E-learning--the ultimate educational tool.

Since the beginning of time, people have constantly learned how to progress, how to evolve, how to improve. Ever since the first signs on the walls of Altamira to the modern hi-tech, mankind have been preoccupied to grow and develop. Maybe the most important discovery of the 20th century is the computer. Primarily looking like a 5-tone monster having a huge number of components and doing pretty little for the size of it, the computer has immensely evolved to a mini, discrete, state-of-the-art technological device able to do the most amazing things. Life without it in the 21st century is definitely unconceivable. Please stop reading this paper and think for a moment how many electronic devices you have around you or even in your pocket: PC, DVD player, HiFi, security system, central heating, radio, cooker, microwave, washing machine, dishwasher, or smaller, a PDA, electronic car key, USB memory, CDs, DVDs, a phone, a camera, a smart card, or a micro chip. As weird as it may seem, all these are interactive. Scenarios of the end of the world have all taken into account their system failure or because of who-knows-what natural calamity such artificial systems would break. In such an unfortunate case, mankind with all its civilizations would perish. We will yet focus not on the catastrophic scenario but on its sharpest advantages among which e-learning, we consider, is the best. Why is that? It's simple, because without e-learning we would only be able to transmit the information we have so painfully gathered by traditional methods. Not to mention store it.

Interestingly, the history of the computer, as we know it nowadays, started in the second half of the 20th century. Here are some highlights of the dawn of human-computer interactivity. The now ubiquitous direct manipulation interface, where visible objects on the screen are directly manipulated with a pointing device, was first demonstrated by Ivan Sutherland in Sketchpad, which was his 1963 MIT PhD thesis. SketchPad supported the manipulation of objects using a light-pen, including grabbing objects, moving them, changing size, and using constraints. Another early system was AMBIT/G (implemented at MIT's Lincoln Labs, 1968, ARPA funded). It employed, among other interface techniques, iconic representations, gesture recognition, dynamic menus with items selected using a pointing device, selection of icons by pointing, and moded and mode-free styles of interaction. David Canfield Smith coined the term "icons" in his 1975 Stanford PhD thesis on Pygmalion and Smith later popularized icons as one of the chief designers of the Xerox Star. Many of the interaction techniques popular in direct manipulation interfaces, such as how objects and text are selected, opened, and manipulated, were researched at Xerox PARC in the 1970s. In particular, the idea of "WYSIWYG" (what you see is what you get) originated there with systems such as the Bravo text editor and the Draw drawing program The concept of direct manipulation interfaces for everyone was envisioned by Alan Kay of Xerox PARC in a 1977 article about the "Dynabook." The first commercial systems to make extensive use of Direct Manipulation were the Xerox Star (1981), the Apple Lisa (1982) and Macintosh (1984). Ben Shneiderman at the University of Maryland coined the term "Direct Manipulation" in 1982 and identified the components and gave psychological foundations.

The mouse was developed at Stanford Research Laboratory (now SRI) in 1965 as part of the NLS project (funding from ARPA, NASA, and Rome ADC) to be a cheap replacement for light-pens, which had been used at least since 1954. Many of the current uses of the mouse were demonstrated by Doug Engelbart as part of NLS in a movie created in 1968.

Multiple tiled windows were demonstrated in Engelbart's NLS in 1968. Early research at Stanford on systems like COPILOT (1974) and at MIT with the EMACS text editor (1974) also demonstrated tiled windows. The Cedar Window Manager from Xerox PARC was the first major tiled window manager (1981). The main commercial systems popularizing windows were the Xerox Star (1981), the Apple Lisa (1982), and most importantly the Apple Macintosh (1984).

In point of drawing programs, much of the current technology was initiated in Sutherland's Sketchpad system patented in 1963. The use of a mouse for graphics was demonstrated in 1965. The first computer painting program was probably Dick Shoup's "Superpaint" in 1974-1975.

Text Editing was initiated in 1962 at the Stanford Research Lab. Engelbart implemented a word processor with automatic word wrap, search and replace, user-definable macros, scrolling text, and commands to move, copy, and delete characters, words, or blocks of text. Xerox PARC's Bravo was the first WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor-formatter and it was issued in 1974. It was designed by Butler Lampson and Charles Simonyi who had started working on these concepts around 1970.

The idea for hypertext (documents were linked to related documents) is credited to Vannevar Bush's famous MEMEX, an idea from 1945. Ted Nelson coined the term "hypertext" in 1965. The University of Vermont (1976) was the place where the first Hypertext system was released to the user community. Tim Berners-Lee used the hypertext idea to create the World Wide Web in 1990. Mosaic was the first popular hypertext browser for the World-Wide Web and it was developed at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications at the University of Illinois.

In point of computer aided design, (CAD), Timothy Johnson wrote his MS thesis in 1963 at the MIT on the interactive 3D CAD system Sketchpad and it was funded by the Air Force. The first CAD system in industry was probably the one generated by General Motor in 1963 also.

The first graphical video game was probably SpaceWar by Slug Russel of MIT in 1962 and it included the first computer joysticks. The first popular commercial game was Pong in 1976.

As far as gesture recognition is concerned, the first pen-based input device was funded by ARPA. Sketchpad used light-pen gestures (1963). At the same time, a very early demonstration of gesture recognition belongs to Tom Ellis' GRAIL system around 1964. Gesture recognition has been used in commercial CAD systems since the 1970s, and came to be universally recognized with the Apple Newton in 1992.

The first 3-D system was probably Timothy Johnson's 3-D CAD system from1963, funded by the Air Force.

Regarding virtual reality and "augmented reality," the original work was performed by Ivan Sutherland when he was at Harvard, funded by Air Force and CIA in 1965. Much of the early research on head-mounted displays and on the DataGlove was sponsored by NASA.

Modern computer nowadays involves various elements, each of them affecting the user of the system: for text entry, traditional and QWERTY keyboard, phone text entry, speech and handwriting; for pointing, mainly the mouse, but also touchpad, stylus, and others; not to mention the 3D interaction devices. The output display devices for interactive use are represented by different types of screen, most of which use some form of bitmap display, large displays for shared and public use and probably digital paper could be used in the near future. All virtual reality systems and 3D visualizations have special interaction and display devices. The now futuristic 6D systems involve physical controls (like the glove) and dedicated displays, sound and smell and sensors for nearly everything including movement, temperature, and even bio-signs.

In point of types of keyboards, this is the Maltron left-handed keyboard (illustrated in 'Picture 1') while the Chord keyboard (illustrated in 'Picture 2') was meant for portable applications. Speech and handwriting recognition are also some systems that greatly improve the interactivity between man and computer. Text can be input into the computer, using a pen and a digesting tablet (natural interaction) while speech recognition is most successful when a single user benefited from initial training and wants to learn peculiarities. The eyegaze may be the most spectacular technological system that eases the interaction with a computer. Users will only have to look at a menu item to select it because it uses laser beam reflected off retina. It is mainly used for evaluation and it relies on cheap and low accuracy devices available that sit under the screen like a small webcam. It has a huge potential for hands-free control.

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A Parallel between Human and Computer

Humans are limited in their capacity to process information. Memory and unrevealed brain capacities make it extremely difficult to evaluate. Information is received via a number of input and output channels: the eyes, ears, touch, smell, etc. All this information is transported through the nervous system to the "hard disk" where it is processed, analyzed and it is given a proper response that is, in its turn taken back to the executive organs/limbs. Most of the information is stored in the memory that can be for short-, medium- or long-term. Reasoning and problem-solving are two different skills we acquire during our life but they both are subject to error and confusion generators. Reason can work with all the information necessary or not, hence giving room to marginal errors.

Furthermore, skill acquisition is a concept that is internalized in years and never taken to perfection. In addition to the "reasonable" component, the emotional one must always taken into consideration since it is a great trigger of human action in real life.

On the other hand, a computer system comprises various elements, each of which affects the user of the system. The input devices for interactive use, allowing text entry, drawing and selection from the screen are represented by the text entry: traditional keyboard, phone text entry, speech and handwriting; pointing: principally the mouse, but also touchpad, stylus, and others; or 3D interaction devices. The output display devices for interactive use comprise different types of screen mostly using some form of bitmap display, large displays and situated displays for shared and public use as well as digital paper that may be usable in the near future. Virtual reality systems and 3D visualization have special interaction and display devices. In point of memory, the computer has also a short-term memory RAM -, a long-term memory--the magnetic and optical disks--and its capacity related to document and video storage are limited. Processing the information is made in a dual way and there are effects when systems run too slow or too fast. The processing speed is also very limited and the networks have their impact on the system performance.

Interaction patterns help us to understand what is going on in the interaction between user and system. They address the translations between what the user wants and what the system does. This is critically based on skills, aptitudes, experience, performance and sometimes patience. Ergonomics looks at the physical characteristics of the interaction and how these influence its effectiveness. We have already mentioned some examples from this area of research. The dialogue between user and system is influenced by the style of the interface and, last but not least, the interaction takes place within a social and organizational context that affects both user and system. Interaction starts with getting to know the users and their context: finding out who they are and what they are like; talking to them, watching them, spying on them and their interests. Scenarios are rich design stories, which can be used iteratively throughout the design. In this way, they help us to see what users will want to do next and what their interest is; they give a step-by-step guided tour of users' interactions (including what they see and do). Nevertheless, it is users who need to find their way around a system and this involves helping users know where they are, where they have been and what they can do next; creating overall structures that are easy to understand and fit the users' needs or designing comprehensible screens and control panels. The complexity of the design means we do not get it right from the first time so we need iteration and prototypes to try out and evaluate. In fact, 80% of the world's overall progress throughout its history was achieved by only one learning method and that is "trial and error."

The implementation of such programs is not simple and it requires much attention. Programming tools for interactive systems provide a means of effectively translating abstract designs and usability principles into an executable form. These tools provide different levels of services for the programmer. Windowing systems are a central environment for both the programmer and user of an interactive system, allowing a single workstation to support separate user-system threads of action simultaneously. Interaction toolkits abstract away from the physical separation of input and output devices, allowing the programmer to describe behaviors of objects at a level similar to how the user perceives them. User interface management systems are the final level of programming support tools, allowing the designer and programmer to control the relationship between the presentation objects of a toolkit with their functional semantics in the actual application.

Apart from the implementation issue and the toolkits, the universal design can also be a central element. It designs systems so that they can be used by anyone in any circumstance. Multi-modal systems are those that use more than one human input channel in the interaction and it is what we are going to discuss later on. These systems may use speech, non-speech sound, touch, handwriting or gestures. It involves diversity of cultures and backgrounds, people of different ages and mentalities. But all the computer systems, single user or multi-user, interact with the work-groups and organizations in which they are used. If human-human communication involves face-to-face communication and eye contact as well as body language, in human-computer communication, there is a reduced feedback or confirmation, less context to disambiguate between utterances and a slower pace of interaction. The advantage which has been speculated by programmers and designers is that it is more easily reviewed and this is what is productive from a perspective of the educational tool. Yet, group working is more complex than that of a single person because it is influenced by the physical environment and experiments are more difficult to control and record.

The hypertext and www age allowed documents to be linked in a nonlinear fashion. Besides, the multimedia incorporates different media: sound, images, video that can all be speculated in the evaluative process. Another advantage is that it can be used for e-commerce and e-learning, too, but this is not one of our concerns here.

E-learning and the Virtual School

According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia, E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked learning or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning process. The term will still most likely be utilized to reference out-of-classroom and in-classroom educational experiences via technology, even as advances continue in regard to devices and curriculum.

E-learning is essentially the computer and network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge. E-learning applications and processes include Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual education opportunities and digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-ROM. It can be self-paced or instructor-led and includes media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming video and audio.

Abbreviations like CBT (Computer-Based Training), IBT (Internet-Based Training) or WBT (Web-Based Training) have been used as synonyms to e-learning. Today one can still find these terms being used, along with variations of e-learning such as e-learning, e-learning, and e-learning. The terms will be utilized throughout this article to indicate their validity under the broader terminology of E-learning.

Higher education

By 2006, 3.5 million students were participating in on-line learning at institutions of higher education only in the United States. According to the Sloan Foundation reports, there has been an increase of around 12-14 percent per year on average in enrollments for fully online learning over the five years 2004-2010. Thus it can be seen that e-learning is moving rapidly from the margins to being a predominant form of post-secondary education. Many higher education, for-profit institutions, now offer on-line classes. By contrast, only about half of private, non-profit schools offer them. The Sloan report, based on a poll of academic leaders, indicated that students generally appear to be at least as satisfied with their on-line classes as they are with traditional ones. Private institutions may become more involved with on-line presentations as the cost of instituting such a system decreases. Properly trained staff must also be hired to work with students on-line. Online education is rapidly increasing, and online doctoral programs have even developed at leading research universities.

Short history

In the early 1960s, Stanford University psychology professors Patrick Suppes and Richard C. Atkinson experimented with using computers to teach math and reading to young children in elementary schools in East Palo Alto, California. Stanford's Education Program for Gifted Youth is descended from those early experiments.

Early e-learning systems, based on Computer-Based Learning/Training often attempted to replicate autocratic teaching styles whereby the role of the e-learning system was assumed to be for transferring knowledge, as opposed to systems developed later based on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), which encouraged the shared development of knowledge.

As early as 1993, William D. Graziadei described an online computer-delivered lecture, tutorial and assessment project using electronic mail. In 1997 he published an article which described developing an overall strategy for technology-based course development and management for an educational system. He said that products had to be easy to use and maintain, portable, replicable, scalable, and immediately affordable, and they had to have a high probability of success with long-term cost-effectiveness.

In 1997 Graziadei, W.D., et al., published an article entitled "Building Asynchronous and Synchronous Teaching-Learning Environments: Exploring a Course/Classroom Management System Solution." They described a process at the State University of New York (SUNY) of evaluating products and developing an overall strategy for technology-based course development and management in teaching-learning. The product(s) had to be easy to use and maintain, portable, replicable, scalable, and immediately affordable, and they had to have a high probability of success with long-term costeffectiveness. Today many technologies can be, and are, used in e-learning, from blogs to collaborative software, e-Portfolios, and virtual classrooms. Most e-Learning situations use combinations of these techniques.

Approaches to e-learning services

E-learning services have evolved since computers were first used in education. There is a trend to move towards blended learning services, where computer-based activities are integrated with practical or classroom-based situations.

Bates and Poole (2003) and the OECD (2005) suggest that different types or forms of e-learning can be considered as a continuum, from no elearning, i.e. no use of computers and/or the Internet for teaching and learning, through classroom aids, such as making classroom lecture Powerpoint slides available to students through a course web site or

learning management system, to laptop programs, where students are required to bring laptops to class and use them as part of a face-to-face class, to hybrid learning, where classroom time is reduced but not eliminated, with more time devoted to online learning, through to fully online learning, which is a form of distance education. This classification is somewhat similar to that of the Sloan Commission reports on the status of e-learning, which refer to web enhanced, web supplemented and web dependent to reflect increasing intensity of technology use. In the Bates and Poole continuum, 'blended learning' can cover classroom aids, laptops and hybrid learning, while 'distributed learning' can incorporate either hybrid or fully online learning.

It can be seen then that e-learning can describe a wide range of applications, and it is often by no means clear even in peer reviewed research publications which form of e-learning is being discussed. However, Bates and Poole argue that when instructors say they are using e-learning, this most often refers to the use of technology as classroom aids, although over time, there has been a gradual increase in fully online learning.

Case study--Blackboard Platform at Spiru Haret University in Bucharest

Spiru Haret University (SHU) is a private non-profit university operating in Bucharest, Romania since 1990. It is the largest and the oldest private Romanian university. Its prestige and name started to pop up around 1998 after some generations of graduates proved themselves well-prepared, willing and determined to penetrate the Romanian and international job market.

Starting in 2004, SHU has achieved an online assessment platform meant to ensure a better interaction between professor s and students (especially those who applied for distance learning system of education). Distance learning is a concept introduced in Romania by SHU and it presupposes little if no contact between the professors and the students with all didactic stuff sent via e-mail and all evaluative process taken online. The initial idea was only to evaluate the students by means of this platform but later it proved very useful to grant the professors the opportunity of teaching, uploading information, interacting virtually and even organizing WebExes by means of the platform.

More and more students applied for this system and successfully graduated in the following 7 years. An idea that was only a futuristic, bizarre advent in the 1990s proved efficient and reliable in the 2010s.

The platform offers a wide variety of choices from teaching online classes to uploading course information, syntheses or giving homework. A body course can be uploaded in chapters and subchapters and structured in such a way as to be more user-friendly than the traditional boring lectures. Images, flashes or links to other sites can be added thus enriching the diversity and appeal. Students have forums where to virtually meet and interact, while sitting comfortably on their living-room armchair. Webcams ensure best access both to students and professors and oral interactions are frequently performed either for didactic or evaluative purposes.

Evaluation itself is a major component of the system being the first implemented and offering a varied range of possibilities. The professors can upload almost any type of exercise from multiple choice and multiple answers to essay writing, True/false questions, matching fill in the gaps or rephrase. Such system is better able to evaluate knowledge from a vaster area of study, not to mention that the professors can (and usually did) offer feedback to students by selecting some detailed preconceived answers and explanations for each and every question. The students can do away with the bullies on the street and the butterflies in the stomach while traveling to the examination location. They can roll out of bed, log on and take some pleasant exams without the now famous stress of the exam.

All in all, the system is perfectly working being advantageous for all the three parties involved: professors, students and management. Its strong points--free and easy access, modern technology, better evaluative techniques, and impossibility of cheating--clearly overtake the weak points --server failure (due to large number of users) or data loss (caused by unfortunate maneuvers). E-learning seems at least so far to be the bright promise for the future and the ultimate tool of education.

REFERENCES

Tavangarian D., Leypold M., Nolting K., Roser M. (2004), "Is e-learning the Solution for Individual Learning?" Journal of e-learning.

Graziadei, William Sharon D. Gallagher, Ronald N. Brown, and Joseph Sasiadek (Building Asynchronous and Synchronous Teaching-Learning Environments: Exploring a Course/Classroom Management System Solution.

Hiltz, S. (1990), "Evaluating the Virtual Classroom," Harasim, L. (ed.) Online Education: Perspectives on a New Environment. New York: Praeger: 133-169.

WebEx Education Platform

Blackboard Platform

www.wikipedia.com

www.hcibook.com/e3/

Bates, A.W. and Gary Poole (2003), Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Filip BACALU

filipbacalu1@yahoo.co.uk

Spiru Haret University, Bucharest

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Author:	Bacalu, Filip
Publication:	Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice
Article Type:	Report
Date:	Jul 1, 2012
Words:	3942
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Topics:	Education, Higher Higher education Human-computer interaction History Online education Influence