vri solutions pvt. ltd - information technology solutions

Special thanks to Mr. Rajiv Nekkanti and Mr. Wade Chatam for assiting in preparing this presentation.

Daniela MarghituComputer Science and Software Engineering

Auburn University, Auburn AL 36849

[email protected]

Information Technology Solutions to Improve the Teaching, Learning and Coordinating Process in a Computer

Fluency CoursePHITS 2004

Information Technology Solutions to Improve the Teaching, Learning and Coordinating

Process in a Computer Fluency Course

ContentContent Introduction Training, Testing and Assessment IT Academic Solutions

– Past– Present– Future

Integrating Training, Testing and Assessment IT Academic Solutions into your course syllabus

Integrating Training, Testing and Assessment IT Academic Applications with University Software Administrative Systems



Introduction The Information Technology (IT) solutions for training,

assessment, testing, Web-based Course Management and Web-based Integrated Learning Environments are becoming more and more part of the Computer Information Technology (CIT) academic programs.

There are a lot of pros and cons about when and how to use these applications in an academic environment.

The technological and pedagogical value in many of the IT solutions for CIT programs have increased considerably in the past three years.



It is also true that many times IT solutions are coming fully correlated with very good academic text books and offer solutions of integration with Universities and Colleges Software Administrative Systems and Databases.

Can IT solutions, even by far, eliminate the human instructors or should they just be considered as extremely helpful tools in a more and more self paced learning process allowing the human instructor to better use their knowledge and experience?

Can IT solutions be fully integrated with Universities and Colleges Software Administrative Systems and Databases?



In this session, based on our experience in developing, beta testing, and integrating IT solutions into CIT programs, we will try to find some answers for these questions.



Training, Testing and Assessment Academic IT Solutions: Past, Present and Future

￭ The Past – The approaches were rather technology-driven using simple

technology and were often inconsistent, planned or by accident. – The applications did not provide much interaction, and feedback

was lacking to help students judge the effectiveness of their learning.

– Often, the training systems were simply presenting a computerized version of a textbook, which often is much less useful than the actual book.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course– The early Training and Assessment IT solutions were also lacking

tools for managing the classroom. – They weren’t portable but tied to a specific platform or network. – No crash recovery option was implemented– Single user floppy disks and later on CD-ROMs were the state of

the art.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course￭ The Present

– Tools have been improving pedagogically quite a bit.– They are interactive and help students judge their own progress and

how effective their learning is. – The current systems excel at helping manage the classroom in

various ways: the systems record the dates when the tutorials or tests were taken automatically grade tests and record the results helping the instructors to

“peek over the students’ shoulder” in order to see if they are doing the work, and if they are on track, e.g., by checking how much time the students spend on taking a tutorial and how good their test results, eliminate also the large amount of time spent in past by instructors on grading tests.

– The reports for the training sessions are still not as detailed as instructors need them.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course– Almost all systems are networked or web-based and have many

integrated functions. – Integrated learning environments have had quite an impressive

recent evolution: fully integrated web based or networked training and assessment

application: using pre-assessment, training and assessment toward a minimally and linear adaptive learning path, they don’t allow for much exploration, i.e., they are quite linear forcing the students to go along one of the few predetermined paths.

web based or networked training and assessment application fully integrated with texts or e-texts content

– Not all applications allow restricted access to tests, based on the IP address of a lab.

– The test crash recovery features have been implemented but there is still room for improvement.



– The procedures for setup and the maintenance are quite complicated. So it might be difficult to find the faculty and staff to run such a system in a non-technical department (in many states and Universities using a training and assessment application from a vendor server is not allowed, concerns regarding security in handling students’ personal information).



￭ The Future– What would we like to see in the future based on our experience

with these tools in the classroom and based on studying some related issues from a more research point of view?

– We would like to see more adaptive tutorials based on preassessment and other feedback from the student with the goal of keeping the student in the zone of proximal development.

– This would result in more individualized courses, more effective learning, and allow more self-directed path through the learning material.

– If the student is kept in the zone of proximal development, it will also result in a more interesting, challenging and less frustrating learning experience for the student.



– More pedagogical detailed reports for students’ training– Support for content authoring.

This should allow, eventually using Template_Based Authoring Systems, easier modifications and reuse of course material and also have the option to embed teaching and learning strategies within the program.

In this way educators will be able to customized Training and Assessment IT solutions applications based on their courses’ needs, goals, technical and pedagogical characteristics.

– Increased security Restricted access to tests based on IP address of computers/local

networks.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course– Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) seem to be no longer

“untouchables”. It has long been the objective of many Training and Assessment IT

solutions developers to combine system's self-paced interactive learning and assessment environment with "intelligence" that tailors training learner's needs and allows voice-based interaction. And with significant recent advances in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and voice recognition technology, the goal of intelligent tutoring systems, as it is known in research circles, is fast materializing.

– An increased implementation of the government’s Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) standards for accessibility.



Criteria in evaluating and selecting an IT Training and Assessment application

Real Application versus Simulated Environment ITSolutions

More and more IT Solutions are working in a simulated environment. Some of the advantages of working in a simulated environment are:

– easier installation and setting– can be run without the presence of the real application

higher speed lower price of using it



Local, Network or Web-Based IT Solutions? With the improved speed for internet connection and faster

computers, web-based IT applications may seem to be the best solution because they allow students to access the same resources and learning anywhere and any time they want.

Besides, textbooks in electronic form and software bundles integrated as part of the web can be made available to the students on the web.

This would eliminate the problems raised by some of the “what-if” questions such as what if a student wants to do extra work at home but does not have a computer to install the software bundles, or what if a student could not afford to buy sometimes quite expensive textbooks and/or software bundles for the class.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course Web-based IT applications are also “the solution” for the

distance learning. However, security it’s becoming an issue especially when

handling confidential information (SSN, grades …). Single user CD based release, especially for the training

applications, is still very useful for students that do not have Internet access at home.


Process in a Computer Fluency CourseIntegrated Learning Environment, the ultimate

Solution? There are instructors that are very much against the use of

IT solutions considering that this type of application can alter the pedagogical aspect of the educational process.

A well proportioned use in class of IT training and assessment solutions proved already to be extremely beneficiary allowing human instructors to use their knowledge and experience when it is really needed and irreplaceable.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course Integrated Web-based Learning Environment incorporates

almost all old-fashion teaching methods, such as paper textbooks, paper syllabus, paper test, etc., into the computer system as electronic form.

Same situation with the class syllabus and class learning schedule which students would forget to bring them or lose them somewhere, sometime during the academic term.

– This also applies to the exam situation when students knew but forgot to bring scantrons and a pencil on the exam day. Students could just take the exam on-line when they go to class and they could even know their grades right after they take them.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course In other words, integrated Web-based Learning

Environment could eliminate some of the tedious things students do and let instructors have better use of their knowledge and experience.

Support for content authoring that should allow, eventually using Template_Based Authoring Systems, easier modifications and reuse of course material and also have the option to embed teaching and learning strategies within the program is still lagging.

– In this way educators will be able to customize Training and Assessment IT solutions applications based on their courses’ needs, goals, technical and pedagogical characteristics.


Process in a Computer Fluency CoursePrivacy and Security Issues

There are always big issues about privacy and security when it comes to the network and internet systems because of shared resources by the general public or by students in

an educational setting. – Hackers and computers virus-writers are all around, waiting for their

opportunities to mess up the system. There is always so much we could do about the security to protect the privacy of students.

– Schools should always keep updated back-up copies on their database systems

– Many schools also do not accept using Web-based Training and/or Assessment tools from other companies’ dedicated servers for the same privacy and security issue.


Process in a Computer Fluency CourseTraining, Technical Support and Maintenance for

the IT Applications Training

– The IT academic applications become more and more sophisticated. Training for the instructors and the university technical support team becomes mandatory. Training is many time organized on university campus (specially for large universities) or at IT seminars organized and sponsored by publishing companies.

Technical Support and Maintenance– Publishing companies need to provide technical support for all IT

academic applications (for installing the applications and for all further maintenance and setting needs). This type of service are in the long run beneficial for all students, universities and publishing companies.



Integrating Training, Testing and Assessment IT Academic Solutions into your course syllabus

￭ Developing the course Web site: – Syllabus is not just a paper handout but is also available on the

course web site. Updates to the syllabus, including lab assignments and assignment due

dates, practice tests, lecture schedule and notes and practice materials are available on the web site, making the latest class information available to the students instantly

Wait List for students’ registration– Resources for instructors are also made available



The COMP1000 Web Site

Homepage



The COMP1000 Make up list

Instructors’ Interface



The COMP1000 Registration Wait listStudents’ Interface


Process in a Computer Fluency Course￭ Integrating WebCT

– The managed WebCT server, integrated with the University administrative server, is used for uploading the lab assignments

Cuts down on the amount of e-mail and potential argues between instructor and students:

“I know I turned in the assignment, you must have lost it”

“I emailed you the assignment, you must not have gotten it.”

Cuts down on the use of lab resources : printers, paper Make easier the process of tracking students’ uploading of assignments It’s safe and reliable



The COMP1000 WebCT Student

Interface



The COMP1000 WebCT Lab Assignments Page



The COMP1000 WebCT Student

Submit Assignment Interface


Process in a Computer Fluency Course￭ Integrating Train and Assess IT

– The Train and Assess IT is installed on our course dedicated server– The Training modules are available to students at all time from the

server as well as from the CD that comes with the custom textbook – Skill Assessment quizzes are administered for each Microsoft Office

application Prescriptive modules are designed for each quiz so student can receive

feedback containing the training modules they still need to work on

ￚ We have seen a constant up-trend in the time spent by students in training as well as in the average grades for the skill assessment quizzes



The COMP1000 Train & Assess IT Administrator

Interface



The COMP1000 Train and Assess IT student

account



A COMP1000 prescriptive module


Process in a Computer Fluency CourseIntegrating IT Testing and Assessment

Applications with University Software Administrative Systems

Universities require computer literacy introductory courses for the majority of their academic programs.

One of the major problems encountered in designing the syllabus of these courses is generated by the wide variety of freshman students’ computer background: some of them have good computer classes in high school so they are ready for more advanced IT courses while some others have a very poor computer background.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course One way many universities address this problem is

by offering Competency exams for these required computer literacy courses.

– Upon passing a Competency Exam students can register for more advanced IT courses that have as prerequisites the required computer literacy introductory courses.

– Some academic programs also require students to pass a more sophisticated IT exam before graduation.

IT Testing, Training and Assessment applications are very good tools for this type of exams.

However, in order to adapt them to university policies and integrate them with University Software Administrative System front end and post end interfaces may be required.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course The front end interface is required for registration and

downloading the registration information to the IT application database.

The post end interface is required to upload the results from the IT application database into a university database as well as to give access for AU faculty and staff.

Depending on the hardware and software configuration of the IT application as well as university software and hardware resources, policies and requirements, designing and implementing this type of interfaces can be more or less challenging.


Process in a Computer Fluency Course￭ COMP1@@0, Computer Competency Test

– Was developed using the Auburn University WebCT managed server that is fully integrated with the University administrative software system, Oasis.

– Auburn University administrative software system, Oasis, is based on the SIS Plus software, designed and implemented by SCT Inc.

– If in the future we will need to use the Train and Assess IT, we have implemented a script that will convert the registration information downloaded from Oasis (as text coma separated file) to the format require by the Train and Assess IT “Import Students” feature (still a text coma separated file).

– For administrative purposes, we have also developed a COMP1@@0 Portal.

– Following University policy, the Comp1@@0 system was created with security and student privacy at the forefront of the system design.



The COMP1@@0 WebCT Interface


Process in a Computer Fluency Course￭ COMP1@@0 database Portal

– Was designed and implemented to house all of the student test results in a single dedicated table, allowing for easy access and manipulation of these results by only the designated Comp1@@0 administrators.

– PHP and MySQL were used to develop it. – Allows its users to download student results into text files, query

the database, backup the database, and modify the user accounts. – The entire portal is password-protected, and its content is

dynamically generated based on user login for additional security.


Process in a Computer Fluency CoursePrimaryDatabase

SecondaryDatabase

Upload Interface.

Download Interface.

Backup / Restore Interface

File from AUStudy

Delimited File

Main PageDatabase Portal(index.htm)

Query Interface

The Data and Control Flow of the Comp1@@0 Database Portal



Main Menu for Master Accounts



Main Menu for Non-Master Accounts



The Upload Interface



The Query Interface



Administration Accounts Interface



Questions

vri solutions pvt. ltd - information technology solutions

Technology

information

intelligent

templatebased

solutions

publishing

academic solutions

fully integrated

simulated