ELI History

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) began as the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, or NLII. The NLII started in 1994, at a time when most campuses had adopted IT for administrative purposes, but few viewed technology as central to a successful learning environment. NLII, then a part of Educom, sought to drive systemic change in higher education by identifying how technology could best support effective teaching and learning.

The NLII initially focused on creating a technology infrastructure to improve higher education access and quality while reducing costs. The Internet and all forms of electronic communication had a central role in this infrastructure, but NLII members understood that colleges and universities required more. In addition to new tools and standards, institutions needed principles, practices, and partnerships to ensure that the infrastructure appropriately supported high-quality, affordable education.

Recognizing that continuously anticipating and adjusting is the key to success, a strategic planning group met in August 2004 to anticipate and adjust the direction of the NLII for the next 10 years of its operation. The resulting strategic plan moves beyond infrastructure to a mission of advancing learning through IT innovation, with learners and successful learning as the strategic focus. This ensures that all of our efforts are directly related to the core academic mission of our members--learning. As part of this transition, the NLII became the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) to better reflect its emphasis on learning and the intelligent use of information technology to support it.

As teaching, learning, and technology advance, new issues and challenges arise that require ELI to adjust the topics it pursues. However, our archived pages serve as continuing resources for the ELI community after past topics have been retired.

ELI Milestones

2008 (Mid year)

• ELI launches a community-wide project on the Challenges in Teaching and Learning
• Membership grows to include more than 240 institutions and organizations
• ELI conducts its first online spring focus session
• ELI  launches the Future of Learning project
• ELI Annual Meeting experiments with citizen journalism, community-building, and a student content showcase
• Carie Page joins ELI as program coordinator
• Jarret Cummings becomes special assistant to the president.
• Julie K. Little assumes the role of ELI interim director.
• ELI  Director and Vice President Diana Oblinger becomes president of EDUCAUSE.  

2007

• ELI produces two video “newsreels” summarizing focus sessions
• ELI focus session experiments with interactive theater and Web 2.0 community tools
• ELI produces six new whitepapers, to include a series on authentic learning (view a listing of ELI white papers)
• ELI deploys two new Discovery Tools focused on learning space design and blogging
• ELI develops screencasts to introduce Discovery Tools
• ELI develops first interactive CD-ROM for members
• ELI implements a new membership structure, realizing 41 percent growth in six months
• ELI Annual Meeting experiments with learning circles and informal learning spaces

2006

• EDUCAUSE publishes its second e-book, Learning Spaces, edited by EDUCAUSE VP and ELI Director Diana Oblinger
• ELI conducts its first Web Symposium, Education for Our Times: Expertise and Engagement
• ELI produces a three-part white paper series on the net savvy of the Net Generation (view a listing of ELI white papers)
• Paul Hagner resigns as ELI associate director to resume research and teaching
• Julie Little joins ELI as associate director
• ELI grows to over 150 member institutions and organizations
• The first ELI Discovery Tools are created and made available to full ELI members as practical resources for advancing the development of teaching, learning, and technology on their campuses
• ELI completes its first full year of the ELI Web Seminars series

2005

• EDUCAUSE publishes its first e-book, Educating the Net Generation, coedited by EDUCAUSE VP and ELI Director Diana Oblinger
• NLII adopts a new name: EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI)
• ELI initiates the 7 Things You Should Know About... series of emerging technologies briefs
• ELI begins publishing Innovations & Implementations case studies
• ELI produces a three-part white paper series on e-portfolios (view a listing of ELI white papers)
• Former NLII Fellows Patricia McGee and Colleen Carmean join with Ali Jafari to publish a book based on ELI's next-generation course management systems effort, Course Management Systems for Learning: Beyond Accidental Pedagogy
• Paul Hagner joins ELI as associate director
• ELI begins hosting ELI Web Seminars, a series of Webconferences that extend expert presentations on teaching, learning, and technology topics to member desktops

2004

• Diana Oblinger assumes the role of EDUCAUSE vice president and director of NLII
• A strategic planning team creates a plan for the NLII's future
• The NLII and the New Media Consortium form a partnership and jointly develop the Horizon Report, an annual review of emerging technologies with significant potential for learning
• Jarret Cummings joins NLII as program administrator

2003

• NLII Fellows Colleen Carmean and Patricia McGee work on Next-Generation Course Management Systems
• The NLII Annual Review is published as a comprehensive overview of the year's work
• The rubric for transformative assessment is released

2002

• A partnership between NLII and the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) is initiated; work begins on virtual communities of practice and assessment
• A formal affiliation is established with MERLOT
• Three pilot virtual communities of practice (VCOPs) are created for e-portfolios, learning objects, and the new academy

2001

• The IMS Global Learning Consortium is spun off as an independent organization
• NLII Fellow John Ittelson organizes the Electronic Portfolio Community of Practice
• Carole Barone and Paul Hagner coedit Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning: Leading and Supporting the Transformation on Your Campus

2000

• NLII focus sessions are initiated
• Paul Hagner, the first NLII Fellow, leads the NLII focus on faculty engagement

1999

• Educom and CAUSE merge to form EDUCAUSE
• Carole Barone assumes the leadership of the NLII

1997

• The public policy implications of information technology in colleges and universities are described and explored

1996

• The need for instructional software is articulated in the report Academic Productivity: The Case for Instructional Software
• NLII explores the emergence of virtual universities

1995

• NLII addresses institution-wide computer ownership in the report Computers for All Students

1994

• NLII is created within Educom
• A report is published highlighting the need for a national learning infrastructure

NLII Fellows Program

The NLII operated the Fellows Program from 2000 to 2004 as a way of engaging individual members of the community in research of particular interest to the organization and its members. Chosen from a competitive pool of applicants, NLII Fellows conducted specific research projects that expanded the NLII knowledge base. The fellows also contributed to the general planning and development of the NLII issues agenda.