 A Addressing the E-Learning Contradiction Colla J. MacDonald University of Ottawa, Canada Emma J. Stodel Learning 4 Excellence, Canada Terrie Lynn Thompson University of Alberta, Canada Bill Muirhead University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada Chris Hinton University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada Brad Carson University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada Erin Banit University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada Copyright © 2009, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. inTroducTion In 1997, Drucker suggested that due to the availability of the Internet for delivering university courses and programs, traditional higher education was in deep crisis. He claimed that university buildings were about to become “hopelessly unsuited and totally unneeded” (Drucker, 1997, p. 127). Yet in spite of this, and the technological advances that support the design, de- velopment, and delivery of alternative pedagogical approaches, many universities and university professors have resisted integrating educational technology into their teaching practices. A look at today’s university campuses, over a decade after Drucker’s prediction that university buildings are “totally unneeded,” suggests that the “brick and mortar growth” within universities is thriving. Part of what has prevented the prolifera- tion of e-learning and other educational technologies is resistance on the part of teachers and professors to adopt it. For many, the amount of time necessary to learn new educational technologies and prepare ma- terials and learning activities, as well as the lack of available support and resources, is a strong disincentive to the adoption of e-learning. Ironically, although it is common for universities and learning organisations to campaign professors to integrate technology into their teaching practices, in reality, resources and support for developing e-learning and other technology-based learning tools are scarce and diffcult for professors to secure (Thompson & MacDonald, 2005). There ap- pears to be a growing contradiction between the goal of many universities to support the integration of new technologies into education and what is actually oc- curring. We have coined this situation the “E-learning Contradiction”. MacDonald and Thompson (2005) found that creat- ing quality online courses takes an enormous amount of time in terms of research, design, and development. They suggested that the drive to create online courses is often due to the determination of the professor, his/her ability to marshal the necessary resources, and his/her willingness to take risk. To expand the development and integration of online resources, faculty require greater support systems to meet the challenges of authoring technology-enhanced learning resources that will help address the E-learning Contradiction. The need for more systematic and strategic approaches to educational technology innovation and implementation resounds in the literature (McGorry, 2003; Parrish, 2004). In this paper we suggest that sharing knowledge, resources, and expertise by way of cooperatively designing on-