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Nigel Paine rightly says content and community are important in education but fails to recognise this in e-learning ("Learning doesn't start with 'e'", THES , September 19).

Unlike classroom-based teaching, e-learning gives a larger and stronger community of students access to ideas, debate and resources through chatrooms, online tutoring and assessments. Research has shown that combining online and traditional instruction can improve student outcomes.

E-learning is much, much more than software and is allowing many educational institutes to provide really creative and high-quality teaching and learning to more and more students.

Tim Collins
WebCT Europe