Universal Personal Hybrid e-Learning Design System for University Teachers and Students

Abstract

Despite the tremendous advancements in computers, the current level of technology for e-learning design is inadequate for the needs of teachers, and this is especially true at a time of increased demand for distance learning in which the teacher needs to process e-learning content stored in both offline and online spaces. In order to minimise information overload, the teacher needs a simple, low-cost, hybrid, all-in-one system that can offer personalised e-learning design. e-Learning tools of this type that can be used for IT applications in education have not been described in the literature and e-learning focuses on testing the suitability of existing IT tools for learning activities. The shortcomings of current technologies arise from the fact that the hardware, software and computer file formats are incompatible, and cannot simulate mental processes in the way that e-learning requires. In this paper, we present the WPad educational software as a key element of a universal, personal, hybrid e-learning design system. This software has evolved over 15 years based on the principle of automating human mental activities using ‘virtual knowledge’ as the representation of knowledge. It is a simple database table that is readable by both machines and humans. The empirical and systematic phases of this research are described to show how an individual (including blind and visually impaired users) can insert content into WPad tables, and how these then generate HTML tables for the design of curriculum content. Examples of automating an individual’s activities on a computer or on a virtual machine as part of collaborative learning are presented in the form of screenshots. The bulk knowledge processing paradigm is compared with the relational database paradigm, and a separate section is devoted to the technological obstacles associated with e-Learning design.