Web-based tools to sustain the motivation of students in distance education

In distance education, students in a remote classroom tend not to sustain their motivation, mainly because of a lack of intensity due to non-physical presence of a lecturer. To address this issue, two software tools were developed for teachers and students, respectively. The tool for teachers is called eRoster. On the teacher's PC, the eRoster can display not only the student's name but also the student's attributes - id, future career, interest, club, faculty, and entrance time. Then, the teacher by name can call on the appropriate student whose attribute is related to the topics of the lecture. The tool for students is a so-called clicker and enables students to be more completely engaged in the interactivity of active learning. The developed system facilitates individually owned multi-devices of the students like PCs, cell phones, iPod Touches, and other PDAs as data entry systems.