ABSTRACT
The evolution of online learning technology can be viewed as fi ve waves starting in 1993 and continuing through the 2020s. The metaphor of waves representing evolutionary stages is not new. A number of authors, including Alvin Toffl er (1970, 1984, 1991), have used waves to designate or demark periods of time. Toffl er is an apt comparison in that he deals with information technology. His waves, however, occur over millennia and encompass mega issues associated with the evolution of man as well as information technology. The use of the wave metaphor in this book, although apt, is far more modest than Toffl er’s.
