Evaluating the Quality of Students Actions in a Distance Learning Programming Language Academic Discipline

Abstract

Online learning (OL) has grown in importance as a direct consequence of the rapid development taking place in information and communication technology (ICT). This development has pushed OL agents into finding new methods of teaching and learning that could explore the technological media to the limits that ICT could actually offer. Due to the evolution of OL, it is difficult to find a precise and current definition. Nichols (2003) describes OL as “education that occurs only through the Web, that is, it does not consist of any physical learning materials issued to students or actual face to face contact. Purely online learning is essentially the use of eLearning tools in a distance education mode using the Web as the sole medium for all student learning and contact.” Though this statement is still valid, the notion of OL has evolved to include aspects such as collaborative learning (Garrison, 2009), connectivist learning (Anderson, 2003; Anderson & Dron, 2011) and online participation (Hrastinski, 2009).