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E-Learning Hits Barriers to Expansion

A national e-learning framework would require lifting state policy restrictions now in place.

By Constance Gustke

Many countries are ratcheting up their K-12 e-learning programs. China has digitized its entire system of K-12 courses and so has Mexico. Turkey’s online courses now educate 15 million students, compared with 1 million in the United States. And similar pushes are under way in Australia, Europe, India, New Zealand, and South America.

For many U.S. educators and e-learning advocates, a national—or even global—online-learning framework makes good sense. But going national or global will require some catching up and lifting of policy restrictions now in place.

“Online education is a global phenomenon. [But] we’re behind the curve,” said Michael Horn, the executive director of education at the Innosight Institute, a Mountain View, Calif.-based nonprofit organization that advocates innovative practices in education and government. He is a co-author of the 2008 book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns .