Title: Implementation of e-learning portal for academic education and lifelong learning

Authors: Magdalena Roszak; Barbara Kołodziejczak; Wojciech Kowalewski; Anna Ren-Kurc

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Statistics, University of Medical Sciences, 79 Dąbrowskiego St, 60-529 Poznań, Poland ' Department of Computer Science and Statistics, University of Medical Sciences, 79 Dąbrowskiego St, 60-529 Poznań, Poland ' Adam Mickiewicz University, 27 Dzięgielowa St., 61-680 Poznań, Poland ' Adam Mickiewicz University, 87 Umultowska St., 61-614 Poznań, Poland

Abstract: Distance education is entering the area of university education with increasing strength, particularly including lifelong learning. Distance education requires a well-structured organisation and resource management tools, namely an e-learning portal. Universities which are still at the beginning of the portal implementation process may encounter numerous technical and organisational issues. This article was created with a view of educational centres in which the portal is implemented with scarce financial resources by several academic employees having little experience in the field. The authors point to several key issues, such as: analysis of the school's needs in terms of distance education server resources, choice of portal in terms of technology, supported standards or functions necessary for proper course and lastly, user management. The article also mentions the often-underestimated aspect of portal management. The authors further present the capabilities of computational clouds, their deployment in the academic environment and their use in distance learning. Such a solution is extremely rare, particularly in Eastern and Central European countries.

Keywords: higher education; computational clouds; cloud computing; distance education; e-learning; electronic learning; online learning; implementation; LCMS; lifelong learning; portals; portal management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEELL.2016.076011

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 2016 Vol.26 No.2, pp.135 - 152

Received: 29 Apr 2015
Accepted: 30 Sep 2015
Published online: 21 Apr 2016 *

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