The United Kingdom E-University (or UKeD) was conceived in 1999 and instigated in 2000 with £62 million of government money via HEFCE. It failed to achieve high student figures (only 900 students) or gain any private investment and was shut down in 2004. E-learning initiatives that did not reach targeted goals (p63-75).
One mistake by UKeD was that it tried to create its own VLE which was very costly, only after much money was spent did it decide to use commercial platforms Blackboard and WebCT. UKeD also tried to develop their own platform with Sun Microsystems (and was criticised in parliament for doing so. However there are examples whereby learning providers have created a VLE of their own and it has worked- Learndirect created their own VLE and it has 500,000 students a year.
Activity A4b: Comparing the thoughts of economists
How much does elearning cost? by Laurie Bassi (2000) presents her case from the point of view of employee development. The main point of her article is that it is impossible to work our the cost of elearning, but that we should consider the cost effectiveness instead. Cost shifts if employees are training in their own time away from the employer.
She did produce a useful chart:
Factors favoring traditional learning | Factors favoring elearning |
| The nature of the content requires human feedback and practice | The content can be readily modularized and/or focuses on facts and information |
| The most effective instructional design is highly interactive and/or a great deal of customization is required | Passive learning is acceptable and/or little customization is necessary |
| The content has a short-shelf life (in cases where elearning development costs are high) | The content has a long-shelf life (in cases where development costs are high) or short shelf-life (in cases where development costs are low) |
| Relatively few learners need access to the content | Many learners need access to the content |
| Learners are highly geographically concentrated, so travel costs are relatively low | Learners are highly dispersed geographically, so travel costs are high |
| The speed with which the learning is rolled out is not particularly critical | Learning must be rolled out quickly to a large number of learners |
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