Can e-Learning work for Universities?

Recently, I stumbled across an interesting article published in The Times from October last year, called “Can virtual courses ever measure up to the real thing with employers?” It got me thinking about how much e-Learning is underestimated and how, still in this modern, technological age, people struggle with the concept of learning without a teacher. We have embraced the use of computers in the classroom and understand how useful the internet can be to access external resources unobtainable in a university library, why can we not accept that student’s can learn just as much from taking lessons through an online course?

The benefits that e-Learning can offer students are immense and it takes comments from university staff to back this up. Howard Thomas, a Dean at Warwick University noted that, “As a university, we needed to evolve to recognise that there are a lot of people who want an MBA but cannot afford the fee or the time out of work.”
The fact that e-Learning is accessible at home, as well as on campus, gives any student the opportunity to study in their own time and at their own pace. If you take out the price of classroom-based lectures and the travel costs incurred, e-Learning seems like an obvious choice so why has it not been taken on by the majority of tertiary providers?

Most will say that it is through knowledge of failed projects in the past, that they won’t participate in e-Learning ventures now, but I think that there are positives that can come out of other’s mistakes.

It would seem sensible for tertiary providers to, at least give their students the option of taking lessons in an online environment instead of / or blended with classroom training, mostly to cater for those student’s who struggle with attending lectures. This could be due to physical disabilities, language barriers, or childcare needs. Many universities do all they can to provide facilities that cater to all students needs but would it not seem easier to offer e-Learning as an option?

What do you think?