MEASURING THE E-LEARNING AND DISTANCE LEARNING SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE

The concepts of distance learning and e-learning are closely related but have different meanings. If the concept of distance learning, in theory, does not imply the use of advanced technologies, implying only the fact that the student does not regularly attend to traditional courses in a classroom in the presence of the teacher, in practice, in the activities carried on by modem education institutions distance learning is more and more based on electronic technologies for learning, also called e- learning. On the other hand, e-learning technologies are not exclusively used as a support for distance learning, some e-learning tools being designed to be used in traditional class rooms where the teacher assists the students. As a response to the concerns regarding the quality of the learning systems mentioned above, the measuring of their performances in relation to the performances of the computer and communication systems on which they are based is an important step towards their improvement. Different technical parameters of the computers on which e-learning and distance learning platforms are hosted or accessed can influence their overall performance and possibly the efficiency of transmitting the knowledge to the students that use such platforms. Technical problems related to the computers on which e-learning platforms are hosted or accessed can be related to the hardware or software components of the system, most of the time their cause being failure or the fact that the resources requirements for the system being exceeded. In this context, the paper aims to present, in a systematic way, the influence of the technological equipment characteristics and performance on the results of learning for students who use specialized learning platforms. The paper presents a case study related to Blackboard, one of the better known learning platforms used by numerous universities.