Tools based eLearning platform to support the development and repurposing of educational material

Abstract

Recent development of eLearning Platforms, presentation technologies and user interaction methods has enabled the development of new, more complex and more efficient teaching materials, especially in medical domain. However, the process of creating new learning resources is not a trivial task and most of the time technical knowledge is required for such an action. In the same time, the majority of present eLearning applications are mainly oriented on management and presentation of already created didactic materials, rather than on their creation and development. As a result, until now, only a reduced number of medical specialists have been able to create learning objects, either by repurposing older materials or by creating new ones from scratch. Addressing this important aspect, this paper presents an eLearning platform architecture that provides the instructors with flexible tools specialized for didactic medical materials development. Through this software, learning resources developers have the ability to control aspects as: information search and retrieval, resource management, information presentation, user interaction methods, learning objects repurposing, lesson presentation structure and others. Even more, the flexibility of the application's functionalities allows multiple interaction and data presentation techniques to be combined into the same lesson and even on the same resource, in order to enhance the adaptivity and adaptability capabilities of the learning materials to the needs of the student. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.