Critique in Systems & Technology: E-Learning Platform Analysis

This report offers a comprehensive critique of an e-learning platform, focusing on key aspects such as social media integration, customer support mechanisms, and the implementation of virtual assistant services. The analysis delves into how social media platforms can be effectively integrated to enhance the learning experience, including recommendations for utilizing tools like YouTube, blogs, and social networking sites to foster peer-to-peer interaction and facilitate access to learning materials. Furthermore, the report identifies essential tools and apps, such as Zendesk, team inbox, and mobile applications, to provide robust customer support, address student queries, and gather feedback. It also proposes strategies for developing an interactive enrolment and time-tabling system, emphasizing the benefits of authentic student registration, course segregation, and automated time-table generation. Finally, the report recommends the integration of a virtual assistant service to enhance the platform's efficiency and provide students with readily available support, ultimately aiming to create a more effective and engaging e-learning environment.

Critique in Systems &
Technology

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
E- learning is stated to be an utmost necessity in the educational sector and is being
adopted by almost all educational institutes. Despite of being in an advanced world which is
going through full of progressive measures, adopting such resourceful and inventive approaches
are not as easy as it sounds. The universities are known to face numerous challenges to
successfully implement such an informative system and deal with both of its positive and
negative consequences. The present report is based on a similar consideration of a university,
undertaking an e- learning portal and has been divided in 4 major sections. The foremost section
has demonstrated the integration of social media into e- learning platform with other section that
has identified relevant tools and apps needed to support the customers.
Lastly, 2 vital parts of this report has recommended ways to develop an interactive
enrolment as well as time tabling system by together integrating a virtual assistant service in the
platform. This report has concluded various tools such as Zendesk, team inbox through which
customer support can be provided. It will benefit in solving problems instantly. Installing virtual
assistance service is also an advantage of E learning. In this time table software is used as well. It
will help in developing time table for individual student as well as tutors. Virtual assistance
service will be beneficial as well. By this the efficiency of E learning platform will enhance
resulting in giving better results.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1) Integrating Social Media into the E-Learning Platform.........................................................1
2) Identify Tools and Apps required to provide Customer Support...........................................2
3) Make Recommendations for development of an Interactive Enrolment & Time-Tabling
System.........................................................................................................................................4
4) Make recommendations for Integrating a Virtual Assistant Service into the Platform..........5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In today's world the education system has completely transformed due to advancement in
technology. It has also changed the way of providing and delivering teaching to students.
Government has also taken necessary steps towards providing education through advance
process. Moreover, universities and other institutes are investing huge amount in this field. Due
to this it has provided a platform for E learning. There are many opportunities generated through
E learning. It has allowed to provide variety of E learning services to students (Scott, 2015). This
has made it easy to access various courses. This report will describe how a team of college is
developing E leaning website. Also, it will show the types of tools and apps required to provide
customer support.
1) Integrating Social Media into the E-Learning Platform
E-learning is the best platform which helps students to learn something new and easily
understand the solution of particular subject and topic. Social media is a platform for exploring
knowledge and skills which helps students in increasing their capabilities. Faculty member
provide online courses should use social media platform such as Wikipedia, you tube and blogs
etc. E- learning is good for all courses that provide online solutions and student can be connected
with the tutors to ask queries. Many schools are started and uses social media platform for
discussion on topic on particular subject. The learning can be provided to students in large
number at same time.
Faculty member will provide the best quality of teaching to the students. E-learning can
be made public so that students can get directly connected to universities. In present era, social
media is playing a vital role in business. It enables them to promote their products and services.
Besides this, it has allowed them to provide services via online platform. The integration of
social media and E learning has created a large number of opportunities for institutes and
universities (Brown and Mason, 2014). The various social media platforms such as Google +,
Pinterest, etc. are highly been used for teaching to students. By this effective teaching and
training can be provided to students. It will benefit to great extent. Moreover, with this customer
support can be provided as well. This will help in solving students’ problems in real time.

Furthermore, it will be easy to cover wide area by attracting large number of students. Apart
from this, promotion can be done as well. Integration of social media will allow tutor in peer to
peer interaction with students so that high quality education can be delivered. There will be
smooth flow of communication between them. However, it will lead to group study in which
students can interact with each other and share their ideas. With this effective learning can be
done. The classroom teaching can be started on this where different subject is taught. Face to
face interaction with students will create a better environment. Furthermore, project can be
discussed in groups that will make it easy to understand.
Social media can be easily integrated with learning platforms. In order to explore
different courses social media tools such as blogs or knowledge portals can be easily created.
These tools overcome the limitation of restricting individual's knowledge to any single stream of
learning (Mendel and Wu, 2017). Social media tools can be used to access learning materials
such as e-books and journals. For providing their detailed explanation experts from various
corners of the world can use video and audio streaming tools of social media platforms.
For the users who get better understanding by listening and live discussion can use audio
sharing methods such as I Talk. Learning can be enhanced under the guidance of highly
professional individuals. The social networking sites allow users to present and share their views
publicly so that they can enhance quality from the comments of experts. Long documents and
files can be easily shared on these platforms. It helps e-learners to get complete analysis of the
learning method. Therefore, the college can follow some recommendations. By this E learning
can be executed by them. In addition to this, by taking their feedback changes can be made in
process of teaching. Furthermore, online test can be conducted to identify the effectiveness of E
learning so that performance of students can be measured.
2) Identify Tools and Apps required to provide Customer Support
E -learning platform requires some tools and apps in order to provide customer support.
Through this student can ask queries and then solutions can be provided. This is because students
may face some problems so it is important to solve them (Williams and Stables, 2017). Also,
feedback can be taken regarding level of teaching and content. Moreover, providing customer

support is essential in E- learning as it shows the satisfaction level of students. There are several
tools and apps that can be used by collage to provide customer support. They are described
below: -
Team inbox- It is an app that helps in answering a person query in form of text. In this all
messages are delivered at one place (Customer service tools. 2018). It consists of features like
keyboard shortcuts, canned replies, etc. which helps in reducing response time and providing
timely feedback to customers. Here, one person answers all queries that provides quick solutions.
The inbox is designed in such a way that it increases efficiency of team. Usually the ID
developed in this is [e-mail]. In college tutors can create a team inbox so that
students’ problems can be solved.
Mobile app – this is the best tool that is used to provide customer support. Also, in present era
people highly use smartphones. So, it is easy to solve problems of students. Moreover, a mobile
app supports all things such as live chat, E mails, etc. (Walters, Scott and Mars, 2018) Here
instead of asking extra questions, directly information related to problems is gathered and solved.
The reply is fast enough as one or person can be connected at same time. Similarly, college can
develop a mobile app which will help in providing customer support. This will make it easy for
tutors to interact with students.
Zendesk – Zendesk is cloud based app that is very useful. It is a proper customer support
software that contain all the features like team inbox, phone, chat, etc. customer has to create ID
and then by log in question can be asked. Zendesk is common platform where solutions are
provided in real time. Solutions can be provided via chat, phone call, etc. the college can use
Zendesk which will make it easy. They just have to integrate it with E learning and then students
have to create ID on it.
Facebook group – this is a trending tool that is used by many companies to provide customer
support. The benefit is there is an open group in which all questions are answered. Furthermore,
people interact with each other and gain some knowledge about various solutions. Besides this, it
can be used as communication platform (Millett, 2018). College can create a social media group

on Facebook. Students can share issues with each other and gain knowledge. In addition to this,
they can explain others about how to solve a particular problem.
Therefore, by using these apps and tools customer support can be provided. In this way
college can develop a E learning platform. With the use of these tools and app it will be easy for
tutors to provide E learning to students.
3) Make Recommendations for development of an Interactive Enrolment & Time-Tabling
System
Along with development of E – learning system it is necessary to provide a process
through which students can enrol or register themselves. This is because it will help in evaluating
number of students so that teachers can teach lessons accordingly (Adner and Kapoor, 2016).
Therefore, it is important to develop appropriate enrolment and time table system so that it will
be easy to operate particular classes on specific date. The recommendations are as follows: -
 Development of enrolment system will allow only authentic students to get register.
Besides this, there will be different online forms for different subjects. This will make it
easy in segregating them and then providing lectures accordingly.
 Enrolment will give a description of how many students exists and are from which field.
Students will be aware of in which filed they require E learning and what is the fees.
Enrolment will give an insight that how many students are there in one course or subject.
Then college can hire tutor.
 Moreover, time tabling will be beneficial in providing a brief overview of schedule and
developing courses and exams. In this system information and data will be updated
automatically. Hence, by using this system can generate algorithm through which course
structure can be developed (Jameson, Song and Pecht, 2016). With this time of students
and tutor will saved. They will be able to attend classes as per the time table. Several tests
can be conducted to evaluate the performance of students.
 By using this tutor can develop time table for individual student. They can also create
their own personal time table. Usually, this software is used at higher level of education

because there are many courses available and it is difficult to develop time table. Tutor
gets an overview that what subject consists of lessons and whether it should be included
in that or not.
 This provide flexibility in schedule classes and making changes in timings. In addition to
this, schedule can also be customised making it easier for both student and teacher.
Therefore, integrating both software in E learning platform will enable in providing
efficient learning to students. They will be able to gain knowledge in their respective subjects.
Furthermore, tutors will work according to it and it only those chapters will be included that is
related to course.
4) Make recommendations for Integrating a Virtual Assistant Service into the Platform
E learning is a platform where students get education and training on various online
networking sites. It can also allow tutors to provide education at any point of time even if they
are outside campus (Collins and Halverson, 2018). A virtual assistance service is software that
perform task for other through voice recognition. It is used by many companies like Google,
Apple, etc. they have installed this in their smartphone that has made it easy for people to operate
it. Furthermore, it becomes easy for user to interact with device. There are several
recommendations of integrating VAS in E learning. These are as follows: -
 It will help in making it simple for both student and tutor to use it on E learning platform.
Moreover, the main advantage it will give is tutor can explain in better way about
different theories or methods of various subjects.
 Furthermore, mathematics and other numeric problems can be solved by tutors and
explained to students in better way. Alongside this, virtual assistance stores data and info
of user that can be used at later stage (Degeling and Berendt, 2018). In E learning tutors
will be able to operate anytime, anywhere.
 It will be useful in saving time in handling task. College can save money and time by
installing this. The tutor can provide learning to many students at same time if they are
having similar problems. Here, it will save time and efficiency will increase.

 Through this software E learning can be provided in less time. Also, it will give a better
quality of service by which problems are solved in effective way. College have to hire a
virtual assistant to manage the data. He or she will be able to expand the area of
providing services. It will enable college in solving issues instantly.
Thus, virtual assistance service will allow tutor to make easy in providing lectures. Also, the
tutor or students can open this software it his or her smartphone and easily utilise it. The
problems can be solved in better way (Knutti and et.al., 2016). The major benefit there will be is
numerical questions will be easily explained. Along with this, VAS will useful be useful in
guiding students to retrieve data where it is stored. The virtual assistant will segregate issues so
that it can be solved in systematic way. By this the efficiency of E learning platform will enhance
resulting in giving better results.
CONCLUSION
From this it can be concluded that E learning is emerging in delivering education. Social
media has become a popular tool in this. It has helped in providing education to large number of
students at one place and platform. Due to this, many students who are not able to learn are
getting education only at minimal cost.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Adner, R. and Kapoor, R., 2016. Innovation ecosystems and the pace of substitution: Re‐
examining technology S‐curves. Strategic Management Journal, 37(4), pp.625-648.
Brown, R. and Mason, C., 2014. Inside the high-tech black box: A critique of technology
entrepreneurship policy. Technovation, 34(12), pp.773-784.
Collins, A. and Halverson, R., 2018. Rethinking education in the age of technology: The digital
revolution and schooling in America. Teachers College Press.
Degeling, M. and Berendt, B., 2018. What is wrong about Robocops as consultants? A
technology-centric critique of predictive policing. AI & SOCIETY, 33(3), pp.347-356.
Jameson, N.J., Song, X. and Pecht, M., 2016. Conflict minerals in electronic systems: An
overview and critique of legal initiatives. Science and engineering ethics, 22(5), pp.1375-
1389.
Knutti, R., and et.al., 2016. A scientific critique of the two-degree climate change
target. Nature Geoscience, 9(1), p.13.
Mendel, J.M. and Wu, D., 2017. Critique of “A New Look at Type-2 Fuzzy Sets and Type-2
Fuzzy Logic Systems”. IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, 25(3), pp.725-727.
Millett, S., 2018. Technology is capital: Fifth Estate’s critique of the megamachine.
In Changing anarchism. Manchester University Press.
Scott, W.R., 2015. Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural and open systems
perspectives. Routledge.
Walters, L.E.M., Scott, R.E. and Mars, M., 2018. Teledermatology scale-up frameworks: a
structured review and critique. BMC health services research, 18(1), p.613.
Williams, P.J. and Stables, K. eds., 2017. Critique in design and technology education.
Springer.

Online
Customer service tools. 2018 [online] Available through: <https://mention.com/blog/customer-
success-tools/>