Distance Learning: Providing learning experiences when faculty and learners are separated by distance. Most distance learning uses a program delivery metaphor.

Distributed Learning: Faculty, mentors, learners, and resources are distributed across physical and virtual settings, linked by networked technology.

e-Learning: The use of networked ICT to enhance, extend, and enrich learning experiences, changing access to knowledge and revolutionizing the patterns, cadences, and depth of interactivity. e-Learning uses an interactivity metaphor.

Deep Learning: Promotes the development of conditionalized and contextualized knowledge and metacognition (the ability to think about one’s level of understanding) through communities of inquiry and/or communities of practice.

Blended Learning: Learning that combines physical and virtual resources and interactions. Also called “bricks and clicks” learning or “clicks and mortar” learning.

Tactical Learning: Learning that accomplishes short-term objectives and/or fills specific skills gaps (training).

Strategic Learning: Learning that is designed to align individual objectives with the enterprise’s overarching strategies and objectives. It can be customized to fit each individual, teams, or working groups. Strategic learning uses knowledge management systems to “push” personalized, directed learning to employees on a perpetual basis. It also develops the infrastructures necessary to support autonomic learning.

Directed Learning: Learning directed and designed by the enterprise for individuals, teams or the entire enterprise, in response to changes in strategy, culture, new products, or market conditions.

Autonomic Learning: Learning that originates within the enterprise, as determined and shaped at the grassroots level by communities of practice.

Portals: Enterprise portals are the secure gateway through which learners, faculty, customers, staff and other stakeholders experience the enterprise’s products, services, and knowledge. Portals are key to process reinvention.

ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning systems are the fully integrated software suites that support the organization’s finance, human resources, back-office business and customer relationship processes.

CMS: Course Management Systems support online management of course content, registration, grading, and other supports.

LMS: Learning Management Systems support online and blended learning. Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) provide substantially more robust content management capabilities designed to support the creation, storage, assembly, and delivery of modular, re-usable learning content.

CRM: Customer Relationship Management capabilities enable enterprises to personalize and enhance their relationships with learners, faculty, staff, customers, and other stakeholders.
The end game is creating indispensable relationships.