Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Adriana Schiopoiu Burlea et al.
Our article is a second part of the research conducted in 2005-2007, which aimed at evaluating how
the eLearning platform TESYS contributes to learning development activities (Burlea Schiopoiu,
2008).
During 2005-2007, 722 students enrolled at the courses in eLearning system and only 412 students
completed.
The high rate of abandonment of the courses was a motivating factor for our research, aiming at that
time, to detect whether this drop was due to problems related to the use of eLearning platform or to
problems given by human factor.
In 2008 (Burlea Schiopoiu, 2008, pp. 273-274), the research concluded that platform Tesys should
have certain characteristics:
It has to be rapid - on one hand, to prevent the user from abandoning the eLearning activity in
case the computer does not respond very quickly and, on the other hand, in order not to make out
of the lack of free time for studying the main reason of abandon,
It has to be simple – so that the user, irrespective of the level of knowledge in the informatics
field, should be able to manage the system and stimulate the growth of the user’s responsibility
for his or her own learning in the release of personal potential,
To allow the development of the users’ creativity – by a strategic use of the connection
between personal experience and technological performance of the Tesys platform, and
To have a high motivational level in order to attract people of the age categories between 21-35
years who had abandoned the course in a high proportion – 74.19 per cent of the total number of
people who abandoned the course.
2. The improvement of the TESYS eLearning platform
The eLearning platform TESYS was funded in 2005 by the European Union project named “Training
program via eLearning in the fields of economics and informatics for developing the labour force from
the Oltenia region” (Burdescu et al., 2006, p. 315, Burlea Schiopoiu, 2008, p. 271).
During 2005-2007, the eLearning platform TESYS had the following structure: three sections, each of
them consisting of four disciplines; each discipline had a professor as a responsible; there were
almost 2500 questions for all disciplines available on the platform, containing the following elements:
Support applications for the communication between students and their professors and for online
and off-line training;
Applications for student evaluation at exams, for creating, updating and using databases with
questions and problems and for statistical analysis of the candidates’ results and of the test
construction (difficulty, structure).
During 2007-2009, the eLearning platform Tesys has undergone continuous improvements, taking
into account both the recommendations of students and teachers who have used this platform as well
as the evolution of eLearning systems worldwide. Thus, Burdescu et al., 2010 (p. 37) mentioned an
eLearning process improvement that “is designed to run at chapter level. This means a discipline
needs to be partitioned into chapters. The chapter needs to be assigned a concept map, which may
consist of about 20 concepts. Each concept is assigned to a document and a set of quiz questions.
Each concept and each quiz has a weight, depending on its importance in the hierarchy. It is
supposed that the platform runs for some time such that there is a history of performed activities for a
large number of learners”.
Along with the technological improvements of the e-leaning platform TESYS, a three-dimensional
correlation between the initial knowledge level of the student: time constraints, technical and cultural
background of the student were also accomplished.
The relationship between the technical characteristics of the eLearning platform and the personal
characteristics of the users has been identified as the most important determinant for students to
share knowledge through Tesys. Based on this, our hypotheses are:
Hypothesis 1: The usability of the eLearning platform TESYS is positively related to user level
(beginner or advanced)
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