Designing of E-Learning for Engineering Education in Developing Countries - Web-Based Engineering Education: Critical Design and Effective Tools - page 2

1. IntroductIon And
BAckground

Hence a great deal of effort has focused on the
integration of new technologies such as multime-
dia video, audio, animation, and computers, with
associated software, to achieve the improvement
of traditional engineering education. The internet
technologies have also been popularly applied
to web-based learning (Hung et al, 2007). The
growth of the information society provides a way
for fast data access and information exchange all
over the world. Computer technologies have been
significantly changing the content and practice
of engineering education (Gladun et al, 2008).
Information and communication technologies
(ICT) are rightly recognized as tools that are
radically transforming the process of learning.
Universities, institutions and industries are invest-
ing increasing resources to advance researches
for providing better and more effective learning
solutions (Campanella et al, 2007).

Recent years have seen dramatic changes in en-
gineering education in terms of increased access
to lifelong learning, increased choice in areas
of study and the personalization of learning. To
advance across all domains seems to necessitate
incompatible changes to the learning process,
as practitioners offer individualized learning to
a larger, more diverse engineering student base.
To achieve this cost effectively and without over-
whelming practitioners requires new approaches
to teaching and learning coupled with access to a
wide range of resources: practitioners need to be
able to source and share engineering materials,
adapt and contextualize them to suit individual
needs, and use them across a variety of engineer-
ing educational models (Littlejohn et al, 2008).

Figure 1. The most important and meaningful characteristics for engineering instruction