The beginnings of the answer are coming from corporate and the military, with a few universities like MIT and the University of California doing research and application on how it might work in specific content areas in higher education. And so we are starting to hear more and more about webbing and learning architectures and whole-system approaches to education. In very simple terms a courseware management system is like the Lotus Notes product we have on our desktops, except that it has tools that are supposed to help manage the administrative sides of instruction. The focus is not so much on improving teaching and learning. Each has strengths and weaknesses.
None is superlative.
Next time, we'll talk more about courseware management systems, learning management systems, all that other jargon, and what this means to the future of instruction.