Knowledge, Communication and E-learning in Higher Education Perception and Differences of Traditional and Modern Academic Status

• Author: Silvia Tomescu
• Position: Central University Library Bucharest
• Pages: 275-282

Interdisciplinary Dimensions of Communication Science

275

Knowledge, Communication and E-learning in Higher Education

Perception and Differences of Traditional and Modern Academic Status

Silvia-Adriana Tomescu

Central University Library Bucharest, silviaccd2000@yahoo.com

Abstract: The aim of the present analyze is to underli ne the importance of a systemic approach of knowledge

communication in eLearning academic sphere, in or der to improve the efficiency and quality of research. At

the same ti me, we intend to notice and shape the evolution of both teacher and learner status in higher

education. The rhetoric about knowledge is often ass ociated with organization and transfer of information. To

provide students with a modern understanding of the „shared values” in higher education has become an

important objective. The teachers have to adapt new forms of e-deliver y of discipline content, for m and

inform ab out e-resources for learning. We have to develop nationa l strategies and add value to the role of

university as a key factor in e-learning. The knowledge transfer at a cademic level, can be fully realized only

when information encounters in the student the optimal set of tools designed to facilitate learning, and an

individual style of thinking, so as to analyze fundamental questions and to be able to validate or invalidate the

information. The teacher status evolves from content expert to met acognition expert, from guide in valuable

information search to knowledge communicator. The present analyze reflects some as pects of the

consequences that new forms of communication evolved during transition from traditional to e-academic

environment.

Keywords: knowledge; e-learning; communication; academic status

The last decade of the XX

th

century and the beginning of the XXI

st

was marked by the evolution of

university as “the highest institution which produces knowledge (Marga, 1996, p. 65) “towards the

university as corporate institution, has the mission to form and train specialists and provide

knowledge.

The humboldian model of University had the mission to form and educate the individual in order to be

useful to the society h e lived in. This perception has been little by little replaced the type of corporate

university as structure that produce knowledge, but also as economic institution. Corporate perspective

includes all public and private universities, but is more applicable to structures that provide distance

learning and e-learning.

Electronic learning analysis outlines a new image of university as business centered organization that

transfers knowledge. Such systems require from students and academics multiple skills and most

importantly, claims from academic training system to set up new departments and specialties for

teachers who use multimedia resources.

Ideal model for learning and training, eLearning requires systemic approach of management planning,

systemic approach of teaching and specializations component. The evolution of such system starts

from the electronic learning platforms set up, to online course design and evaluation. The investments

in eLearning platforms are expensive, and that policy makers have to balance the activities required by

the labor market. These correlations are, or at least should be the result of intense sociological analysis

whose conclusions lead to the need to establish new departments.