E-LEARNING – ORGANIZATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND TOOLS FOR SPECIFIC AREAS pdf

E-LEARNING – ORGANIZATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND TOOLS FOR SPECIFIC AREAS Edited by Elvis Pontes, Anderson Silva, Adilson Guelfi and Sérgio Takeo Kofuji E-Learning – Organizational Infrastructure and Tools for Specific Areas Edited by Elvis Pontes, Anderson Silva, Adilson Guelfi and Sérgio Takeo Kofuji 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 February, 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@intechweb.org E-Learning – Organizational Infrastructure and Tools for Specific Areas, Edited by Elvis Pontes, Anderson Silva, Adilson Guelfi and Sérgio Takeo Kofuji p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0053-9 Contents Preface IX Part 1 E-learning Organizational Infrastructure 1 Chapter 1 Factors that Influence Academic Teacher's Acceptance of E-Learning Technology in Blended Learning Environment 3 Snježana Babić Chapter 2 Towards Economical E-Learning Educational Environments for Physically Challenged Students 19 Amir Zeid, Sarah S. Sakit, Noor A. Al-AbdulRazzaq, Mariam M. Al-Tattan, Fatima S. Sakit, Abrar Amin, Mariam Al-Najdi and Aisha Al-Rowaished Chapter 3 Advanced Pedagogical Approaches at Slovak Universities 35 Pavol Molnár and Ildikó Némethová Chapter 4 Digital Faces on the Cloud 45 S. L. Jones Part 2 E-Learning Tools 63 Chapter 5 Lego Based Computer Communication for Business and Learning 65 Rapelang Marumo Chapter 6 Multimodal Intelligent Tutoring Systems 83 Xia Mao and Zheng Li Chapter 7 Using the Smith Chart in an E-Learning Approach 99 José R. Pereira and Pedro Pinho Chapter 8 Intelligent Tutoring System with Associative Cellular Neural Network 123 Michihiro Namba VI Contents Chapter 9 Proposing Two Algorithms to Acquire Learning Knowledge in Problem-Based Learning Environment 137 Akcell Chiang Chapter 10 E-Learning in Architecture: Professional and Lifelong Learning Prospects 159 Matevz Juvancic, Michael Mullins and Tadeja Zupancic Preface For many decades education in the form of courses by correspondence or TV has been an interesting alternative for those who do not have enough free time to study, or for those who live far from a school, or those unable to attend classes due to some physical or medical restriction. Over the years, many students have benefitted from this way of apprenticeship, developing skills and enhancing expertise in sectors as diverse as health, engineering, human sciences, zoology, and architecture, among others. With the advent of the Internet the increasing demand of long-distance courses went through a period of fantastic expansion. A specific term was associated with the technology for long-distance education: e-learning. The term e-learning is associated with all kinds of knowledge transferred by electronic means, with the purpose of teaching or learning. It also includes handling tools which improve the instruction process. Technology development, mainly for telecommunications and computer systems, was a key factor for the interactivity and, thus, for the expansion of e-learning. In addition to the on-line interaction among students and teachers, the interaction process has brought other benefits such as conferences with multiple users, collaborative work, and the possibility of sharing, sending, and receiving work material (files such as texts, pictures, and programs) in real time. Actually, these technological advances create new challenges such as the need for new methodologies that can explore the full potential of interaction between students and teachers, and the development of new tools which allow the best use of technological resources for learning purposes. This is an excellent opportunity for teachers and practitioners to improve their work. This book is divided into two parts, presenting some proposals to deal with e-learning challenges, opening up a way of learning about and discussing new methodologies to increase the interaction level of classes and implementing technical tools for helping students to make better use of e-learning resources. In the first part, the reader may find chapters mentioning the required infrastructure for e-learning models and processes, organizational practices, suggestions, X Preface implementation of methods for assessing results, and case studies focused on pedagogical aspects that can be applied generically in different environments. The second part is related to tools that can be adopted by users such as graphical tools for engineering, mobile phone networks, and techniques to build robots, among others. Moreover, part two includes some chapters dedicated specifically to e-learning areas like engineering and architecture. Professor Elvis Pontes, Professor Anderson Silva, Professor Adilson Guelfi and Professor Sérgio Takeo Kofuji Department of Electrical Engineering Polytechnic School University of São Paulo (USP) Brazil . 19796- E-Learning – Organizational Infrastructure and Tools for Specific Areas 4 1:2005 (Information Technology – Learning, Education and Training – Quality Management, Assurance and Metrics –. E-LEARNING – ORGANIZATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND TOOLS FOR SPECIFIC AREAS Edited by Elvis Pontes, Anderson Silva, Adilson Guelfi and Sérgio Takeo Kofuji E-Learning –. obtained from orders@intechweb.org E-Learning – Organizational Infrastructure and Tools for Specific Areas, Edited by Elvis Pontes, Anderson Silva, Adilson Guelfi and Sérgio Takeo Kofuji p. cm.