From E-Learning to T-Learning

Nowadays the e-learning approach can be considered an effective answer to the continuous demand of life long learning. Thanks to the information communication technologies progress a new approach can be considered: the t-learning (television learning). In fact the spreading of the interactive television (ITV) and the new generation of set top box allow the extension of e-learning approach to the television medium. So in this paper we propose the design and the implementation of a framework for t-learning. The design of the t- learning platform has been carried out keeping in mind the IEEE LTSA model for e-learning platform and the guidelines of multimedia home platform (MHP) and of the digital video broadcasting (DVB) for the development of applications and contents for the interactive television. The aim of the proposed architecture is to manage the courses and the activities of a University. In particular we designed the architecture both of the server and client side and the structure of the various educative channels. We designed also "a not content related" channel in order to offer to the students various services for the management of their educational careers (for example the booking exam service). Our system offers also a service for the on-line assessment. The design of the graphic user interfaces and of the contents has been developed according to the usability and accessibility guidelines. In this paper we show also the first prototype of our platform and the first results of its use.