Information Technologies and Learning Tools

DIGITALIZATION IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION: DIDACTIC ASPECTS

2023-01-25T06:14:00-06:00

Intensively developing digital technologies are transforming the basic processes studied by the didactics of higher education: ways of the teacher-student interrelated activity; the student and the knowledge, skills, and competencies intended to be learnt and gained; the teacher and the methodology of educational material. The learning goals set by the information society shift the focus from mastering the system of knowledge and developing professional skills to developing competencies, the formation of students’ readiness to design their own unique educational trajectories based on a competency-based approach. As higher education becomes more digitalized, there is a shift from coordinating teaching and learning activities to projecting, forming, and mastering individual educational plans. To meet the challenges of modern education, educators are expected to be able to comprehend changes impacting all of the components of didactic theory, including goals, content, forms, technologies, and learning tools. Digitalization processes lead to the dominance of infographic forms of presentation of educational material instead of narrative (text) forms associated with the development of voluminous texts. The variety of forms of organization of educational activities in the digital educational environment is increasing significantly, they are becoming a dynamic open system of educational modules. The educators are being faced with new theoretical tasks due to the active modernization of university educational practice, including the need to find ways to implement continuity between traditional and innovative methods of organizing the educational process while taking into account specific cognitive, motivational, and need-based characteristics of the digital generation. The transition from teaching as the educators’ primary activity to the variety of pedagogical roles they play in the digital educational process actualizes teachers’ mastery of the information technologies and the development of their personal professional teaching strategy.

USING TINKERCAD TO SUPPORT ONLINE THE LABORATORY WORK ON THE DESIGN OF MICROPROCESSOR SYSTEMS AT TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

2023-01-25T06:14:37-06:00

This article reviews the possibility of using the Tinkercad Internet service for online study of the subjects connected with microprocessor systems. During the global coronavirus pandemic, online classes based on the Internet technologies have become virtually the only effective method of learning. However, while lectures can be taught successfully with the help of video conferences such as Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet etc., it is almost impossible to perform laboratory and practical work in the field of designing microprocessor systems with the help of these tools. Therefore, the authors suggest a new approach to practicums on the subjects related to microprocessor systems using tools of the Tinkercad Internet service. The existing methods and means of remote work with breadboard Arduino have been analyzed. The advantages of the Tinkercad Internet service in comparison with other tools of remote work have been disclosed. The service capability for microprocessor systems design has been considered. The article provides examples of elaborated lab works by means of the Tinkercad Internet service. Available capabilities and instruments in the system have been detailed. The process of learning based on the Tinkercad Internet service has been developed. Consequently, the use of the Tinkercad Internet service during e-learning gives the possibility to do lab works and microprocessor system design practicums without actual equipment, and the methods suggested by the authors assure the quality of students’ awareness in this direction. The prospective direction of this Internet service application can be the design of 3D printing models and their use during e-learning of other subjects, in particular Physics (Electrics section), Theoretical Basics of Electrical Engineering (DC section), as well as other sciences related to electronic circuit design.

AUTOMATED INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION «ELECTRONIC UNIVERSITY»

2023-01-15T04:56:15-06:00

The article deals with the development and implementation of information systems for managing the activities of a higher education institution under the conditions of digital transformation. In recent years, in the conditions of increased competition, an important feature of the field of higher education is a systematic approach to the automation of management of all processes that take place in it. Digitalization of these processes is one of the most effective tools. The purpose of the study is to generalize 20 years of experience in forming the «Electronic University» information system of the Khmelnytskyi National University to determine recommendations for integrated information systems for computer support of administrative and educational activities of higher education institutions. Issues of rational organization of university management and the educational process using modern information technologies were discussed. The main business processes and the functional structure of the information system, the main tasks that the information system solves, the adopted architectural decisions, the principles of building an effective database structure, development tools, generating reports, programming languages, etc. are considered. There is a justified need and the possibility of storing data that reflects the history of all changes. This provides the possibility of obtaining a slice of data or the state of an information object at any moment by means of calculations in the database. It makes it possible to get any statistics for any interval or at any time. On the basis of the automated system for organizing the educational process «Electronic University» an automated approach to the formation of working curricula of a higher education institution is proposed, taking into account the implementation of students' free choice of some disciplines. Ensuring the reliability of the functioning of the information system is an extremely urgent issue. Instead of expensive hardware cluster solutions, a combination of replication and load balancing is proposed. This allows you to significantly increase the productivity of the entire information system and its efficiency, ensuring constant round-the-clock user access with only two servers. Many years of experience in building the IT infrastructure of the university, methodical and technological developments are described, as well as appropriate recommendations are provided. Innovative management of the educational process contributes to the optimization of the educational process and high-quality training of specialists at Khmelnytskyi National University.

EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF ELECTRONIC EDUCATIONAL COURSES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

2022-09-11T10:08:14-05:00

The transition to distance and blended forms of education in most higher education institutions during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then the actions of martial law in Ukraine prompted teachers to create their own electronic educational resources and electronic training courses, with the help of which the content of the academic discipline is transmitted. The article describes approaches to the evaluation of the quality of electronic educational courses. The main structural components of an electronic educational course for higher education institutions are distinguished: technical and technological, normative and organizational, methodical, substantive, result and evaluative, which can be considered factors affecting its quality. It was determined that the technical and technological factor is characterized by the possibility and convenience of installing electronic educational course on PCs and mobile devices, compatibility of electronic educational course with various operating systems availability and quality of instructions for installing/starting electronic educational course, availability of a description of technical characteristics of electronic educational course and contacts of its developer(s). The criteria of the regulatory and organizational factor are normative acts related to the educational course, reviews of the electronic educational course, questionnaires for applicants of higher education and teachers regarding the determination of the quality of the electronic educational course. Features of the methodological block are instructions for the electronic educational course users, methodological materials for students of higher education on the performance of the main types of tasks, methodological recommendations for the electronic educational course teacher, feedback. The content factor is characterized by lecture texts, presentations for each topic, multimedia materials, a terminological dictionary, tasks (practical, interactive, for independent work, creative, research), project works, reference materials, a list of main and additional sources, additional educational materials, a glossary.

A basic factor-criterion model for evaluating the quality of an electronic educational course for higher education institutions is proposed, which makes it possible to carry out an objective quantitative assessment of the quality of an electronic educational course and to identify possible shortcomings in order to eliminate them in time, which can be used during the development and evaluation of electronic educational courses for higher education institutions in various academic disciplines.

THE ACCEPTANCE OF AN EDUCATIONAL INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT TO LEARN PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS

2022-12-13T07:55:29-06:00

Programming is an important course for any IT or engineering-related course. However, previous research shows that students face difficulties in learning programming due to its abstract concepts. This study aims to evaluate the acceptance of a developed Integrated Development Environment (IDE), namely C-SOLVIS which is a web-based application that specifically intends to facilitate the teaching and learning of the C programming fundamentals in Malaysian tertiary education. The C-SOLVIS integrates problem-solving into a program development environment for the C language. The goal is to guide the users in problem-solving and help them write C programs based on problem-solving algorithms. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) Model was employed in the C-SOLVIS development process. Based on this model, the requirement planning phase was carried out through the triangulation technique by applying qualitative approaches comprising a literature review supported by semi-structured interviews, document reviews, and content validation by expert programming lecturers. Subsequently, the design of the application was accomplished through the iterative prototyping process which was then followed by the application construction. Then, the C-SOLVIS is deployed to be used by several programming lecturers to evaluate its usability by adopting a quantitative method using the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. The study has discovered several suitable techniques and designs for the problem-solving and program development environment. For the problem-solving environment, the Computational Thinking (CT) concepts were applied which were supported by the Input-Process-Output (IPO) Model through Scientific Instructions and Inquiries. Meanwhile, the program development environment was designed and developed based on frame-based programming using a set of developed Code Patterns. The C-SOLVIS evaluation using the SUS instrument has yielded a SUS mean score of 86.07. This score is interpreted by SUS as an A grade that indicates C-SOLVIS as a highly usable application and thus is accepted for C programming learning. Hence, the development process of the C-SOLVIS can be used as a guideline for educational software development, especially in the field of programming education.

PARTICULARITIES OF PHYSICS LABORATORY WORK CONDUCTING AT THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY DURING DISTANCE LEARNING

2022-11-15T08:34:38-06:00

The training of an engineer at a technical university involves not only the mastering the theoretical knowledge by students, but also the acquisition of the ability to conduct the experimental research. The performance of laboratory work is the basis of such skills. Necessary social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic forced educational institutions to switch to a distant form for all kinds of classes, including physics labs.

Conducting laboratory physics classes in synchronous distance learning mode requires the availability of computer programs that adequately model real laboratory equipment, materials for preparing and monitoring students’ readiness to perform laboratory research, as well as methodic for conducting online laboratory classes.

In this article we analyze the types of labs, the requirements for computer models of real physics labs and justify the use of the HTML5 and Java Script language to create virtual laboratories (VL) in physics for first-year students of all technical specialties studying under the bachelor's training program at the National Technical University of Ukraine «Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute». The expert evaluation showed the correspondence of the created VL to real prototypes. It is important for bringing the students’ perception of virtual objects closer to the perception of real ones. We also briefly describes the procedure for developing VL, created didactic materials (methodological guidelines, videos, test items) and the methodology laboratory classes in synchronous distance learning mode.

The use of the created VL and the developed methodology for conducting online laboratory exercises made it possible to overcome successfully the difficulties of organizing the educational process during the forced transition of students to distance learning.

EXPERIENCES OF CONDUCTING ONLINE EXAM PROCTORING IN LOW-RESOURCE SETTINGS: A SRI LANKAN CASE STUDY

2023-01-23T16:53:24-06:00

Online tests are becoming increasingly common as online learning gains popularity. Online assessments are more prone to academic dishonesty than traditional exams. Ad hoc online proctoring techniques have been used by institutions to prevent academic misconduct during online tests. In contexts with unreliable infrastructure, such as slow internet connections and a lack of compatible equipment, it is challenging to figure out how to employ technology to proctor online tests swiftly and efficiently. The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of the context and requirements for scaling up online exams in Sri Lanka as well as to investigate what options for improving the subsequent deployment of online proctoring systems in low-resource settings exist in order to maintain the caliber of academic programs. In this work, an in-class assignment for a Software Engineering course at a higher education institution in Sri Lanka was manually proctored using video conferencing software in a completely remote context. A post-exam feedback survey was used to collect information about participants' experiences with online proctoring. The survey was supposed to reveal the experiences about the devices used, internet connectivity, the factors that led to stress and perceptions about cheating during the exam. The data obtained from both the assignment and the survey was analyzed in order to make well-informed decisions about the future deployment of online proctoring technologies. This paper presents evidence of the experiment that strongly recommends that online exam proctoring solutions be developed after a careful examination of the constraints such as internet connection speed, stability, and affordability, as well as sudden power outages of the environment in which they will be utilised, in order to unlock the true potential of e-learning technologies.

AUTOMATION OF THE CREATION, FILLING AND ADMINISTRATION OF COURSE CATEGORIES ON THE MOODLE WEBSITE

2022-12-04T06:21:09-06:00

The choice of course categories structure of the Moodle site largely determines its effectiveness and ease of use. There are two main approaches to choosing the course category structure on the university website. The first one structures them from the point of view of teachers: the categories of courses of departments are placed in the categories of courses of the faculty. The second is from the point of view of students: the categories of courses of educational programs are placed in the category of courses of faculties. The paper considers a structure that best combines these two approaches. It uses the first approach as a basic one, and the lists of courses for educational programs are formed in the form of hyperlinks, which are implemented using the elements of the Subcourse course placed in service courses specially created for them. This makes it possible to import the resulting grades from all disciplines of a certain educational program and year of study into the gradebook of the service course and calculate the current rating of each student on their basis, which the Moodle system updates every minute, and to export lists of students in the opposite direction. Then enrolling or withdrawing a student in a service course causes the same actions in all courses of this educational program. Such site structure has significant advantages, but its creation requires a large amount of work by the administrator, so it needs automation. For this, the Moosh utility is used, designed for the administration of the Moodle site through the command line interface, which significantly speeds up the administration process compared to performing the same actions through the native Moodle interface. An even greater speedup can be achieved by running files containing many such commands for execution in Moosh. But the main content of this work is the automation of the creation of the command files themselves. This further speeds up administration processes and improves their quality by reducing the number of errors that occur during manual typing of commands or site administration with Moodle's own tools. The work describes the process of creating command files that ensure the automatic execution of all work related to the creation of the above-mentioned site structure: creation of course categories, creation of service courses and their filling, as well as further site administration related to student enrollment for courses of the new academic year, their deduction from last year's courses, etc. New plugins that support the functioning of such a site structure are also being considered.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE RESEARCH OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM FEATURES ON THE STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE ABILITIES

2023-01-04T09:47:18-06:00

The article is devoted to the description of the computer method and the results of the analysis of its use for the study of the relationship between the components of intelligence, personality traits and features of the nervous system (FNS) of experienced professionals and master’s students in professions related to cognitive activity. It is given a description of psychological tests which are implemented as part of digital technology, developed with the participation of the authors and used to study other aspects of the impact of digitization of education (modified R. Amthauer intelligence structure test, determination of psychological types according to Myers-Briggs, original and modified Khilchenko-Makarenko methods for measuring the strength and functional mobility of nervous processes, including the conditions of the action of interferences), as well as the results of research: nervous system personalities and resistance to interferences during the performance of simple cognitive tasks, the influence of the properties of the strength of the nervous system and the functional mobility of nervous processes on the development of the components of intelligence and on the formation of personal traits. The analysis of experimental data was performed using STATISTICA 5.1 and JASP packages. The experimental data demonstrated that the research digital technology proposed by the authors, provides a reliable assessment of the subjects' FNS. It is shown that the use of research digital technology made it possible to carry out an experimental study of the relationship between the structural components of intelligence and the FNS – the strength of the nervous system, the functional mobility of nervous processes, the indicators associated with them under the conditions of the effects of interferences – and some personal traits of the testers. It has been proven that the modeling of the structural components of intelligence by using the specified properties with the selection of the most informative indicators provides a high and reliable level of correlation at the level of 0.93 and higher. The possibility of building reliable models of the connection of psychotypological personality properties (according to two criterion scales: intuition N – sensory S and thinking T – feeling F) with the studied FNS is shown. With the help of a factor model, the connection of FNS with the structure of intelligence and the structure of personality is shown.

INFORMATION AND COMPUTATIONAL COMPETENCE OF FUTURE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALISTS

2022-12-29T16:17:57-06:00

The key competences of future specialists are considered as a new paradigm of the results of higher education. The experience of professional training of IT specialists in foreign universities was studied. It has been proven that the professional competence of specialists is not a simple sum of subject knowledge of university graduates, but is the result of a formed set of general cultural, professional and general competences.

The content of general competences of future specialists in the field of knowledge "Information Technologies" was studied. The imperfection and the possibility of supplementing the structure of special competences of future specialists in information technologies by isolating its informational and computational component have been proven. The information and computational competence of an information technology specialist, which can be added to the list of special competences, has been determined. It is substantiated that the information and computational competence of an information technology specialist should not only be added to the list of special competences, but is an integrative personal quality, the essence of which is the readiness of the future specialist to effectively use the knowledge and skills acquired during training to solve information and computational tasks activities that arise in the course of professional activity, in particular, his awareness of the social significance of this activity, his personal responsibility for its results.

The developed educational software product was introduced into the educational process of the university at the stage of assessing the level of formation of professional competences of higher education students in the field of information technology knowledge. During the performance of the work, the tasks of the professional educational project, which involves the assessment of the formation of information and computing competence of future IT specialists, were determined and solved. It has been proven that the addition of the components of the developed software product has an effect on increasing the level of formation of special competences of future information technology specialists, in particular by highlighting its information and computational component. The need for continuous improvement in the specified type of professional activity is identified. Further directions for improving the structure of professional competences of future information technology specialists have been determined.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, CHALLENGES AND COPING MECHANISMS IN HIGH SCHOOL ONLINE DISTANCE LEARNING DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

2023-01-13T10:59:36-06:00

Most educational institutions made sure that instruction was uninterrupted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a flexible learning method, most schools chose online distance learning (ODL). Consequently, the Internet is among the many tools that ensures continuity in teaching and learning. Many schools have adopted ODL using their learning management system (LMS). However, schools are challenged in attaining the expected engagement among students. Students must cope with the new learning environment wherein they are physically separated from teachers and peers. This research aims to assess the engagement of senior high school in the ODL environment. Specifically, it describes the respondent’s engagement profile, preferred learning resources and activities, and challenges faced in ODL. Student logs from the university LMS during the second semester of 2020 – 2021 were utilized for engagement profiling. On the other hand, an online survey was conducted among 424 students to gather their preferred learning resources, activities, and challenges experienced in ODL. Results show that assignments and files are the most common resources used during the ODL. It shows that attendance and quizzes are what students often visit. Quiz and Wiki are where students spend their time. The result indicates that Slideshows and PDF or MS word materials are the most preferred learning materials. The Lesson is the most preferred learning activity, and students perceived that this activity is the most useful in the ODL. Lack of motivation or confidence earned the highest mean of 3.49, described as “every time.” Heavy workload, procrastination, lack of interaction, and technical issues are rated “every time,” showing that respondents are heavily challenged. In terms of coping, the result indicates that daily login and breaking down responsibilities were the most common mechanism. Communicating with the teachers yielded the lowest coping mean. The study concludes that engaging students in online distance learning are very challenging, especially when learners are not ready. Preferences in terms of learning resources and activities are multi-faceted. There is a need to improve the variation of asynchronous activities like interactive multimedia, such as gamification.

USABILITY OF PROGRAM INTERFACES FOR TEACHING 3D GRAPHICS IN A SCHOOL COURSE OF INFORMATICS

2023-01-25T07:15:06-06:00

The study of three-dimensional graphics is an important part of a school course of informatics. This is a consequence of the fact that in today's world it is impossible to imagine a sphere of human activity where 3D modeling and 3D printing technologies are not used. At the same time, issues related to the study of this field of information technology at school are unfortunately not sufficiently outlined. Students' perception of the complex interfaces of the corresponding graphic software is also a problematic point. At the same time, the degree of their impact on educational activity has not been studied at a sufficient level. Considering that the complexity of organizing the interaction between the user and the control elements is inherent in the vast majority of graphic 3D programs, the purpose of the exploratory research was to study this very issue only in the context of the educational learning process. When choosing software for testing, the following selection criteria were followed: the software must be distributed on the basis of the open GPL license, and online services must be able to be freely registered and used in work; it is necessary that graphic complexes of three-dimensional graphics satisfy sufficiently democratic system requirements of school computers; the presence of a large number of localizations is also important, and in terms of functionality, 3D programs should approach similar leading commercial software tools and corresponding online services. In the work, considerable attention was paid to the description of research planning. In particular, it was indicated how the sample of respondents was formed and the main approaches to testing program interfaces in the context of their use in the educational process were revealed. An online tool for testing - UsabilityHub.com - is described separately. The obtained data are described and supplemented by specialized graphic heat maps of clicks. As a result, the data is analyzed in detail, it is indicated that the obtained results of the exploration research are an important basis for conducting further scientific research related to this topic and will allow better investigation of problematic issues. The authors also formulate recommendations for the study of three-dimensional graphics editors in a school course of informatics and note methodological points that teachers should pay attention to when preparing for classes.

ENGLISH YOUTUBE VIDEO CLIPS AS A TOOL FOR YOUNG LEARNERS’ COGNITIVE ACTIVITY RENOVATION UNDER CONDITIONS OF WAR

2022-12-09T09:05:02-06:00

The article presents the results of the psychological and pedagogical value of using English YouTube video clips for young learners to attract and switch their attention while being in the bomb shelter, home or evacuation during the war in Ukraine. Based on a large corpus of psychological, pedagogical, and methodic literature study and review, the problem of digital learning tools implementation in joint educational child-parent work under extraordinary circumstances has been set. Special attention is paid to English YouTube video clips for young learners, considered a resource and cognitive tool during the Russia-Ukraine war. The psychological and pedagogical benefits of using English YouTube video clips for young learners have been analyzed. The list of the most popular children’s YouTube channels has been made. The English YouTube video clip selection criteria for young learners have been specified. The author’s experience of methodic support for parents aiming at learning English during the war via the social network Facebook and the Telegram channel is presented. The didactic potential of using English YouTube video clips for children is outlined due to their themes, lexis, and speech patterns. The three-step procedure of emotionally motivated, cognitive and creative communicative activities based on using English YouTube video clips for young learners is given. The parents' questionnaire was done to determine the positive effect of using English YouTube video clips on children’s psychological state and emotions during the Russia-Ukraine war. The questionnaire results have proved a positive impact of English YouTube video clips on attracting and switching the attention of young learners, as well as their emotional renovation in a military situation.