EDUCATIONAL PLATFORMS EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
EDUCATIONAL PLATFORMS EVALUATION FRAMEWORK

Summary/Abstract: The emergence of distance learning and other alternative forms of education was a natural response of educational demands, their growth being supported by the ICT development. In the same way, the massive open online courses had even a greater rate of development and currently enjoys a great popularity (universities joined the concept declared million students enrolled). The term of lifelong learning is now, in 2015 more topical, perhaps more than it was in 1972, remaining an act of assumed individual responsibility. The success of an educational programme carried through distance learning does depend by its characteristics, mainly by overcoming physical barriers, and all derived effects. The use of virtual environments for learning is no longer a novelty, being used for a long time, with different results. The offer for online learning environments is generous and wide. This comes with some difficulties: the selection and implementation processes become challenging and the results are not always satisfactory. The same platform can have different results in terms of use and efficiency in different institutions, depending on a series of external factors which have to be taken into account when a platform will be implemented. When it comes to the main indicators which make a platform to be a successful experience this are various and must cover all the facets of an educational experience, covering all the user possible demands. We started from the assumption that, the platform’s characteristics, although similar, have a different impact on users (impact measured by the frequency of accessing the platform in general and of certain services in particular). Thus, some services are more widely used than others and more than that, some facilities offered by the platform, there are almost never accessed by users, their existence and integration platform being decided by default and developers. The aim of this paper is to present the result of a study conducted in order to identify possible indicators which makes the selection of platform easier and adapted to user (students, didactical staff, administrative staff) needs.

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