Abstract
Advances in information technology and the redefined web trigger a holistic view of learning process. The objective of this study is to provide a conceptual view of how various technologies can be used to maximize learning outcomes through e-learning. Among the trends investigated in this study are, XML and semantic Web, content-based video indexing, personalized, intelligent Web tutoring, and m-learning. In addition to these technologies, a brief review of some of the key behavioral issues is presented. For researchers and developers interested in maximizing the learning outcome through e-learning technologies, the paper provides a taxonomy of these trends along with a framework for future designs.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Video Indexing: Video indexing is the process of providing watchers a way to access and navigate contents easily; similar to book indexing.
Learning (M-Learning): M-learning is a new paradigm of delivering learning material to small-sized mobile devices such as cell phones, PDAs or even IPods.
Semantic Web: The Semantic Web is considered to be the next generation of the Web, where both human and intelligent agents will be sharing information on a semantic basis (Berners-Lee, 2000).
Extensible Markup Language (XML): XML is a W3C recommended markup language. Unlike HTML, which is for human consumption only, XML is both for human and machine consumption.
E-Learning: E-learning is the utilization of electronic resources and media for learning over the Internet.
Video Segmenting: Video segmenting is the process of dividing a video file into logically arranged pieces (segments), which can be used for indexing purposes.
Domain Ontology: Domain ontology is a collection of vocabularies and the specifications of the conceptualization of a given domain (Gruber, 1993).