**1. Introduction**

The role of information and communication technologies (ICT) has become very important in all aspects of life and business. These technologies have a very significant role in information elaboration and its transformation into knowledge, which is the main condition for someone to become an efficient part of the information society [1]. The information has become accessible and transferable from anywhere in the world. Also, education and its availability have an important role in the modern world and therefore, ICT has become an integral part of people's lives in all aspects [2]. The rapid and dynamic development of information and communication technologies has led to significant changes in people's personal, social, and work lives. Currently, people live in an information society that relies on the use of information and communication technologies, which is also a society of knowledge, intangible capital and learning, in which progress is based on knowledge and creativity [3]. The education did not remain immune to the spreading of the mentioned technologies and therefore, these technologies had integrated into the learning process, as well.

Education is the constitutive element of the knowledge society and global economy of knowledge if it is structured in line with information and communication technologies. Furthermore, the integration of these technologies could make education more available, but also could change the cultural context of education, as well as the language of learning [4]. These impacts change the way of learning because the students do not receive the knowledge passively as they have previously but they are actively involved in the learning process. Wang and Woo [5] state that the integration of information and communication technologies is often seen as a process of deploying any ICT (including resources on the Internet, multimedia programs, learning objects, and other tools) with the aim of improving student learning. Although the primary function of ICT use is not only in the field of education, it can be said that information and communication technologies are a tool for achieving learning goals [6].

In this competitive world, the future of the education sector is based on knowledge of ICT. The integration of ICT into education through e-learning courses enables active learning, discussion, sharing of ideas, immediate feedback, and easy access to digital content [7]. When it comes to technology integration into education, three main components should be taken into account: content, pedagogy, and technology [8]. The integration of ICT in educational processes is often defined as the process of applying any ICT (including Internet resources, multimedia programs, learning subjects, and other tools) with the aim to improve student learning and achieve desired outcomes [5,9].

Effective integration of ICT and learning processes through e-learning courses has great potential to involve and engage students on a larger scale. For example, the use of multimedia for presenting authentic and poorly structured problems in problem-based learning can motivate and engage students and thus help them to develop problem-solving skills [10]. An and Reigeluth [11] emphasize that groups can have "different learning needs based on their interests and problem-solving plans, even though if they were working on the same problem". E-learning courses can support different types of interaction: student–content, student–student, student–lecturer, and student–interface [12]. These types of interactions make the learning process more interactive, and students more active and engaged.

Studies have shown that online education can be just as effective as the traditional way of education, and in some cases, it has even been shown to be better [13,14]. According to Stavredes and Herder [15], creating an effective e-learning course begins with understanding the needs of future students. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the needs and requirements of future users in order to create such a course that will successfully meet the stated needs. Also, it is important to point out that the e-learning courses have enabled the acquisition of quality education to those participants for whom education would not be available in other circumstances.

As stated, integration of the learning process and information and communication technologies has led to the development of the e-learning courses. In that way, the educational resources are available to the individuals who, in different conditions, are able to attend the lectures. The very important question is the design of the course so that it is understandable and easy to use for different kinds of students. The creators of the e-learning courses should pay attention to the features that enable the smooth operation of the course, which is very important. The appearance of the e-learning courses initiated the need to find suitable methods for their evaluation and selection.

Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is often associated with the selection of an alternative from a set of alternatives, but it can also be used for ranking alternatives [16,17]. Until now, a number of MCDM methods have been proposed, such as: SAW [18], AHP [19], TOPSIS [20], PROMETHEE [21], ELECTRE [22], VIKOR [23], and so forth.

Notable progress in solving real-world complex decision-making problems appeared after Zadeh [24] and his introduction to the fuzzy sets theory. As a part of the fuzzy set theory, fuzzy numbers that are usually based on triangular or trapezoidal shapes, which are much more adequate for modeling and solving a number of complex decision-making problems were introduced.

Based on the previously mentioned fuzzy sets theory, somewhat later Bellman and Zadeh [25] introduced the fuzzy MCDM-based methodology, which was later widely accepted in the scientific community as well as being used to solve many decision-making problems. With the aim to solve a variety of complex MCDM problems, some extensions to the fuzzy set theory have been proposed, such as intuitionistic fuzzy sets [26], interval-valued fuzzy sets [27], bipolar fuzzy sets [28], and so on.

The interval-valued fuzzy numbers (IVFNs), as a particular form of fuzzy numbers, provide much more possibilities for solving the real-world MCDM problems. Hence, some of the prominent multiple-criteria decision-making methods have proper extensions based on IVFNs. It is worth mentioning some of them: ELECTRE [29], VIKOR [30,31], MULTIMOORA [32], TOPSIS [33–35], and so forth.

The additive ratio assessment (ARAS) method was developed by Zavadskas and Turskis [36]. The ARAS method has been applied to solve various decision-making problems. So, for example, Zavadskas and Turskis [36] have applied the ARAS method to evaluate the microclimate in office rooms, Zavadskas et al. [37] have applied the ARAS method to select the most appropriate foundation installment alternative, Karabaševi´c et al. [38] have applied the ARAS method for personnel selection. Besides that, the ARAS method has also been applied for the ranking of companies according to the CSR indicators [39], selection of the software testing method [40], mineral prospectivity mapping [41], reduction of greenhouse gas emission [42], and so on.

In order to extend the applicability of the ARAS method and to enable the use of grey and fuzzy numbers, Turskis and Zavadskas [43] proposed a proper fuzzy extension (ARAS-F) and a grey extension (ARAS-G) [44]. It is also important to note that on the basis of the ARAS method, some other approaches are proposed. In this context, it is worth mentioning the ARCAS approach proposed by Stanujkic et al. [45] that is based on ordinary SWARA and ARAS methods and is adapted for negotiations.

Based on all the above, the main aim of this paper is to propose an integrated approach based on the MCDM methods for the selection of the e-learning course. The proposed approach is based on the use of the interval-valued triangular fuzzy (IVTFN) ARAS method for the ranking of alternatives and the PIPRECIA method for the determining weights of the criteria.

Therefore, the rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 demonstrates the proposed methodology, based on the PIPRECIA and extended ARAS method. In order to highlight the proposed MCDM methodology, in Section 3 a case study of e-courses evaluation is considered. The discussions and conclusions are given at the end of the manuscript.
