Table Of ContentE-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
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Copyright © 2012 InTech
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First published February, 2012
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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
