A Survey of Distance Education Challenges and Technologies <s> Educational Technologies <s> The potential of computer-aided learning (GAL) rests in its ability to present information in different ways according to the characteristics of the learning material and the students' needs. We present five major factors for developing CAL tools-theories for learning, multimedia didactics, learning technologies, information modes in human-computer interaction, and user acceptance. <s> BIB001 </s> A Survey of Distance Education Challenges and Technologies <s> Educational Technologies <s> Administration, awareness and assessment (the "three A's") are the three criteria of virtual university operation. This position paper points out the basic requirements of the three A's and proposes questions regarding the operation of a virtual university. <s> BIB002 </s> A Survey of Distance Education Challenges and Technologies <s> Educational Technologies <s> Distance learning has become a very important mechanism for virtual university operation. In order to realize such an operation smoothly, it is necessary to consider distance learning from three perspectives: administration, awareness, and assessment. We are currently implementing a virtual university environment according to these guidelines. In this paper, we propose part of such a supporting environment of the Multimedia Macro-University project.1 One of the most important focuses is a Web course development paradigm. Web documents are increasingly playing an important role in our daily life, as the Internet has become a new medium for communication and commerce. On the other hand, software development paradigms were developed to support program construction. However, these traditional paradigms do not completely fit the needs of Web document development due to the following reasons. Firstly, computer programs focus on problem solving, but Web documents focus on information delivery. Secondly, computer programs usually have a fixed size, but this is not true for Web documents, because Web documents are always evolving as if it were a living document. It is therefore necessary to investigate a new software development paradigm for developing Web documents. We propose such a new paradigm and its supporting environment, as well as software testing/metrics mechanisms for Web documents. The Web documents developed using our paradigm are stored in a Web documentation database. From a script description, to its implementation as well as testing records, the database and its interface allow the user to design Web documents as virtual courses to be used in a Web-savvy virtual library. The system is implemented as a three-tier architecture, which runs under MS Windows. <s> BIB003 </s> A Survey of Distance Education Challenges and Technologies <s> Educational Technologies <s> Web-based distance learning programs are widely available. A few distance education platform and standards were developed or proposed. Among current software systems, it is hard to realize a strategic assessment of courseware quality. Since one of the difficulties of distance education is the load that an instructor needs to spend in courseware design, it is worthy to investigate an automatic mechanism to help an instructor to produce effective courseware. Thus, a distance learning program can proceed efficiently. We develop a mechanism for the construction of courseware structure based on the influence diagram. The mechanism can be implemented as a decision support system for the instructor to analyze the relation among course units and test units. The overall value of a courseware can be systematically analyzed. <s> BIB004
Educational theory and technologies has a great impact to the development of distance-learning systems. A software system will be useless if no one use it. Relying on educational theories and experiences for professionals, the design of any distance-learning system should consider its usability as the first step. A few articles look at distance-learning system from both educational  BIB001 and engineering BIB002 perspectives. A formal model that evaluates interactivity and motivation of students is proposed in  . The model is tested on several Web-based instruction courses. And, experiences are discussed. In addition, five major factors for the development of computer-aided learning were proposed in BIB001 . The factors include theories for learning, multimedia didactic, learning technologies, information models in human-computer interaction, and user acceptance. Criteria of how distance education software systems are developed are presented in BIB002 . The discussion includes administration, communication, and assessment tools that should be developed for distance education. In addition to these guidelines, educational and software technologies were used to build distance education systems. Educational theory such as student-problem chart is used in the development of an assessment system  , which supervise students via automatic generated Web tutorial. The system is able to incorporate user interactions. Thus, each tutorial generated is based on the individual behavior of student. On the other hand, to develop better courseware, a revised influence diagram method is proposed in BIB004 for courseware designs. The diagram helps the designers to construct a more efficient learning topology for students. A quantitative analysis is given to each course topology designed. Thus, comparison is made between different course structures. Moreover, a paradigm supports the development of Web documents is proposed in BIB003 . The paradigm can be extended to support courseware designs. Metrics of Web documents are also defined.