It is true that of all the major components of daily life, formal learning is the one that has, to date, been least affected by the technological developments of the past 50 years. Advances in technology have revolutionized communication, transportation, and even household chores, but in fundamental respects, the process of learning today is much the same as it has been throughout recorded history.

During the last years, however, there has been a powerful growth in the learning sector in parallel with the rapid development of Internet. Distance Learning has played the main role in that growth. Distance Learning has the potential for rapid growth and acceptance. It should come as no surprise that learning in America, both in schools and the workplace, is already big business. According to The Digest of Education Statistics 1999[1], education expenditures alone account for over 7% of the GPD, making it second in size only to the healthcare industry.

Many people have touted the ability of eLearning to provide information to "anyone, anytime, anywhere", and although we believe that this is the phrase that best describes it now, this description is also appropriate for traditional distance learning methods or even the Internet in general. We believe that the true power of eLearning will be in its ability to bring the right information to the right people at the right time.

This is the yet-to-be fulfillment promise of eLearning. Web-based integrated learning systems will revolutionize eLearning by enabling personalized, interactive, just-in-time, current and user-centric learning tools. These systems will allow all facets of a course of study, including pre-assessment, learning modules completed, practice items, collaboration, and testing to be tracked. Adjustments can then be made to the learning program to make it more effective, and learners will be able to monitor progress.

More analytically, eLearning will embrace the following characteristics:

• Personalized: Entire programs of study will be customized for the learner. By analyzing the learner’s objectives and existing skill level, courses will be assembled on the fly that address exactly what the learner needs to know without wasting time working on areas in which the learner is already proficient or uninterested. This level of personalization will be achieved by using small chunks of information, or learning objects, to assemble a course from the ground up using pre-existing templates. The reusability of these learning objects will make this level of customization feasible in terms of both time and expense.
• Interactive: Much of today’s technology-based learning is simply an extension of traditional textbook-based learning, where the user reads content from a screen instead of from a page. Today’s interaction generally consists of the learner being able to click on an unknown word for the definition on a linked page or the ability to play a short video clip. Coming manifestations of eLearning will truly engage the learner in a give-and-take type of learning that involves simulations of real-world events and sophisticated collaborations with other learners and the instructor.
• Geographic ant time independence: Learners will be able to join in the class from anywhere in the world. This will have as a result that there will be no building restrictions for the learning process and we will have not problems of overcrowding inside the classes. Geographic independence means also that the stored data in a web-based lesson can be changed whenever we want, without any delays in the distribution of the material. When information is in the web all users have access in them. In that way it is not necessary for both the instructors and the learners to be present in the same class at the same time. So there are no excuses for anyone (instructor or learner) to be absent. The freedom of choosing the time increases the sense of controlling the learning experience and thus increases the motivation for learning.
• Operating System Independence: different learning applications such as Computer Managed Learning (CML) or Computer Based Training (CBT), are designed for a specific operating system (Linux, Windows, Macintosh). This specification means that a producer of such programs probably will lose a significant part of the marketplace or that he must try hard in order to support multiple systems. The independent of platform function of Internet reduces such problems.

As the eLearning industry begins to mature, we are seeing product offerings that are far beyond the simple click-and-read courses that have characterized the industry to date. Future manifestations of eLearning will allow the learner more control over his own learning experience, thus making it more efficient and reducing time and costs. The chart below, illustrates the changes that learning technologies are undergoing and the effect of those changes on the effective delivery cost.