By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
Even if you've been
taking online courses for quite some time, you may find that some of the terms
and concepts are confusing. When you try
to look them up on Wikipedia or in an online glossary, what you get is a lot of
technical jargon, and it does not relate to eLearning. I've assembled two brief lists of terms, and
I've created an informal definition for each term which helps you see how they
apply to eLearning. Understanding these
terms should help you get more from your eLearning experience.
Adobe Acrobat Reader
If you are taking an online course where you are downloading forms,
scanned library documents, journal articles, or catalogues, chances are, they
are in a format, called PDF, that preserves the original formatting and
layout. While these are very useful documents,
they tend to be large. They are also in
a file format that you won't be able to open unless you download a special
reader, provided at no charge by Adobe.
Called the Adobe Acrobat Reader, or simply the Adobe Reader, this
program is very useful because it allows individuals to view a document with
the knowledge that everyone who is viewing it is seeing the same thing. The fonts, formatting, layout, and images
have not been changed or altered, which often happens when people use their
word processing program to preserve and share documents.
Applet
A tiny program that is embedded in
a webpage built in HTML (hyper-text markup language), and which launches when
the webpage is loaded. Applets are
written in Java and are frequently
used in playing videos, animated images, audio, and other features that enhance
a person's experience in the page.
Unfortunately, applets are often written in ways that require
individuals to download programs such as the latest version of Java language
that may not be allowed on their computer.
Thus, web browsing experiences that rely on applets can be frustrating
for individuals who may need to use computers that have firewalls and security.
Application
An application is a software package that allows a certain function to
be performed. Several applications can
link together and can share data via integrated databases. Applications can be added and subtracted from
large, complex software packages, such as learning management systems, which
makes it possible to have many functions under a single roof. Applications make it possible to have online
universities, and to access learning packages and to accommodate multiple users
who are collaborating in many ways (discussion boards, file-sharing, chat).
Application server software manages one or more software programs and
allows communication over network, usually to a Web server. The
application server also optimizes the functions and increases efficiency.
Atom
This is a word you'll see if you
decide to subscribe to automatic updates for text or audio files. Atom is a protocol often used when users want
other users to be able to download content in the form of an automatic
"feed," and they want to be able to include features such as digital
signatures, licensing information, and more.
It is replacing RSS, which is an
earlier protocol. Both use XML language
for the code / scripts.
Bandwidth
Refers the capacity of a connection
to transport digital content. It is
usually measured in transfer speed (bits-per-second). Generally speaking, text transfers more
quickly and requires less bandwidth than audio or video. Very effective compression can change that
somewhat.
Blog -- (weB LOG)
Short for "web log" a
blog is an updatable website that is chronologically arranged, and updated at
the user's discretion. What makes a blog
different than a regular website is the fact that it can be syndicated so that
others can subscribe and have the content delivered to a certain place
automatically. Weblogs started out as
journals and chronologically arranged websites.
However, it is common now for blogs to include audio, video, graphics,
and text. It is common for blogs to be
available as RSS or Atom feeds.
Broadband
As opposed to the connection speeds
and capacity that one can obtain over a phone line with a modem, a broadband
connection can accommodate the rapid transfer of large amounts or packets of
information. Generally, Internet
connections provided by cable or DSL are broadband.
Cookies, or Web Cookies
These are not programs, even though many people think that they have
viruses or spyware in them. Instead,
cookies consist of information that is sent by the browser to a web-server and
back. They are very useful because they
store information about the website one has visited and make it easier and
faster to load the website the next time one visits. Some learning management systems require
cookies in order for the user to log in or have access to certain sites. Other applications, such as shopping carts
used in e-commerce also use cookies.
Cookies are used to track web-browsing patterns and behaviors. They are also used to monitor a person's
activities. For that reason, cookies
have been held out as examples of how one's privacy can be violated in the
Internet.
DHTML -- (Dynamic HyperText Markup Language)
Dynamic web pages are written in a
combination of languages that add interactivity. They allow users to enter data, send it to
the server, and to move items. Dynamic
web pages often establish two-way communication and allow for customized portal
pages where the user behavior is recorded and "remembered" to give
the user a customized experience.
HTML -- (HyperText Markup Language)
The programming language used to
create web pages in hypertext, which refers to the code used to arrange the
text on the page, and to create formatting so that the pages appear a certain
way on the World Wide Web.
Java
Java is a programming language used
to create software with graphical user interfaces such as editors, audio
players, web browsers, etc. Programmers and web developers can incorporate
small Java programs (called "Applets"), so that their web
pages can include functions such as glossaries, animations, calculators, and
other self-contained programs that are often interactive. Java was developed by
Sun Microsystems.
More Resources:
[Listen to the companion podcast at:
http://community.elearners.com/blogs/inside_elearning/attachment/870.ashx - 4.15 MB]
Watch Susan!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6318499076243096231&q=susan+smith+nash&hl=en
eLearners's Glossary of Distance Learning Terms for more important, must-know terms