1. Us and Them – The Story of Joint Venture in eLearning of Teachers and Students PUTNIK,Z.*, IVANOVIĆ, M.*, BUDIMAC,Z.*, BOTHE, K.** * Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad ** Institute of Informatics, Humboldt University Berlin

2. Agenda Introduction Regular Possibilities Resulting Lectures Resume 1. 2. 5. 3. 4. Additional Possibility

3. eLearning at the University level requires a lot of work. For each Department, each direction at that Department, and each obligatory course at that direction, we need at least: some stable and passive reading material; some active, multimedia resources; some testing and self-testing material, and some links to either pre-requisite, or additional, bonus resources. Just a reminder These eLearning resources must be updated rather often. … much, much more often than in elementary and secondary schools. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

4. If your Department also agrees to follow Bologna principles, there is a number of elective courses. A regular amount should be at least 30% of courses, or in absolute numbers, around 10. Of course, for students to be able to choose, that means about 30 elective courses developed to choose from. Just a reminder Let’s look at DMI! To achieve 240 ECTS, student MUST pass 22 obligatory and 9 elective courses. Common practice of taking “easier” courses, leads to selection of 33-34 courses– 22 + 11/12. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

5. So at DMI, 22 obligatory courses + 9-12 elective courses per student, makes more than 50 courses altogether!!! At the plus and minus side, we have: we wanted to develop at least 3 courses to be chosen from, for each elective course, but some of the elective courses for one direction, are actually obligatory courses for some other direction, which we had to develop anyway. State of the art Up to a certain point in time, all of the elective courses were in CS. Also, all of the eLearning material for any course, were in CS. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

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7. Study direction “Professor of Computer Science” at DMI had an obligatory course “Distance Learning”. conducted at the fourth, final year of their studies; students already passed all of “Pepsi” courses, and a large number of other courses, so they are ready to employ their knowledge. within a “Distance Learning” course, they developed teaching material for the course of their selection in LMS Moodle. The First inspiration As a consequence, we got 20 lectures prepared! Not fully and completely, but a good, sometimes even excellent starting point! IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

8. Perfect while it lasted, but it didn’t last. Professors’ direction had over the years 3, 4, 5, 8 … and then 0, 0, 0 students enrolled!!! Consequently, DMI decided to drop the direction for the next accreditation period. We’ve lost our allies for eLearning  The First problem To be honest, 20 lectures is not much. Sometimes, just 1 course, has that amount of lectures. And … let me remind you, we had to develop more than 50 courses. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

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10. Why not invent an elective course about eLearning, distance learning, or similar? Because there is an accreditation, and it costs, and it’s complicated … No problem, if you think ahead! We’ve accredited 4 courses, entitled “Elective seminar A, B, C and D”, first two at undergraduate, second two at graduate level. Recursive solution Each year, professors can offer various topics within those courses. Did we trick the system? No, we just employed it to our satisfaction. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

11. At the beginning of a semester, professors offer the courses, and students apply for them: if there are students, the course is conducted, if not, the course is not offered anymore. The first time “Elective Seminar – eLearning” was offered was in 2004/05. As for any new course, we had small number of student – 7. Yet, it meant that we had 7 more lectures developed! The First experiences Small number of students enabled us to carefully develop teaching materials for the course. It also enabled us to recognize what we can expect/require from students. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

12. In the next couple of years, we had a rapid growth of students applying for the course. in 2 nd year – 17, in 3 rd year – 26, in 4 th year – 94!!! The last one was too much. Way too much! We had to control the situation. Year 5 we did not conduct the course. In the following years, we kept number of students between 25 and 30. Further experiences Unfortunately, number of finished eLessons is not the same as the number of students applied. Our wish to have useful material, raised the quality level required, so not all of the students managed! IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

13. Why so many students? The average grade, was above 9.5, was that the reason? How is it possible to have such a high average grade, without giving grades away? Was the course too easy? No. Definitely. As we promised to students at the beginning, instead of getting a lower grade, they will have to work more, create a better lesson, and deserve a higher grade. Or fail! Their choice. Achievements As a consequence, we got developed material of a much higher quality! Some of it was almost immediately, with minimal changes, usable!! IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

14. With so many students – why do we still need this elective course? For several reasons, actually: we want our students to learn about theory and practice of eLearning – the first and the most important! we want our eLearning material constantly being updated and of the highest quality, and number of applicants is not the same as the number of those who successfully passed the exam. (Small) conclusion Because of the demand for high quality, a lot of students didn’t pass the exam. They reapply the next year, in order to finish it. Or not. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

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16. Let us introduce the notion of “successfully developed eLearning resource” which we will identify with the highest grades 10 and 9. These lectures in practice didn’t require too much additional work by lecturers to be used in practice. Over the years, number of resulting successfully developed lectures are as shown in the table. (Successful) Resulting lectures We got 132 nicely developed lectures, plus 55 “usable” lectures. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

17. What subjects and topics were the most interesting for our students to create eLearning materials. Was it a free choice? Well … almost! Courses from the first study year had more chance to be selected, so we had to “suggest” which topics we need more! What lectures have we got? Lucky for us, students agreed and selected exactly the courses we needed. Free will ;-), of course! IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

18. We were not sure in the beginning what students can create, and what we should ask them to do. Over the years, we learned. For start, we supply them with static, written material to be used in eLearning resources. Then we ask them to create eLesson, i.e. series of screens: explaining the topic, giving links to additional resources and to needed pre-knowledge material, and giving some initial testing questions, just to keep students alert and in touch with the material. Content of a lecture This was not a problem, students were willing to do more! We experimented for two years, checking what can be expected. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

19. We finally settled with the practice that students are required to develop: one eLesson, one glossary of the most important terms and notions, one question database with at least thirty questions, and one quiz that randomly selects ten questions from that database for students’ self-testing. Even those requirements didn’t present any additional problem to students. Content of a lecture Those willing to work can develop all required material, and “easily” and with pleasure pass the exam. For those looking for effortless and undemanding exam, nothing changed, they don’t manage anyway. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

20. On four occasions we conducted a survey to find out what our students think about the course. Survey is a typical one we apply at all courses, standardized and borrowed from a long-lasting educational DAAD project. The survey consists of four parts – questions about: teaching organization, lecturer, assistant, and finally students’ attendance of the course, and needed work Satisfaction of students Surveys were conducted on the 3 rd year of course conduction with 26 students, 4 th year with 94 students, 8 th year with 27, and last year with 20 students. Unfortunately, number of students participating in a survey is much smaller.  IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

21. Problem with surveys in this course lies in its organization: First, we conduct several theoretical lectures about the nature and principles of eLearning. After that, practical lectures follow, teaching more application oriented things, needed in order to create eLearning teaching material. In between and in parallel, exercises where all of the mentioned things are tested in practice are conducted. Organization of the course IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

22. After that, students start working on the material, with the help of lecturers. Since we’re talking eLearning, we felt obliged to let students work on those from home, on the distance. (We can, since another survey revealed the fact that all of our students have personal computers, while more than 95% of them have Internet access at home). Organization of the course Time for consultations is still available and students use it to their choice. Still, they usually choose consultation by e-mail + live presentation of the material when it is almost finished. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

23. Since it is difficult to gather a lot of students back in the classroom for surveys, we switched to electronic surveys, but response is never too high  In the following tables, we show the most interesting results. Answers are on the scale from 1 (totally disagree/not satisfied) to 5 (totally agree/completely satisfied). Survey results Drop of the grade was because of the wish to make lectures faster, so that they can start with the work sooner. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

24. Survey results Assistant has slightly higher grades, because, her/his part was more interesting to students. No “boring” theoretical lectures; but exercises with practical and clickable things, which students prefer. IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

25. The last table, about the course requirements, can be summed up in a few words as: students missed almost no lectures, nor exercises, and used consultations a lot! they spent a lot of time to post-process lectures and finish assignments. Through oral discussions, we found out reasons: students liked the fact that they can really finish with their exam in a Bologna manner, over the year, get their grades even before the final exam period, and liked very much practical nature of the course. Organization of the course IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

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27. Considering the practical use and application of eLearning at the DMI in Novi Sad, it is not just an improbable dream or unrealistic idea for a long time. LMS Moodle is running at full speed for more than a decade now, and all of the courses in CS are covered with at least some eLearning resources. Even if that means just a meager repository of static teaching material, we used it as a start for each course and over the years developed additional resources. State of the art – one more time IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

28. Great support and help in the development of this eLearning teaching resources we received from our students. This fulfilled twofold purpose: to introduce our students to modern and up-to-date methods of teaching, and to help lecturers in achieving some starting material for eLearning teaching resources. State of the art – one more time IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

29. Quality of the material our students produced was of a variable level – from amateurish and weak, to excellent and admirable. Each time we had to check the material both for quality and for legal/ethical issues, and made sure that everything is correct and usable. Still, our experience with this type of work is very positive, and we gladly suggest to other institutions to follow it and apply the same methodology. State of the art – one more time IntroductionRegular possibilitiesAdditional possibilityResulting lecturesResume

30. Thanks for the attention Any questions, suggestions, or offers?