With the advent of Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) technologies, distance education (e-learning or Web-based learning) has enabled a new era of education. There are a number of issues that have significant impact on distance education, including those from educational, sociological, and psychological perspectives. Rather than attempting to cover exhaustively all the related perspectives, in this survey article, we focus on the technological issues. A number of technology issues are discussed, including distributed learning, collaborative learning, distributed content management, mobile and situated learning, and multimodal interaction and augmented devices for e-learning. Although we have tried to include the state-of-the-art technologies and systems here, it is anticipated that many new ones will emerge in the near future. As such, we point out several emerging issues and technologies that we believe are promising, for the purpose of highlighting important directions for future research.

http://www.cs.cityu.edu.hk/~rynson/papers/toit08.pdf

Technology supports for distributed and collaborative learning over the internet

This qualitative research has the purpose to analyze and synthesize a model of Blended Learning (BL) with IoT-based technology. Data sources are related literature, textbooks, research, articles, and websites. The author used analysis and synthesis tables with the content analysis method. IoT-based technology was considered to refer to all heterogeneous objects and devices through any networks, and BL is the educational approach to combine F2F instruction with ICT instruction. Many devices and “things” in IoT-based technology were added in class to create and improve a smart learning environment for the learning goals. This study divided BL into 4 characteristics; F2F, Self-paced, Tele-D, and Ubiquitous, which were further categorized into 3 typical cases of learning environments, Digital, Embedded, and Side-by-side cases. A framework of this model has 2 roles of user interfaces (teacher and student) which link 6 modules and a set of databases and 2 types of contexts (classroom and personal).

/pdf/a-blended-learning-model-with-iot-based-technology-66jxmx82ub.pdf

A blended learning model with IoT-based technology: effectively used when the COVID-19 pandemic?

The sharable content object reference model (SCORM) is a set of specifications and guidelines for the representation and operation of asynchronous distance learning. Since it was announced in late 1990s, the reference model has been used by software developers and academics in the development of authoring tools, learning management systems, and repositories for distance learning content. To date, most e-learning systems have been based on multimedia and Web technologies on personal computers. Our project, Hard SCORM, advances the field by implementing an integrated system which allows learners to read SCORM-compliant textbooks using multimodal multimedia devices. Hard SCORM employs a pen-like optical character reader device (called Hyper Pen) as an input mechanism. A computer, a personal digital assistant, or a cellular phone can be used for user behavior supervision using the hard SCORM machine. With an authoring tool, specially designed tags are printed in textbooks and recognized by hyper pen for user navigation control. In this way, users can read hardcopy textbooks in a traditional manner while the process of reading conforms to the SCORM specification. Part of the implemented system (Pocket SCORM on PDA) received the 2005 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards. The system has also been used by an airline company for online security checking and a high school for online mobile learning

Ubiquitous e-Learning With Multimodal Multimedia Devices

Managing the large amount of learning content, involved in the development of an expandable Learning Management System (LMS) is a critical task for most educational organizations. In designing such a system, consideration must be givennot only to the requirement of instructors and students, but also to the adaptive qualities of the system itself, because of the rapidly changing software environment. Unlike most enterprises, educational organization can't afford high system maintenance. Development of a flexible, expandable and reliable Learning Management System is, therefore, imperative. This paper proposes a web service oriented framework in building a Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) compatible LMS. We integrated the SCORM concept with distributed computing technologies to build the components of the LMS and demonstrate how these services can be configured to create a complete system. This framework increases reusability and reduces the maintenance requirements of the LMS. It provides a way for small educational organizations, with limited resources, to build a complete SCORM compatible LMS. In such an ideal situation, the content provider not only provides the content, but also the service for the consumers of that content.

A web-service oriented framework for building SCORM compatible learning management systems

6th Annual International Conference on Computing and ICT Research (ICCIR 10), Kampala, Uganda, 21-24 October 2010

http://www.cit.mak.ac.ug/iccir/downloads/ICCIR_10/ADELE%20BOTHA_%20DARELLE%20VAN%20GREUNEN_%20MARLIEN%20HERSELMAN_10.pdf

Mobile human-computer interaction perspective on mobile learning

The sharable content object reference model (SCORM) includes a representation of distance learning contents and a behavior definition of how users should interact with the contents. Usually, SCORM-compliant systems are developed based on Web browsers or Java program. We developed a system which allows users to read SCORM-compliant course materials on hardcopy papers while an OCR-like pen device is used as an interaction mechanism. A computer, a PDA, or a cellular phone can be used in conjunction with the pen device for multimedia presentations. Our project is called the hard SCORM. Therefore, users can read textbooks in a traditional manner while behavior of reading is incorporated with the SCORM specification.

The hard SCORM LMS: reading SCORM courseware on hardcopy textbooks

Pocket devices are dominated in size which makes them the perfect platform for mobile learning Several researches propose how distance education can be realized on pocket devices We demonstrate the implementation of the adaptive pocket SCORM (scalable content object reference model) reader Our proposed pocket SCORM reader is able to load SCORM compatible courseware Furthermore, we introduce our ideal pocket SCORM architecture With the proposed architecture, we hope to realize SCORM compliant mobile learning

Adaptive pocket SCORM reader

With the rapidly development of distance learning and the XML (Extensible Markup Language) technology, metadata becomes an important item in an e-learning system. Today, many distance learning standards such as SCORM, AICC CMI, IEEE LTSC learning object meta-data (LOM), and IMS learning resource metadata XML binding specification, use metadata to tag learning materials, shareable content objects, and learning resources. However, most metadata is used to define learning materials and test problems. Few metadata is dedicated for assessment in learning. We propose an assessment metadata model for e-learning operations. With the support from the assessment metadata, we can collect information at the question cognition level, item difficulty index, item discrimination index, questionnaire style, and question style. The assessment analysis model provides individual questions, summary of test results, and analytical suggestions. The suggestions and results can tell teachers why a question is not suitable and how to correct it. Teachers can see the analysis of test result and fix problematic questions. With the cognition level analysis, teachers can avoid missing items in teaching. The mechanism developed also suggests an e-learning system, with adaptive learning content and individualized tests, as well as good advice for the teachers.

http://tkuir.lib.tku.edu.tw:8080/dspace/bitstream/987654321/37766/1/0769520871_p262-267.pdf

Kuan-Hao Huang

Papers

The hard SCORM LMS: reading SCORM courseware on hardcopy textbooks

Adaptive pocket SCORM reader

A cognition assessment authoring system for e-learning