Intended to provide leaders in higher education with lessons learned from existing online learning efforts, and to help accelerate productive use of these systems in the future, this Ithaka S+R report (funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)\u00a0is a landscape review of important developments in online learning today.<\/p>\n
Even though there are many \u201conline courses\u201d in existence today, the environment for systems that support interactive learning online (ILO)\u2014those that are full-featured and used by teaching institutions to assist in the effective delivery of credit-bearing courses\u2014is at a very early stage of development. Ithaka S+R worked with leaders, administrators, faculty members, and other key stakeholders to investigate the potential for the use of these delivery systems.<\/p>\n
Two important findings came out of this work: 1. the need for open, shared data on student learning and performance that are created through ILO; 2. the need for investment in the creation of sustainable and customizable platforms for delivering interactive online learning instruction.<\/p>\n