PESTEL factors for e

There is a growing prevalence in the use of digital media for education management and international partnerships; however, research continues to reflect the position that the absence of social interaction is a major barrier to a positive on-line learning experience. In 2007, a paper described the application of PESTE (Political, Economic, Social, Technical and Environmental) factors from Sociology to the employment of e-learning, leading to the proposal of PESTE factors for educational software, and e-learning in particular. This paper recaps the findings of the 2007 paper, and revisits the application of the now trans-national framework for the employment of e-learning, before applying PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Environmental and Legal) factors to e-learning. It then proceeds to consider the influence of the latest innovations: MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and Flipped Learning. Finally, the future of learning technologies is discussed and conclusions drawn, including the 4Es of Tutoring for Value Added Learning