A Networked Application to Support the Learning of Electronic Marketing Based on e-Learning and a Portfolio of Mediating Tools

Transition from traditional teacher-centered models, focusing on curricula description and content plans, to student-centered models, in which learning activities are supported in e-learning platforms, is not an easy task to resolve. This issue is especially important when the knowledge is emergent, i.e. when the activities that this knowledge enables are intensively supported by information and communications technologies, subjected to rapid obsolescence. A method for mapping a course content plan into technological mediating tools that form a portfolio is proposed. A mediating tool is a set of learning activities organized according to a specific structure. The portfolio enables synergetic relations between mediating tools, promoting a good content organization and high-order learning activities. The characteristics of the resulting application are described for a course of electronic marketing, in which a content plan is mapped into a set of mediating tools organized in a portfolio. The application was evaluated with surveys and benchmarked with traditional teaching and other e-learning solutions. Benchmarking positioned our e-learning solution as having the best features in team building, achieving scores similar to traditional teaching.