eLEARNING – THEORIES, DESIGN, SOFTWARE AND APPLICATIONS Edited by Patrizia Ghislandi eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications Edited by Patrizia Ghislandi Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Ivona Lovric Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team 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 orders@intechopen.com 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 USA 1 . 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 [...]... of members, 4 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications communities and regions through access negotiation, autonomy and participation (Wasko & Faraj, 2008, Cox, 2007, Monge & Contractor, 2003, Brown & Duguid, 2000, Augier and Vendelo, 1999) 2 Meaning construction and connectivity in e-merging contexts Indeed, our present societies are powerfully shaped by the presence (and/ or absence)... telecentres in the region since the mid to late nineties left a rich heritage for networking and a form of knowledge-based networks Some of them have since disappeared; new ones emerge and others continue to 12 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications work and have become part of an active community fostered and supported by www.telecentre.org (Caicedo, 2009) In Colombia, for instance, the Colombian... and technical flexibility Scholarly scope was observed in experts’ knowledge and ability to discuss KBD topics on line with informed and authoritative skill By doing so, their participation has impact and influence on the panellists 14 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications providing leadership, direction and vision to the exercise; which led them to gain legitimacy amongst participants’... Literate, knowledgeable on technology uses and purposes 70% 80% 90% C8 Attentive to contexts and information adaptability & usage 70% 80% 90% Competences 16 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications Competences Knowledge Workers Knowledge Agents & Knowledge Facilitators Knowmads & other knowledge network weavers C9 Values and promotes knowledge-sharing and free access to information 70% 80%... basic views of knowledge including hypotheses and beliefs of 24 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications the nature, attribute, value, standard, paradigm and validity of knowledge The theories of knowledge are not knowledge itself but people’s ideas and retrospection of knowledge during the process of gaining, enriching and growing knowledge Considering the development of contemporary... O’Reilly, T (2005) What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the next generation of software O'Reilly website, 30th September 2005 O’Reilly Media Inc Available online at: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web20.html Last accessed 12/06/09 22 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications Pallof, R and Pratt K (1999) Building Learning Communities... Groups * Symbionomics * Regional & National scale synchronization through FaceBook and Twitter Source: Adapted from Huysman, M.H and Wulf, V (2005); Tuomi, I (2002), Gundry (2006), O’Reilly,(2005), Cobo & Moravec (2011) Table 2 e-Learning practice in emerging Social Paradigms 18 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications The types of networks identified during the building up of the present... Knowledge Management, Special issue on Knowledge-based development II: knowledge cities Vol 8, no.5, pp 28-46 20 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications Cobo, C., and Pardo H (2007) Web 2.0 Planet Collective Intelligence or fast food media Published as an e-Book Mexico City (Mexico), and Barcelona (Spain): Creative Commons ISBN 978-84-934995-8-7 Retrieved on 10 Feb 2008 from http://www.planetaweb2.net/... cultivate innovation and successfully respond to rapidly changing conditions” (Chatzkel, 2004:62) In emerging knowledge-based development contexts, a new way of conducting innovation is already operating, quasi-independently of the current money system: its chief requirements 10 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications are things like time, imagination, knowledge, initiative and trust, with... relationship) and intensity (e.g., communication-frequency) It is thought that form and intensity of network relationships establish the network structure (Burt, 2000) Moreover, the relationships between the actors are founded upon personal-organizational or technical-institutional interconnections on a long-term basis (Seufert el al., 1999) Network 6 eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications . eLEARNING – THEORIES, DESIGN, SOFTWARE AND APPLICATIONS Edited by Patrizia Ghislandi eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications Edited. the social capital of members, eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications 4 communities and regions through access negotiation, autonomy and participation (Wasko & Faraj,. Network eLearning – Theories, Design, Software and Applications 6 members’ relationships stem from their individual autonomy and interdependence, their tensions between cooperation and competition