Reflecting on the current status and focus of e‐learning research.

The article comments on the October 2005 issue of the periodical "Research in Learning Technology" which provides a valuable snapshot of current thinking and research activities. The articles were inspired by keynote and theme speaker presentations at electronic learning conferences in Great Britain. The papers reflect on key issues involved in electronic learning research and development. The role of learning objects and the purpose of reuse cuts across a number of the papers. Evidently present is the move towards more of a component-based approach to development.