An e-learning portal can be used a company, school, or training center that offers online training to make course materials and assignments available to students and instructors, as well as provide a place for interaction. Users can take tests, submit assignments, post messages on a discussion board or via email, and view user profiles as well as written and multimedia course materials through an e-learning portal. Instructors typically have access to many of the same features as students, but they can also edit course materials, grade assignments, and post announcements and student grades in an online grade book.
An e-learning portal’s primary function is to make course materials available to all users, and these materials are typically stored in a database. Each portal organizes items for student access in a different way, with some storing all downloadable items in a separate lessons module and others using weekly modules with a mix of audio lectures, video supplements, and written lessons. Because instructors frequently use streaming video and audio technologies and embed this content within a page, students rarely need to download all course materials.
Students use an e-learning portal to take tests and submit assignments, and portals may include specialized modules or combine tests and assessments with other module materials. Multiple choice tests are frequently scored automatically after submission, but essay exams are usually graded the instructor. When a student submits a project or essay to a portal, he or she usually uploads the file from his or her computer so that the instructor can manually grade it.
Students and instructors frequently communicate through a portal’s discussion board, which allows users to start new threads and reply to existing ones. In most portals, the discussion board is its own module, with separate areas for posting about each module’s topics. A private messaging system is frequently implemented in an e-learning portal, allowing students to send emails to one another and to the instructor.
Additional features of an e-learning portal are frequently included with the portal’s software or installed as extensions. Integration with social networking sites and collaborative software, customized student profiles, video conferencing software for live lectures, and integration with third-party textbook publisher websites are just a few of the features available. Instructors can also use special features to track student progress, such as various reporting tools.