Eötvös Loránd University Ph.D. School of Informatics Dr János Demetrovics. Thesis. Peter Ludik

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1 Eötvös Loránd University Ph.D. School of Informatics Dr János Demetrovics Thesis Peter Ludik Methodology and technological opportunity in bilding and induction of Virtual Learning Environments Supervisor: Dr Tibor Remzső 2006

2 Introduction At the beginning of my doctoral program I experienced that the increasing number of domestic development initiatives in the field of technology, methodology and educational subject matters induced by the multimedia computers and CD-ROM based educational programs suddenly spread just at that time resulted in a number of solutions that were often significantly different. Their harmonization, collection and systematization of the experiences gained and integrating them into a unified framework became opportune. By now, the technology has surpassed this level. The new trend was represented first by the appearance of Internet-based (remote) educational materials, and then the complex virtual learning environments came to the foreground. Thus, the e-learning framework is an application developed for transferring educational materials and expertise, the use of which is of strategic importance even within the scope of higher educational programs and can be an important factor in gaining competitive advantages in the market of learning and education. The e-learning frameworks and technologies available in Hungary at present were established with the view of fulfilling the needs of the business sector rather than the needs of higher education. These technologies together with the associated methodological background originate from abroad; thus, neither the linguistic and cultural peculiarities nor the local characteristics of the school system are taken into consideration. Background and Brief Summary of the Research To introduce ICT in the education, SchoolNet was launched (which has come to an end by now) with the aim of popularising digital culture in public education both among students and employees. For this, all secondary schools were supplied with PC-s and Internet access in order to provide sufficient tools for day-to-day teaching (not only informatics as a subject). The PC-s were accompanied by nearly 90 CD-s of software and multimedia teaching programs. The developments are still going these days: The schools have been given digital trolleys to make the equipment mobile and in recent times they are planning to establish wireless networks in the educational institutions.

3 Unfortunately these projects haven t achieved their chief aim integrating the multimedia materials into the process of teaching and through this the use of computers in day-to-day work. The expectations of the EU have given a new momentum to the growth of digital culture. The new National Curriculum, which among others sets the goal to do away with IT illiteracy, and the new Higher Education Law which is to bring crucial changes into the structure and views of higher education, will cause changes which can alter people s way of thinking and lay the foundation of their recognising the need for life-long learning. The multimedia teaching materials, whose latest form of appearance is e-learning, will play a significant part in its realization. In the first part of the paper, the concepts of distance learning and e-learning are defined from the strategic aspect of knowledge-based society and life-long learning. Special emphasis is given to the European dimension, in the context of human resource development and the educational objectives of the Lisbon strategy. In the second part the Virtual Learning Environments are described, on the basis of the overview of professional literature and my own experiences and research work. The three basic elements of these systems are dealt with in great detail. They are: - the Learning Management System, - the Learning Content Management Systems, - the electronic evaluation systems. The procedures of the research work were as follows: studying domestic and international specialist literature, analysing documents (EU, OECD, Hungarian Ministry of Education), testing and analysing programs, utilization of study trip experiences, installing and testing complex systems, launching pilot courses, collecting and analysing data, drawing conclusions.

4 While the specialist literature was being dealt with, great emphasis was given to the study of the results of the research work done in Hungary and in other countries of the EU. The College of Dunaújváros joined a Leonardo Project ( ), in which during foreign study trips and through personal exchange of experience I had an opportunity to get a glimpse into the organisation of education and the research projects in some European countries such as the UK, Finland, Holland, Portugal and Greece. The experience gained in the various educational institutions and the domestic and international research literature dealing with the interpretation, purpose and importance of these methods played a great part in getting to know the methods and application programmes being examined and modelled. The model elaborated and demonstrated in the paper is a possible learning environment suitable for the College of Dunaújváros. Thus, the research means setting up and installing a functioning system, generalising the experience gained and examining the possibilities of its further development.

5 Thesis Statements and Findings I. The rapid development of Information Technologies (IT) has a powerful influence on the whole society, enhances competition and accelerates the processes. Distance learning undergoes modifications and the roles of educators and learners change as well. The teacher does not teach the material to the student but helps them to organise their learning activities, creates the learning conditions and shows the direction, gives advice, explains the student the essential relations, the working practices and the rules, and evaluates the results. For this, an up-to-date learning environment is indispensably necessary to be established and also to be used skilfully. II. Web-based education (e-learning) at an institution is not merely a tool of instruction but also a system for doing the tasks of human resource, knowledge, and in a way even customer management. It involves all kinds of processes of sharing knowledge where the intermediary vehicle is the PC, i.e. the computer network. In the pedagogical sense, it is a technology that can integrate several methodological areas. It can span large distances, just like distance learning, but it can significantly shorten the time for feedback, or even make it prompt. We have both the governmental and the international (EU) strategy and technical background for its introduction although the standards are just beginning to take shape.

6 III. In the age of Information Technology the integration of the up-to date application of info-communicational technologies (ICT) into the sphere of education, science and research at he highest range is crucially important. We can witness the spreading of the virtual learning environment (VLE) at all levels of the world of education. These programs are able to integrate learning management systems (LMS), learning content management systems (LCMS) and evaluation systems. From the numerous course management systems (several of them were free) I chose MOODLE on the basis of the research literature and mainly after the experiences of my own testing and trials. In my decision it was an important point that this is a system of open source code and the web server, database service and the PHP interpreter as well are included in the installer. IV. It is the evaluation system of online education that is the least elaborated, therefore the learning materials do not fulfil one of the most important requirements, i.e. the efficient support of the student s self-dependent learning. Starting from this recognition, I paid special attention to the services provided by VLE systems that make electronic evaluation possible. The experiences gained do not show the results expected. This is the reason why the elaboration of an evaluation system of my own development became necessary. It is based on the multiple-choice testing method and it was developed from various written examination task types and it is more and more used internationally. When it was being elaborated, an important requirement of the program was that it should be available both for the users and for the educators from anywhere on any platform. Therefore the program was made in PHP language as a server application, which handles MySQL database.

7 V. The existing technical potentials can only enhance education if they are filled with suitable teaching materials. Preparing e-learning materials is the most difficult task when introducing a new framework. The work is more complex and designing and creating electronic educational materials requires methodological and pedagogical preparation work different from that of traditional educational materials. Therefore it is understandable that the work of authors with mainly pedagogical experience is helped by multimedia specialists and programmers. The script or base text of the material can certainly be made by the instructors themselves but also firms specialised in making educational materials can be requested on demand. VI. For the new technology to spread widely educational material development systems are needed, which are to bring the tool closer to the user. The idea of an author assisting program emerged at the development of multimedia systems. Here, these programs are called author systems. The comparison is inevitable owing to the fact that today the author systems are aimed in the first place at the electronic presentation materials publishable on the web and not merely at multimedia development. In this way the experiences gained through the multimedia developments can be preserved. It can be said of the LCMS systems that the program makers did their best to make the development of learning materials as convenient as possible. It is especially necessary because creating XML based teaching materials (preparing the suitable metadata) as prescribed in the standards is not a simple task but it can be programmed. Using these systems the authors are forced to make teaching materials with the right screen design and format, which can be handled by the VLE systems. The College of Dunaújváros has installed a framework or software called TANSZER because it makes it makes the preparation of electronic teaching materials easy-flowing and demanding less particular work. A great advantage of the software is that it creates the document in the form required by the user: the layout of the document elements, the adequate operation of the systems (e.g. links, references etc.), the structure and design are formed as we define it, and its user interface does not considerably differ from the familiar ones (Word, Excel )

8 VII. We launched a pilot project for establishing the virtual learning environment. In this project, the operation of VLE systems and their role in education was introduced to the participants, and an experimental e-learning material was elaborated and tested. Not only the designers of the e-learning program and its future operators but also the educators and students participating in the project gained profitable experiences, which they can make good use of when a complex system expanding to the whole college is introduced. VIII. The experiences gained in the course of the pilot program at the college, verified the top management s decision to elaborate the electronic learning material for all subjects (modules), starting from the next semester in an ascending order of the coming academic years. This decision will be an answer to the question asked in Irma Tóth s book called New Path in Education : we believe that a higher education of a sufficient quality fulfilling the requirements of our age even in the framework of mass education is not possible without electronic learning materials.

9 The practical value of the results My workplace, the Dunaújváros Polytechnic has set the goal to introduce a complex virtual educational environment. The paper presents the way I have been through when getting acquainted with, as well as trying and testing these programs. Finally, the systems we decided on are described in details. As a continuation of the processes described in my thesis, a large-scale development of educational materials has been launched, which is the first step to introducing the Virtual Learning Environment extending over the whole institution. The top management is determined to implement the system. It is justified by the recognition of the fact that the appearance of the possibility to learn without the boundaries of place and time, together with the broadening of the system of devices for fulfilling it, opens the door to such a freedom that helps replacing the student s feeling of forced learning with optional selfdependent learning.

10 Publication Dr. Zuti Pál - Köte Csaba-Száraz György - Ludik Péter: Multimédia és prezentáció Tankönyvmester Kiadó, Budapest, Macromedia Authorware fejezet ( old.) Dr. Kadocsa László, Kelemen Gyula, Dr. Létray Zoltán, Ludik Péter: Korszerű pedagógiai módszerek a felsőoktatásban in Partnerközpontú önértékelési modell megalkotása és továbbképzések a felsőoktatási intézmények humánerőforrásainak fejlesztésért HEFOP Dunaújváros Lektorálta: Dr. Tóth Béláné Ludik, P.: The authorial systems and languages in. Lifelong learning in technical teacher training Leonardo Project, Brüsszel Ludik Péter: Multimédia szerzői nyelvek és rendszerek összehasonlítása in. Média - Informatika - Kommunikáció 2001 Konferencia kiadványkötete, Veszprém Ludik Péter: Szerzői rendszerek és az Internet kapcsolata in. A Dunaújvárosi Főiskola Közleményei XXIII. Dunaújváros Szerk.: Gyulaffy Béláné dr. Berényi Mária Ludik Péter: Multimédia szerzői rendszerek, mint a weboldalkészítés eszközei in Az oktatás mint befektetés konferencia anyaga. Pécs, Szerk.: Gocsál Ákos Ludik Péter, Kadocsa László: VLE rendszerek összehasonlítása in. MultiMédia az oktatásban 2004 tudományos konferencia kiadványkötete, Szeged Szerk.: Forczek Erzsébet Kadocsa László - Ludik Péter - Willinger László: Számítógéppel segített vizsgáztatás egy saját fejlesztésű alkalmazása in Multimédia az oktatásban CD-ROM Keszthely, Szerk.: Dr. Berke József Gubán Gy., Kadocsa L., Ludik P.: e-learning Strategy in Hungary in. Virtual electronic learning in vocational initial teacher training Leonardo Project, Dunaújváros 2006 Kadocsa L., Ludik P.: Comparison of Evaluation Systems in. Virtual electronic learning in vocational initial teacher training Leonardo Project, Dunaújváros 2006 Gubán Gyula, Kadocsa László, Ludik Péter: Az elektronikus tanulás stratégiái in.:virtuális tanulási környezetek a mérnöktanár képzésben és a műszaki szakképzésben. LIGATURA kiadó Budapest, 2006.