WikiEdProfessional eLearning Guidebook/An Overview/Attributes of e-learning/Electronic access to hypermedia and multimedia-based resources

Information and communications technology also enables the capture and storage of information of various types including print, audio, and video. Networked information and communications technologies enable access to this content in a manner that is not possible within the spatial and temporal constraints of conventional educational settings such as the classroom or the print mode (Dede, 2000). In the context of this distributed setting, users have access to a wide variety of educational resources in a format that is amenable to individual approaches to learning (Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1991), and accessible at a time, place and pace that is convenient to them (Pea, 1994). Typically, these educational resources could include hyper-linked material, incorporating text, pictures, graphics, animation, multimedia elements such as videos and simulations and also links to electronic databases, search engines, and online libraries.