New alternatives in the academic engineering instruction “RAeL” and „CmL-plus”, e-learning academic networks

The e-Learning Academic Network (RAeL) was implemented in the ”1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia (Romania) as a result of this institution´s objectives, such as the improvement and the diversification of the educational services within the following context: the existing modern teaching methodology; the policy to encourage studying - not only for young students, but also at any moment throughout all the lifetime for every person who is willing to get an academic education; the use of technology in informatics and communications in all the aspects of the daily life. The RAeL project of the ”1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia obtained the funding within the POSCCE program through the 3.2.3 Operation: “Supporting the implementation of e-learning applications and providing the broadband connection where necessary”. The e-Learning solutions rapidly evolved from the basic “download-and-play” method to the more complex process of Internet-based courses that include online testing and the complete monitoring of the entire learning activity: the “over-the-Web-just-in-time” method. The utility software used for creating these e-learning courses in the ”1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia is CourseLab, which is a free software that offers a large variety of functionalities, it is based on principles that are similar to those of as all the other authoring tools and it can be downloaded from the Internet.