E-learning is still in its infancy. This can be seen both in the limited pedagogical quality
and lack of portability of e-learning content and in the lack of user-friendly tools to
exploit the opportunities offered by current technologies. To be successful e-learning must
offer effective and attractive courses and programmes to learners while at the same time
providing a pleasant and effective work environment for staff members who have the task to
develop course materials plan the learning processes provide tutoring and assess
performance. To overcome these deficiencies the IMS Global Learning Consortium Inc. released
the Learning Design Specification in 2003. With Learning Design it is possible to develop and
present advanced interoperable e-learning courses embracing educational role and game playing
methods problem-based learning learning community approaches adaptivity and peer coaching
and assessment methods. In this handbook Koper and Tattersall have put together contributions
from members of the Valkenburg Group consisting of 33 experts deeply involved in e-learning
and more specifically learning design. The result is a rich and lasting source of information
for both e-learning course and tool developers providing information about the specification
itself how to implement it in practice what tools to use and what pitfalls to avoid. The
book not only reports first experiences but also goes beyond the current state of the art by
looking at future prospects and emerging applications.
