Virtual Mentor and the Lab System — Toward Building an Interactive, Personalized, and Intelligent E-Learning Environment

Internet has been universally recognized as a medium for network-enabled transfer of information and knowledge in various areas. E-Learning technology, which delivers educational material electronically via the Internet, has been widely used in both academic education and corporate training. However, existing e-Learning systems have various limitations, such as presenting multimedia instructional content in static, passive, and unstructured manners and giving learners insufficient control over learning content and process. As a result, higher effectiveness and greater societal potential of e-Learning are hindered. In this paper, based on the constructivist learning theory, we propose a new concept called Virtual Mentor (VM) that refers to a multimedia-integrated e-Learning environment that emphasizes interactivity, personalization, and intelligence. A prototype VM system that integrates state-of-the-art information technologies will be introduced. Results from preliminary studies have demonstrated that learning through a Virtual Mentor environment can be as effective as, or even more effective than, traditional classroom learning. Our research gears toward developing more appealing and effective e-Learning technology.