The spatial and temporal properties of

eLearning: an exploratory study

regarding the students’ perspective
Decision support systems

Student: Stahie Alexandru

Group: IMSA1
Table of contents

1. Introductions: Cognitive factors in eLearning vs traditional learning ................................................. 3

2. Spatial thinking & spatial learning .................................................................................................... 5
3. Time models & learning process ....................................................................................................... 7
4. The spatial and temporal properties of eLearning: a student’s perspective to enhance the
acquisition of skills ................................................................................................................................... 9
5. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 13
6. References ..................................................................................................................................... 13

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 1. Introductions: Cognitive factors in eLearning vs traditional learning

“Any pedagogical method results from the encounter of several factors and, from this point of
view, education will always remain an art: the art of adapting, in a precise situation, the general
indications given by methodology books.”, by Gaston Mialaret.
The instructive-educational activity is based on finality, it is implemented through a system of
methods and procedures, it uses a series of technical means of realization and the results are verified
and evaluated through specific strategies. The school curriculum integrates all these components,
of which a central position lies in the methods that make it possible to achieve educational ends.
Students have psycho-individual peculiarities, so the use of a wider range of teaching methods
is needed to harness their potential. The significance of methods depends to a large extent on the
user and on the context in which it is used.
Traditional, exponential or frontal methods give the impression that they would no longer be
in line with the new principles of active and conscious student participation. They can, however
gain a special value in the context of a large audience, having a cultural level that will give it access
to the transmitted information message in terms of time unit.
The present didactic methodology is oriented towards the active and conscious involvement of
students in their own training process and the stimulation of their creativity. In this context, the
changes that the learning methods have come to know some of the defining directs. The diversity
of methods is imposed by the complexity of the learning process, each method must be chosen
according to the register to which it relates. The amplification of the formative character of the
methods involves emphasizing the social relationships that the student has in the process of cultural
and personality formation. The permanent re-evaluation of traditional methods aims at adapting
them according to their needs and their reporting on the evolution of science.
Methods of teaching-assimilation can be classified into:
a) Traditional: didactic exposure, didactic conversations, demonstrations, work with manual,
exercise
b) Modern: algorithmizing, modeling, problem-solving, scheduled training. Case study,
simulation methods (games, simulation learning, etc.) discovery learning.
The main method of education thinking in traditional education is the teacher’s exposure,
supplemented by the student’s individual study. This method has been criticized, arguing that it
does not favor the link with practice. The lack of connection with reality comes from the student’s
attitudes: they are passively witnessing the exposure, which they know must repeat. The other
traditional method, conversation with the whole class, trains the students more, but students are
guided, I do not know what is being pursued. Thus, the classical form of education develops little
students thinking.
Subsequently, various ways of organizing education, called active schools, where the emphasis
is on the individual study of students, were envisaged. The new, active way of organizing education

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proves to be superior, but it takes a long time. With the decongestion of school curricula in the
education reform, activation of teaching in the Romanian school will begin.
The main advantage of the active-participatory methods is the involvement of pupils in the
didactic act and the formation of their capacity to express opinions and appreciations on the studied
phenomena. In this way, students will develop a thinking circumscribed to superior cognitive
abilities, critical thinking. This is a thought centered on testing and evaluating possible solutions in
a given situation, followed by choosing the optimal solution based on arguments. To think critically
means to have valuable and useful knowledge, to have rational beliefs, to offer personal opinions,
to accept that own ideas can be discussed and evaluated, to build sufficient arguments for their own
opinions, to actively participate and to collaborate in finding solutions.
Active-participatory methods emphasize cooperative learning, being antithetical to traditional
learning methods. For cooperative learning to be a real success, some rules are required. The
specialized literature reveals that, for pupils to be willing to work in a team, two conditions must
be met: ensuring a positive climate in the classroom; formulating complete and accurate
explanations of the workload so that it is understood by everyone.
To ensure a positive climate in the classroom, students need to have the feeling that they are
successful in what they do. The factors that ensure success in a class are: the formulation of positive
expectations towards students; using effective educational management strategies; setting clear
goals and communicating to students; maximizing the time to be taught; objective assessment.
The efficiency of group work depends on the clarity of the explanation for the work tasks.
Teachers should provide clearer explanations and ensure that they have been correctly understood
by students. The specialized literature offers a true image of the antithesis that is created between
traditional and modern methods used in teaching.
Traditional methods have the following features:

• focus on learning, primarily on informative education

• are centered on teaching the teacher, the pupil being an object of instruction, so
communication is one-way;
• are predominantly communicative
• are mainly directed towards the final product, the evaluation being in fact a reproduction
of knowledge;
• have a formal character and stimulate competition;
• stimulates extrinsic motivation for learning;
• the teacher-student relationship is mandatory, school discipline being imposed. These
methods generate passivity among students.
On the other half, modern methods are characterized by the following notes:
• gives priority to developing pupils' personality, addressing the formative aspect of
education;
• are centered on student learning, becoming the subject of the educational process;

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 • they are centered on action, on discovery learning;
• are process oriented;
• are flexible, encourages cooperative learning and self-evaluation ability in students, the
assessment being formative;
• stimulates intrinsic motivation;
• the teacher-student relationship is democratic, based on respect and collaboration, and
discipline derives from how the lesson is organized.

2. Spatial thinking & spatial learning

Using technology in projects also gives students opportunities to choose how to learn, allowing
them to capitalize on the strengths of their own learning styles. The use of software and hard
components to create movies, presentations, publications, and musical compositions can help
students learn content and develop their thinking skills in ways that consider their skills and
interests.
The simplest and most common way to identify different learning styles is based on the senses.
Currently called VAK (visual, audio, kinesthetic learning styles), this framework describes the
styles of learners as visual, audio, or kinesthetic. Those with a visual learning style process the
most effective information in visual form; those with an auditory style understand the best listening
and those with a kinesthetic / touch style learn better by touch and movement. A study by Specific
Diagnostic Studies has shown that 29% of all pupils in primary and secondary schools have a visual
learning style, 34% have a hearing style, and 37% have a kinesthetic / tactile style (Miller, 2001),
(presented in Table 1).

Visual images, movies, charts, charts, tables, patterns

Audio reading, audio recordings, storytelling, music, verbalization, questions
Kinesthetic interpretation, role play, clay modeling
Table 1 – Learning styles

In the last decade, more and more pedagogues have embraced Howard Gardner's theory of
multiple intelligences. The logic-mathematical and linguistic intelligence, the two most thoughtful
ways of thinking in school, are just two of the eight intelligences described by Gardner based on
cultural research and biology. In addition, Gardner identifies spatial, musical, corporal-kinesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal and natural intelligence. All of those presented in Table 2.

Logico- The ability to detect patterns, to deduce reason and to think logically. This type
mathematics of intelligence is most often associated with scientific and mathematical
thinking.
Linguistics Language mastery. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively
manipulate the language to express rhetorically or poetically. All this
intelligence allows us to use language as a means of remembering information.

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 Spatial The ability to manipulate and create mental images to solve problems. This
intelligence is not limited to the visual domains - Gardner mentions that spatial
intelligence also develops in children who cannot see it. (ERIC, 1996, p. 2).
Musical ability to use mental capabilities to coordinate their own body movements.
This intelligence calls into question the popular belief that physical and mental
activities are unrelated (ERIC, 1996, p. 2).
Corporal- The ability to use one's mental abilities to coordinate one's own body
Kinesthetic movements. This intelligence challenges the popular belief that mental and
physical activity is unrelated
Interpersonal The central ability to notice distinctions to others; contrasts in terms of
provisions, temperaments, motivations and intentions (Gardner, 1993, p. 42).
Intrapersonal Access to their own sentimental life, their own emotions, the ability to
distinguish between these emotions and ultimately to qualify them and use
them as a means of understanding and guiding their own behavior
Naturalist Expertise in the Recognition and Classification of Plants and Animals. These
observation, collection and qualification capacities can also be applied to the
"human" environment (Campbell, 2003, p. 84).
Table 2 – Multiple Intelligences

The Scale of Environments. Understanding spatial reasoning at the size of situations is worried
about the portrayals and subjective procedures that empower us to explore on the planet, including
taking in the format of new conditions and arranging courses to far off areas. Wolbers and Hegarty
give a review of the tactile prompts, perceptual and intellectual procedures and spatial portrayals
engaged with human and creature route. Coming up next is a rundown of conceivable points to be
tended to in a seminar on spatial reasoning at the size of situations:
1. The thought of an intellectual guide, coming from exemplary research by Tolman including
evaluates that question the universality of this kind of portrayal
2. Research on bends in intellectual guide
3. An understanding that area, introduction and development must be indicated regarding
some reference edge and refinements among allocentric and egocentric reference outlines and
between inherent, outright and relative casings of reference
4. An comprehension of introduction reliance in spatial recollections and the variables, for
example, encounter, ecological geometry that impact the introduction reliance
5. Spatial refreshing and viewpoint taking
6. Cognitive mapping, that is learning spatial design and how the idea of the subsequent spatial
portrayals relies upon the learning encounters, including gaining from direct understanding and
from various media
7. Individual contrasts in route capacities and procedures including inquiries of estimation of
these capacities
8. Processes of wayfinding

The visual-space path is responsible for storing and manipulating mental images, visual-space
material. Contains two separable but coordinated components:

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 • one for treating forms, for detecting what
• another focused on treating locations, so where
The two components (visual and spatial) correspond to different brain structures.
Psychophysiological research (recording of blood flow in visual tasks, electroencephalographic
records) as well as neurological data (brain lesions, etc.) are consistent and support the model. The
postulates of this model are:
• abandoning the idea of short-term memory unit and replacing it with working memory in
specialized subsystems for different tasks;
• each of the work memory systems has its own resources and relative operating autonomy;
• Temporary storage is not passive, the information is maintained at a high level of
revocability, allowing the subject to act on it to transfer it to MLD or to use it in a motor
reaction;
• there are no mandatory routes leading to MLD; on the contrary, their parallel operation is
suggested;
• The idea of common resources for treating different cognitive tasks is also emphasized.
So, in other words, this intelligence of pictures includes the ability to correctly perceive the
surrounding world, as well as the ability to recreate their own visual experiences. This type of
intelligence begins to develop with the intensification of sensory motor perceptions. The painter,
the sculptor, the architect, the gardener, the cartographer, the designer, the graphic artist, all transfer
mental images to an object that they create or improve. Visual perception is combined with a set
of prior knowledge, experience, emotional reactions, preexisting images to create a new vision for
others as an experience.

3. Time models & learning process

Slighting the fundamental work of the inert appreciation of the survival and social relationship
of men and creatures, an unpretentious number of computational models that address the mix of
time and other academic ways have been revived. This region offers a piece of the current
computational models that dialog about the subjects that have tended so far to locate the broad
degree of insightful frameworks especially related to the impression of time.
We take note of that the way that we are fit the bill to examination, and process time is
drastically one of a kind to what is currently known as a dynamic perceptual methodology (Van
Gelder, 1998; Lager, 2000). The last observes the cerebral as a dynamic structure that is firmly
identified with the body and the constantly advancing state. Past works have investigated
characteristics that incorporate spatial-spatial traits, e.g. self-limitation by techniques for
information blend after a specific timeframe (by Warble et al., 2006), and variety of revolution for
arranging the conduct of two masters (Iizuka and Ikegami, 2004). Regardless, in spite of the
marvelous idea of the supernatural occurrences related with genuine wonders, the dynamic way to
deal with learning was to a great extent focused on a mix of information after some time and did

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not give mental systems any sort of worldly acumen, the feeling of time who is caring enough to
get ready.
Not at all like the abovementioned, the point of convergence of this article alludes to works that
have a sensible and unambiguous reference to time thinking on a very basic level. The portrayal of
the current works will center around the abstract characteristics of time relationship with various
mental modalities, detracting from the execution purposes of intrigue. The works are recorded
underneath:
1. Time in basic leadership
The unequivocal impression of time by mechanical masters is first found in an examination on
self-created mechanical mental system (Maniadakis et al., 2009). Like animals that are fit for taking
in the brief structure of assignments, counterfeit experts that have been created to accomplish a
social standard trading undertaking that resembles Wisconsin Card Arranging, perceive the
available standards by thinking about the common properties of their own practices. This time-
acknowledgment part that has created in the robot's brain without being requested by the draftsmen
of the show suggests that the equipment of fake administrators with feeling of time may on a very
basic level update their emotional breaking points.
2. Interval Planning Grounded in Engine Movement
This work is imperative to the order of time acknowledgment models that expect memory-
pursue decay. Such models can't relate memory-pursue spoil into common information, with the
exception of if there is a strategy for setting up that decay in noteworthy, repeatable event
groupings. Infant kid motor activity is a possible way by which this arrangement could be refined
immediately being created as prescribed in Addyman et al. (2011). By the day's end, body and arm
advancement fill in as a cruel common gauge for visual and sound-related memory-pursue decay.
The executed model takes in a connection between limb advancement and to what degree earlier
an event happened (as evaluated by inception spoil of a memory pursue). Thusly, epitomized
learning prompts the arrangement and synchronization of checks in tryout and vision metronome
for the arranging of memory decay.
3. Memory reconsolidations
According to the likelihood of reconsolidation, the recuperation of memories reestablishes their
depiction to a plastic state, which infers that the memory can be changed or even annihilated. In
Sederberg et al. (2011) a current computational model of memory recuperation, the Common
Setting Model (TCM) is used to elucidate human reconsolidation data. Drifting encoding in TCM
incorporates confining things to their transient encoding setting. Recuperation incorporates
motioning with a transient setting, which by then reestablishes the memory thing through a learning
technique. Computational preliminaries show that TCM adequately addresses without a moment's
hesitation and whole deal recency and contiguity impacts in memory encoding and control.

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 4. Learning through time
The activity of time in prohibitive learning is discussed in Howard (2014). Considering the Lift
Examining Speculation, one of the essential careful logical models for finding that depicts how the
memory depiction of redesign changes after some time, it is possible to explore the transient
properties of learning. The paper contrasts subsequent logical models of making sense of how to
SST and accomplices neuroscientific data of mind development at different events, with estimates
from numerical models portraying insight.
5. Forgetting
The normal illumination of ignoring acknowledge information to spoil after some time making
information held in without further ado memory to be instantly neglected aside from in the event
that it is constantly polished or resuscitated. The Time-Based-Resource Sharing (TBRS) is a
champion among the best elucidations watching out for the perplexing trade off among breaking
down and recovery of memory. A computational instantiation of the TBRS, is displayed in
Oberauer and Lewandowsky (2011) illuminating how working memory creates and reshapes
through time. The model accomplishes to successfully elucidate social data on particularly complex
working memory errands.
The rundown above give proof to the multimodal connection between feeling of time and
cognizance that goes a long way past the impression of length, tending to an exceptionally
expansive scope of intellectual capacities. This recommends transient cognizance as the subjective
paste that empowers the reconciliation of aptitudes into a lucid easily working composite
framework.

4. The spatial and temporal properties of eLearning: a student’s

perspective to enhance the acquisition of skills

To check the opinions of the students regarding the spatial and temporal properties of
eLearning, there was made a case study about the student’s perspective to enhance the acquisition
of skills. The case study comes under the form of a questionnaire in which 93 students were asked
27 questions. Those questions were classified in 5 categories, each category representing a point
of view of the learning aspects and those are:
• Curricular area
• Spatial analysis of the courses
• Evaluation and corrections
• Temporal analysis of courses
• Social Opportunities
Also, each answer of the questions represents a number from a response scale with values
between 0 to 5, each number representing:

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 • 0 = not important
• 1 = very low importance
• 2 = low importance
• 3 = medium importance
• 4 = high importance
• 5 = very high importance
Firstly, we will check the total number of the answers in the questionnaire, grouped by their
value (from 0 to 5) and represented in percentages, to have an overview of the results. This is
represented in Figure 1 from below.

Questionnaire answers in %

answers of 5
5% 2%
12% 23%
answers of 4
answers of 3
28% answers of 2
30%
answers of 1
answers of 0

Figure 1 - All the answers of the questionnaire, grouped by their value (from 0 to 5) and
represented in percentages

As we can see from the Figure 1, the biggest percentage of answers are of value 4 (30%),
followed by number of answers of 3 (28%) and then by 5 (23%). But even if we have these
percentages, we can’t say that the questionnaire result is that eLearning is better, because not all
the questions or their context refer to that.
Further, we will take each category and discuss its percentages of answers, and what each
question refers to. Each field will also show a Figure, where is represented all the answers for the
questions in that category, colored from red to green shades, greener representing a bigger
percentage and redder a lower one.
For the first category, referring to Curricular area, the percentage of the question answers are
represented in the Figure 2. This category refers to how the learned lessons domain, homework’s,
projects and teaching methods are corresponding with what the students were expecting from an
eLearning courses. As we can see from the Figure 2 below, most of the students are at least satisfied
with the learned curricular area, most of the answers being of 3 and 4 from 5.

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 Figure 2 – Curricular area category answers in percentage

Figure 3 – Spatial analysis of the courses category answers in percentage

In the same time, for the spatial analysis of the courses (presented in Figure 3), the questions
refer to spatial learning, the visual elements from the courses, the way in which online learning use
spatial analysis in the presented courses, and if this is helpful for the students. And, as we can see,
most of the students were happy from this point of view, and this can be seen in Figure 3 answers
percentages.

Figure 4 – Evaluation and corrections category answers in percentage

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 Figure 5 – Temporal analysis of courses category answers in percentage

Figure 6 – Social Opportunities category answers in percentage

In the same way, the next three categories have the most answers bigger then 2. Those
categories refer to ways of evaluation like tests and quizzes and if those evaluation methods present
the information’s in a clear way, if the structure of exercise is conforming the course, if the
evaluation is verifying the capacity of the student to solve problems, not only memorize
information, answers being seen in Figure 4.
In the temporal analysis of courses category, the answers are also pretty good, online study
having more advantages in this area then the classic learning methods, and this thing can be seen
in the answers from Figure 5.
Also, in the Figure 6, even if the last category is referring to social opportunities and you would
think that there are not so many ways to socialize, you can be wrong, in online learning you can
interact with at least the same number of students, even if not more than in the classic learning
methods, and that is seen very well in Figure 6, where most of the answers are above average about
this subject.

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 This being said, It is clearly that not all students are agreeing perfectly with all the aspects of
modern ways of learning, but even so, as we can see from the Figure above, the most answers are
above the average level of importance and that means that most of the students already take into
consideration the modern learning methods, and even if there are also some negative answers,
maybe in the future this will change and online learning will be seen better by more and more
students.

5. Conclusions
In conclusion, I believe that a successful learning methodology will involve the interweaving
of the two models (classical and modern), with different proportions depending about the moment,
the collective and, of course, the educational objectives pursued.
The key element in education is the student who must carry out a series of processes to be able
to know and use the information he has learned. Effective learning first involves understanding the
facts, analyzing them, formulating ideas based on the knowledge gained later, generalizing and
abstracting them. The teacher is no longer the lecturer in front of the students but mediator and
mentor in the learning activity they are going through. Teaching is done using active and
participatory methods that call for the student's interest, creativity, imagination, involvement and
participation to acquire knowledge to use them.

6. References

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