Launch of IntraLearn Malaysian Office

WHILE many colleges and universities have started experimenting with online learning, there have also been objections to this mode of learning. In the United States, there have been cases of academics and students coming down hard on initiatives undertaken by institutions of higher education to implement online learning.Subu Kota, president and chief operating officer of Intralearn Asia, a joint venture between IntraLearn Software Corp and The Boston Group, says the opposition basically comes from people who do not know about the possibilities of online learning and fear technology.

“It’s a classic case of fear of the unknown. Resistance to change is always there, especially when you feel threatened. School administrators and educators might feel that they will lose their positions but this is not so,” he says. “We are not talking about making brick-and-mortar campuses and its employees obsolete. Actually, we are talking about technology helping to simplify their job functions in some ways.” For universities, Subu says, distance education technologies can help them pool resources and expand offerings to students.

The company markets IntraLearn and Icosa software which are said to be the industry’s first Internet-based, distance learning architecture for enterprise-wide and global implementation of multiple online learning sites from centralised servers. The products are also sold through resellers.

IntraLearn is a Microsoft Partner in Education and online learning partner. The company recently started its operations in Malaysia under Boston Intralearn Software Group (M) Sdn Bhd. Can good teaching take place online? Why not, says Subu. One element of good teaching is the bond that develops between teachers and students in face-to-face interaction. This is plausible in online learning, he says but acknowledges the need for state-of-the-art technology to help teachers reach out and “touch” their students as if in a real classroom.

Of course, this means more investments are needed and universities looking to make great profits might just be dissapointed. True, says Subu, but jumping to online learning just to make a fast buck is not the idea. He believes the objective must be to enhance classroom learning and not to totally transform the entire programme. For example, a college offering a degree programme can consider offering some of the courses in an online mode. In this way, they can leverage the best of both worlds (real and virtual).

On the suggestion that Internet learning may be inappropriate for certain academic endeavours, Subu agrees, but says the possibilities of technology-based learning are great.

“We are not talking about totally taking over conventional learning, but rather to complement, supplement and enhance the learning-teaching process. Academics should take the effort to make learning more interactive and online learning offers this possibility. The results can be better,” he stresses.

Subu also says that online learning will only seek to improve the quality of education.

On IntraLearn software, Subu claims that almost 200 major organisations accross industries are using it. These include Chase Manhattan, Solomon Smith Barney and the University of Massachusetts.

According to Intralearn Asia-Pacific’s director Kashif Rana, its software solution for online education and training has a powerful combination of Microsoft BackOffice-based technology and a highly interactive, pre-structured learning delivery methodology created by educators. He says unlike others, the company places emphasis not only on the technological aspects of delivering content online but also on the learning process.

“What we have is a fully integrated electronic learning (e-learning) platform and not a learning management system. We work closely with our clients in this area and have people who are not only competent in technology but also in the education process.” On top of this, Kashif says the company’s software has several features which are not present in other online learning software. The absence of these features, according to him, have been the reason for the rather slow uptake of online learning.

He points out the software’s sophisticated knowledge management tools, intraoperability capabilities and multiple e-learning systems as the distinguishing features.He says by embedding Microsoft technology into IntraLearn, educators need not have technological knowledge such as hypertext markup language (HTML) to develop content online.