WebELS: Enabling e-Learning in Higher Education over Low Bandwidth Environment

Abstract

As information and communication technology (ICT) becomes more robust and widely used, there is an increasing number of higher educational institutions (HEI) adopting e-Learning system for delivering various educational programs. However, there is still an underlying challenges in the successful implementation of e-Learning approach in higher education, such as the lack of IT skills for most instructors, the complexity of e-Learning platforms, technical limitation of users' environment like the network bandwidth and computer hardware, among others. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of the Web-based e-Learning System (WebELS) for enabling the globalization of higher education in science and technology particularly in low bandwidth environment. The system supports asynchronous and synchronous e-Learning approaches, such as on-demand learning for self-learning, online meeting for multi-location group discussion and online lecture for real-time remote lecture distribution. The system has been designed to address the difficulty of creating and maintaining an e-learning course to non-IT users by providing an easy-to-use course authoring tool. Additionally, it supports archiving and dissemination of multimedia contents on the Internet by its contents management system. Usage in low bandwidth environment such as a dial-up line has been the design goal in order to reach a wider range of users especially in developing countries.