What is Electronic Support in Education?
There are many names for electronic support, which is the assistance that is provided to students before, during, or after the learning process, including Supporting Systems, Aids, Orintation, or Scaffolding, all of which are multiple aspects of one thing that focuses on directing the learner towards achieving the required educational goals by providing assistance Or erecting scaffolds that support his progress in the right direction towards those goals, and this support is essential in the educational process and a right for the learner. [1]
Literature and educational studies refer to a set of definitions of educational electronic support from more than one perspective, some of which dealt with it from the point of view of the educational functionality of educational support. and be able to support himself,
Also, any kind of support or assistance helps the learner to reach a high level of understanding, and Shapiro (2008) confirms that it is the aid and assistance that is provided to the learner in order to complete the learning tasks and build and support what he already knows in order to reach what he does not know.
Some definitions dealt with the environment for providing electronic support or the mechanisms for providing it, as Paul (2009) defines it as an educational system that provides tools that are used for immediate access to information that is received at the moment of need from learners, and (Ismail Hassouna, 2008) adds that it is the textual or pictorial capabilities or Spoken language or even the direct or indirect means of communication provided by the educational website on the web to solve the problems that the learner faces while running the program or navigating between its educational content to make a decision that achieves the desired change in his behavior.
Other definitions focused on specific variables in design, such as its type, level, or source. Pahl (2002) defines it as the support and assistance that the learner gets through interaction with experts, teachers, and colleagues.
The importance of online support:
Despite the importance of educational support in traditional learning environments, its importance in electronic learning environments increases, especially based on web technology and its various applications, including cloud computing, in order to compensate for the spatial separation between the teacher and students, in addition to centralizing learning with its activities and processes around the learner, as well as the technology of the application used through The web environment, and thus his exercise of roles and operations and his bearing of responsibilities that may exceed his capabilities, skills, and knowledge, which necessitated the availability of support systems with multiple capabilities within those electronic environments, to provide the opportunity for the learner with the guidance, directives and assistance they provide at all technical, technical, educational and training levels, to accomplish his tasks. education and achieve its objectives effectively and efficiently.
The dependence of learning environments on web technology has imposed different designs and strategies on educational support systems, so that they are compatible with the characteristics of that environment on the one hand, in terms of networked social interaction and participation, content availability for use, commenting, control, organization, production, and sharing of information in all its forms in an organized manner.
Educational support should also meet the requirements of learning and the needs of the learner imposed on him by that environment in terms of rapid access to information, facilitation of educational content, access to educational resources, interaction, communication, cooperation and sharing with others, provision of social feedback, and independence for the learner in expressing himself, his interests and his culture. .
Numerous educational studies and research have proven the importance and effectiveness of educational support and its effective impact on many dependent variables, improving students’ performance and learning outcomes such as self-regulation skills, organizing and using data, retaining knowledge, reducing individual differences among learners, improving learning and increasing the learner’s application of knowledge in the future individually. As well as developing the learners’ extra-cognitive skills, and developing the ability for self-learning. Developing higher-level thinking skills such as critical and innovative thinking, as well as achievement, time, efficiency and cost of learning.