E-learning community : study village

Abstract

Nowadays, the Internet becomes one of the most popular information and communication media. Various technologies and business ideas are developed based on it. E-learning and E-business are two of the successful examples. Meanwhile, as blogs and forums become more and more popular today, web service has entered Web 2.0 era, in which most of the contents of websites are contributed from users. This project is aimed to combine both of E-learning and E-business by using Web 2.0 technology to develop a new generation of E-learning web portal, named Study Village. In this virtual study community, each registered user is a villager. Like living in a real village, they can sell and buy products – knowledge (i.e. study materials created by them). That is, Internet users become suppliers as well as consumers of study materials. Knowledge and information would be exchanged directly and easily. Thus, resources are reused, costs are saved, and duplicated works are avoided. The website was built on Java Struts Framework, using various programming methods. After seven-month development, a nice-designed and compatible web portal can be presented to end users in a friendly environment, with the proposed functions provided. With a slogan of “a boundless e-learning portal for you and me”, Study Village does not only provide a powerful portal for anyone who wants to teach or learn online, but also facilitate and promote public education and information sharing. Also its administration system allows back-end administrators to easily monitor and maintain the whole system.