What is an e-learning system?

What does all this jargon mean?

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Sources

Links to other sites:

IJEL web site

IJET Special Issue abstracts

Finding your way around

The questions beneath the FAQ heading above link directly to an answer page on this site.

The blue underlined links below the questions and immediately above this box link to selected external web sites.

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E-Learning FAQ for University Teachers

"We should learn from past mistakes, and listen to those who are currently experimenting", Brown, p.381.

cartoon picture of a computer reading a book

This FAQ is for you if

your university is implementing an e-learning Course Support System and
you are wondering how this will affect you and your students?

The Questions

have been compiled from a selection commonly asked by staff.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Malcolm Bell, UNN e-Learning Advisor for his help in identifying common questions.

The Answers

have been compiled from the reports of speakers at an International Seminar "who already have experience in making this implementation work" (Collis, 1999, p.267). The purpose of the Seminar was "to study in depth what happens when an institution tries to implement a WWW-based course support system for its educational program" (Collis op.cit.).

The IJET Special Issue

The seminar referred to above was reported in a Special Issue of The International Journal of Educational Telecommunications entitled 'Systems for World Wide Web (WWW)-Based Course Support: Technical, Pedagogical, and Institutional Options' (IJET, 1999). See the sources page for further information about the authors, institutions and articles including links to abstracts and full text versions available elsewhere. Additional material has been referenced or hyperlinked where appropriate.

E-Learning

A lot of different terms are used to describe 'web based course support systems' but recently the expression 'e-learning' has become popular. The International Journal of Educational Telecommunications itself has recently been renamed The International Journal of E-Learning. Therefore, for the sake of consistency the term e-learning has been used throughout these pages and I have substituted the phrase 'e-learning systems' for the lengthy mouthful 'Systems for World Wide Web (WWW)-Based Course Support' used in the Special Issue. If you are unfamiliar with e-learning systems and their use, you should click on the first question in the FAQ to start.

Other Jargon

I have included a glossary page. Acronyms and other expressions that might need further explanation have been signalled in the text with an asterisk and hyperlinked to it.

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