University Level Learning and Teaching via E-Learning Platforms

Web-based adaptive collaborative learning environments are more often used to support face to face teaching activities. This paper describes how the educational process may be improved and students may be motivated to do homework tasks and to attend classes in higher education. We describe the implementation and use of e-learning platforms and present our experience in using such platforms in our faculty. The performance of two groups of students is analyzed. The analysis focuses on two aspects: attendance on classes and homework tasks submission. Therefore, the first group had no contact with e-learning environment and they had to attend classes in a traditional way (face-to-face interaction) and to submit their homework via e-mail. The second group had to attend classes and also to use an e-learning platform where they could access course resources and homework tasks. They had also to submit their homework via the platform, while respecting a strict deadline and using the professors' feedback to improve their homework quality. This paper highlights the importance and the benefits of using collaborative e-learning platforms in higher education to support face to face teaching. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).