategies and delivery platforms working in harmony. Only then can the learning process finally become highly attractive for new generations of learners.

New trends driving virtual learning prescribe the use of a portfolio of new tools. This, therefore, is producing changes in e-learning architecture, including the need for multi-device learning solutions, along with the need to implement multimedia formats in producing virtual learning solutions. Simultaneously, for educators, there have been changes in learning solutions' design based on the emergence of the self-determined and autonomous learner, as described by the concept of heutagogy.

The complexities of creating an appropriate blend along with the most effective learning solutions for each learner – including the use of mobile platforms and social learning – have never been more challenging.

Customising learning is in its early stages but, with the advent of new delivery technology and the growth of self-determined learners, it will become unavoidable.

An outline of two large organisations’ independent searches for a suitable system that enables them to create, collate and curate digital learning materials, along with updating, managing them and monitoring their use efficiently and effectively. The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges and issues each organisation faces – and sets out how they have overcome them satisfactorily, having reached, independently, a common conclusion.

Two case studies, making use of producer, distributor and user interviews.

Discovering the appropriate learning content management system (LCMS) for your organisation can bring tangible benefits – for the organisation (via improving productivity, efficiency and eliminating “silos” in production), learning and development professionals (in charge of the whole process) and individual workers/learners.

The value of a LCMS in meeting business and learning needs – from the points of view of both content creation and accessing learning materials.

Implemented successfully, an LCMS can improve learning content developers’ productivity in quantity and quality terms – among other things, through providing a standard framework that produces homogeneity of approach and look-and-feel to the learning materials. This helps improve learning and development professionals’ efficiency and effectiveness. It also enables the organisation to achieve its business targets and goals through developing its people. Moreover, accessing the LCMS through the Cloud means that all the custom-built content produced by third party developers exists on the system. This makes it simpler, easier and faster to update these materials.

Through the LCMS, learners can access what they need as and whenever they require it.

An attempt to discern modern approaches to in-house learning content development through two recent cases.

Today, the high cost of e-learning systems’ implementation and the difficulty of managing the infrastructures motivate educational institutions toward application of cloud-based e-learning systems. This new system should be aligned with the academics’ aims and pedagogical principles to be beneficial for learners and instructors. Therefore, the vendor selection of learning systems is one of the most important processes to migrate toward cloud-based e-learning. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new framework to facilitate the vendor selection of cloud-based e-learning systems in the cloud market.

To identify the initial criteria as to the vendor selection of cloud-based e-learning services, a literature review is done. To enrich the initial criteria, a focus group of experts is investigated, and the framework developed; then, a survey analysis is conducted to validate the proposed framework. The extracted criteria and sub-criteria are weighted and prioritized using best-worst method (BWM).

The results indicate that the main dimensions of vendor selection framework as regards cloud-based e-learning systems are managerial, technological and pedagogical factors. The rank orders and weights of the mentioned aspects and their sub-criteria are calculated using the BWM.

The proposed framework helps managers to get a big picture of requirements as to cloud-based e-learning and more effectively to select appropriate vendors in this initiative. In the vendor selection process, managers must pay attention to technological issues as well as managerial and pedagogical considerations.

Cloud-based e-learning systems are getting increasingly essential to offer training courses more efficiently in educational institutions. Although the intersection between cloud computing and e-learning has increasingly grown in both practical and academic contexts, there are little studies on how educational institutions and organizations could be able to select appropriate cloud-based e-learning systems. This paper explores the ignored but critically important subject of cloud-based e-learning. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a novel and integrated framework containing the important aspects of vendor selection in cloud-based e-learning services. The proposed framework comprises managerial, technological and pedagogical aspects simultaneously as well as sub-criteria denoting each aspect.

As educational institutes began to address the challenges posed by COVID-19, e-learning came to the foreground as the best bet left. This study is in quest of revealing engineering student's perceptions of the available e-learning platforms, thus surfacing the underlying bottlenecks. Further, it aims at providing solutions that would help enhance the e-learning experience not only in pandemic times but also in the long run.

This holistic research begins with a comprehensive comparative study about the available e-learning platforms, followed by a primary data analysis through an online survey of 364 engineering students from various colleges and branches. The collected data was analyzed to detect bottlenecks in online learning and suggestions are given for solving some challenges.

On a five-point Likert scale, the available e-learning platforms garnered ratings ranging from 2.81 to 3.46. Google meet was the most preferred platform. However, with a net promoter score (NPS) of 30.36, Microsoft Teams emerged as the most satisfying platform. Technical shortcomings clubbed with psychological and biological factors were found to be taking a toll on e-learning.

This innovative research is based on the perceptions of engineering students hailing majorly from Indian cities, and hence, it may be having educational stream bias and geographical bias. The research could be further extended to cover rural areas and global trends in e-learning.

The research offers a thorough analysis of e-learning platforms, as seen through the lens of engineering students. Furthermore, the analysis does not constrain itself to the technicalities and thus proves to be an all-encompassing one, potent enough to surface critical issues marring the e-learning experience.

The primary purpose of this research paper is to evaluate e-learning among employees of Information Technology (IT) companies based in Hyderabad, India.

A survey was undertaken among the employees from different IT companies based in Hyderabad, India, to gauge the perception towards e-learning. The participants were selected randomly. The evaluation is based on a few factors: convenience, usefulness, course content, quality, effectiveness and benefits for employees and organizations. The responses were recorded online through a structured questionnaire. In total, 237 responses have been collected for this present study, of which 227 questionnaires were used for analysis.

The surveyed employees perceived that e-learning helped them enhance their workplace competency in a flexible but effective manner. The e-learning also empowered the learners and ultimately contributed to the enhancement of organizational performance in some ways.

Limitation of the study – by examining the pris study was confined to employees working with IT companies based in Hyderabad City, India. The data is collected online, and there may be some insufficient responses. Implications of the study – the study results show a deep insight into the critical aspects of e-learning as a tool for employee training for the benefit of employees and organizational development. The surveyed respondents from the IT sector at Hyderabad perceived that keys to successful e-learning programs should give due consideration towards availability of internet bandwidth, making the course more interactive, providing more choices to the learners and user-friendly and personalized learning experience. The study also shows that the e-learning programs primarily benefit the employees as well as the organization in a manner, namely, improved productivity, helping to achieve business objectives of the firm, growth and advancement to the employees and enhancing the job-related knowledge. The study also discovered that e-learning improves employees’ opportunities for professional growth and advancement inside and outside the organization by assisting them in learning new skills and enhancing job-related information.

The internet penetration in recent years, as well as post-Covid-19, has given rise to online learning in the education and corporate sectors. The emergence of online or e-learning has been gaining ground in the corporate world by replacing the existing face-to-face or physical training model because of the cost factor and flexible learning to the learners. E-learning improves the learner’s ability to adapt to the company’s constantly changing business environment, which in turn helps the company increase departmental productivity and, ultimately, achieve its overall business goals.

The e-learning also empowered the learners and ultimately contributed to the enhancement of organizational performance in some ways. The e-learning also empowers the learner to perform better at his workplace and at the same time moving on the social ladder as the learning makes him/her confident at the job market.

This study provides a valuable understanding of employee perceptions on the adoption and effectiveness of e-learning, which ultimately improves the benefits of the training and development department in realizing and enhancing the quality in corporate companies.

The below-average innovative capacity of the tourism sector raises the question on the potentials of digital business ecosystems (DBEs) to overcome these shortages at a destination level – especially within a smart city environment. Using the example of the German Capital Berlin, this article aims to discuss both the possibilities and inhibitors of innovative knowledge-creation by building scenarios on one specific design option: the integration of digital deep learning (DL) functionalities and traditional organizational learning (OL) processes.

Using the qualitative GABEK-method, major characteristics of a DBE as resource-, platform- and innovation systems are analyzed toward their interactions with the construction of basic action models (as the basic building blocks of knowledge).

Against the background of the research findings, two scenarios are discussed for future evolution of the Berlin DBE, one building on cultural emulation as a trigger for optimized DL functionalities and one following the idea of cultural engineering supported by DL functionalities. Both scenarios focus specifically on the identified systemic inhibitors of innovative capabilities.

While this study highlights the potential of the GABEK method to analyze mental models, separation of explicit and latent models still remains challenging – so does the reconstruction of higher order mental models which require a combined take on interview techniques in the future.

The resulting scenarios innovatively combine concepts from OL theory with the concept of DBE, thus indicating possible pathways into a tourism future where the limitations of human learning capacities could be compensated through the targeted support of general artificial intelligence (AI).

Technology applied to learning is blurring the traditional outlines of the relations between publishing and technology industries, moving the internationalization strategy away from a gradual perspective toward accelerated internationalization. This paper aims to provide a conceptual model of polyhedral diagnosis of market entry strategy (PODMES model) for “born global” firms involved in e-learning industries.

The use of the case study methodology allowed apply PODMES model to a “born global” firm of the e-learning industry.

Results confirm that “born global” firms in the e-learning industry can adopt behaviors contrary to those expected in the literature. These behaviors imply new entry patterns by creating new strategic partner–supplier–client–competitor relations that extend the traditional analysis of the internal value chain to a process of value distribution through product and technology alliances.

This research provides two main contributions. First, an advance upon previous research into “born global” firms, through deep analysis of a case study that offers new findings regarding the phenomenon studied. It permits to align this research with previous analysis, following a strict case study methodology approach. Second, this study offers the application of a new methodology (PODMES model) that integrates the most relevant theories of internationalization (factorial dodecagon) within the five contingencies of entry market and the design of a strategic profile of internationalization.

This paper aims to present part of the work of an ongoing research project that is looking at socio‐ cultural and technological developments from a mobile technology convergence view; in order to show how culturally aware convergence developments in mobile technology can be adopted and employed for the betterment of society.

The paper presents a scenario for a mobile technology enabled learning environment in support of the conventional learning approach with a focus on enabling parental involvement and contribution to the daily learning objectives of their children and hence enhancing a quality learning experience. It further critically discusses issues of interface design – at both the device and application levels – that will have an impact on the quality of e‐learning, with a focus on mobile technology.

The paper shows how interface design can positively enhance the quality defining characteristics of learning in an e‐learning environment. Ways of achieving these characteristics of learning through effective e‐learning are reported. This is done by addressing requirements for quality‐learning through effective interface‐design considerations, towards meeting the overall quality requirements of learning that should be intrinsic to a holistic e‐learning environment. The value of human computer interaction and the critical factors of promoting productive interaction are addressed.

There are several factors affecting quality of e‐learning as a tool and approach to flexible and independent learning. The advent and use of mobile technology has been investigated in this work from a socio‐cultural and technological perspectives in two continents. The limitations lie in the depth of investigations and how far the findings can be applied to the diversity of learners.

As the effects of cultures and the rapid technological advancements take toll on teaching and learning the findings reported in this paper have far reaching implications for learners from different cultures and also for attempts at bridging existing digital divide.

The approach adopted in the research is unique by virtue of new findings and ideas presented. The paper highlights the opportunities for mobile devices and technology to play a role in the development of communities through technology aided learning (e‐learning), with a focus on e‐learning systems and technology requirements for delivering a quality learning experience.

An exploration of what’s changing – and what is not – in the world of corporate learning. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Discussion paper with special reference to the report “A Review of the e-learning markets of the UK, EU and China 2014”, published by Learning Light in 2014.

Learning is not changing – but the need and the opportunities for that learning are expanding. What is changing in the learning world is not learning per se but delivery technologies – and also the relative importance in the overall learning delivery mix of this growing range of learning delivery technologies.

We’re standing on the shoulders of giants but we appear to be looking at an extremely foggy landscape. And, since we do not have “20/20 foresight”, our danger is that we spend our time “training to fight the last war” rather than “training to win the next war”.

There are a number of technological factors as well as demographic factors that learning and development professionals need to take into account when designing and developing (online) learning materials.

As technology makes the work of subject matter experts more accessible, other factors – such as money or time availability – are likely to come into play to maintain some form of established intellectual elite.

An attempt to discern some current trends and extrapolate them.