Across the academic year 2016/17, the Interactive Design Institute contributed a series of articles by Michael Stewart on the topic of online education and eLearning to EPALE. This document brings together the series of articles submitted to the UK National Support Service for EPALE, giving an insight into online education and eLearning from a national perspective, for the distribution and discussion amongst researchers and academics within the profession.

Since the publication of our first eBook in June 2016, ‘Online Learning and Higher Education: Key Questions and Considerations’, eLearning has gained greater acceptance as a viable alternative to campus based education. Indeed, it is no longer unusual to find the wholly online model listed alongside its blended and attendance based counterparts in the prospectus of many universities around the world.

However, far from adopting a complacent attitude to new and emerging technologies, those institutions which have been keen to adopt online provision are now equally enthusiastic in embracing the next generation of digitally enhanced learning tools.

The concept of disruptive thinking is forcing us to challenge accepted wisdom in business and academia; innovative digital technologies are enabling us to develop new models for both.