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There is a growing prevalence in the use of digital media for education management and international partnerships; however, research continues to reflect the position that the absence of social interaction is a major barrier to a positive on-line learning experience. In 2007, a paper described the application of PESTE (Political, Economic, Social, Technical and Environmental) factors from Sociology to the employment of e-learning, leading to the proposal of PESTE factors for educational software, and e-learning in particular. This paper recaps the findings of the 2007 paper, and revisits the application of the now trans-national framework for the employment of e-learning, before applying PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Environmental and Legal) factors to e-learning. It then proceeds to consider the influence of the latest innovations: MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and Flipped Learning. Finally, the future of learning technologies is discussed and conclusions drawn, including the 4Es of Tutoring for Value Added Learning.

The concept of time is a key issue incorporated in most educational theories, and the notion of time has been considered in different ways in diverse approaches, such as behaviourism, genetic epistemology, cultural psychology and didactic. In research leading to the development of a nine-stage Transnational Framework for E-Learning Technologies, Stage 6 involved the employment of a computer-supported cooperative work approach - explicitly the application of a time/space matrix in addition to a cooperative work framework to e-learning--thus visualising the characteristics and dimension of time in e-learning processes, and enabling the concept of time in educational phenomena, specifically in e-learning processes, to be understood. E-learning is demonstrated to be essentially another form of computer-mediated communication. This article introduces the concepts of computer-supported cooperative work, computer-mediated communication, a cooperative work framework and a time/space matrix. It proceeds to describe the application of these concepts to e-learning through the Transnational Framework for E-Learning Technologies, analysing the findings with respect to e-learning and time; summarising the pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous communication for digital media; and, finally, classifying learning (data, information and knowledge) in relation to time and discussing the findings in the light of some of the many questions posed--for example: What implications do the e-learning characteristics of time have for the nature of learning and teaching?

Evaluation of "e-Learning", or arguably "e-Delivery", is difficult. One reason is that comparisons are often made between different courses delivered using various delivery modes, making such comparisons hard to justify. The Business School at a university in the United Kingdom reportedly delivers the same postgraduate course using two delivery mechanisms: (1) face-to-face (f2f) and blended, and (2) purely e-Delivery (online). The use of the proprietary Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) software WebCT for both modes of course delivery (f2f and online) lends a blended flavour to the f2f delivery mode, whilst the use of some f2f delivery for the online mode via WebCT also makes the online mode blended. The same postgraduate course delivered using the two mechanisms of f2f and online presents a true opportunity to compare and evaluate the different delivery modes. A second difficulty in the evaluation of course delivery mechanisms is the availability of an appropriate evaluation method and appropriate criteria. The following article describes the course, the evaluation method and criteria, the results of their independent application and any conclusions that may be drawn with respect to both the course and its delivery methods, and the evaluation methodology applied. (Contains 5 figures.)

This article describes the evolution of the development of a framework for e-learning to reconsider e-learning in relation to the cooperative work framework, identifying critical weaknesses in the fundamental nature of e-learning and its consequent propensity for failure. (Contains 4 figures and 2 notes.)

This article describes the development of a framework for e-learning and presents the findings of a study investigating whether the use of blended learning can fulfil or at least accommodate some of the human requirements presently neglected by current e-learning systems. The study evaluated the in-house system, Teachmat, and discussed how the use of blended learning has become increasingly prevalent as a result of its enhancement and expansion, its relationship to the human and pedagogical issues, and both the positive and negative implications of this reality. PESTE (Political, Economic, Social, Technical, and Environmental) factors from sociology are then applied to appraise the employment of e-learning, leading to the proposal of PESTE factors for educational software and e-learning in particular. (Contains 3 tables.)

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Looks Like Magic," in the September issue.

The article reviews several Web sites including infoconomy.com, timeanddate.com and redherring.com.