Web based e-learning platform as a source of the personalised teaching materials

Purpose: The goal of this work was to develop further the educational platform of the Internet Students Teaching Centre (ISTC) the e-learning system based on the available state-of-the-art internet technologies (HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL) with the possibility to generate the personalised PDF documents. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the process of working out the educational materials package in PDF format, generated from the lecture notes (PowerPoint), instruction sheets with test problems (Excel), and knowledge tests (Hot Potatoes). Educational materials are generated dynamically on the e-learning platform, i.e., individually for each student. A detailed example is included of working out the PDF document format and its automatic generation along with the course student certificate using the PHP scripts. Findings: The efficient method of assisting remotely the e-learning students acquiring skills and knowledge at a varying pace has been developed, providing them with the personalised support. Research limitations/implications: Extensive testing has to be carried on big students groups, more course materials have to be developed and uploaded onto the e-learning platform. Originality/value: Possibility of creating the personalised documents is the first stage in generating the programmed course materials, which after verifying student’s knowledge and determining his or her arrears are automatically sent to the student, containing more detailed explanations on required topics.