Canadian Telelearning Experiences

The term telelearning has not yet reached a stable definition. But given its recent emergence and rapid, on-going, evolution this is not surprising. Some use the term to refer to any use of computers for learning, thereby including “traditional” computer-assisted learning applications, and dedicated videoconferencing facilities. For the purposes of this paper, however, we will limit its definition to telecommunications-based learning, including the use of multimedia. Telelearning commonly refers to situations in which learners and instructors are separated from each other by time and/or distance; the core feature is that the learners are using networked computing to access any of a number of informational, educational and computational resources. What is allowing telelearning to grow beyond the narrower limits of dedicated facilities and time and space constraints is the ongoing development of the Information Highway.