Glossary of Online Learning Terms

 

This artifact because of its timeliness in the class for the length of it aligns itself with course objectives by contribution to language and ethnocentric adaptions.

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• Log in/on the act of providing a user name and password to gain access to another computer, application, web site, or file.

• Distance Learning often used synonymously with Distance Education; distinct as an outcome of Distance Education.

• Browser software for interacting with, accessing, and viewing information on the Internet or created in HTML. Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator are the two most widely used browsers.

• Navigation Button A button image or text that allows the user to look at content stored in that grouping

• Threads Conversations between students and instructors in an asynchronous discussion area on a website

• Discussion Forums a place where people can exchange messages of common interest.

• Assessments Another term for online tests, exams.

• Frames individual parts of a website that will mostly remain static or only change when content is added

• Hover Moving a computer mouse over text on a website. Normally this action is associated with looking at information contained in a list contained under the text, such as a drop-down list.

• Submit The act of clicking a web site button to complete a task and store information on a website.

• Asynchronous Learning learning where people are not online at the same time and interaction does not occur without a time delay, allowing people to participate on their schedules. Examples are email, discussion groups, and self-paced courses delivered via Internet or CD-ROM.

• Blog (Weblog) a public web site where users post informal journals of their thoughts, comments, and philosophies, updated frequently and normally reflecting the views of the blog's creator.

• Chat An online, real-time interactive communication method using text to send and receive instant messages.

• Cookie a small text file placed on your hard by a web site to record information about you. When you return, your computer serves up the "cookie" to the web site and previously recorded information such as your name, site login/password, preferences, shopping cart info, and more are passed along. The web page is then customized based on that information.

• Download a file transfer from one computer to yours.

• Email short for electronic mail; primarily text messages sent between two computers.

• FAQ (frequently asked questions) highly useful, a list of common questions about a particular topic, product, or service directed primarily at new users.

• GB (gigabyte) a gigabyte is 1000 megabytes, or 1,073,741,824 characters and is roughly equivalent to a thousand novels.

• Home page the opening page or main document that appears when you visit a web site, usually contains links to other web pages.

• HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) computer code used to structure text and images for viewing with a browser.

• Internet the global network of regional and local computer networks.

• KB (kilobyte) a kilobyte is 1042 characters (bytes), roughly equivalent to one page of double-spaced text.

• Link hypertext that is usually underlined to indicate a pointer to additional related information.

• MB (megabyte) one megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes and is roughly equivalent to one novel. A floppy disk stores 1.44MB, CDs over 600MB, and DVDs are capable of holding up to 17GBs (or 17,000MBs) of information!

• Multimedia the combination of text, graphics, audio, colors to create used to present information in an engaging and dynamic way.

• Netiquette etiquette on the Internet, best used when sending email, chatting, posting messages, and using limited resources.

• Online learning an umbrella term used to describe any education or training that occurs online.

• Post used as a noun for messages "posted" to BBBS's, newsgroups, blogs, etc.

• Streaming a technique where media (audio, video, or both) are downloaded to the user's computer in a continuous stream and played upon arrival.

• Upload a file transfer from your computer to another.

• URL. (uniform resource locator) the address used to identify a page or file on the Internet.

• Web site a group of related web pages that includes a home page.

• Zip file a file that has been reduced in size to allow faster transferring between computers, or to save storage space. Originated with PKWARE, the technique is widely used and the term is used frequently to describe any compressed file. Some compressed files have the .EXE extension, indicating the file is self-extracting