From a pedagogical perspective, the e-Learning environment represents a method of teaching, learning and assessment based on the digital technology, of communication and multimedia, which provides a fast transfer of information, knowledge, including techniques of understanding and means of interpreting it, from teacher to student, anywhere and anytime, per request, with the purpose to derive competitive results, thus speeding up the educational process.

In an educational context, e-Learning means the use of the latest multimedia technologies and internet to ameliorate the quality of education and assessment process. The internet is looked at as a ‚window’ open to the world, where teachers and students in different schools and countries can connect to one another, exchange information, explore new knowledge sectors. For students, the internet is a useful instrument that motivates them to learn, encourages independence and autonomy, breaks down the communication barriers, racial or motor disabilities.

The introduction of the Information Technology and Communications in education, via the internet as a teaching tool, provides a wide horizon to the students in terms of what learning means and allows any person to get the necessary information in a direct manner, at home or at the employment place. At the same time, the internet makes possible a complex process of online assessment of the knowledge, without the obligation of a direct teacher-student contact.

From a functional angle, the e-Learning environment includes three components:

– The e-Learning platform; it consists of the hardware and software that are mandatory in an electronic system of teaching – learning – assessment; it is in fact the infrastructure of the educational context based on systems of knowledge management and delivery to its beneficiaries;

– The e-Learning resources; include all the data of interest in the e-Learning environment and involve the following:

• knowledge; represents all the knowledge resources, in all the fields, required to all the students during the entire learning process; each knowledge field consists of a set of auxiliary coursebooks and teaching materials (reference books, summaries, etc.), each of them featuring Appendix 14 more categories of knowledge; a category of knowledge includes, in its turn, more types of knowledge, with a specific content, objective and targeting a certain level of training; the type of knowledge is the smallest but most important unit of knowledge that the students can acquire in the e-Learning environment;

• information; it defines the identity and the role of an user who employs a resource in the eLearning environment;

• strategies; are described as smart methods of teaching, learning and assessment, used for the training adjusted to the complexity of the educational criteria required by the present society (for the business environment or of general interest), to the particularity of every course type (full-time, part-time or long distance), to the behavior specifics of the students that depend on their age and possibilities of direct communication (in a traditional classroom) or indirect (via the digital technologies of communication) with the teacher, to the modern instruction forms (teaching, learning and assessment) that may include virtual classes and Web-based instruction, etc. – users; are all those who utilize the resources developed on the e-Learning platform; in a dependence on his role, a user can be:

• student; the beneficiary of the knowledge and the recipient of the teaching strategy; he is the most important supplier of information for his identification and for the role he plays during the training process; within the e-Learning environment, each student is identified by customized information (Identity Card, access password, name, etc.) and preferences are expressed fro various methods of study, training level and assessment data; the assessment result is based on the current teaching strategy and sets off the future one;

• teacher or course supervisor; he is the supplier of knowledge oriented towards the students and the author of the teaching strategy; he is the one to provide the information to identify his role in the e-Learning context;

• tutor; provides assistance to the students, per their request or following a preset schedule, and the communication takes place via certain applications that are meant for such activities. The online tutoring is a process in a virtual environment or online, where the student and the tutore are separated in time and space. The e-Learning Blackboard platform that Edward University makes available to the bachelor and master students gives access to the tools specific to a modern education, to the educational offer in an electronic format and has opportunities of integrating the services into the use of the study environment. The e-Learning Blackboard platform assures the following:

• the procedures of registration and selection of the students;

• the communication, synchronical and asynchronical, among students, teachers/tutors and the non-teaching/administrative personnel;

• technological solutions able to assist – online and offline – the students as individuals and in a group;

• specialized programmes, both for collecting the statistical data about students and also their use to improve the ongoing services;

• access to various resources of study and communications: courses, practicum diaries, study guides, online databases, news, mail, synchronical and asynchronical group discussions, virtual seminars, virtual library;

• specific means of online and/or offline assessment of the students’ knowledge;

• instruments of a regular feedback from the students on the educational services made available to them;

• electronic access to details about the present and future activities for every study programme;

• provision of traceability, integrity and confidentiality of the data unloaded and/or collected on the e-Learning platform.