Results of our short e Learning project WUS

Results of our short e. Learning project (WUS Austria) Web-based course-supporting and e. Learning system for courses in informatics Ž. Komlenov, Z. Budimac Chair of Computer Science Department of Mathematics and Informatics Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad e. Learning project no. 005/06. 1

WUS Austria o o o World University Service (WUS) n An international non-governmental organization dealing with higher education and human rights n Part of an international committee network active on all continents and almost 50 countries September 2001 - WUS Austria, supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs , founded its office in Belgrade and launched its program "Support to the Universities of Serbia“ Close cooperation with all the Universities in the reforms and coordination of international initiatives dedicated to higher education 2

WUS e. Learning Program – 1 st Phase o o 2004/05 – implementation of the 1 st Phase of the e. Learning Program for Serbia and Montenegro Aims: n To create collaborative environment between academic community and stakeholders in Serbia and Montenegro n To accept common and standardized approach in this area e. Learning Task Force n Representatives of all universities n Created and adopted a set of recommendations concerning the development of e. Education University e. Learning Centers – promotion and development of e. Learning at Universities 3

WUS e. Learning Program – 2 nd Phase o o o From November 2005 till the end of 2007 Overall aim - to support various developments at the universities which will lead to better access and more cost-effective delivery of education services while using available education technology Four main components: n Support to e. Learning Task Force - support to education policy development at the national level n Support to e. Learning Centers - support to institutional development at the university level n Grants for e. Learning Projects - grants for projects developed at the faculty/university level n e. Learning Conferences - meetings, seminars and final conference organized by WUS Austria aiming at dissemination of knowledge, capacity building, etc. 4

e. Learning project no. 005/06 - Results o o Complete e. Learning course support for two undergraduate courses and one graduate course Very satisfactory results of students using developed e. Lessons Svetovid - facilities to submit solutions to assignments (with prevention of cheating) Moodle Course Management System n Used and extended according to our needs n Serbian language packs n Manuals for students and teachers 5

e. Learning course support for at least two undergraduate courses and one graduate course in the field of informatics. o Complete e. Learning course support for two undergraduate courses and one graduate course was created n n n o o “Operating systems” “Software Engineering” for master students Moodle CMS (Course Management System) was used and customized according to our needs It has been employed for several other undergraduate courses: o “Ethical Aspects of Informatics” o “Object-Oriented Programming” o “Data Structures and Algorithms” o “Software Project Management”… http: //perun. im. ns. ac. yu/courses 6

The system consists of: Operating Systems 1 Software Engineering (master level) e. Content (repository of teaching materials) quizzes and testing facilities live chats specialized forums 7

The system consists of (contd. ): Operating Systems 1 statistics on earned points and progress e. Lessons facilities to submit solutions to assignments automatic checks of solutions Software Engineering (master level) No need 8

Prototype section for Software Engineering e. Courses 9

e. Content o Provided in two different forms: n n All of the content is given as a repository of teaching material, usually as PDF versions of presentations given to students. For three courses material is also given in a form of “electronic lessons” and used as self-teaching material for simpler topics. o Students used e. Lessons by themselves, and were satisfied with those. 10

e. Lessons – results of usage o o o In order to test self-learning with e. Lessons, we gave a test for self-studied lessons, with very good results. On a short test of 4 questions, students gained 3. 4 (85%) points (average). As a part of regular test another e. Lesson was self-prepared and the results were the following: n n 63. 2 % correct answers to those questions compared to from 56. 6 % to 69. 8 % correct answers to other questions 11

e. Lesson example 12

Quizzes and testing facilities o Most of the courses have testing facilities in two forms: n n o Each electronic lesson is from time to time interrupted with questions, for keeping students “awake” and concentrated Final quizzes created within each section of e. Courses o used as self-testing facility Repositories of questions => generating official tests 13

Quiz example 14 Quiz example

Quiz results 15 Quiz results

Live chats o o Live chats between students and teacher (Zoran Budimac) were regularly available. Students used this facility, and were very satisfied with it. Specialized forums o o All of the courses had forums for exchange of ideas and additional material, and for discussions about problems and solutions of assignments. Forums were controlled by teachers, so that there is no “too much” help, or “cheating” involved. 16

Forums and chats 17

Statistics and progress reports 18

Navigational extensions of Moodle o o o e. Courses developed at the Department required more adaptivity concerning navigation through e. Lessons. Course creators wanted more flexibility in their students’ e. Learning experience n explicitly choosing different paths through lessons or being directed to different parts depending on the answers to the questions posed Several navigational extensions for Moodle have been developed: n Direct referencing (jumps) from e. Content to other parts of e. Content n Extended jumps n Conditional jumps 19

Direct referencing (jumps) from e. Content to other parts of e. Content o Ability to reference parts of other e. Lessons within the course from any point of the current e. Lesson in two different ways: n Redirection of learners to other parts of e. Contents o n Simple reminders o o e. g. after giving the wrong answer to a question on already read material in the current lesson, or facts from previous lessons a possibility to just remind the learners of certain pages, without disturbing their learning path Integrated in existing structure of Moodle’s HTML editor used while creating e. Contents 20

Redirection to other parts of e. Contents Link to another page (learning object) 21

Extended jumps o o Possibility to move from one page in e. Lesson to the other depending on student’s current activity (answers given within the current page) Now we can connect even pages from different e. Lessons – direct reuse of the existing material without duplicating it Conditional jumps o o Tracing where users came from entering the current page and directing them further through the e. Contents in the most appropriate way This feature is in testing phase and will be used in the following semester within our e. Courses 22

Extended jumps o e. Courses can now be complex structures n consisting of numerous interconnected e. Lessons n with improved reusability of learning material 23

Facilities to submit solutions to assignments (with prevention of cheating) o o Homemade submission system Svetovid - crossplatform software that helps instructors leverage the effort of practical exercises and exams Used in several courses: n “Object-oriented Programming” n “Data Structures and Algorithms” n “Operating Systems” n “Compiler Construction”… So far kept as a separate facility Integration with Moodle and other learning systems used is planned (at least of the information collected about students’ work) 24

Facilities to submit solutions to assignments (with prevention of cheating) o The goals of this submission environment: n n n Allow students to comfortably develop their programs Allow students to test their programs before submission Keep a log of student efforts Be flexible enough and usable for different courses (wide range of programming languages and at different project stages: coding, typing, program documentation. . . ) Disallow students to share programs and solutions, intentionally or unintentionally Help instructors with marking student solutions 25

Svetovid client program 26

Controls Control of individual students Control over conduction of exercises 27

Dialog for creating and editing course information 28

The collected experience, principles and rules published in the form of two manuals o Two manuals have been created for easier usage of Moodle CMS. a. How to use the system n concerns the usage of the system from the student perspective b. How to create e. Lessons using the system n designed to be used by lecturers n covers some other points of interest of a person who wants to create e. Courses (even if that person is not originally an IT professional) 29

Presentations of the results of this project n n n “Principles on creating e. Lessons - case study in Software metrics”, 6 th Workshop on Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering, Ravda, Bulgaria, September 2006 “On Creating Adaptive e. Lessons with Improved Navigational Features”, XVII Conference on Applied Mathematics “PRIM 2006”, Kragujevac, Serbia, September 2006 “Extending the Notion of Computing Literacy”, 4 th International Conference on Informatics, Educational Technology and New Media in Education, Sombor, Serbia, March 2007 30

Presentations of the results of this project n WUS e. Learning Conference “e. Learning - Toward Effective Education and Training in the Information Society” Bijela, Montenegro 30 th May – 1 st June 2007 31

Presentations of the results of this project 32

Presentations of the results of this project 33