Preamble
The changes brought by globalization concern everyone working in the educational process. ICT (information and communication technology) and internet opened a whole new way of education for various institutions, including educational and academic institutions. A new stage in developing education is thus connected with intensive use of information and communication technologies, where the internet is now providing very powerful tools, that bring significant changes not only in education, but in every area of our lives. The task of this project is to use all these available tools to create an integrated platform for multimedia- and e-learning in the field of technologies and properties of sensors and their synergistic use in the field of biomedical engineering, as well as for healthy and disabled students.
Project objectives
E-learning results from the convergence of two historical trends: distance learning and didactical techniques to achieve the elimination of time and space limitations in access to education through interactive communication. Creation of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) was determined by the changing nature of education as a result of the information revolution, which invoked the need for lifelong learning. Another important factor was the stepwise changing of the target groups for education, which consequently invoked the change from the teacher in the centre to student in the centre in development of educational, information and communication technologies. Other factors, that significantly accelerated the development of e-learning has been a growing financial burden of education, falling budget of the educational system, increasing percentage of university graduates, entrance to the EU, equality in accessing the education for all population groups, demographic changes, traffic problems, changes in exigencies and life style and in entry knowledge of students, etc.
The main objective of the project:
The fundamental objective of the project, which is divided into sub-modules according to the single topics, is to create a common accessible system for on-line education in e-learning form using multimedia techniques for the field of the techniques of production technologies of sensors and their synergetic use in biomedical engineering.
The target groups are:
– students in bachelor, engineer and doctoral studies of technical subjects in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, biophysics, etc.,
– students of medical sciences, which include doctors, therapists, nurses, resp. other health professionals of hospitals.
The main outputs:
– grouping of knowledge about the sensors, the technologies of their production, principles of their operation, reliability, design, including basic technical parameters and the way of their application in biomedical engineering.
– The creation of courses for people with disabilities (physical, visual and hearing), which requires a specific solution of the hardware (room, computer access, computer control), but also of the software, which will be solved by materials in the actual e-learning courses, and also by auxiliary software.
– Thus, the proposed e-leaning course can be a benefit as well as a model for other courses with the same resp. similar target group in the form of inspiration or as a template.
Benefits of the project:
– digitization of the material, which can be used in various way
– preparing of a separate monograph
– scripts, web pages, etc.
– creation of a database of sensorial elements and systems
– establishment of a specialized classroom, which will be available for all groups interested in the areas of the project in the perspective of lifelong learning.
Partial objectives are divided by main modules and their technical content and in a time sequence by years. Individual e-learning modules will constitute separate blocks with the possibility of permanent innovation and expansion in a common accessible information environment, as a base for supporting e-learning.
Partial project objectives
The first year of the solution – analysis, selection, technical support and installation
1. Draft of technical and technological solution of e-learning with regard to the existing environment at TU Košice.
2. Reflect the new information in choosing the optimal solutions including: e-learning platform, server for it's hosting, access multimedia room, hardware and software accessories required for the processing of modules, special equipment for the disabled (software, hardware, equipment for access to the room and for PCs, controlling PCs).
3. The technical equipment includes the solution of needed media and information infrastructure related to the e-learning room and the installation of the bought hardware and software and buying the needed services: hardware installation (server, platform), manual work around setting up the e-learning room.
4. Design and implementation of modifications in the teaching rooms with the appropriate equipment: server, computer network, computers and their connectivity to the LAN of the university.
5. Innovation of methodology for the creation of electronic teaching materials and creation of modules in electronic form.
6. Implementation of selected Learning Management System (LMS) for the distant form of education.
7. Trainings for implementation teams, authors of electronic teaching materials and distance learning tutors.
8. Creation of e-learning materials and teaching tools for subjects in new curricula for the needs of distance education with an option for disabled students.
The second year of the project:
1. Trainings for implementation teams, authors of electronic teaching materials and distance learning tutors.
2. Creation of e-learning materials and teaching tools for subjects in new curricula for the needs of distance education with an option for disabled students.
3. Creation of digital integrated library for the appropriate field of the project
4. Creation of the environment for disabled students group
5. Creation of modules for the fields of the project by using 3D animations and on-line streams from the experimental laboratories, creation of videos, pictures and input files for selected e-learning platform in terms of the suggested modules of curses, an installing them to the appropriate electronic environment and interconnecting them.
6. Creation of the environment for on-line solving and assignments of the technological projects.
7. A separate module for on-line solution of theses and their final development in electronic form.
8. Creating the environment for two-way communication between the teacher and the student.
The third year of the project:
1. Creation of a comprehensive database of sensor devices and systems used in biomedical engineering with the possibility of permanent extension.
2. Creation of integrated digital library for the field of the project.
3. Testing of the complex e-learning system
4. Creating of a comprehensive university textbook in the field of technologies of production sensors and their utilization in biomedical engineering.
Comments
One of the main tasks in the firs stage of the project will be the choice of e-learning platform, and purchasing a server for storing it. Analysis about the usability of different kind of outputs help us in the selection of the character of the output (CD, Web pages, e-learning). As the optimal solution for the users (students and teachers), as well as for the authors of the courses, seems to be the e-learning solution resp. web based training (Comparison of e-Learning Platforms, http://www.imaginal.nl/shortcomplatf.html ) resp. a hybrid solution, which is a combination of different multimedia products.
E-learning platforms are analyzed at several web pages. In terms of financial cost of the solution, a better solution is to select an open-source product. At the TU Kočice, there are mostly used two products: u-Learn, which is under commercial licence (for us with University licence) and an open-source platform, Moodle ( http://www.moodle.org/ ). The Platform Moodle is one of the best candidate for our system, at one side based on the recommendation of it's users at the TU Košice, on the other side, based on the analyses of the open-source platforms, where Moodle seems to be the best solution.
On the market there are available a number of commercial platforms, which are one of the alternatives for the implementation of this project. But mostly, they offer for a big amount of many the same functions, as the open-source applications.
On the market there are available a number of commercial platforms, which are one of the alternatives for the implementation of this project. But mostly, they offer for a big amount of many the same functions, as the open-source applications.
In terms of technical solutions of the room, for the realisation of the courses, it is necessary to buy furniture, including tables for disabled people (in terms of experience with the load factor of the Access Centre at TU in Košice and profiling of the course is proposed to create 2 rooms accessible for disabled persons). This requires tables allowing access for persons with wheelchairs and hardware and software solutions for work with PC and for access and work with modules (assuming the exchanging of experiences with the Access Centre, which has been set up in conjunction with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Automation and measurement and the Rector of the TU in Košice).
