Knowledge Building in E-Learning

With the rapid development of information society and wide spread of life-long learning, the needs for knowledge are growing dramatically. With the fast pace of modern life, most people cannot afford to take formal courses in the classroom. Therefore, more and more people turn to distance learning for its flexibility in time and space. Different from face to face learning, both the learners and tutors can resort to information technology to facilitate communication and information transfer. As PCs become popular and the bandwidth increases, e-Learning has gained major popularity among the learners. Consequently, a well-designed and sophisticated online learning environment can stimulate learners to learn, simplify the learning process, facilitate deeper comprehension and increase collaboration, which can contribute not only to the growth of learners' knowledge, but also to the improvement of learning and communication capability. The annual report of Online Education in the United States demonstrates that 29.3% of the students at colleges or universities in the United States chose online education. Accordingly, the attention by the scholars to the changes in the learning modes, resource building and sharing, platform design and maintenance and instructional or curriculum reform that the internet brings forth is constantly increasing. However, the studies concerning the influence of new technology environment on knowledge building is relatively weak. What are the changes in knowledge acquisition, representation and application in the web environment taking place? How to conduct knowledge service in on-line learning with remarkable performance? How would cloud computing and cloud services affect learners’ knowledge building? This paper made efforts to analyze knowledge building in on-line learning regarding four aspects including knowledge engineering, knowledge services, cloud computing and cloud services against the background of developing theories of knowledge in order to provide guidance promoting online education.