Definitions are a funny thing: they can provide valuable orientation and summarize a topic well in just a few words. But they can also have exactly the opposite effect. If they are too short and concise, they can just as easily cause confusion. Today, we want to attempt a feat and provide a definition that explains a topic well and is concise at the same time. The subject of our definition: e-learning. But before we turn to our own e-learning definition, let’s look at how academia defines e-learning.

Basically, “e-learning” stands for “electroniclearning“, i.e. learning with the help of electronic or digital media. So it’s about linking the learning experience with computers, tablets or smartphones and the appropriate software. Michael Kerres, one of the leading e-learning experts in the German-speaking world, goes a bit more in-depth with his definition. For him, the term encompasses all learning opportunities “that use electronic or digital media to present and distribute learning materials and/or support interpersonal communication.” Besides this one, there are umpteen other e-learning definitions. Most of them have one thing in common: they are rather broad and provide a good overview of the subject. Nevertheless, it is precisely in these broad e-learning definitions that the dog lies buried: If learning offerings that use digital media to present learning materials are by definition e-learning, then overloaded PowerPoint presentations or tedious click training courses that exude the charm of a 90s website are also part of it. For us at skillbest, e-learning means something different – and above all, more. Our best practices are the best evidence of this. Below, we have thought about a more apt e-learning definition.

The question to which an e-learning definition should provide an answer is basically: what does e-learning mean? To arrive at a more apt e-learning definition, we’ve expanded this question a bit: what does good e-learning mean? Admittedly, we had the answer quickly at hand, because this very question is the linchpin of the skillbest corporate philosophy. Our years of experience have taught us that “e-learning” tends to be used to refer to all learning opportunities that just somehow flicker across a screen. Much of this, in our opinion, has nothing to do with good e-learning. For us, e-learning is not primarily about the medium through which the learning content is played out. Rather, the e-didactics and the learning objectives of the respective learners are at the beginning of the conception of e-learning offers. That’s why our e-learning definition is:

Good e-learning means learning offers that are based on an e-didactic concept, always focus on the learning objectives of the learners and, building on this, make targeted use of the advantages of digital media.

Whether our skillbest e-learning definition will ever find its way into a didactic dictionary remains to be seen. In any case, we want to show that e-learning at skillbest is always based on e-didactics. We are concerned with focusing on the learners and, by extension, their learning success. Only then do we consider how learning content should be digitized and presented. There are plenty of opportunities to do so. You are welcome to convince yourself.