FACE-TO-FACE LEARNING VS E-LEARNING: THE LIFELONG LEARNER’S POINT OF VIEW

The definition of the Lisbon Strategy (March 2000) has started an intense work for the development of lifelong learning (LLL) as the success key for the evolution of European social systems through the change of education systems as a whole. In this view, e-learning has become an added value solution, especially in the field of adult education.
European policies for the achievement of the Lisbon objectives have focussed on the individual as the activator of economical, cultural and social growth of our society and of the systems within; the individual becomes an “active citizen”.
In a LLL vision, the individual is a primary resource of knowledge. The individual’s empowerment extends little by little to his/her context and to society as in a network. Through this process old and new borders of knowledge, competence and skills merge and widen, and they are filtered by the key skill of “learning to learn”, of acquiring knowledge and know-how which can be exploited in various contexts.
Nevertheless, if on one hand this awareness has activated a process of improvement of policies and useful tools, on the other the observation of the lifelong learner’s point of view does not appear equally systematic, beyond the top-down institutional projection. The monitoring and the evaluation of learning processes and outputs are rich of tools of survey of learning needs, expected results and satisfaction, in itinere or at the end of a course, to be submitted to the participants of different kinds of learning paths (formal, non-formal and informal). However, these tools appear to be functional to market policies rather than to a real process of bottom-up change.
This paper aims to critically compare face-to-face and in e-learning delivery of a course for assessors of quality management systems through a cost-benefit analysis from the author’s point of view as a lifelong learner. Starting from a personal experience, this study will try to address the following issues: what elements influence the choice between a face-to-face course and an e-learning course? What is the impact of the emotional and relational characterization of the course? What advantages and drawbacks arise from the choice of one solution or the other in the lifelong learner’s point of view?