WEBSITE AS AN ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCE

Poulomi Mandal
M.ED. (2017-2019)
Gangadharpur Sikshan Mandir (W.B.U.T.T.E.P.A.)

LEARNING RESOURCE :
Learning resources are texts, videos, software, and other materials that
teachers use to assist students to meet the expectations for learning defined by
provincial or local curricula. Before a learning resource is used in a classroom,
it must be evaluated and approved at either the provincial or local level.
Evaluation criteria may include curriculum fit, social considerations, and age or
developmental appropriateness.
Chalk, board, duster, charts, av-aids, educational software, library and
instructional material are the examples of learning resources.

ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCE :

■ Learning resources that are made available online, not from printed source.

■ Any resource available on the Internet in an online educational environment. It

might be HTML documents such as course or chapter objectives, lecture notes,
assignments, or answers to chapter questions. It might be audio or video
lessons, interactive exercises or exams, or documents providing links to other
Web sites.

■ Any digital material used for supporting student learning that is delivered in
multiple delivery models.

■ Digital learning content, materials and/ or tools available online to learners.

WEBSITE :
A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content,
typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least
one web server. Notable examples are wikipedia.org, google.com
and amazon.com. Today roughly 380 new websites are created every minute
across the World.
A website may be accessible via a public Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as
the Internet, or a private local area network (LAN), by referencing a uniform
resource locator (URL) that identifies the site.
Websites can have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a
website can be a personal website, a corporate website for a company, a
government website, an organization website, etc. Websites are typically
dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, ranging from entertainment
and social networking to providing news and education. All publicly accessible
websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web, while private websites,
such as a company's website for its employees, are typically a part of
an intranet.

FEATURES OF WEBSITE :

1. Quality Web Content- There’s one primary reason people use search engines
and browse websites, and that is to search for information. People desire
information everyday, and want if delivered in a fast and reliable fashion.
Whether to entertain, entice or educate, superior content is a must in every
frequently visited website, especially if search engine optimisation is part of the
website's overarching marketing strategy.

2. Clear, User-friendly Navigation- A stellar web design must contain a user-

friendly navigation scheme that allows visitors to quickly find the information
needed. Important links must be easy to find and given logical, simple, and
include easy-to-understand labels. Calls to action are placed in conspicuous
spots within the navigation’s scheme. If there is a plethora of content, then a
search box is suggested to make it faster to reach more specific pages within a
website.

3. Simple and Professional Web Design- Bells and whistles may seem nice in
concept, but they rarely add much value to an effectively constructed
and sensible web design. Typically, the websites best at effectively converting
site visitors into buying customers, maintain an attractive layout, but keep it
clean and simple. Google is an excellent example of such a site. Actually, users
found Google’s initial design over simplified during the initial testing phases.
Thus in order to keep a simple interface, but prevent the appearance of site
constructed without much thought, Google added the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button
underneath the search box. Despite the fact that hardly anyone clicks on this
button, its addition balances the layout in such a way that delivers a better user
experience.

4. Webpage Speed- People inherently lose patience quickly, and that holds true
when visiting a website. The longer a website takes to load, the more likely a
person will leave before it fully renders. Beautiful graphics and substantial
content become useless if a site’s speed hampers its ability to deliver content
quickly.

Several factors affect site speed, including server speed, the number of
graphics, website traffic, etc. A web design company must make sure to
minimise all controllable factors slowing down site speed by using reliable site
hosting, proper website code, and optimised graphics.

5. Search Engine Optimisation- A well-designed website generally will receive

many visitors, and one method to attract visitors is search engine optimisation.
This entails the insertion of search keywords in website content, an appropriate
link profile, social media signals, and over 200 other factors.

6. Web Compatibility- The variety of browser and platforms which one can now
be view web design can present a challenge to developers, but talented ones
are accustomed to handling such factors. A site should easily render on various
resolutions, screen sizes, and browsers; and with the increasing popularity of
mobile devices, websites should function properly on the plethora of these types
of devices.

FUNCTIONS OF A GOOD WEBSITE :

1.A good website should be easy to navigate.
A website that is easy to use is crucial because if the visitor finds it difficult to
navigate from one page to another, he or she will get frustrated and leave the
website. Attracting frustrated visitors to come back to visit the site is extremely
difficult.

With Website Designer 2.0, you can create customizable drop down menus, so
that the visitor can easily find what they are looking for with a few clicks of the
mouse. Most importantly, these menu items are available from any page on the
site, so in a couple of clicks, visitors are able to jump to other areas of interest
with little effort on their part.

2. Have a clear indication of where the user is.

The website’s visitor should always have a clear indication of which site page
they are on and how they got there, thus making navigation easier.

Website Designer 2.0 automatically creates a bread crumb trail so that your
visitors can keep track of where they are on your site, and allows them to click
on any of the items to go back to that level. Examples include the events
calendar, stories and news pages.

3. URL should be easy to remember

One of the most common mistakes in website design is choosing a proper
domain name. Your domain name should be easy to remember and easy to spell.

With ClubRunner, you have the choice of picking your very own domain name,
including .org, .com, or any of the available global extensions. Most non-profit
service clubs opt for the .org extension as that is the one reserved for
organizations. The most commonly used format is www.[town][organization
name].org, for example, www.sunnyvillerotary.org.

4. Website should be easy to find/look up/search for

Although, once upon a time, the ‘if you build it, they will come’ mantra worked
for websites – it no longer does. Due to the fact that there are millions of
websites on the Internet, it becomes important for you to ensure that your
website ranks high in search engine results and is easy to find.

5. Website should work on multiple browsers

Gone are the days where the only Internet browser that everybody used was
Netscape. Today, there are various Internet browsers that people prefer to use.
Thus, it becomes imperative that your website be able to load on any browser –
whether that be Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.

6. Content should be updated often

The real factor that drives a website towards becoming successful is the
content. If content is not updated often, visitors of the website have no reason to
visit the site often. Updating content on a regular basis becomes difficult if one
does not know HTML and has to rely on a webmaster, which may not always be
available.

7. Layout consistency is key

It is important for all your website pages to follow a certain layout in order to
maintain a theme and uniformity. If the layout of your website pages are not
consistent with one another, your website will look untidy and disorganized, thus
not properly reflecting your club’s image online.

8. Eliminate Clutter
Another common mistake that many people make is placing as much content as
they can, on one page. Often, many people place so much information together
that the visitor has an information overload.

9. Website should be quick to download

In today’s fast paced world, patience is slowly becoming a thing of the past.
Website visitors want the website to load fast and want to be able to look at
photos, articles, and watch videos immediately. When a website has too many
large images within it, it will take longer to load. This leads to frustrated visitors
who end up leaving your site.

10. Encrypted pages if dealing with monetary transactions

In today’s times, website visitors are naturally concerned with the security of
websites. Here at ClubRunner, we ensure that any of our add-on modules that
assist with credit card transactions and finances are developed to ensure the
safety and security of those involved. Our servers encrypt all data so safety is
never an issue. All monetary transactions are done through SSL encrypted
pages that interface directly in real-time with our payment gateways, and we do
not retain any personal or credit card information. Be assured that a transaction
is encrypted by checking that the address bar on the website starts with ‘https’.

WEBSITE AS AN ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCE :

e-Learning courses are changing the face of education. There are many e-
learning websites on the internet offering courses and certifications online.
Websites are most certainly the powerful bridge between the students and these
online courses. After all, a website is the first and in this case, almost every
point of contact between them. So we decided to write about some of the must
have e-learning website features.

Today, 82 percent of colleges and universities offer several courses online in

order to try and provide a transformational opportunity for students who can’t
spend six to eight hours a day in a lecture hall.
For the past few years, e-learning has become a standard way of learning either
with the combination of online and face-to-face approach or as an independent,
fully functional method.

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It has been greatly beneficial to students and educators due to its flexibility, cost
reductions, and overall enhanced experience provided by the utilization of
advanced technology innovations. Yet, not all such e -learning website features
create the amazing learning experience one would expect to encounter.

We can easily figure out what some of the prominent e-learning website features
that distinguish the most popular websites from the less prominent ones in the
niche.

SO HERE ARE 15 MOST IMPORTANT E-LEARNING WEBSITE FEATURES THAT PROVIDE

AN ENHANCED LEARNING EXPERIENCE FROM THE TRADITIONAL METHODS!

1. ONLINE ADMISSIONS
Online admissions are the first crucial step towards e-learning. Shortly after
students enroll in a course of their choice, they’ll be asked to log into a learning
management system (LMS). This makes online admissions the first one in the list
of e-learning website features.

The LMS is the platform where students can view their syllabus, learn how to
contact their professor and access most course materials, including online
readings, videos, audio files and other resources. This is also where students go
to participate in discussion boards – written exchanges with fellow classmates.
In some systems, students can also email and instant message their classmates
and instructors.

Although some schools design their own learning management systems, most
colleges use Blackboard, Moodle, and Desire2Learn.

ADVANTAGES OF AN ONLINE ADMISSION SYSTEM

1. Automated online software system works 24 x 7

2. Avoid hectic submission process
3. Reduces Paper Work
4. Dynamic and User-Friendly
5. Customizable Real-Time Reports

2. REPORTING AND DATA ANALYSIS

One of the best ways to ensure that participants will benefit from the education
you’re giving them is by studying their reactions to a course, and their behavior
as they’re taking it. That’s where learning analytics comes in.

In an e-learning platform, educators should be able to collect data in which

students watch the lectures, where they flag sections for questions, and how
often they return to the videos for review—as our educators do with our learning
platform. Having this data allows instructors to intervene and motivate students
who are struggling or falling behind.
WHY IS IT NEEDED?
e-learning data analytics involves the collection, analysis, and reporting of
information gathered from the participants as they undertake an e-Learning
course. Learning analytics is an ongoing, real-time process, rather than a
retrospective one. This makes it one of the prominent e-learning website
features.

Historically, teaching online made it difficult to catch when a student was

struggling. However, by leveraging emerging technology and data generated by
these tools, it has made it easier for us to help students before it is too late.
Identifying where students are struggling allows instructors to spend time with
students more effectively and provide personalized instruction.

If an individual is observed to be struggling over a particular course module, he

or she can be offered access to custom tools and resources like links to specific
and related websites, or audio-visual supplements that throw a greater light on
the subject.

Success breeds confidence, and assisting a learner’s progress with learning

analytics encourages him/her to complete the course and to actively participate
in its modules.

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WHAT DOES DATA ANALYTICS IN E-LEARNING ACCOMPLISH?

1. Learning analytics can reveal how a course participant is performing today,

and use this information to help predict how they will perform, as the e-
Learning course progresses.
2. Learning analytics can reveal which aspects of a training scheme are
working best – and which are failing to meet your expectations.
3. It can be a guide to where resources (and money) may best be used, to
achieve your learning goals.
4. Learning analytics is fuelling the development of machine learning tools,
social and content recommendation systems, network and discourse
analysis, predictive analysis, content development, support and intervention
strategies.
5. Learning analytics are being used to enhance the role of facilitators and
instructors, to develop tools for automation within e-Learning course
structures, and to promote research.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF E-LEARNING ANALYTICS

1. Time spent on the e-Learning course

2. Rapid Page Exits
3. Learner Satisfaction Ratings
4. Online Learner Progress
5. Online Learner Preferences

3. ASSESSMENT MANAGEMENT & LIVE FEEDBACK

Online quizzes and tests can help students pinpoint areas of improvement,
based on subject or skill. Making time to use assessment tools can help learners
gain extra practice outside of their normal class work or ongoing projects.

Feedback and assessment are ongoing and one of the most important e-learning
website features. It is timely, it is constructive, and it models effective practices.
It usually works best when there are no clear marks. One strategy is to keep a
running spreadsheet of each participant to record important information.
Keeping track of this information also provides you with windows into patterns
and learning gaps that you can help learners fill.
 Assessment Types

Another way to engage the learner is to test them on the things that they learned
within the course. This allows both the learner to verify that they understood the
content while at the same time the instructional designer can verify that the
materials achieved the training objectives. This also helps to establish
checkpoints for the learner to know if they can move on within the course or
return to previous topics to review the information again.

Although some students might wish otherwise, testing and assessments play a
significant role in the virtual classroom. The way instructors grade students
varies, experts say. Some will give multiple choice tests graded by the
computer, while others will rely more on papers or major projects.

71% of students believe that virtual learning provides increased flexibility to take
classes.

Learning independently can leave many students feeling disconnected as they

move through their coursework. One-on-one interaction with teachers or tutors
inspires confidence and helps students better understand their current
assignments.

GRADEBOOKS
Gradebooks can offer students a deeper level of feedback from teachers than
before. Educators can analyze one or multiple students’ performance. Utilizing a
super grade book platform also means teachers can intervene earlier, helping
students address issues head on.

Transcripts and teacher-parent conference notes don’t provide a complete

picture of a student’s strengths. By starting a data backpack or e-Portfolio,
students and their parents can track their progress from elementary school up
through high school graduation. The digital backpack also allows teachers to
learn more about students on the front end of a new semester, from their
learning styles to areas of growth and improvement.

HOW TO USE ONLINE GRADEBOOKS

1. Import learner information from your LMS into the online grade book for
quick setup.
2. Integrate your grading scale into the online grade book system.
3. Customize the grade weight of each assignment/test/project.
4. Allow learners to access online grade books to view their grades.
5. Offer learners additional feedback to improve their overall performance.

4. STUDENT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Student Information Management Systems (SIMS) in e-learning websites
supervise student-related activities such as keeping records of tests or
examinations conducted, attendance, appraisal on performance including
details of marks scored, and all related activities; in short, they provide a
complete student records system.

HOW DOES THIS HELP?

1. Enables self-service for students to perform basic administrative functions

and tasks in a “one-stop” service and access environment.
2. Integrates data sources and process them through a single function that
supports one-time entry of student data.
3. Ensures data integrity, privacy, and security in an open-access environment.
4. Centralized information sourcing and management
5. Centralized accounting and billing procedures
6. Facilitates the generation of real-time reports and customized reports.
7. Uploading of information to the system keeps the system up-to-date with
current information
8. The dependable security system allows only designated users to access all
the system capabilities; it offers various levels of security to restrict access
to undefined users, and the received information from other sources is
subjected to security scans.
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5. QUALITY CONTENT – EXTENSIVE LIST OF COURSE OPTIONS

First and foremost, modern learners are infatuated with the idea of getting top
quality education without spending large sums of money. Great content speaks
for itself and can slowly, but surely find its way to target users and keep them
loyal. Providing meaningful content means obtaining more users.

Content is always the king and this makes quality content one among the top 5 e-
learning website features.
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Source

TIPS ON COURSE STRUCTURE

Course structure refers to how a course is designed for e-learning. The
structure of a course plays a critical role in how your audience learns the
material.

Storyboarding is a great way to build your course structure. Consider the

following items when structuring your course:

 Group content into logical modules: Identify the flow of the course and then
determine how to modulate the information. Structuring the information into
small “chunks” will make it easier for your audience to follow and learn the
materials.

 Avoid creating modules that exceed 8-10 pages: Keeping your modules to 8-
10 pages will help the learner feel a sense of progress. Also, modules that
tend to be long cause the learner to lose interest and thus, the learning
process becomes a drudgery.

 Incorporate interactive concepts: Your course structure should also include

interactive concepts strategically placed throughout the course. A good rule
of thumb is to include an exercise or activity every third page with one major
 activity per module. This will establish a good balance between exchanging
information and sustaining the interest of the learner.

 Use pictures/graphics to help explain ideas, concepts, or statements: It is

always a good practice to include images whenever possible. Many times,
instructional designers will insert an image just for the sake of inserting a
picture. By using images to emphasize certain points of the page, you will
draw the learner into the subject and he or she will be able to better relate to
the concepts presented.

6. QUICK USER INTEGRATION

Another requirement needs to be met in order to maintain a smooth running
educational website. The process of registration and payment needs to be as
quick and easy as possible so as not to create unnecessary delays in the
delivery of content which could discourage potential users from applying.

Luckily, contemporary edtech design is constantly developing and coming up

with efficient solutions to provide easy access to content and to manage
payment system. One such solution can be found in WordPress LMS theme for
online courses, Skilled, which integrates with the Sensei plugin to produce quick
signing up for courses and easy charging for courses through Woocommerce
shop support.

7. EASY PAYMENT METHODS

Making it as easy as possible for your customers to pay is essential for
increasing conversions and sales. Online payments are faster than manual
payments since you don’t have to wait for the check to arrive or for it to clear.
The whole process – from submitting an online payment to updating your bank
account – can take a matter of seconds.

METHODS TO MAKE PAYMENTS EASIER

 Provide a number of Payment Methods

 Allow payments without requiring an account

 Don’t Use Redirection

 Ask for essential information only

 Make errors easy to fix

If you are confused about which payment gateway to choose for your e-learning
website, read our blog post on Everything You Need To Know About A Payment
Gateway Process Cycle for curated lists and reports on all payment gateways in
India.

8. MOTIVATIONAL TRIGGERS
Steps must be taken to provide continual motivation and a sense of progress
which is a feature found on every up-and-coming e-learning platform. The key to
achieving this is to create relevant and diversified tests to follow each lesson so
as to provide students with a sense of completion and evaluation of their work.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF WEBSITE AS A LEARNING

RESOURCE :

Advantages

 Ability to link resources in many different formats

 Can be an efficient way of delivering course materials
 Resources can be made available from any location and at any time
 Potential for widening access—for example, to part time, mature, or work
based students
 Can encourage more independent and active learning
 Can provide a useful source of supplementary materials to conventional
programmes

Disadvantages

 Access to appropriate computer equipment can be a problem for students

 Learners find it frustrating if they cannot access graphics, images, and
video clips because of poor equipment
 The necessary infrastructure must be available and affordable
 Information can vary in quality and accuracy, so guidance and signposting
is needed
 Students can feel isolated

CONCLUSION :
For those whom the classroom model was too limiting, e-learning has opened up
new opportunities to pursue higher education. Distance learning has grown in
popularity as the Internet and better technology has enabled increasingly
dynamic and engaging learning experiences. Many creative ideas are discarded
because they do not work. Likewise, a well-organized e-learning website can be
ill-received if it does not function properly.
There is a need for finding a more creative and engaging online solution that fits
the lifestyle of both traditional and nontraditional students. Keeping in mind
never to allow technology to become the main focus of the training. When
technology becomes the center of attention within an online course, the learner
will often fall short in achieving the course objectives.

8:13 PM; Wednesday, November 7, 2018

 REFERENCES
■ https://www.quora.com/What-are-learning-resources-What-are-some-examples

■ https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/online-learning-resources/21014

■ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website

■ https://www.thewebshowroom.com.au/well-built-web-design/

■ https://site.clubrunner.ca/page/10-golden-rules-of-website-design-functionality

■ https://www.pixelmattic.com/blog/e-learning-website-features/