The 'E'-Factor of the Educational System: The Electronic Platform

• Author: Nechifor, A. - Purcaru, M.A.P.
• Position: Faculty of Letters, Transilvania University of Brasov - Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 19-26

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

THE “E”-FACTOR OF THE EDUCATIONAL

SYSTEM: THE ELECTRONIC PLATFORM

A. NECHIFOR1 M. A.P. PURCARU2

Abstract: As part of a modern approach towards any (distance) learning

system, the electronic platform has started being acknowledged as a useful

and valid teaching instrument. The present paper focused on gathering and

interpreting data relevant for this assertion, as well as on establishing which

factors can influence the possible ascension of an e-platform to the position

of a central didactic tool in any future core curricula design. A survey was

conducted by the authors on participants in a European project on

professional reconversion and the findings both confirm and challenge the

assumptions and expectations of the two researchers.

Key words: e-learning platform, English, Mathematics, didactic tool,

questionnaire, professional reconversion, distance learning

1 Faculty of Letters, Transilvania University of Braşov.

2 Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Transilvania University of Braşov.

1. Introduction

“Challenging knowledge” [2] even by

means of using an e-learning platform for

the teaching-learning-assessment process

has become a modern didactic means

nowadays. But has it also become a

“must”? Or is it just a new trend according

to which a professor can score high when

evaluated on the basis of using or not

modern teaching aids or instruments? To

what extent has the e-learning platform

implemented itself as a necessity at a

university level [4] and how much of its

perception depends on different factors,

such as: age of students/professors,

minimal skills in using electronic

communication on both sides, willingness

to adapt to new techniques and instruments

of efficient communication between

professors and their students and vice

versa, etc.?

2. Purpose and methodology

This study aims at answering these

research questions, gathering data from a

survey conducted by the authors of the

paper on a number of students participating

in the “Professional training of teachers in

the pre-university education system for

new opportunities in career development”,

contract number POSDRU/57/1.3/S/32629

project, a European project of professional

reconversion, which was designed as a

distance learning process, consequently

which used specific instruments for this,

one of which was an e-learning platform.

The relevance of the findings which came

as a result of the quantitative and

qualitative analysis of the answers

provided by the subjects interrogated is

high as the students belong, as well as the

authors of paper, to two very different

teaching backgrounds: one of them teaches