E-Learning Management System - Literature review Example

of the of the 21 November E-Learning The term E-Learning signifies a number of dissimilar meanings with respect to the understanding of various people. E-learning is hence divided into four learning techniques: Distance Learning Flexible Learning Blended Learning Online Learning The Internet or the World Wide Web is not the only means of acquiring E-Learning as it is rapidly setting off on a global platform. Quality is a vital priority to stipulate when implementing applications on the web. Nowadays, the innovation in technology proffers astounding alternatives in generating volume especially in terms of copies and distribution. However, if quantity is achieved without quality, the outcome is not favorable. Distance Learning Instead of face-to-face, ‘Distance Learning’ involves learning from a computing interface. The distance between the learner and the educator is the basis for employing this means. It is the only feasible way that the learner gets access to a particular education. Correspondence and/or television courses made this approach possible long before the advent of Internet. The current technology has brought a number of improvements in this mode of education. It has not only broadened its horizons but also increased its speed and efficiency. Distance learning via the internet has opened a portal for potential learners to seek out such education programs that were previously impossible for them to access. Flexible Learning ‘Flexible learning’ offers the learner, a preference of learning either by means of a traditional face-to-face experience or via mediums such as TV, CD-ROM or online video content all bearing even footing in terms of course conclusion and gratification. Although this approach was available before the arrival of the web, recent enhancements in technology have made the management and delivery of these choices more efficient for the benefit of a broad range of learners. This technology has also facilitated learners who do not have access to campuses or cannot afford to attend classes in person. Blended Learning ‘Blended learning’ entails learning by ‘compound’ and ‘mandated’ forms of delivery. ‘Mandated’ being the key factor is not optional. This means that at least one component of any particular learning application needs to deliver in digital mode other than face-to-face, i.e. World Wide Web, Compact Disc, Remote learning options etc. Blended learning is often related to flexible delivery of the presentation. As it contains a flexible module and is quite diversified hence there are no strict options within the blended model. A lot of research has been conducted in the past and present. A recent one took place in 2010, where the objective was to study the tendency of Pharmacy students towards a blended learning Pharmacokinetics course. The research design included visual presentations and animations accompanied by narrations. These depicted kinetic processes and served as a guide to students with the provision of software that was used for calculations. Assessment was carried out through a pre-course questionnaire geared to reflect student’s enthusiasm for blended learning. The assessment also addressed the concerns of students that they had expressed at the beginning of the learning program. Their primary apprehensions regarding the blended learning experience were focused on their ability to correspond with the educator. The discussion was about the online components but it was also diverted to time management skills by the end of the course. As per this research study, face-to-face interaction with the educator and peers was rated better than Online blended learning (Edginton and Holbrook 1-11). Another research was conducted on a blended learning model for teaching a practice course. The basic intention was to improve communication and discussions of the teaching practices. It was suggested that the course supposedly provide increased chances to pre-service teachers for the analysis of several lesson plans and allow practice of teaching performances. For the achievement of this objective, a platform needed to be set up, where instructors and peers could deliver online and asynchronous feedback on a discussion forum and vice versa. The students by this means would be allowed to discuss lectures and queries with instructors through the same forum. This would enable the creation of a collaborative learning environment (CANER 78-97). To aid blended learning, a virtual learning environment was set up, once. This deployment was conducted in Manchester Metropolitan University. The first year under-graduate students were conveniently equipped with a blended learning approach so as to acquire knowledge regarding information and communication technology skills. This methodology proved to be a new learning experience and aided the students in becoming independent learners. Such students could work mostly from off campus; they were observed socializing in educational discussions with peers and displayed improved discipline. Weak students among them were identified early through analysis. Thus, blended learning provided a dynamic update of online information. Online Learning ‘Online learning’ is almost certainly the most often used phrase when explaining the experience of learning on the internet. The principle concept is the learning via World Wide Web. We cannot associate a common definition to this term other than access to learning via the Internet. Distance learning, from an efficiency and access point-of-view has made quite a qualitative impact yet it has failed in the ability to introduce ‘enhanced’ teaching and learning practices. The recent advent of affordable concurrent tools has facilitated the potential to bring the distance-learning experience extremely close to a face-to-face model. From the perspective of flexible and blended learning, the requisite of delivering plentiful arrays of materials to all student levels such as weak, standard and well performing, increases the primary visual layout for preparation and design of the applications. There is some indication that the overhead will most assuredly be eliminated with the passage of time as these material banks keep on building up although there is less chance of it being ever fully recouped. This is because such projects require cost, time and adaptation to current technology. Therefore, the rationale for developing the generic E Learning material primed to be delivered in all forms is that face-to-face setting needs to be well planned and integrated into the learning process. This demands a change in the mindset of learners, teachers and administrators alike because it affects all components of the learning experience. E-learning, like computers, will not supplant teachers. Loyal teachers remain dedicated even though not all classroom teachers are suited to the job as online instructors and vice-versa. This is specifically true for “Synchronous online teaching” where both instructors and students are present in the same virtual space simultaneously, i.e. the online chat model. On the contrary, there is no condition for having a presence in the same virtual space at the same time in the “Asynchronous model”. E Learning offers better opportunities to learners. So, as more and more learners get access to E learning, accessibility will become a major issue in the future. Eventually this mode of learning will not only signify technology, nomenclature or learning model but also the individual’s capability to respond, learn and accept the barrage of varied, fast paced and, still for many, a number of new modes to access learning. Learning Object Organizations around the world are shelling out exorbitant sums of money on propositions that guarantee the advancement of learning objects, metadata and repositories for data and object storage. In layman’s terms, learning objects are acknowledged as the digital education resources (Clyde 55-57). The metadata is referred to as the systematic explanation for the assistance of administration and for searching. The repositories represent separate contents of the resources online (Clyde 55-57). The usability and integration of learning objects was applied in the primary education. The purpose was to explore the effects of learning objects on students in the primary classes. The focal point was determining how the learning objects helped the students in learning. Data was collected in order to discover student experiences and perception. The analysis showed that the benefits of learning objects are best reaped when integrated contextually with class activities and programs (Cameron and Bennett 897-908). Organizations incorporate learning objects to augment their E learning systems. For instance, the user acceptance of learning objects appears to be a critical issue in case of software development and information systems. High level of learner acceptance and satisfaction is also involved since it indicates that the user is quite willing to use the system. A study was organized pertaining to the extended version of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and two variables. This study was conducted to inspect the underlying factors and informal associations for evaluating learner’s acceptance of learning objects. The study was concluded with the thoughts that learning object characteristics seem to convince of supposed usefulness and ease of utilization; individual variation appears to have no influence upon the intent to use learning objects (Lau and Woods 1059-1075). A study called ‘The development of learning objects with an explicit learning design’ was arranged in the University of Southampton. The objective of the study was to introduce new ideas among the several other web-based potentials for the advancement of the 21st century education. The ‘pedagogically-designed learning objects’ were introduced at this study and they signify multipurpose resources focused on sharing, blending, re-use and re-purposing. The pedagogically designed learning object features include; Dynamically centered Aim to engage student’s activity in reflection Actions reflect consent to practice and production Flexibility in actions to be tailored where they are achievable. Improved with significant feedback Provision of diverse learning approaches A system was introduced named as “Ontology Based Learning Content Management System. Ontology is a process of proclaiming entity types existent in a domain along with the type of relationships among them. It’s a source for supplying machine understandable language for entities and their relationships. Ontology can be defined by (Davis ) as “the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being”. Two ontology methods were designed in this system: 1) Classification of the learning material 2) Storage of the information related to the learner’s profile The learner can look up the most significant user requirements by using these suggested ontology methodologies. The result of this research concludes that the context-based search imparts highly relevant learning objects for the learner. The results include all data even multimedia-based learning resources which was not feasible through earlier searching methods. A Multi-modal discourse analysis of user interface of learning objects was conducted. This research was based on multi-modal depiction of knowledge and the pedagogic connotations on relationships between the students and the learning objects. Meanings were classified in 3 ways i.e. Ideational, Textual, and Visual. Learning educational narrative approach (LOENA) was conducted (Mustaro and Silveira 561-571) using narratives for dynamic sequencing to construct architecture over a theoretical base that employs a series of narrative-driven hypertext patterns to correctly sequence the structure of learning objects hence providing an immediate way for deploying learning paths in some teaching-learning context.. A good visual appearance develops enthusiasm and interest in the learner’s ability to acquire knowledge, a good example is the learning object named as “Wile Loops”. This learning object attracts the learner by presenting a good visualization experience. The subject in learning object is ‘repetition’ which is sampled by using replicated actions to move the object on display. ‘Redundancy’ is incorporated for the weaker students. Redundancy is bypassed by ‘Scaffolding’ almost at the end of the object. ‘Scaffolding’ helps the learner to develop a programming construct in a secure and sustainable environment. This builds the shape for designing the code from the available code fragments. The review performed on electronic learning for classifying and identifying important components associated with learning objects. Likewise, to be compatible with the futuristic technological and communication devices, the learning application needs effective integration flexibility. As shown in fig 1.1, a team learning design is illustrated that needs to be considered then designing online or distant learning application. Apart from the high level design, an electronic learning application should also incorporate contextual based searching module that will make searches adequate for the learners (Narasimhamurthy and Al-Shawkani 300-306) HCI and Multimedia in E learning The procedure of E-learning is becoming internationally popular and can be availed from any part of the world. A variety of benefits can be availed by the learner due the interactive systems that are present in E learning. In addition, this system works as the platform for the assignments procedures and the pros and cons involves in the whole process of E-learning. For the customer’s interface a supreme control related to the application is present accordingly. In fact, the systems hardware is merely involved during the process of E-learning (Sanchez-Villalon, Ortega, and Sanchez-Villalon ). The chief purpose is to exchange the knowledge between the system and the customer and this can be done by implementing quick and accurate information supply to the users. On the other hand, the limited connectivity between the human and technology is a barrier this is due to the natural communication skills of a human is far more different from the capability of technological devices. Moreover, the technology is controlled by the limited devices and tools therefore it cannot be compared with the human ability to communicate. Hence, there is a test for the technology experts’ to invent new technology devices that can communicate easily and are more familiar to the human way of communication. The research study has been conducted named as the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) based on the communication skills of humans and computers. “A discipline concerned with the study, design, construction and implementation of human-centric interactive computer systems” (Kinash ). In order to enhance the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) a number of researches has been made focusing on the communication techniques and their capability related to computers and humans. Furthermore, another research that is carried out by Dr. Virendra Gawande, states different methods of enhancing human communication skills. This new research is focused on the new techniques related to improve interactive systems. The research has two advantages. The first advantage involves scientific ways to develop communication skills in human. This helps in understanding user requirements through innovative methods that can communicate with system. In addition, the improved human communication skills leads towards the passionate way of learning through computing devices, dealings techniques, that allows the user to explore new ideas and technology. The second advantage is the application. Applications can lead to faster and more natural communication with the systems which are interacting in an efficiency manner. The operation of such systems improves working conditions of their users by providing them with better-off and more natural carrier of communication. The results are little different after implementing the new designs therefore, more research is required focusing on the communication features related to the latest technology and tools (Amoretti et al. 331-336) in order to implement successful E learning tools the HCI technique has been used along with other methods such as data modeling.The learning procedures can follow by utilizing the ICTs and deploying right tool in order to get successful results and benefits from E-learning (Amoretti et al. 331-336). Moreover, new approach is deployed named as The Grid Service (Amoretti et al. 331-336) Accessibility The E learning is considered as the inclusive and self-motivated tool that can be availed via online research. The only pitfalls occur for the E learners are the usage of low speed internet. However, physically or mentally challenge user may also find E-learning as a useless tool for gaining knowledge. The E elements can become a barrier for the elder people who cannot use Internet efficiently and suffering from a disability (Fichten et al. 241-256). Therefore, the convenience of the E objects must be made available for all the users. Here are some key elements are explained in order to understand the E learning development. The course material can be availed no more than three elements at one time. Another main feature is the elimination of the scrolling tool. Font size should be set to normal so that every user can understand properly. For the page layout a regular theme is selected. Also, the blueprint and navigational controls should be same all over the elements. Eliminate of the scrolling factor is required .Normal font size should be deployed. Work Cited Amoretti, M., et al. "Designing Grid Services for Multimedia Streaming in an E-Learning Environment". Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises, 2004. WET ICE 2004. 13th IEEE International Workshops on. 2004. 331-336. Print. Cameron, Tiffani, and Sue Bennett. "Learning Objects in Practice: The Integration of Reusable Learning Objects in Primary Education." British Journal of Educational Technology 41.6 (2010): 897-908. Print. CANER, Mustafa. "A Blended Learning Model for Teaching Practice Course." Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education (TOJDE) 11.3 (2010): 78-97. Print. Clyde, Laurel Anne. "Digital Learning Objects." Teacher Librarian 31.4 (2004): 55-7. Print. Davis, H. G. Words - an Integrational Approach. Taylor & Francis, 2013. Print Edginton, Andrea, and Jane Holbrook. "A Blended Learning Approach to Teaching Basic Pharmacokinetics and the Significance of Face-to-Face Interaction." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 74.5 (2010): 1-11. Print. Fichten, Catherine S., et al. Disabilities and E-Learning Problems and Solutions: An Exploratory Study. 12 Vol. International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS), 2009. Print. Kinash, S. Seeing Beyond Blindness. IAP-Information Age Pub, 2006. Print. Lau, Siong-Hoe, and Peter C. Woods. "Understanding Learner Acceptance of Learning Objects: The Roles of Learning Object Characteristics and Individual Differences." British Journal of Educational Technology 40.6 (2009): 1059-75. Print. Mustaro, Pollyana Notargiacomo, and Ismar Frango Silveira. "Learning Object Educational Narrative Approach (LOENA): Using Narratives for Dynamic Sequencing of Learning Objects." Issues in Informing Science & Information Technology 4 (2007): 561-71. Print. Narasimhamurthy, Uma, and Kholoud Al-Shawkani. Future of Learning Objects in eLearning 3.0. Academic Conferences & Publishing International Ltd, 2010. Print. Sanchez-Villalon, Pedro, Manuel Ortega, and Asuncion Sanchez-Villalon. "Multimedia Integration for Language E-Learning: Content, Context and the E-Dossier." Online Submission (2010)Print. Read More