E-learning debate at the Oxford Union

September 30th saw the inaugural e-learning debate at the Oxford Union. The event was attended by over 250 of the UK’s leading learning technology professionals, who witnessed a stimulating debate on the motion, "This house believes that the e-learning of today is essential for the important skills of tomorrow."

Epic, the UK’s leading bespoke e-learning company, successfully organised the debate, the first of its kind, which saw its own industry come under scrutiny from a number of world renowned training and development professionals.

The debate was chaired by Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s technology correspondent, and led by Professor Diana Laurillard arguing for the motion and Dr Marc Rosenberg against it. In the debating chamber, a packed audience spent nearly two hours listening to the impassioned pleas and logical reasoning of a wide range of speakers drawn from the learning and development field. A number of participants changed their minds many times during the debate and in the end the ‘noes’ took it, with 90 in favour of the motion but 144 against.

The conclusion was that whilst e-learning continues to play an important role in skills development, the e-learning of today needs to embrace wider technological advances, particularly in social learning and networking, to truly deliver the skills of tomorrow.

Jonathan Satchell, CEO of Epic said: "Never before has such a diverse group of experts been assembled for an e-learning debate. As Dr Rosenberg said, to paraphrase Shakespeare, 'we are not here to bury e-learning, but to save it.' We now hope to use the discussion to take e-learning to the next level, embracing new ideas and designs, and in doing so increase engagement and access to a broader audience."

To enable further debate and discussion online, Epic has set up www.elearningdebate.com, where users can read a summary of the arguments, view the highlights via Flickr and YouTube, add comments, and continue voting on the motion.