eLEARNING – THEORIES, DESIGN, SOFTWARE AND APPLICATIONS

259 Pages·2012·11.35 MB·English

eLEARNING – THEORIES,
DESIGN, SOFTWARE AND
APPLICATIONS
Edited by
Patrizia Ghislandi
eLEARNING – THEORIES,
DESIGN, SOFTWARE AND
APPLICATIONS

Edited by Patrizia Ghislandi
eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications
Edited by Patrizia Ghislandi

Published by InTech
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First published April, 2012
Printed in Croatia

A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com
Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected]

eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications, Edited by Patrizia Ghislandi
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-51-0475-9

Contents

Preface IX
Part 1 Theories 1
Chapter 1 New e-Learning Environments:
e-Merging Networks in the Relational Society 3
Blanca C. Garcia
Chapter 2 Knowledge Building in E-Learning 23
Xinyu Zhang and Lu Yuhao
Chapter 3 E-Learning and Desired Learning Outcomes 37
Ralph Palliam
Part 2 Design 51
Chapter 4 Innovative E-Learning Solutions and Environments
for Small and Medium Sized Companies (SMEs) 53
Ileana Hamburg
Chapter 5 Reciprocal Leading:
Improving Instructional Designs in E-Learning 73
Kathleen Scalise and Leanne R. Ketterlin-Geller
Chapter 6 adAstra: A Rubrics' Set for
Quality eLearning Design 91
Patrizia Ghislandi
Part 3 Software 107
Chapter 7 Learning Objects and Their Applications 109
Selahattin Gonen and Bulent Basaran
Chapter 8 Evolutive Platform –
A Genetic E-Learning Environment 129
Jorge Manuel Pires and Manuel Pérez Cota
VI Contents

Chapter 9 A Multimedia Integrated Framework
for Learning Management Systems 153
Nishantha Giguruwa, Danh Hoang Anh and Davar Pishva
Chapter 10 Ontology Alignment OWL-Lite 173
Aammou Souhaib, Khaldi Mohamed and El Kadiri Kamal Eddine
Part 4 Application 185
Chapter 11 Developing an Online/Onsite Community
of Practice to Support K-8 Teachers’
Improvement in Nature of Science Conceptions 187
Valarie L. Akerson, J. Scott Townsend,
Ingrid S. Weiland and Vanashri Nargund-Joshi
Chapter 12 E-Learning in the Modern Curriculum Development 213
Robert Repnik, Branko Kaučič and Marjan Krašna
Chapter 13 Open Web-Based Virtual Lab
for Experimental Enhanced Educational Environment 227
Fuan Wen

Preface

eLearning or electronic learning.
The term was coined when electronics, with the personal computer, was very popular
and internet was still at its dawn. It is a very successful term, by now firmly in schools,
universities, and SMEs education and training. Just to give an example 3.5 millions of
students were engaged in some online courses in higher education institutions in 2006
in the USA1.
Everything started in the seventies with researches and experimentations by Starr
Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Harasim et
al, 1995).2 In the same period the Open University in UK and the University of British
Columbia were exploring the possibility for students to discuss and co-build knowledge
using a learning network. Linda Harasim was then one of the first authors to publish an
important book on the topic, called in those days online learning or ―when the forum use
was particularly intense― computer conferencing (Harasim, 1990).3
eLearning today refers to the use of the network technologies to design, deliver, select,
manage and broaden learning and the possibilities made available by internet to offer to
the users synchronous and asynchronous learning, so that they can access the courses
content anytime and wherever there is an internet connection (wikipedia, 2012).4
The peculiarities of the net allow to design a teaching /learning process that is:
1. interactive, because the student can interact with the networked content;
2. collaborative, as the group give the possibility to everyone to co-build its own
knowledge;
3. dynamic, when it allow the student to acquire new specific knowledge just in time;
4. modular, when the course content is organized in self-contained modules that can
be assembled in several way, according to the different educational goals and user
needs;
5. multimedia, because it uses in a sage way all the media: text, audio, still frames,
motion sequences;
6. accessible, meaning that " the digital resources and their method of delivery are
matched to the needs and preferences of the user" (IMS Global Consortium,
2010).5
X Preface

If these student-centered characteristics are in place, eLearning is today very far away
from traditional distance teaching, that delivers the same monolithic contents to all the
students.
In "eLearning. Theories, design, software & applications" we investigate the eLearning
in its many different facets in four sections and fourteen chapters.
In the section "theories" the main contents are:
1. Characteristics of the emerging eLearning environments, particularly through
networked learning and learning in knowledge networks (New eLearning
Environments: e-Merging Networks in the Relational Society, Blanca C. Garcia,
Northern Borderlands Research College, Colef, Mexico);
2. Knowledge building in online learning (Knowledge Building in eLearning, Xinyu
Zhang and Lu Yuhao; Tsinghua University China);
3. Identity, variety and destiny in productive eLearning, with specific reference to
desired learning outcomes (E-Learning and Desired Learning Outcomes, Ralph
Palliam, American University of Kuwait);
In the section "design":
4. Readiness of SMEs for eLearning and attempts to transfer existing best practice of
eLearning solutions to other SMEs. (Innovative E-Learning Solutions and Environments
for Small and Medium Sized Companies (SMEs), Ileana Hamburg, Institute for Work
and Technology – FH-Gelsenkirchen, Germany);
5. Reciprocal leadership for eLearning instructional designs in distance learning
settings (Reciprocal Leading: Improving Instructional Designs in E-Learning, Kathleen
Scalise and Leanne R. Ketterlin-Geller, University of Oregon, Southern Methodist
University USA);
6. Quality in eLearning, analyzed through the identification of good academic
online/blended course characteristics and of the most suitable methods to monitor
them (adAstra: A Rubrics' Set for Quality eLearning Design, Patrizia Ghislandi,
University of Trento, Cognitive and Education Sciences Department, Italy);
In the section "software":
7. Learning objects and their applications in physics education (Learning Objects and
Their Applications, Selahattin Gonen and Bulent Basaran, Dicle University,
Turkey);
8. Evolutive platform, a new paradigm with regard to learning processes and
educational practices allowing personalization, adapting the behavior of the
system according to some specific information related to an individual user
(Evolutive Platform - A Genetic E-Learning Environment, Jorge Manuel Pires and
Manuel Pérez Cota, Universidade de Vigo, Spain);
9. A framework for implementing a content integrated learning management system
with specific focus on multimedia enrichment in learning content (A Multimedia
Preface XI

Integrated Framework for Learning Management Systems, Nishantha Giguruwa, Danh
Hoang Anh and Davar Pishva Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan);
10. An algorithm for automatic alignment of ontologies, relating to different fields of
knowledge, allowing the exchange of a semantic point of view among many
people (Ontology Alignment OWL-Lite, Aammou Souhaib, Khaldi Mohamed and El
Kadiri Kamal Eddine, LIROSA, Faculté des Sciences, Université Abdelmalek
Essaadi, Tétouan, Maroc);
In the section "applications":
11. Creation and testing of the influence of a online/onsite Community of Practice on
the teachers’ conceptions of the Nature of Science by means of a master’s-level
graduate course (Developing a Online/Onsite Community of Practice to Support K-8
Teachers’ Improvement in Nature of Science Conceptions, Valarie L. Akerson1 , J. Scott
Townsend2 , Ingrid S. Weiland3 and Vanashri Nargund-Joshi1, 1 Indiana
University, 2 Eastern Kentucky University, 3 University of LouisvilleUSA);
12. eLearning in the development of the modern curriculum of physics (eLearning in
the Modern Curriculum Development, Robert Repnik, Branko Kaučič and Marjan
Krašna, University of Maribor and University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Natural
Sciences and Mathematics, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Arts, Slovenia);
13. Virtual Lab, a teaching system which is based on Web and virtual reality
technology and consists of virtual experimental workbench, virtual equipment
library and open laboratory management system (Open Web-Based Virtual Lab for
Experimental Enhanced Educational Environment, Fuan Wen, Beijing University of
Posts and Telecommunications, China).
I wish you all a very interesting readings.

Dr. Patrizia Ghislandi
University of Trento,
Italy
[1] "E-Learning", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-
learning (accessed March 27, 2012).
[2] Harasim L., S. R. Hiltz, L. Teles e M. Turoff, 1995, "Learning Networks. A field guide
to teaching and learning online", Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Mit Press
[3] Harasim L. (ed.), 1990, "Online education. Perspectives on a new environment",
New York, Praeger
[4] "E-Learning", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-
learning (accessed March 27, 2012).
[5] IMS Global Learning Consortium, 2010, "Access For All Personal Needs and
Preferences for Digital Delivery Information Model v2.0" – Revision: 30 April
2010, http://www.imsglobal.org/community/index.html, date of access: 23
March 2012