A Special Purpose E-Learning Environment: Background, Design and Evaluation

Abstract

This study presents the concept of Special Purpose E-Learning Environments (SPELEs). The main aim of these environments is to meet the learners’ individual learning differences related to a specific learning subject. An architecture of the design of SPELEs is presented. The background of this design, which is based on interpretations of modern constructivist and social views of learning in the Internet context, is also presented. Based on this architecture a specific SPELE, designed for the learning of concepts related to Files and Peripheral Storage Devices (FPSD.), is demonstrated and its pilot evaluation study with real students is reported. The analysis of the data verifies the theoretical design of SPELEs, which consists of five parts: (a) organization of the content of a specific learning subject, (b) learning activities (c) learner activity space (d) learner assessment, and (e) learner communication. The analysis of the data also gives evidence for future improvements of the specific SPELE mentioned above.