Informatics in Education

The article presents a method of explaining the principles of 3D graphics through making a revolvable and sizable orthographic parallel projection of cuboid in Excel. No programming is used. The method was tried in fourteen 90 minute lessons with 181 participants, which were Informatics teachers, undergraduates of Applied Informatics and gymnasium (grammar school) students. Questionnaire surveys were conducted. The results are being discussed.

This paper presents results of a questionnaire focused on investigating students' confidence and behavioral intention in the area of programming, particularly that of structures, problem solving, and programming commands (Conditional - Loop). Responses from 116 1st year students regarding informatics were used. The results indicate that the engagement with programming logic yields a positive impact on students' confidence and acceptance. In addition, all the measured factors are related relatively strongly. Our findings demonstrate that students' prior direction (at Lyceum) has a significant impact on their Confidence for using Programming Commands (CPC) and Confidence for using Data Structures (CDS); however, prior direction does not have any impact on learners Problem Solving Confidence (PSC) and Behavioral Intention (BI) for programming. In the conclusion, several issues regarding the courses of programming are discussed.

This work is part of a research project whose main objective is to understand the impact that the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has on the teaching and learning process on the subject of Physics. We will show that, with the use of a storm simulator, physics students improve their learning process on one hand they understand storm phenomenon, and on the other hand they assimilate in better way physics ideas. Computer technology is a positive supplement to bridge the gap between education and the technological world in which we live. Computer-assisted technologies at the university offer students a great access to information, an eager motivation to learn, a jump-start on marketable job skills and an enhanced quality of class work.

The article presents results of the empirical research revealing readiness of adults to participate in the lifelong learning process using e-learning, m-learning and t-learning technologies. The research has been carried out in the framework of the international project eBig3 aiming at development a new distance learning platform blending virtual learning environments, television and mobile technologies. Readiness to learn in a distance mode using e-learning, m-learning and t-learning technologies has been analysed on the ground of self-assessment of adults' computer literacy, usage of e-services including e-learning in a distance mode, experience in and attitude towards the choice of the mode of learning.

Under the auspices of a DAAD funded educational project, a subproject devoted to different aspects of teaching the Java programming language started several years ago. The initial intention of the subproject was to attract members of the subproject to prepare some teaching materials for teaching essentials of the Java programming language. During the last two years, some advanced Java topics have been selected and appropriate teaching materials have been produced. The available pool of common teaching materials can be used in a wide range of university courses in participating countries. In this paper we share some of the results and experiences collected during the subproject that come from intensive use of the prepared teaching materials for a variety of Java topics in different countries and universities.

The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web where information is represented in a machine processable way. It is not separate from the current Web and one of the confusions that novice users might have is where the Semantic Web is. In fact, users can easily encounter RDF documents that are components of the Semantic Web while they navigate among Web pages. In addition, the number of RDF documents on the Web is ever-increasing and a lot of educational materials in RDF format become available on the Web. In this paper, we propose a simple Semantic Web browser by which non-expert users such as secondary school students who do not know technical details about the Semantic Web can browse through HTML documents and RDF documents.

The paper's contribution is a methodology that integrates two basic technologies (GLO and LEGO robot) to teach Computer Science (CS) topics at the school level. We present the methodology as a framework of 5 components (pedagogical activities, technology driven processes, tools, knowledge transfer actors, and pedagogical outcomes) and interactions among the components. GLOs are meta-programmed entities to generate LO instances on demand depending on the context of use and learning objectives. A GLO is a black-box entity, which is integrated in the framework through the generating process to source the teaching and learning process via robot-based visualization to demonstrate how programs and algorithms are transformed into real-world tasks and processes. The methodology is tested in the real e-learning setting. The pedagogical outcomes are evaluated by empirical data showing the increase of student engagement level, higher flexibility and reuse enhancement in learning.

With a significant increase in the number of e-learning resources the issue of quality is of current importance. An analysis of existing scientific and methodological literature shows the variety of approaches, methods and tools to evaluate e-learning materials. This paper proposes an approach based on the procedure for estimating parameters of local factors and receiving the integral index of usability quality of e-learning modules. We present a mathematical model which serves as a basis for the automated procedures for expertise. The use of fuzzy logic allows to reduce greatly the complexity of evaluating the formation of a repository of e-learning modules. The proposed approach is focused on the situation, when the university has amassed a large number of e-learning modules that have to be assessed in terms of ergonomics; is able to use experts in ergonomics and organization of e-learning (the experts can provide, as a rule, qualitative assessment); is limited in resources on the development of special software for evaluation of e-learning modules; is forced by the need to reduce the cost of expertise to be limited to considering only the main quality indicators that have the greatest impact on the ergonomics of e-learning modules. For automation of the ergonomic examination procedures a MatLab system is used, in particular Fuzzy Logic Toolbox.

In this paper, we propose the development of a web-based, intelligent instruction system to help elementary school students for mathematical computation. We concentrate on the intelligence facilities which support diagnosis and advice. The existing web-based instruction systems merely give information on whether the learners' replies are `correct' or `incorrect', and only offer evaluations of the learners' results in terms of points. What is needed is a web-based instruction system that diagnoses the learner's comprehension status, and provides cause: why did the learner make the error? Our system has a facility that analyses the learner's weak points and has the ability to diagnose the cause of the error, giving advice to the learners and more detailed error information than extant systems. By accumulating user behavior and analyzing the learner's responses, our system provides relevant, individualized information, along with advice for the learners.

While researchers working within the Student Learning Research framework have developed or adapted questionnaires to gather information on students' experiences of blended learning, no questionnaire has been developed to enquire about teachers' experiences in such learning environments. The present article reports the development and testing of a novel questionnaire on `approaches to e-teaching', which may be employed to investigate the experience of teaching when e-learning is involved. Results showed suitable reliability and validity. Also, when exploring associations between the novel questionnaire scales and those of the well-known `approaches to teaching' inventory (Prosser and Trigwell, 2006), results from correlation and cluster analyses suggest that student-focused approaches to teaching are needed for significant use of digital technology to emerge. For practice, this relevant outcome implies that teaching needs to be considered holistically when supporting teachers to incorporate e-learning in their practice: because it seems they approach online teaching coherently with the face-to-face side of the blended experience.