E-Learning in Mathematics

ICETA 2011 • 9th IEEE International Conference on Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications • October 27-28, 2011, Stará
Lesná, The High Tatras, Slovakia
E-learning in mathematics
K. Bachratá* and H. Bachratý**
* Department of InfoComm Networks, University of Žilina, Slovakia
** Department of Special Technologies, University of Žilina, Slovakia
Katarina.Bachrata@fri.uniza.sk, Hynek.Bachraty@fri.uniza.sk
Abstract—The problems in the e-learning course market discipline, and the risks that come with ignoring them. We
(for example their low sales compared to mobile will also propose some principles that could help in
applications) show that besides the development of new creating useful e-learning aids for teaching mathematics.
technologies, it is necessary to also pay attention to other We base these on a constructivist approach towards
factors that affect the creation of meaningful courses. These teaching mathematics. From the rich literature describing
factors are the content of said courses, as well as their real and illustrating the approach, we name for example
applications as related to their didactic and educational publications [1], [2], [3]. This approach is certainly more
aims. Furthermore, attention has to be paid to the difficult and complicated to integrate into e-learning
administration and maintenance of courses and the training applications than its opposite, called also the transmissive
of educators in their proper use. In this article we aim to approach. There the chief task of the educator, and the
show the risks of over-dependence on ICT technologies in education itself, is the direct transmission of the required,
the teaching of mathematics, and suggest who should be defined area and structure of knowledge “from the mind
preparing meaningful e-learning courses. of the teacher into the mind of the pupil”. The reality that
this approach is much more acceptable, even optimal, for
e-learning is a further possible main problem.
I. INTRODUCTION
Fifteen years ago it was hard to imagine all that would II. MULTIMEDIA PERFECTION AND THE CREATION OF
be achievable using ICT technologies in the year 2011. MATHEMATICAL KNOWLEDGE
The accessibility of computers and the internet has
increased exponentially. There were some who owned Mathematical growth and development occurs, even in
computers, or mobile phones, and some teachers used ICT the case of reaction to regular schooling, firstly in the
technologies. Today there are few in Slovakia who do not mind of the student. The optimal method is the creation
own a mobile phone or computer, and yet we know no and building of concepts on the basis of the child’s own
teachers, parents, or students who would purchase an e- activities, experiences, and discoveries. It should be, in a
learning math course with their own money. realistic magnitude, experienced by every elementary
Herein lies the essential problem of the development of school student. Mathematically gifted and talented
technical support for teaching: e-learning courses are children of this age are in our experience able to, under
created by those who want to sell them, and not those who expert guidance, independently build and create the
want to use them to learn. The incorrect motivation then majority of the required mathematical knowledge.
leads to the creation of mathematics courses that mirror However, a time commitment beyond usual classroom
the ideas of software developers. To the layman the course education is required.
appears as mathematics, however it does not lead to the
development of the logical thinking of children or the The time requirements therefore lead to the students’
acquiring of other math skills such as the ability to make acquiring the majority of material as external, passed on
arguments, propose an experiment, make analogies, information. However, for quality education it is
systematize knowledge, think critically about conclusions, necessary for the mathematical knowledge to create a so-
pose the right questions, and create relationships and called cognitive map: it must interconnect both with itself
connections between knowledge. Instead, mathematics is and with the life experiences of the student. Otherwise we
presented in a “rounded-out”, finite form and structure. build pointless, even harmful, formal knowledge. The
When building concepts and knowledge, the progression newly acquired knowledge needs to be made one’s own,
and the structure of their development are significantly the student must process and confront it with his or her
different. This fact is ignored. Mathematics is past knowledge. The intensity and quality of this process
“demonstrated”, presented and developed through external determines the success of the education.
symbols: elegant presentation, schooled actor voices (who
One of the risks of mathematical e-learning, created by
know nothing of what they speak of, and intonate in
discord with the logic of the content) etc. Some statements its great multimedia possibilites, is the blocking and
are often even erroneous and incorrect, to the point where suppression of these activities of the student. Psychology
it seems that we are presented merely with the viewpoint gives us a key piece of knowledge: the more senses (and
of the authors of the software, who understand potentially emotions) we engage in order to receive
mathematics only formally and superficially. knowledge, the smaller the magnitude of our active
In this article we will attempt to explore why e-learning mental processing, and conversely the larger the
lessons often do not support, and sometimes even hinder magnitude of our non-critical acceptance, without a
the teaching of mathematics. We will introduce certain corresponding placement within existing structures of
mechanisms of the teaching and learning of this scientific experience and knowledge. Imagine, for example, an
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 11 –

K. Bachratá and H. Bachratý • E-learning in Mathematics
action or romantic scene first as a novel, comic book, significantly change its contents or direction, even if the
black-and-white film and finally as a slick modern movie. situation demands it.
Try to compare the methods and results of the mental Problems can also arise in the overall mood of the
activity used in processing these inputs. learning process. A classroom equipped with computers is
If our goal is an excellent theatre performance, a a significantly limiting environment. Working with a PC,
powerful film, or an effective commercial, if we want to an activity not yet quite automated in elementary school
surprise or shock, then the suppression of the critical students, is distracting, wasting a lot of the attention and
thinking and doubting of the viewer is warranted. energy of both the students and the teacher. Even simply
varying levels of competence with a mouse and keyboard
However, we seriously doubt this is the case in the
can disrupt the progress of the class and decrease
teaching of mathematics. A polished, multimedia form of attention, especially since the visual attention of the
presenting and transmitting mathematical knowledge has, students is focused on the screen. From personal
based on the described mechanism, and unpleasant but experience we certainly recognize the feeling of
natural tendency to lead to the building of formal, concentration and suppression of other stimuli from the
unpersonalized knowledge structures. From the point of moment we place our hands on the keyboard and begin
view of students who will not significantly utilize staring at the screen. In this situation it is extremely
mathematics in their future lives, this form of learning is difficult to impossible for the teacher to adjust the
useless. For students who may direct their further studies atmosphere and capture the coordinated attention of all the
towards natural sciences and technical fields, it is even students, to switch between lecturing, discussion, and
harmful. It excludes important learning devices such as individual work. Never even mind solving personal
problems, cultivating the verbal expression of the
• incorrect formulations and their specification, students, publicly praising a weaker student for an original
• performing unnecessary experiments, and solution, directing a bright student who is ridiculing a
inventing better ones, weaker solution, or praising a student for helping a peer or
• presenting one’s own notions and their defense, his courage in contradicting the teacher and pointing out
• the right to make errors, and the subsequent search an error.
for methods by which to reveal and remove said We have extensive experience with teaching
error, mathematical subjects at a post-secondary level in
• debating and utilizing analogies. computer laboratories. We are convinced that teaching
The listed skills are much more important for doing mathematics to future computer scientists in the context of
mathematics, and its utilization in other fields, than their main focus makes sense. However, even for those
repeating definitions and propositions that mean nothing students it still holds true that the student should only use
a computer if it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, the
to the students, which they cannot connect to the objects
computers remain off. Additionally, the teacher has an
of the real world or to other mathematical concepts. instrument with which to globally control all the screens
III. EDUCATIONAL ATMOSPHERE AND THE ROLE OF in the room, or potentially disable the keyboards. Our
experience leads us to believe that meaningful work on a
THE INSTRUCTOR
PC is possible only when the students have sufficiently
. There are two key factors in the quality of understood the essence of the problem and have an idea
mathematical education. The first is the mood, atmosphere about their strategies for solving it. This cannot be
of the lessons. This can motivate the students and at the provided by a PC, to the contrary a PC can be disruptive
same time harmonize and unify the processes and methods and a hindrance.
of working of the class. It should be, depending on the One of the newest innovations is the interactive
circumstances, inspirational, creative, and disciplined. The electronic chalkboard, which has acquitted itself well as a
second factor is the personality of the instructor, his new type of display apparatus on which it is possible to
contact and relationship with the students, ability to show prepared presentations. It is difficult to use this
motivate them, direct their work and discussion. technology, however, for creative instruction, where it is
Much practical experience from classes supported by necessary to react to new ideas and thoughts and often
computers goes against these principles. The teacher change the expected lesson plan. Classrooms equipped
devotes a significant amount of energy, time, and attention only with electronic chalkboards were, after gaining
towards preparing and the subsequent technical execution teaching experience, quickly supplemented with
of the lesson. The actual interaction with students takes traditional chalkboards.
the form of mediation, often in the form of prepared By contrast, we have had great experiences with
methods and presentations deviating from which is often primary school students. Here we used ICT applications
technically not possible or supported. Excessive questions whose role was to motivate the students towards solving
from the students are disruptive and complicate the problems that were at the edge of their abilities, that is
prepared flow of the lesson. The instructor largely takes difficult for their age group. An example of such an
on the role of a well trained operator, and much of the experience is described in the article [6]. It is also possible
opportunity for direct work with the class is lost. The to use ICT to motivate the tiring practice of arithmetic
instructor loses much of his ability to observe the overall skills, where besides understanding and memorizing the
situation within the class, to create and direct a learning algorithm it is necessary to practice it. This motivation can
atmosphere, to react directly to the cues and responses of take various forms, we have used for example games
the students. The great effort required to prepare a lesson where the student can only make a move after solving a
using ICT technologies leads to an unwillingness to problem.
– 12 –
ICETA 2011 • 9th IEEE International Conference on Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications • October 27-28, 2011, Stará Lesná, The High Tatras, Slovakia
Similarly, another motivational tool can be an course, which would be easily done using a final exam.
application that actively maintains the student’s ranking in Instead of an answer, we received a counter-question
the class based on the number and difficulty of problems whether we mean to doubt the usefulness of ICT in
solved. education. Another, very current, experience shows that
In elementary school, the most important thing for the verifying the suitability and effectiveness of e-learning
younger students is motivation and feedback from the products more resembles a well planned marketing
teacher. His opinions and attitudes are more important to opportunity. The “testing” is done on a large group of
the formation of the students’ personality than any formal students, teachers, and schools, however during its course
evaluation. Experience from intensives for mathematically they are motivated and rewarded in a way that damages
talented children even tells us that the students appreciate objectivity. The experience and methods of IT firms easily
authentic behaviour from the instructor such as change testing into a process for creating a strong group of
annoyance, or anger, much mores so than a professional fans and lobbyists. Once again, there is a distinct lack of
mask of smiles that does not reflect the instructor’s true opportunity to compare against a control group using
state. How then must the student view instruction at the traditional methods. The basis for evaluation should be
push of a button, which is exactly the same for every class comparing the results of students with and without using
and every student. the product in question. The evaluation should be based
For older students of elementary schools, the tie to on an objective measure, not simply the opinions of
selected teachers.
society is equally strong, just instead of the teacher it
focuses more on the class and their peers. We think that real, honest testing of the success of the
methods and products of mathematical e-learning is very
The aforementioned reasons are why the instructor
important, and should also be in the interest of their
needs to understand the needs and abilities of the students,
to constantly think about their expression and needs, to creators. This is one of the paths to improving the
electronic teaching of more than just mathematics. The
improve the pedagogic aspects of the instruction, and not
current absence, or minimal scope of testing is certainly
least of all for him to be an expert in the subject and theme
one of the sources of problems in this area.
being taught. The idea that instead of a teacher a lesson
could be delivered via a video with an explanation of the At the same time, it is easy to understand why this is the
subject matter is not only demeaning towards the teacher, case. The gradual increase in the number of computers in
but also simply mistaken. A teacher must be truly weak primary and secondary schools creates a large and
for a filmed lesson to be better than a real one. tempting market. The schools, teachers, students, and their
parents represent strong marketing groups, and
These kinds of lectures are however recorded, and do
have a justification. For example the [4] provides furthermore the bills are conveniently paid for by the
government. Thus it is not surprising that the major
excellent lectures, which can be used by students who do
players in this field bring forth strong marketing tools,
not have access to traditional education to supplement
which often drown out and hide honest studies and any
their knowledge through distance education.
potentially unfavourable results.
We consider it meaningful to create e-learning courses
that an individual can use to set his own tempo of On the other hand there is the objectively dire state of
mathematical education in Slovakia. Taking a broad
learning, and are focused mainly on developing skills.
overview, the quality is unsatisfactory and mathematics is
These can be, for example, first aid courses, typing
losing both its position and popularity. One of the key
courses, driving courses. We consider it counterproductive
to use mathematics courses consisting of a video reasons is the offset between the breadth of the expected
learning outcomes and the actual capabilities of the
recording of a lecture in class. This kind of instruction
students, teachers, and schools. (A reduction of this
spoils not only students, but even the teachers.
breadth as a part of the current reform is from this point of
view a reasonable measure.) Another reason is the wrong
IV. EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF E-LEARNING
direction taken in the preparation of teachers, who are
T We are interested to know whether there exists, in our saddled with an overabundance of abstract mathematical
context, a generally known and seriously documented case knowledge and provided with desperately few real
study where e-learning in mathematics classes led to a pedagogic tools for handling actual instruction. The
better result than comparable instruction using other consequence is many disappointed teachers, disinterested
methods. Very often we are faced with arguments that the students, and unhappy parents and wider society.
form and idea are sound, and it is merely the content that In this situation, we have a tendency to believe and
needs to be fine-tuned. Possibly other details: students hope in a “magical“ solution, something that ICT
must be conscientious and responsible, they need to be technologies currently may seem to offer. If we believe
motivated, schools must be willing to invest into that the main strategy should be to make education more
technologies. To our generation, this is reminiscent of “attractive”, then this route seems very promising.
other unsuccessful attempts to implement an excellent However, real solutions lie elsewhere, though quality e-
idea, which thankfully since the year 1989 no longer learning can definitely contribute there as well. We must
continue in Slovakia. honestly explore both its opportunities as well as
We want to believe that there are positive examples. limitations, using proper scientific scepticism. That
However, thus far we have several opposing experiences. happens to be in conflict with the excitement and
In the year 2007 we heard at this conference a expectations stemming from the discovery of a potential
contribution concerning a realized e-course of a university happy solution to an unfortunate situation.
level math subject. During the course of discussion we The discovery of a universal solution to all educational
asked whether the success and effectiveness of the course problems is a well known theme in mathematics, and one
was measured against a concurrently running standard
– 13 –
that should be treated with caution. We speak of a carefully consider whether we are truly unburdening the
worldwide experience from the 1970’s, that even thorough student of activity that unnecessarily hinders him or her
testing, comparing, and evaluation of methods of from progress towards an important goal. An example can
instruction, as well as enthusiasm and agreement of the be various computer-aided experiments (statistical,
testing instructors do not guarantee correct conclusions. probabilistic, numeric, geometric), where keeping track of
During this time, under the influence of the success of parameters and results can be simply a work-intensive
structuralism, there was a decision to base mathematical burden. We must not however make a mistake and entrust
instruction from the earliest grades on the concepts of set to a computer any activity of a student that is a
theory. From a strictly mathematical perspective, these fundamental part of the learning process, whether it is the
present a unified foundation and starting point. The practicing of certain routine operations, or conversely the
experiment took place in many countries: from France, to attempt to discover and formulate important properties of
the USA, all the way to the countries of the Eastern Bloc. prime numbers or polygon diagonals.
It was preceded by a pilot program with excellent results. What is the situation when it comes to saving work on
Only in hindsight was it apparent that the enthusiasm of the teacher’s side of things? As an extreme example we
the teachers taking part in the experiment, their desire for can consider opinions such as “If I record a video of my
new, modern teaching methods utilizing their own own lesson, I can then play it back for students in future
creativity, resulted in the results being in favour of the years and don’t even have to show up!” These kinds of
new teaching concepts. The subsequent large-scale ideas are not only a degradation of e-learning, but of
implementation in schools was a fiasco, and after a few education in general. On the other hand, we must admit
years the entire reform failed. More so than the testing, the that some teachers might obtain better results with
objections raised by a minority, questioning the didactic students should they replace themselves with a video. In
suitability of the methods almost from the very start, our own experiences with utilizing e-learning, the
proved to be accurate. majority of cases brought us more work, more effort, and
more energy required while teaching. The first step is of
V. DOES E-LEARNING SAVE US WORK AND course the necessity to acquaint oneself with the utilized
EXPENSES? tools, and then monitoring and managing their updates.
The possibility of saving the work, effort, and energy We have already mentioned the heightened demands on
expended during teaching is often a big temptation of new the teacher’s preparation, but this is also the case during
technologies. If it however becomes their main goal, we the course of instruction. ICT technologies allow for
invite mistakes and errors. much more convenient methods of submitting, grading,
and checking of student assignments. Instead of several
We would certainly be surprised should physical submitted assignments per semester, we now find
education be taught in schools by having the students ourselves checking dozens every week. The option to
watch a video of a somersault, then having them correct electronically publish study and work materials is
the somersaulting mistakes of an interactive avatar using a convenient, however it leads to the need for their timely
computer, and finally writing an exam about the correct creation, continuous adjustments according to the current
way to perform a somersault. (This method would be progress of instruction etc. We could continue with similar
correct if we were learning about physical education, or if examples for quite some time.
we were trying to lead an active gymnast towards a more
perfect motion. In the general population, it would At first glance from this point of view, the utilization
however lead to a high risk of injury when attempting an of e-learning seems counterproductive. However, this
actual somersault.) This would likely be considered passage is neither a lament nor a complaint. The extra
nonsense by everyone, as sporting skills must be acquired work necessary has returned to us where it matters: in the
through individual activity. form of smarter, more educated, and happier students. In
summary, the main goal of e-learning tools should not be
There is no reason to believe that mathematics is any saving the teacher work, but instead to offer new tools for
less challenging than physical education, and the thought improving the learning process.
processes of the students can be replaced by a computer.
Nevertheless, very seriously intended attempts at precisely Besides considerations about saving work for students
this are common today. From experience and the results of and teachers, there is another matter to consider: that of
PISA testing, we know that students have difficulties with financial expenses. It is obvious that computers are more
word problems, especially with understanding a more expensive than chalk and chalkboards, but usually we are
extensive, context-based written problem, and its assured that the costs are acceptable and proportional to
transformation all the way into the correct calculation the benefits. We discussed the measuring of said benefits
leading to obtaining the solution. Our students need to in the preceding section. Here we would like to warn that
improve and develop this ability. What should we then it is necessary to be aware of all the expenses related to
think of an e-learning product that displays a word the operation of e-learning classrooms and equipment.
problem, reads it, then announces the proper steps for The initial expenses are often covered by a project or
solving it, and finally visually demonstrates them and program. Each device however represents a budgeting
verbally comments. The procedure furthermore utilizes load that is hard to then get rid of. The majority of
multimedia tools, so the student cannot replicate it on technology today is obsolete within a matter of just a few
paper. Instead of commenting, I would like to remind you years and needs to be fully replaced. Another load is the
of the somersault. cost of operation and repairs. That is why investing in
equipment is a long-term financial commitment. Hardware
The temptation to unburden the student of work, to innovation also brings with it the need for continual
accelerate the course of instruction and make it more learning software innovation. Special products with a
pleasant, is very strong. However, it is very important to multimedia and interactive focus are very sensitive to
– 14 –
changes in peripherals, input devices, operating systems For these goals, mathematics provides sufficient, and
etc. compared to other subjects almost optimal, options and
These arguments relate not only to schools, but also the conditions.
households of the students. This much is suggested Education based on the presentation of facts and
through various ideas of replacing textbooks, workbooks, subsequent training of standard solutions lead to
and homework with accessing learning programs and mechanical repetition of learned procedures, the
portals from home. Furthermore, if we do not establish a memorizing of formal knowledge, an inability to apply
parent’s responsibility to purchase a computer by law, we knowledge, connect and modify gained knowledge and
create an intriguing customer - the government - who can abilities, and negative attitudes towards mathematics,
do it for everyone. In a post-secondary environment, these which already manifest today in the decreased interest and
kinds of intentions have already appeared. Also taken into quality of students interested in the natural sciences and
account must be the opinion of a parent from a discussion technical disciplines.
about a quality, functioning learning software: “It’s a nice
program, but my son sits at his PC after school more than VII. WHAT SHOULD THE CREATION OF USEFUL
enough as it is. I don’t want him to do this at school and EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE LOOK LIKE?
for school as well, when there are lots of alternative
learning tools and methods.” Not every parent believes First of all, we should take advantage of the experience
that just because something is done on a computer at gained from already commenced educational reforms in
school it is necessarily better, or better for their kids. countries where students’ results have improved in
international PISA testing. In the article [5], it is stated
necessarily better, or better for their kids. that the biggest improvement was seen among students
from those countries where education was decentralized.
VI. DOES E-LEARNING HELP MATHEMATICS? For e-learning, this means that we shouldn’t buy the same
Definitely yes, but it must be used in moderation, product for all schools, but instead give the teacher a
avoiding mistakes and staying aware of other choice. We can have a central repository of materials,
considerations. ICT is irreplaceable mainly in making which can then be selected from. In this database, teachers
routine repetitive actions easier: transmitting can access individual materials sorted based on the
organisational information to the students (due dates, government educational aims that they can fulfill (sorted
instructions, announcements), ongoing and flexible by difficulty, knowledge level, ability, and approach).
publishing of study materials, directing the submission of Optimal preparation of educational e-objects would
homework, formalizing and de-personalizing exams (the consist of a teacher giving the requirements for a
teacher is an ally of the student, preparing him for the test, particular piece of software from his or her experience. A
which can then thanks to technology be administered programmer would then create such an object. Of course a
objectively), announcing test results, student discussion teacher may not always be aware of all that it is possible
about problems, and distance education for those unable to to program, or develop. The ideas of programmers can be
attend in person. interesting and the teacher may not be able to imagine all
In a truly bad educational situation, it can even be an that it is possible to do. Therefore a mutual collaboration
improvement to show recorded math lectures. However, of teachers and developers should continue after the
we feel that this is advancement in the wrong direction. If completion of the product. Modifications should be
we save the starving by feeding them a diet of fast-food, performed even after testing the product in classrooms.
we solve one problem only to soon replace it with others. Each software offered should also have a simple,
When teaching, it is important to take into account that reasonably priced version with intuitive controls.
we are working with different target groups. For some Expansions and new versions should be compatible with
students mathematics will only be necessary for everyday previous versions. Software for schools should be
life, for others it is an aid (sociology, medicine), a prepared by university students as a part of the completion
working tool (computer science, engineering, of their studies and enthusiasts who understand education,
meteorology), and only for a select few: their profession not giant companies whose goal is to maximize profit. If
and main area of interest (mathematics, physics). The we can ask teachers to teach for meager salaries, why
approach for each of these differs, affecting the content can’t we find developers also willing to consider their
and breadth of instruction. Of course, at the elementary work a calling as opposed to simply a profitable
school level we cannot yet determine which category a endeavour.
student will fall into. Therefore it is a problem with non- It is becoming apparent that products created by
trivial solutions. teachers based on their experience together with
Well taught mathematics can also develop more programming enthusiasts are much more usable for
universal, metacognitive aims. One of these is to create teaching than professional products created with the goal
and cultivate the capability and methods of causal, logical of making money. In fact, these professional products
thinking. Another, equally important, is to gain the often battle scholarly and didactic deficiencies, which are
experience of creative and original thinking, to experience compensated for with investments into advertising and
the joy of an intellectual discovery. Our educational marketing. Students, and often even teachers are left
system should be required to provide these experiences for defenseless against the lack of quality in e-learning. It is
its students as a part of the schooling process. (Just as it therefore necessary to support institutions that have the
should provide encounters with quality literature and quality of education on their agenda, so that they make
music, foreign languages and culture, and the mastering correct decisions in the direction and funding of the
and cultivating of certain physical activities.) development of educational ICT technologies.
– 15 –
ACKNOWLEDGMENT [2] M. Hejný, F. Kuřina, Dítě, škola a matematika (Konstruktivistické

přístupy k vyučování)}, Praha, Portál 2001, ISBN 80-7178-581-4
This work was supported by the Agency of the Slovak [3] V. Hejný, “Psychológia pre pedagóga v terrene”, the estate
Ministry of Education for the Structural Funds of the EU, archive, unpublished
under project ITMS:26220120007. [4] http://www.khanacademy.org
[5] “Jak vychovat nejchytřejší děti”, http://eduin.cz/titulka/jak-
REFERENCES vychovat-nejchytrejsi-deti/ preklad z The Economist (22.9.2011)
[6] K.Bachratá, H.Bachratý, “The software for teaching in groups”,
[1] M. Hejný at al., “Creative teaching in mathematics”, Charles
University in Prague, Czech Republic, Kassel University, ICETA 2010, : Stará Lesná, Slovakia. - Košice: Elfa, 2010. - ISBN
Germany, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece, University 978-80-8086-166-7. – pp. 193-197, October 2010, [8th
of Derby, United Kingdom, vydala Univerzita Karlova v Prahe, international conference on emerging e-learning technologies and
2006, ISBN 80-7290-280-6 applications]
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Implementation of Method for Dynamic Noise

Visualisation into Educational Process
Ervin LUMNITZER, Marcel BEHUN, Monika BIĽOVÁ
*
Technical University of Košice, Slovak Republic
ervin.lumnitzer@tuke.sk, marcel.behun@tuke.sk, monika.bilova@tuke.sk
Abstract—Dynamic noise visualization represents ideal tool

for clear and concise presentation of events not recordable II. WORKING PRINCIPLES OF THE ACOUSTIC CAMERA
with human eye and its implementation into educational Actual commercial beamforming systems,
process. Visualization is the right tool for students, that
among them the acoustic camera, use a rectangular virtual
allows them to easily and effectively understand complex
issues. This process of implementation is granted by modern image plane in order to calculate the run times between
instrumentation in conjunction with information microphone array and measurement object. This way the
technology. The „acoustic camera“ is a measurement tool surface of the device under test is approximated, and the
which joined the field of acoustics a few years ago. This z-axis of the array is usually oriented perpendicularly to
technology analyses the actual sound scene, which consists the image plane. The assumption is made that the device
of a superposition of different sound sources, into a visual and hence the image plane do not move during the
sound map. The basic principle relies on accurate measuring time. Subdividing the image plane into rows
calculation of the specific runtime delays of acoustic sound and columns results in a finite amount of rectangular
emissions radiating from several sources to the individual
display details (pixels) whose centers of area are used to
microphones of an array. An acoustic map of the local
sound pressure distribution at a given distance will be calculate the delays.
calculated using the acoustic data of all simultaneously State of the art is the simultaneous taking of an optical
recorded microphone channels photo by means of an integrated digital camera and the
subsequent automatic overlay with the acoustic colour
map. A typical example of an acoustic image is shown in
I. INTRODUCTION figure 1.
It is necessary, in current university pedagogy, to
present high tech equipment and its principles in an self-
explanatory and comprehensible form for the audience.
Many of the physical quantities cannot be visually
recorded. One of these quantities is also noise. Noise
visualization process is allowed by acoustic camera.
The configuration containing the acoustic camera is a
revolutionary solution of three-dimensional localization of
sound emission with their quantitative evaluation and
frequency analyses in dynamic mode. The amount of
obtained and analyzed information is incomparable with
all up to now used methods that leaned on measurements
of sound emission in immission point that number is
considerably limited. The acoustic camera offers
possibilities of ideal frequency analyses of sound sources
in distance from few tenth meters up to few hundreds Figure 1. Acoustic image
meters. The delivered software equipment is able to
localize effectively the sound sources and perform
The acoustic camera is modular and flexible equipment
qualitative and quantitative analyses and so form a base
for visualization and localization of sound sources.
for soundproofing arrangements.
Trough visualization, accurate results and fast results
The whole measurement and subsequent analyses are decreases the development time of following technical
characterized by: arrangements of noise loading reduction. In the figure 2 is
• high accuracy, shown the configuration of the acoustic camera.
• high speed, With Beamforming the main information to find the
• dynamic operational mode, location of the sound is the run time delay between signals
• high effectiveness, to each microphone. The spatial resolution is in direct
relation to the sampling frequency in the time domain and
• transparent result processing (coloured acoustic the microphone spacing.
maps, movies, records).
To resolve two sources the system needs to be able to
detect differences in the characteristic patterns in form of
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 17 –

E. Lumnitzer et al. • Implementation of Method for Dynamic Noise Visualisation into Educational Process
run time delays independent of post signal processing. stationary emissions, the so called „spectral frames“ (a
This is independent from the resolution which is type of spectrally sensitive photo) are an additional tool
determined by the signal frequency. for interactions between image and spectrum. A mouse
click into the picture will immediately show the
corresponding spectrum of that location, and vice versa
selecting a spectral band from the spectrum will show the
related acoustic image covering only those selected
spectral components.
Saving a high channel recording generates a file
(channel: *.chl) with all the relevant information (time
functions, preamplifier parameters, date, distance, video
image(s), camera parameters, array coordinates,
calibration data etc.). So the channel file does not only
contain raw time function data but all necessary
parameters belonging to a measurement. Motivation for
this decision is a maximum independence of the data
analysis from the measurement process: A data file can be
Figure 2. Acoustic image evaluated correctly even one year later and even by
another person not involved in the measuring process
III. WORKING PRINCIPLES OF THE ACOUSTIC CAMERA itself.
For working with the software „NoiseImage“ a IV. APPLICATION IN THE INDUSTRY
complex but easy to operate intuitive concept of
interactions between space, time and frequency has been There are exemplified applications of acoustic camera
developed (Fig. 3). In order to avoid model assumptions at sound measurements of major industrial sources, in this
about emitter characteristics, only the equivalent sound case an industrial area. In the fig. 4, 5 and 6 are shown the
pressure level is mapped, i.e. in the acoustic image the views of the analyzed buildings in an industrial area. In
value is colour coded that would be generated by a point the fig. 7 and 8 are shown the noise emission intensity of
source in a nonreflexive room at the same distance. fan driving. The critical frequencies recorded at the
measurement site are evident from spectrogram, see fig. 9.
Structure of the entire frequency spectrum is obvious from
the fig. 101, where are clearly shown the critical
frequencies.
Figure 3. Data structure of the Acoustic Camera – overview
The recorded time functions can be evaluated according

to A-, B- or C-weighting. A universal filter bank allows
spectral generalisations. In the spectrogram view, Figure 4. View of the analyzed buildings – 1st source
noticable emissions can be marked temporally and
spectrally simply by a mouse move and can
instantaneously be shown as acoustic photo or movie to
identify the related sound source. In photos and movies,
the reconstructed time function of every location can be
saved as wav-file, it can also be displayed as spectrogram
or spectrum. All images can be exported as Bitmaps or
JPEGs, movies can be saved as AVI. Spectra can be
shown in third octave bands. Listening to the time
functions of photos and movies is possible by moving the
mouse over the picture. This allows to individually recall
recordings even many years old.
When a film is saved as AVI, the stereo sound from the
recorded time functions or alternatively the reconstructed
time function of a chosen location in the image can be
integrated into the exported movie. The according location
is then marked by a microphone icon. For the analysis of Figure 5. View of the analyzed buildings – 2nd source
– 18 –
Figure 10. Frequency spectrum of the recorded noise
CONCLUSION
Human being perceives about 95% of information
Figure 6. View of the analyzed buildings – 3rd source
visually. Sight is especially important in education. It
affects remembering of presented information and speed
of learning. Modern information technologies and their
entry into the educational process are a critical aspect
increasing efficiency of this process.
The acoustic camera extends the present analyses
procedure. Also involves general methods of the analyses
like A-level evaluation, tertiary and narrow- band
analyses, filters and other options. It makes possible to
provide detailed analyses. The spectrogram makes
possible for example recording of the sounds in time and
in transmission bandwidth. From the acoustic photo one
can localize the sources of these sounds, recall the emitted
noise in certain points, show critical frequencies and do all
this after provided measurement. The acoustic camera is a
multisensorial virtual studio for sound sources analyses in
detail.
Figure 7. Visualization of the noise emission intensity of fan
driving ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper was supported by projects KEGA 3/7426/09.
REFERENCES
[1] LUMNITZER, E. - ROMÁNOVÁ, M.: Modelovanie dopravného
hluku a hluku z stacionárnych zdrojov v oblasti mestskej zástavby.
In: Acta Mechanica Slovaca. roč. 9, č. 2-b eiam 05 (2005), s. 225-
228. ISSN 1335-239
[2] Žiaran, S.: Ochrana človeka pred kmitaním a hlukom, Slovenská
technická univerzita v Bratislave, 2007, ISBN 978-80-2799-0
[3] Lumnitzer, E., Badida, M., Biľová, M.: Hodnotenie kvality
prostredia, Elfa s.r.o. Košice, 2007, ISBN 978-80-8073-836-5
[4] Biľová M., Lumnitzer E. Comparison of measurement methods
for acoustical parameters determination of sound absorbers In:
AEI ´2010 : International Conference on Applied Electrical
Engineering and Informatics 2010 : Venice, Italy, September 7-10,
2010. - Košice : TU, 2010 S. 49-53. 2010.
[5] [5] Biľová M., - Lumnitzer E., Farkašovská Z., Poláčeková J.
Figure 8. Visualization of the noise emission intensity of fan Evaluation of acustical insulating material properties In:
driving International Joint Conference on Environmental and Light
Industry Technologiesv : 18. - 19.11.2010, Budapest, Hungary. -
Budapest : Óbuda University, 2010 P. 29-33. 2010.
Figure 9. Spectrogram of the emitted noise
– 19 –
U. S. Steel Kosice – Employees’ training

and development
Ing. Denisa Havrila Belányi
U. S. Steel Košice, s.r.o., Director Training and Development
dhavrilabelanyi@sk.uss.com
Abstract—These papers introduce the employees training • A company in which each employee takes pride
process in U. S. Steel Kosice and the 2010 training review in being an important and contributing member.
and training costs breakdown. Highlighted are the e-
learning programs we implemented in recent years and the
To achieve this VISION, we must significantly elevate
different areas of computer-based training we use for
employees ´training and development. our performance standards and consistently achieve these
new levels.
I. INTRODUCTION Qualified employees are the basis of every company's

U. S. Steel Kosice (hereinafter USSK), a profitable success. USSK provides various kinds of training
integrated steel company located in Eastern Slovakia, activities for employees and possesses a highly-qualified
represents a successful partnership of Slovak technical and professionally skilled work-force. Investment in
skills and knowledge with strong American plant development of human resources is one of the priorities
management and market-oriented business experience. A in the top management interests. [1]
responsible approach to business is fundamental and
II. TRAINING PROCESS
permanent principle of USSK which is a leading
contributor to the economic, environmental, and social The USSK training process is a systematic approach that
development of Kosice and Eastern Slovakia. The is provided by the Training and development department
Company supports community projects in healthcare, and consists of the following steps:
education, charity, sport and culture.paper, adjust the
lengths of the columns so that they are equal. Use 1. Needs Definition
automatic hyphenation and check spelling. Digitize or First step is to identify all the needs for training activities
paste down figures. for our employees. In order to ensure all necessary
training, we have to follow legal requirements – both
U. S. Steel Group's Vision: European (such as REACH, ISO, etc.) and Slovak Law
• A profitable steel company that earns an (such as Labor Code, Safety Law, etc.). Since we are a
adequate return for its shareholders and provides part of an international corporation, we also pay attention
sufficient capital to assure its long-term success. to corporate strategy requirements / needs or new
technology needs and provide employees with training
• An innovative steel company that clearly that was set by the corporation for respective year.
distinguishes itself as the industry leader in Another part of training activities comes from the annual
providing superior quality and service to its employees’ performance appraisal and personal
customers, while continuously reducing costs to development goals (Leadership, Business, Professional,
achieve a status of low-cost producer. Language Skills training, etc.). Training department also
cooperates with Recruiting department and provides the
• A company that has respect for all employees, needed training based on the results from the Assessment
creates an atmosphere which motivates / Development Center. In case of any finding from QMS /
employees to fully utilize their talents, EMS audits, we reflect all needs in our training plan.
encourages all employees to work together
effectively and promptly recognizes and rewards 2. Planning
each employee for contributions to the overall As soon as we have all the needs summarized, we prepare
success of the company. the USSK training plan. We use the information system
Financial 2000 that allows us to make plans for each
• A company that values diversity in its organizational unit broken down by quarters. In addition
workforce, fosters a safe and healthy workplace, to this plan, we manage „ad hoc“ requests, mostly to
is environmentally responsible and at all times conferences & seminars, or specialized professional
conducts itself in an ethical manner. training.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 21 –

D. H. Belányi • U. S. Steel Kosice – Employees’ Training and Development
3. Realization
The training is mostly provided by internal resources
(especially in vocational, safety, fire protection and
quality management training). On the other hand, we use
external vendors to provide language, managerial, IT and
a wide range of professional training, including seminars
& conferences. We use all the existing forms & methods,
starting from classroom-based sessions, ending with
hands-on or e-learning.
4. Evaluation
As for the training evaluation, we compare ourselves to
the external market applying benchmark indicators, such
as external training cost, training cost / total labor cost
ratio, total training cost per 1 employee and training
hours per 1 employee, etc.. Moreover, we have been
using the Kirkpatrick model evaluating training programs
that covers all important areas to make sure the training is
administered and performed well. Figure 2. USSK Interactive Training Center
III. 2010 TRAINING REVIEW
In 2010, we provided 131 900 training activities for our

employees, which is almost 12 training activities during
the year if calculated per one employee out of the average
number of 11 129. We spent 1, 56 mil EUR on external
training activities. The breakdown by training areas is in
the chart below:
Figure 3. USSK Interactive Training Center
In USSK, we also have our own Welding School for

welding training. We train around 2500 employees in
average (USSK & Subsidiaries) and additional 20 from
external companies. We provide around 60 types of
welding courses (duration: from 1 up to 20 days).
Figure 2. Breakdown of 2010 USSK external training costs by
training
IV. USE OF E-LEARNING
As you can see, more than 50% of our external training
costs were spent on language training (especially English Due to rapid changes in technology, new techniques, such
language training). Managerial, IT and major part of the as business skills training online via the Internet, are
Management systems training was provided internally, available for employee development that generally offer
better results. Time is money and we decided to use e-
using e-learning programs. Vocational and Safety training learning programs not only to save money on training
is trained especially by internal trainers to ensure costs but we also realized the setback our business suffers
compliance with internal rules and procedures. We have when employees have to put their work on hold and travel
our own Interactive Training Center which is used for to attend training seminars and programs. Online business
hands-on training, such as Life Threatening Programs skills training programs solve this problem by enabling us
training (incl. Cardinal Rules, Hand Injury Prevention, to introduce employee training through the process of e-
Energy Control, Fall Protection, etc.). The center was learning. Employees can increase their productivity by
open in 2007 and has special stands for practice. Every following these online training programs in the comfort of
year we train more than 11 000 employees (USSK & their office. E-learning programs are available at the place
Subsidiaries) in this center. of convenience to the employee.
– 22 –
Employees can understand the instruction of these online library and interesting text and audio. The system enables
training programs at their own pace. With regular to study English and practice and improve all aspects of
seminars and training programs, if the employee is unable foreign language – grammar, listening, reading,
to understand a concept it is not always possible to go pronanciation, speaking and understanding. The system
through it again. Employee can replay any aspect of the offers user-friendly, interactive and multimedial content.
program until he / she understands it absolutely. Our e-
learning programs allow employee to go through the GlobalEnglish is available for access via internet, so our
entire curriculum without having the pressure of time on employees can use it not only at work but also at home
the mind. At the same time, it is easy to skip the parts that using their privat PC in order to manage their time.
he / she already knows about the issue and save time GlobalEnglish offers various online tests and quizzes that
doing repetitive study. [2] enable employees to judge the present knowledge base of
the participant. Some people would say, that online
In cooperation with our IT courses provider, we prepared training doesn´t provide the competitive spirit, but with
Microsoft Office and Windows e-learning programs to chat rooms and virtual discussion rooms coming alive e
help our employees with existing excel, word and leaning programs have given a new meaning to
powerpoint files and respective problems couple of years interaction. Similar ranked employees all over the globe
ago. are able to compete as well as gain insight from each
other. Only e-learning can bring together such a large
In 2008, we started to use our own e-learning programs, group of students.
technically prepared in cooperation with external vendor,
focused on Safety area (Occupational Safety, USSK GlobalEnglish performance and productivity tools will be
Cardinal Rules for Administration, Fire Protection and soon accessible across more platforms and devices. We
Major Industrial Accident Prevention training), QMS and believe that the combination of on-line learning tool and
EMS annual refreshers and basics of managerial soft skill classroom training provides our employees with
courses (Presentation Skills, Time Management, sufficient training and enables them to progress in their
Teamwork, Effective Motivation, Problem Solving and English.
Decision Making, Work-Life Balance). Employees who
have their work PC can access all the above mentioned
courses via employee portal placed on the USSK intranet.
We work on new courses from both managerial and
safety area that should be offered in 2012.
Our e-learning programs were well received and

appreciated not only by the users, USSK employees, but
also by the jury of the 7th year of Learning Projects
Competition "eLearning in Praxis" organized within the
ICETA 2010 conference.
Figure 5. Global English site and mobile application
V. APPLICATIONS AND SYSTEM USED

Since 2000, when U. S. Steel Corporation acquired
former Východoslovenské železiarne (VSŽ) Košice (East
Slovakian Ironworks, Košice), an internal information
system Financial 2000 is used in our company to manage
different activities. In Training and development
department we use the special HR module for training
requirements recording for each employee (job position
Figure 4. USSK – winner of the 7th year of Learning Projects description), training plans preparation, training
Competition "eLearning in Praxis" schedules and invitations as well as training attendance
recordkeeping. It is not a learning management system,
In 2011, we took another step forward and decided to but we modify and enhance the system continuously to
introduce a new learning tool in language training, online meet our needs. As mentioned above, the elearning
English training program provided by GlobalEnglish. The courses as accessible via USSK employee portal which is
complex system offers initial placement test, access to linked with the IS Financial 2000. We can schedule
virtual classes to talk with life teacher, focus on both courses for each employee, list all attended and planned
general and business English, available vocabulary and training activities and offer all elearning courses (both
translator for general and special areas (industry, finance, mandatory and voluntary) via this portal. As soon as the
legal, etc.), communication toolbar with email templates, course is completed by the employee, the date of
– 23 –
D. H. Belányi • U. S. Steel Kosice – Employees’ Training and Development
completion and the test result (in case of mandatory VI. CONCLUSIONS
training) is recorded in IS Financial 2000, so we can keep Using computer-based training has many advanteges for
track of every training activity we provide – classroom as both employee and our company. We can save
well as computer-based. employee´s time, allow him / her to take the course when
suitable. The training costs per employee are significantly
E-learning programs are evaluated electronically. An lower compared to classroom training. Unfortunatelly, we
email is sent to employee as soon as he / she complete the can only use this method of learning for employees who
course with a questionnaire focused on training program have PC and access to USSK intranet and / or internet.
satisfaction evaluation. Training administrators can see The majority of our employees are working in Operations
the evaluation statistics and the employees’ thoughts and – blue collar workers with no access to computer at
satisfaction. We are happy they like it and appreciate this workplace. We will continue to train them in classrooms
method of learning. and training centers also in future. Especially vocational
and safety training needs to be trained by a live trainer
who can demonstrate activities and answer questions
right away and onsite. We will also continue to look for
new topics for e-learning programs as well as for new
methods and ways of employees training and
development programs.
REFERENCES
[1] U. S. Steel Košice, s.r.o. Corporate Info -
http://www.usske.sk/corpinfo/corpi-e.htm
[2] Benefits of using E-Learning for Employee Training and
Development
http://www.elearningyellowpages.com/BusinessSkills/Business
Figure 6. USSK Employee portal – My e-learning trainings site SkillsNews&Views-273.html
– 24 –
Collaborative Resource Sharing for Computer

Networks Education Using Learning Objects
A.Bodnárová, K.Olševičová and V.Soběslav
Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Králové, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
{ agata.bodnarova ; kamila.olsevicova; vladimir.sobeslav @ uhk.cz }
Abstract—The digital repository of learning objects for software that creates international distance learning
computer network education is presented. The repository system containing the following parts:
was designed to enable sharing localised study materials
among Czech instructors of Cisco certification programmes.
The repository works as a digital library, with the set of • Content management system,
metadata elements used for tagging and rating learning • Content distribution system,
objects. • Web server,
• Cisco Learning Institute Virtuoso,
I. INTRODUCTION • System maintenance tools.
Cisco certificates are computer networking certificates
that are valid and accepted by employers worldwide. The Cisco headquarters is interconnected with local centres
relevant training is provided by specialized centres, often (academies). Every academy is allowed to use its own
as part of university study programmes. Cisco Systems web server to distribute the content from central servers.
Company provides official learning materials to There is no need to download the whole content of central
instructors and learners through Cisco Networking
server, only relevant parts can be used. These adjustments
Academy Program (NetAcad), online learning system.
improve the performance and increase efficiency of
The objective of our paper is to describe LORENA, the learning process. The content distribution system is
shared repository of localised NetAcad learning materials
responsible for transferring units of educational data to
for Czech students to explain how the repository can be
integrated with the learning management systems. students. The Cisco Learning Institute Virtuoso is a set of
tools used for creating multimedia content. If there were
II. NETACAD more information required, the system finds and displays
NetAcad was founded in 1997 as a partnership between this it including the most effective way of data
Cisco System and educational, business, government and distribution.
other communities all over the world with a vision to train Following functionalities are available in NetAcad
new network professionals. The educational program uses [2]:
e-learning and related tools such as instructors and
students training, web portal, network simulators, testing • Course study materials,
exercises, study materials, collaborative tools, network • Hands on labs,
simulation and exercises in laboratories. The goal of this • Continuous (chapter) tests,
effort is to teach students how to create and manage real
computer networks. More than 2 million students studied • Final exams,
in more than 10 000 academies in 165 countries • Practice exams,
worldwide [2], including the Faculty of Informatics and • Tools.
Management, University of Hradec Králové ( FIM UHK).
The computer network education at FIM UHK is based Although there are English NetAcad learning materials
on combination of distance study hours in virtual available, in numerous countries the localized study
education environment and following practices in resources are prepared and enhanced. Instructors tend to
laboratories. There are many supporting tools, out of define their own guidelines and have their own best
which very important is Packet Tracer – the network practices that make the learning process more efficient.
simulator that enables students to simulate network Sharing these resources is highly preferred, typically
topology, set parameters for active parts of computer among educational institutions with the same or similar
network etc. structure of computer network study programmes, the
For theoretical preparation and study process support same organization of the academic year etc.
there are two environments available at UHK: NetAcad III. COMMUNITY OF NETACAD INSTRUCTORS
provided by Cisco Systems Company and e-learning
system Web-CT/Blackboard which is used at FIM UHK The NetAcad community involves computer network
for delivering online learning materials in most study instructors from secondary schools and universities. The
programmes and courses. academies were organized hierarchically, with the
regional academy on the top. At the moment of
NetAcad program is considered as the Global Learning
Network. This network is a collection of hardware and preparation of this paper, the hierarchy of academies is
under reconstruction. The academies are planned to be
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 25 –

A. Bodnárová et al. • Collaborative Resource Sharing for Computer Networks Education Using Learning Objects
associated with the Academy Support Center and the • Annotation,

instructors will be taught at the Instructor Training. • Classification.
For instructors, there is the iPortal where any kinds of
problems related to the computer network training can be As well as DC, the LOM elements are not obligatory,
discussed and news, workshops proposals, competitions therefore also learning objects with no description are
etc. can be announced. The digital content at the iPortal is LOM standard compatible. For practical use, the
well organized on blog principles. The main group for application profiles have to be specified. Typically the
Czech instructors is called „CZ.All“, with 216 instructors profile are designed for regional or institutional usage, e.g.
from 77 academies. Thanks to the strong community of UK LOM Core for Great Britain, CanCore for Canada,
Czech instructors who are willing to cooperate, new ARIADNE for European academic institutions etc. The
events and activities are organized frequently. For LOM standard supports three notations [5]:
example, the competition Networking Academy Games
was prepared by instructors from over ten academies.
Another important activity is the preparation of localized • Resource Description Framework (RDF),
learning materials: Czech resources extend the amount of • Extensible Markup Language (XML),
study materials for Czech students and lecturers. To share • ISO/IEC 11404 (standardized abstract data type
these resources, the repository of learning objects was language).
created.
IV. LEARNING OBJECTS Other IEEE projects (1484.12.2-4) are focused on
standardization, too.
Learning object is defined by IEEE as "any entity, Not only metadata descriptions, but also learning
digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, objects have to satisfy standards to simplify further reuse
education or training" [1]. Chiappe defined learning object and interoperability. One of these standards is ADL –
as "a digital self-contained and reusable entity, with a SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model)
clear educational purpose, with at least three internal and produced by Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative.
editable components: content, learning activities and From 1997, ADL provided standardized format that
elements of context. The learning objects must have an interconnected the isolated formats used by particular
external structure of information to facilitate their providers of learning objects. The main task of ADL was
identification, storage and retrieval: the metadata."[11]. to interlink the American consortia (IMS, IEEE, AICC)
Metadata descriptions of learning objects were with providers of standards (W3C, ISO). The results of
standardized by several initiatives. The standards enable this effort is SCORM, enabling the interoperability built
further exchanges of learning objects among learning on XML. The latest SCORM version is from 2004 [9].
systems, including their automated processing. One of
first metadata standardization initiatives, Dublin Core V. LEARNING OBJECTS REPOSITORIES
(DC), defined essential metadata elements that are Numerous repositories of learning objects were built.
necessary for description of any resource. There were 15 Most of them are defined as Learning Object Repositories
core elements defined in the scope of DC. Their (LOR), or more generally Digital Libraries. LOR are
specification is flexible and no element is obligatory, their accessible for registered users who can full-text search for
meaning can be precised. The Dublin Core specification learning objects, browse the tree of categories etc. Precise
does not define the syntax, XML format is used frequently metadata description of the stored content increases the
to achieve the portability of metadata records [5]. usability of the repository.
In article [7] are comparison of the following Digital
Libraries described.
Fedora – it is a flexible system based on principles of
service oriented architecture. Nevertheless, flexibility is
concerning only to content of the repository, Fedora is
capable to store and access any digital content – this does
not stand for flexibility of whole information system.
Figure 1: Learning object scheme Fedora does not contain user interface.
DSpace – is complex system that contains repository
The DC specification itself is too general, therefore including user interface. Nevertheless, DSpace is not
impractical for describing the learning objects. The more flexible system – it is not possible to customize certain
usable standard is LOM, the IEEE Standard for Learning parts and behaviour of the software.
Object Metadata no. 1484.12.1. This standard defines 58
Greenstone – supports distributing collections via
metadata elements in 9 categories:
removable media. In this paper we discuss service
oriented architecture, process based approach etc. –
• General, nevertheless contemporary technologies do not allow
• Lifecycle, creating applications, which are based on these principles,
• Metametadata, which are multiplatform and which supports running from
removable media.
• Technical,
• Educational, EPrints – is primarily intended for scientific
publications (digital objects are not modified very often).
• Rights, This system uses statically generated pages of user
• Relation,
– 26 –
interface. EPrints supports multiple archives under one modification of these systems may be complicated and
instance (logical libraries). represents high costs for an institution.
CDS Invenio – is a complex and flexible system,
which uses third party products for certain use cases. VI. LORENA SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Customization of the system is complicated and may be LORENA is a Learning Object Repository for NetAcad.
expensive. There are strong dependencies on other The basic requirements for the repository are as follows:
products, which can cause problems with incompatibility • Well structured internal organization of learning
between different versions. materials according topics, themes, last update,
DILLEO – is primarily intended for educational rating etc.,
purposes. It is typical three-tier architecture with thin • Web access without the need to install any
client. The application consists from set of components
special applications,
producing tight coupled relations. DILLEO – similarly to
the most of other digital library systems – does not • Simple interface for uploading and downloading
support service oriented architecture and does not stand materials,
for flexible system. • Rating system for measuring the quality of
Most of presented systems are specific oriented (e.g. materials,
EPrints or CDS Invenio), whereas usually respect needs • Support of sharing multimedia,
and requirements of institutions, where were created. • Support of threat discussion related to particular
There are a few digital library systems, which are learning materials,
complex; nevertheless the solution is not optimal and • Advanced search,
sufficient enough. Table 1 contains comparison of
• Tag support,
architecture and features of selected digital libraries
systems. • RSS support.
In article [7] the following results of comparison from
perspective of architecture of information systems are
summarized:
` Table 1 – Comparison of digital library systems
F D G E C D
e S r P D I
d p e r S L
o a e i L
r c n n I E
a e s t n O
t s v
o e
n n
e i Figure 2: Logic hierarchy of the repository LORENA
o
The metadata description of the learning object should
User interface * * * * * consist of:
Dynamically generated • Name of author,
* * * *
pages • Document type – text, image, audio, video,
Customizable searching * configuration file etc.,
Customizable metadata • Description of the content,
* *
formats • Last update,
Flexibility of the system * * • Ranking assigned by users,
SOA principles * • Related chapters, modules or collections where
Process based approach * the object is reused.
Removable media
* In the case of requirements, customizable metadata
(DVD, CD…)
formats and high flexibility of the systems are highly
recommended. Fedora seems to be adequate to the
In general, flexibility of described digital library requirements. The main advantage of Fedora is that
systems is very low. Only Fedora is based on SOA Fedora is based on principles of service oriented
principles, CDS Invenio is a flexible system, nevertheless architecture (SOA). Service oriented architecture is a
customization is relatively complicated. None of these concept for building and integration of information
systems (except DSpace) support process based approach, systems and applications. Fedora provides repository
typically for the approval process. Very problematic is service exposed as web services with well-defined
also customization of searching algorithm and modifying application interfaces via REST or SOAP protocols. The
of used metadata format. Any customization and key feature of Fedora is that repository can store all types
of digital content and its metadata [4]. Due to service
– 27 –
A. Bodnárová et al. • Collaborative Resource Sharing for Computer Networks Education Using Learning Objects
oriented architecture Fedora provides high level of ACKNOWLEDGMENT

flexibility of content (not whole system). Fedora does The research described in the paper has been funded by
not contain the user interface (presentation tier). An the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) for the years
institution should implement the user interface by 2009-2011 (grant no 406/09/0346 Exploitation of
other means [7]. constraint satisfaction problem solving techniques in
elearning).
Reusing Learning Objects from LORENA is presented REFERENCES
on Fig.4.
[1] Learning object – IEEE definition (2002) Learning Technology
Standards Committee, p45
[2] Bodnárová, A., Soběslav, V., Horálek, J., Feltl, M. (2009)
Implementation of Career Certification in higher Education
Process. In Emerging e-learning technologies and applications :
7th international conference. Elfa, Košice, Slovakia, pp327-330,
ISBN 978-80-8086-127-8.
[3] DSpace, Digital Archive Project, http://dspace.org
[4] Fedora, Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository
Architecture, http://www.fedora.info
[5] Drášil, P. et al: Relevantní standardy v oblasti e-Learningu,
Technická zpráva CESNETu číslo 24/2004, aviable at:
http://www.cesnet.cz/doc/techzpravy/2004/elearning/elearning24.
pdf
[6] Neven, F., Duval, E. (2002) Reusable learning objects: a survey of
Figure 3: Reusing Learning Objects from LORENA and links to LOM-based repositories, Proceedings of the tenth ACM
NetAcad environment in institution’s LMS international conference on Multimedia, December 01-06, 2002,
Juan-les-Pins, France
Particular learning object can be exported from the [7] Kokorceny, M., Bodnarova, A. (2010) Comparison of digital
repository and reused in LMS of the educational libraries systems. In Advances in Data Networks Communications
Computers - 9th WSEAS International Conference on Data
institution (Blacboard in case of UHK). The advantage of Networks, Communications, Computers (DNCOCO 10), Faro
that the e-course in the LMS enables defining sequences Portugal, pp150-152, ISBN 978-960-474-245-5
of learning objects with links to the NetAcad. Thanks to [8] Nash, S. (2005) Learning Objects, Learning Object Repositories,
the interest and enthusiasm of instructors, the quality of and Learning Theory: Preliminary Best Practices for Online
materials should be high. Courses. In: Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning
Objects, 1, pp217-228.
VII. CONCLUSION [9] http://www.adlnet.gov/capabilities/scorm
Czech universities prefer either open source e-learning [10] Mikulecký, S. (2005) Digital library of learning objects,
University of Hradec Králové.
systems (Moodle), or licensed products (Blackboard). In
[11] Chiappe, A. (2007) Toward an instructional design model based
the scope of the computer network courses, students of on learning objects, In: Educational Technology Research and
informatics are motivated to obtain certificates. Official Development, Springer, Boston, pp671–681.
study materials are available, but the experienced [12] Olševičová, K., Mikulecký, S. (2003) The possibility of semantic
instructors prefer their modified and localised resources. searching in educational e-resources. In: DEL2003, Prague.
– 28 –
MINERVA 2.0 – Slovakia into the first league

M. Bruncko*
* Government of Slovakia´s Plenipotentiary for Knowledge Economy, Bratislava , Slovakia
martin.bruncko@mfsr.sk
Abstract - The Minerva 2.0 strategy was drawn up by the The primary objective of the education system is
Government of Slovakia´s Plenipotentiary for Knowledge therefore to train curios and creative young people capable
Economy in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, of teamwork, able to process new information, and willing
Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and The Ministry to undergo certain risks. The research and development
of Economy. The goal of the strategy is to support the sector must attract some of these people and create an
development of knowledge economy in Slovakia through 26 environment in which they can dedicate themselves to
concrete and specific measures in three main areas – cutting edge basic and applied research. Other educated
Development of Human Resources, Systematic support of people shall turn entrepreneur, and they need to be able to
Scientific and Innovative Research and the Reform of the transfer the ideas generated in R&D into the real world
Institutional and Legal Frameworks. The policies of the and must be able to share the profits of such endeavors
Minerva strategy will be implemented through close with the authors of the ideas and the institutions in which
collaboration of the Government, educational and research the ideas were generated. Yet another group of educated
establishment and business. people shall find employment in existing firms, and use
their skills to observe and improve existing processes, thus
further increasing the productive potential of the Slovak
I. INTRODUCTION
economy.
The economic performance of the most important world In other words, the goal of building a knowledge
economies for the year 2010 along with the 2011 forecasts economy is to create an environment, in which people
suggest, that the global economic recession is over. with a high quality education work on cutting edge ideas
Thanks to its strong competitive position, the Slovak in Slovakia, and their entrepreneurial colleagues use these
economy can look forward to a period of economic ideas to generate new job opportunities and improve the
growth. Economist forecast that just as before the crisis, living standards of their compatriots through innovative
Slovakia will once again be among the fastest growing EU technological firms. Instead of serving as an assembly line
member states. reproducing the ideas of others, Slovakia will thus become
The Slovak republic owes its current competitive a place where we will generate our own work processes
position to two waves of successful reforms. In the early and develop our own products to be assembled at home or
90s of the last century, a post-socialist transformation took in other, less developed countries.
place in Slovakia, forming the basic market institutions, In the past, the rate and scope of structural reforms was
mechanisms and environment. IN the years 1999 to 2005, significantly better in Slovakia than among its neighbors.
a second wave followed, forming the necessary conditions We need to keep the same ambition for the creation for a
for long term economic growth. knowledge economy: take over the Czech Republic, catch
However, competitiveness cannot be based on an up with Austria, and get Slovakia into the first league.
endless series of cost cutting initiatives. IN order to make
the best use of our current position and in order to ensure II.THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
that the painful reforms of the past are not in vain, it is IN SLOVAKIA
crucial to follow them up with a third wave of systemic,
complex measures ensuring the continued competitiveness The need to develop innovative potential and to create a
of the Slovak economy. Unlike past reforms though, we knowledge economy is old news in Slovakia. The
do not advocate further restrictive measures, on the foundations for a knowledge economy were laid already
contrary, today it is necessary to make good use of in 2005 by the Minerva competitiveness strategy, the goal
existing economic growth and invest in the creation of a of which was to set the course for Slovakia for the
modern innovation ecosystem. following electoral periods. However, due to a large
number of intended measures that were not coordinated
It is generally known that from a long term perspective, and prioritized effectively, the momentum of Minerva was
it is not possible to keep raising living standards and at the lost and the process of building a knowledge economy
same time base the competitiveness of the economy on fragmented among a number of institutions and a number
low input costs. The key to long term competitiveness is of various strategic plans.
therefore productivity growth, based on innovation. The
purpose of a knowledge economy is to generate an The initiatives for supporting the development of a
environment, in which education, research and knowledge economy have then been incorporated into
development and entrepreneurship sectors maximize their various strategic documents and governmental activities
cooperation with a goal of not just generating new ideas, such as for example the Innovation strategy, the strategy
but also turning those ideas into new real world products Slovakia 21, the National Strategic Reference Framework
or more effective processes. and the National Program of Reforms.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 29 –

M. Bruncko • MINERVA 2.0 – Slovakia into the first league
Despite all this, the state of knowledge economy in A. Education

Slovakia remains pitiful. Slovakia lags behind not only the
Problem: Low quality of education
most advanced OECD countries, but also behind Poland,
A necessary condition for the development of
Hungary and the Czech Republic in a number of areas
knowledge economy is an educational system capable of
with critical importance for knowledge economy. We are
training people to think independently and creatively. In
the only Visegrad Four (V4) country with no University in
the information age, it is crucial for the education system
any leading world ranking. We have the lowest share of
to teach young people to effectively receive, process, or
innovative firms in the economy of all V4 countries. And
generate new information, not to primarily force them to
in the ranking of top cited scientific articles we are lagging
memorize existing information that rapidly becomes
not only behind the V4, but also behind countries such as
obsolete. The current educational system fails reflect the
Brazil, Turkey or Mexico. Slovakia is far behind the
needs of the industry and many employers begin to
leading performers in Europe and our long term position is
complain about lack of preparation and independence of
deteriorating despite the fact that Slovakia is nowadays
university graduates.
among the five fastest growing EU members.
In the field of education, Slovak republic lags behind
Slovak investments into education, research and
the rest of V4 and the average of OECD. While Poland
development rank among the lowest in OECD. The
and Hungary rank in OECD student rankings at least at
number of foreign students in Slovakia is negligible, while
average levels and their results are improving overtime,
the flow of students out of Slovakia is among the highest
Slovak students have been consistently placing below the
in OECD. In the innovation rankings of EU countries,
OECD average for the past six years. Slovak high school
Slovakia fell from 18th to 23rd rank between 2009 and
students reach the OECD average in mathematics and in
2010. Even though a number of strategic documents refer
the area of collecting information, but they fall short in
to knowledge economy, high level political coordination
sciences and in evaluating information. Our students thus
and implementation support is entirely absent.
perform worst in exactly those areas, that most require
critical thinking and are most important for the
III. SPECIFIC MEASURES AIMED TO DEVELOP development of a knowledge economy.
KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN SLOVAKIA
The need for a fundamental change in our approach to
Knowledge economy represents a complex ecosystem, education is illustrated by the McKinsey study How do the
in which the sectors of education, research, development best education systems keep improving: „the systems on
and entrepreneurship are delicately intertwined. Table 1. the way from average to good, in general characterized by
Shows the main areas and problems identified. less well trained teachers, strictly control the educational
process because the minimization of differences among
Area Problem classes and schools is a key performance driver at this
Education Low quality of education stage. On the contrary, systems moving from good to
excellent, characterized by more experienced teachers,
offer only more general frameworks and syllabi, because
Links between Lack of high quality professionals the creativity of teachers, sharing of ideas and innovations
education and R&D within and among schools are a motor for further
improvements.“ Slovakia has an ambition to create an
excellent educational system, but it is trying to achieve
Weak functioning of key institutions these goals using tools more adequate to less developed
R&D systems.
Ineffective and insufficient financing of
R&D
Links between R&D
and Cause Solution
Weak technology transfer process
entrepreneurship Partially resolved by syllabus reform and
expansion of rights of school directors in
Outdated
the last educational reform. The effects
educational
Few and weak domestic technological must be given time to demonstrate, the
methods
firms process will be aided by best practices
Entrepreneurship exchange
Weak R&D activities of international firms Low quality of Improvement of teacher education and best
Links between Education cut off from industry teachers practice exchange
entrepreneurship
and education Lack of entrepreneurial skills training Improvements in teacher quality will
Conservative
generate pressure on management for
Weak political coordination school management
further improvements
Weak connection to
Support for student and teacher mobility
world trends
Systemic failures Administrative burdens Professional
training weakly
Lifelong learning system
connected to
Lacking support for international mobility industry
Table 1. An overview of problems in Slovak knowledge economy Table 2. Causes and proposed solutions
– 30 –
B. Links between education, research and development Slovak universities and science institutions regularly
place at the tail end of OECD productivity rankings. No
Problem: Lack of top practitioners single Slovak institutions made its way to any of the
Best students leave to study abroad, and the top leading world university rankings. Producing less than one
graduates move to the private sector. As a result, the scientific article per year per person in 2008, Slovakia
universities are lacking a strong middle generation. To belonged to the least productive countries in OECD. The
some extent, quality is maintained by aging professors, situation is even worse among the 1% of top cited articles,
but they lack adequate support from driven middle aged where in the years 2006 to 2008 Slovak institutions
successors. As a result, continuity is lost, and if the represented less than 0.1%.
situation is not addressed soon, it could result in an
irreversible decline of higher education, followed by the
rest of the economy.
There is no one to replace the departing students and Cause Solution
professors, because the mobility into the Slovak republic
Lack of incentives to
is significantly restricted by visa policies, policies for cooperate with private Governance reform of universities
residency of foreigners, as well as various administrative sector
barriers by immigration officers, ministries and embassies.
According to OECD data, in 2007 10,3% of Slovak Lack of incentives to Governance reform of universities,
students studied abroad (more than in Bulgaria, produce high quality Reform of the Academy of science, New
outputs funding system for R&D
comparable with Uzbekistan and Morocco), but less than
1% of foreign students studied in Slovakia (one of the Legal barriers
lowest values in OECD, comparable with Turkey or preventing the
academy of science Reform of the Academy
Poland, way below Hungary or Czech Republic) . from cooperating with
To reverse this process, we need to support high quality private sector
researchers and scientists so that they do not need to Focus on quantity of
emigrate or move to the private sector, and bring top students instead of Governance reform of universities
foreign researchers to Slovakia, whether for a limited time quality
or permanently. Low quality
Governance reform of universities and
management of
The lack of high quality professionals is not tied only to Reform of the Academy
academic institutions
teachers or researchers. It also applies to top managers and Lack of high quality
Measures 2 – 5
administrative personnel, who could bring foreign personnel
innovative approaches to Slovakia, improve the student
experience, and support university professors and Table 4. Causes and proposed solutions
scientists in their work.
D. Links between R&D and entrepreneurship
Cause Solution
Problem: Inefficient and insufficient financing of research
Excellence initiative a new funding
Low R&D budgets
schemes
and development
Some improvement due to structural The volume and structure of private and public funding
Infrastructure insufficient
for cutting edge research
funds, followed by world class of R&D in Slovakia significantly lags behind the needs of
infrastructure a modern knowledge economy. Volume-wise, Slovakia is
Bad physical work at the tail end of EU and OECD countries. Although the
Building reconstruction program
environment
overall volume of public R&D funding is growing rapidly
Excellence initiative and installation
grants will improve the quality of
thanks to EU structural funds, the structuring and
work teams. expenditure rules is absolutely wrong. Merely in the last
Bad mental work Popularization programs will help three years, more than one billion euro was invested
environment attract more young talented students. without any clear strategy (from the point of view of
Governance reform of universities public expenditure and obligations). On the other hand,
and SAV will create more space for Slovakia lacks a number of key mechanisms for providing
innovation.
essential state support in particular stages of R&D,
Barriers for access of necessary due to standard market failures such as positive
foreign students,
researchers, teachers, and
Migration policy (S.6) R&D externalities. In particular, there is no support for
scientists private research that leads to new technologies or
solutions for specified economic or societal problems.
Table 3. Causes and proposed solutions The decisions about the funding for education and R&D
takes place on too many levels. The vast majority of
public R&D expenditures outside the scope of EU
C. Research and development structural funds In Slovakia take place in the form of non-
competitive institutional financing. As much as 94% of all
resources dedicated to academic research flows into
Problem: Weak functioning of key institutions generic funds, managed and allocated by the universities
and the Academy. As much as 80% of these funds are
– 31 –
directed towards basic research, significantly more than Cause Solution

the OECD average. National technology transfer
Lack of incentives
system
Lack of awareness about the
National technology transfer
benefits of commercialization
Cause Solution system
among scientists
The implementation of the
majority of the proposed IP legislation and property
Low national investment into Problematic IP legislation
measures generates room for management rules
R&D
more effective financing of Problematic legislation related
R&D to public asset management
Low private sector investment Stimuli. support for innovative IP legislation and property
and management of assets
into R&D companies management rules
financed by public or
Existing funding schemes take European funds
little account of quality and New grant scheme for science World class infrastructure for
results Lacking infrastructure
top research
Too many resources are
Governance reforms of the Lack of qualified personnel National system for technology
directed towards generic
universities and the Academy managing transfer transfer
institutional support
Undirected and uncoordinated
Grant system for applied
use of research institutes ran Table 6. Causes and proposed solutions
research
by ministries
E. Entrepreneurship
Inefficient use of structural World class infrastructure for
funds top research
Will allow universities to profit
Problem: Few and weak domestic technological firms
No financing from own from their own research Newly formed companies represent the main source of
resources activities and will make it economic competitiveness and long term job creation.
possible to reinvest in R&D However, too few truly innovative firms are formed and
flourish in Slovakia. According to the structure of the
Table 5. Causes and proposed solutions work environment, Slovak firms belong amongst the least
innovative in all of OECD. The number of small and
Problem: Weak technology transfer system medium enterprises that introduce innovations in products
Thanks to the adoption of the Bayh-Dole act in the or processes is deep below EU average and falling. At the
USA in 1980, US universities were granted the right and same time, firm expenditure on R&D is declining as well,
responsibility to patent results of research financed from and the number of SMEs dedicated to or cooperating on
federal funds The Universities have thus gained an ability innovation is falling.
to license the results of their research and profit from its
commercialization. The Universities have responded by
forming a well thought out professional system of Cause Solution
specialized policies and offices, whose role is to protect Lack of an entrepreneurial International system of
the intellectual property of the universities and facilitate spirit technology incubators
the transfer of knowledge and ideas to the commercial Lack of capital JEREMIE and SBIR
sector. In 2004, the income of universities from licensing
Legislative barriers IP legislation
rights exceeded 900 million USD in the USA, 80 million
dollars in Australia, or 3 million euro in Switzerland . Legislative barriers for
New migration policy (link later)
foreign entrepreneurs
The Slovak intellectual property law on the other had National technology transfer
provides only a weak protection for the ability of Slovak Weak technology transfer
system
universities to claim a share in the inventions discovered
Weak access to international International system of
on their premises. The law also fails to properly motivate
knowledge and resources technology incubators
the universities to actively assist its students, teachers and
scientists to commercialize the results of their work.
The legal status of universities and research institutes Table 7. Causes and proposed solutions
and the rules governing their asset management create
barriers for cooperation with entrepreneurs. Despite low Problem: Weak R&D activities of international firms
equipment utilization rates, institutions are often not
allowed to make this equipment available to entrepreneurs Despite the presence of a large number of
who are interested in using the equipment for applied technologically advanced multinational corporations such
R&D and are willing to let the institution share in the as CISCO, IBM, Volkswagen, Kia and so forth, almost
benefits of the research. none of these corporations have significant development
centers in Slovakia or invest heavily in R&D. On the
The result is an extremely low patent activity of the contrary, the most inventive and capable employees are
universities. Out of more than 4 thousand patent often transferred abroad. Industrial investment into R&D
applications filed by the EÚ member states and over 16 in Slovakia has fallen from 0.5 to 0.25% of GDP between
thousand in all of OECD in the years 2004 - 2006, only 1998 and 2008, in stark contrast to EU average of 1%,
two applications originated from Slovak universities, OECD average of 1.5% or Austria, where industrial
comparing to 13 Czech and 124 Austrian applications.
– 32 –
investment in R&D grew in the same period from 1% to Even though proficient scientists and researchers are
almost 2% of GDP . very important for the economy, innovative enterprises are
In contrast to Bratislava, a significant number of large needed to develop their ideas and bring them to practical
corporations have established R&D centers in Brno. R&D use. But such companies need well trained managers as
centers of large corporations play a vital role in the much or more than proficient researchers. However,
economy not only because they provide additional educational programmes focusing on the development of
employment, but also because they help to anchor the an entrepreneurial spirit (as opposed to a purely academic
related manufacturing processes. While the assembly line study of management or accounting) are largely absent in
can in principle be moved fairly easily, it is much more Slovakia.
difficult to relocate major R&D centers, because the
number of suitable locations is much more restricted.
Cause Solution
There is almost no direct or indirect governmental
support for industrial R&D. While Austria, the Czech Outdated educational
best practice exchange and support
republic, and Hungary invest between 0.1 and 0.2% of for practical entrepreneurship
methods
training
GDP into government support for industrial R&D and as
many as 22 EU member states offer fiscal stimuli for this
Low quality of teachers best practice exchange
reason, in Slovakia the financing of industrial R&D
flounders around 0.025% GDP.
Table 9. Causes and proposed solutions
Cause Solution
World class research infrastructure will G. Systemic failures
generate an environment attractive for
Lack of incentives private research centers, Stimuli for
industrial R&D will provide additional
Problem: Lack of political coordination
funding Even though a number of strategies were formulated in
Administrative Debyrocratisation of EU funds, Public Slovakia to build an innovation system or a knowledge
barriers procurement economy, none were implemented successfully so far. To
preserve the momentum of the reforms and overcome the
Table 7. Causes and proposed solutions natural institutional resistance, it is crucial to ensure that
the reform process receives sufficient attention and
F. Links between entrepreneurship and education support from the top political leadership and to coordinate
and drive all initiatives not only at the time when the
Problem: Education cut off from industrial needs action plans are written, but also throughout the entire
implementation process.
The supply of existing professional training does not
adequately match the industrial demand. Even though a
strategy for lifelong learning was adopted in 2007 in Cause Solution
Slovakia and even though it was followed by an act on Lack of top level political
lifelong learning, neither has been thoroughly Government innovation council
coordination
implemented, especially concerning the acceptance of Lack of mechanisms for the Action plans formulated based on
informal training of professionals. collection and evaluation of this strategy will contain specific
The growth of a knowledge economy does not depend information concerning the objectives, the Government
implementation of planned innovation council shall monitor
only on high tech innovation. The diffusion of existing measures the actual impact progress towards reaching those
technologies and processes throughout the economy plays of those measures objectives
an equally important role. A large number of productivity
improving innovations can be well known in the country Table 10. Causes and proposed solutions
or within the sector, and yet they may be new and
innovative for most individual firms. The lack of lifelong
education programmes slows down such diffusion of Problem: Administrative burden and administrative
innovative practices. barriers
Whether we examine the system of school inspection,
the organizations managing EU structural funds, or the
Cause Solution public procurement act, we will discover a common trait
in the rules involved: suspicion of the citizen and a desire
Lifelong education system will
Conservative school
generate incentives for schools to
not only to evaluate the outputs of her activities, but also
management
cooperate with industry to control and manage in detail the entire process used to
Administrative barriers achieve such outputs.
preventing firms from
Lifelong education system In the name of fighting corruption, managing quality or
offering courses on ensuring efficiency in the use of public funds, the state
proprietary technology attempts to create the strictest rules possible to limit the
powers of the bureaucrats, and to dictate in as much detail
Table 8. Causes and proposed solutions as possible how the public officials but also the citizens or
firms should act.
Problem: Lack of entrepreneurial skills training The results are counterproductive. The resulting net of
rules has two basic effects: fear or corruption. The vast
– 33 –
array of rules creates a disincentive for public employees scientists, or entrepreneurs in the areas of innovation and
to make decisions, because they risk being penalized for technology transfer, can significantly contribute to the
violations. As a result, many officials hide behind the development of work, scientific and educational
rules and request endless series of explanations, environment, support the exchange of ideas and processes,
confirmations and proofs to avoid having to make hard and generate new job opportunities. The demographic
decisions. On the other hand, the interplay of the huge set developments in Slovakia and Europe indicate that the
of rules also often requires public officials to interpret the Slovak job market depends on foreign human capital.
requirements, and as a result public officials with little or Slovakia also lags behind in integration policy, which is
no real world implementation experience build up on the a necessary part of a successful migration policy. It is
already burgeoning set of laws and rules with additional therefore important in parallel to invest in programs
instructions and requirements. supporting the integration of both short and long term
Instead of evaluating the results achieved, review migrants into the Slovak society.
processes also often focus on a purely formal control of
the process of filing applications, public procurement,
Cause Solution
spending or proceeding in accordance with any number of
other administrative procedural rules (such as hourly
timesheets for work carried out in projects, hundreds of Absence of a comprehensive Creation of a comprehensive
migration policy migration policy
documents required in public procurement, or correctly
filed attendance report). As a result, for example, the Administrative barriers to
project manager is forced to procure outdated and mobility of researchers and
overpriced equipment simply because a particular students and select groups of
Creation of a comprehensive
machine was listed in the initial budget proposal, even foreigners (employment law
migration policy
though more advanced and cheaper machines came to issues, social support, temporary
residence permit problems for
market in the meantime. foreign researchers, etc.)
The public procurement act severely restricts the ability
to procure quality. The project managers are thus always Table 12. Causes and proposed solutions
afraid, who will decide to enter the procurement. The
interpretation of the Act by public officials for example CONCLUSION
gives an advantage to providers with low quality low price
Minerva 2.0 has identified key barriers preventing a
products.
rapid and efficient development of knowledge economy in
Similarly, the act on budgeting procedures severely Slovakia. We proposed a set of 26 measures designed to
restricts the usefulness of grant schemes and the ability of overcome these barriers. In September 2011 the Slovak
many institutions to make long term plans. Similarly, the government set up a special Governmental council for
act on public asset management often prevents useful innovation, tasked with overseeing the implementation of
partnerships between academic institutions and firms that Minerva and coordinating future activities related to the
would like to use their assets. development of a knowledge economy and the innovation
[The entire system deforms both its administrators, and ecosystem in Slovakia. In October 2011, we submitted a
the users who will eventually learn to adapt, and start complex implementation plan for the 26 Minerva
losing interest in the quality of their outputs at the expense measures to a public notice and comment process. We
of fulfilling often meaningless procedural criteria.] expect that the implementation plan will be approved by
the government in early November, thus finalizing the
groundwork necessary to start the serious and critically
Cause Solution important work of transforming Slovakia into a modern,
Extreme administrative burdens
Debyrocratisation of EU funds innovation driven economy.
in EU funds
Reducing the administrative ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Conservative regulatory system
burden
We would like to thank our colleagues in other
ministries of the government and the third sector for their
Difficulty to procure quality in Amending Public Procurement
valuable input and comments.
public procurement Act
Inability to control the quality of

REFERENCES
Stefanik stipend
outputs instead of process [1] Academic Ranking of World Universities 2010, www.arwu.org
[2] Times Higher Education Ranking 2010
[3] Innovative Workplaces, OECD, 2010.
Table 11. Causes and proposed solutions
[4] Measuring Innovation, OECD, 2010.
[5] Higher Education to 2030, vol. 2, OECD, 2009.
Problem: Lacking support for and administrative barriers [6] Innovation Union Scorecard, www.proinno-europe.eu
in international mobility [7] Trend Analyses Survey, May 2010
A clear migration strategy capable of active [8] PISA 2009, OECD, 2010.
contribution to economic and social development is [9] How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting
currently absent in Slovakia. An immigration policy that better, McKinsey&Company, 2010.
creates the conditions for entry of highly qualified [10] Toner, P.: Workforce skills and innovation, OECD, 2011.
workers, such as university students, researchers,
– 34 –
Online Excursions
E. Čipková*, Š. Karolčík* and K. Michalcová**
* Department of Didactics in Science, Psychology and Pedagogy, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in
Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
** High school Bilíkova 24, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
cipkova@fns.uniba.sk, karolcik@fns.uniba.sk, kgardavska@gymbilba.sk
Abstract— In this article we indicate our research results participants is limited only by the nature of license,
realized with the first year students of the Gymnasium in contents specialization, ability to manage and moderate
Bilíkova Street in Bratislava. The analysis of selected discussions and technical capacities of connected devices
questions from questionnaires achieved that online (equipment). An inevitable condition for the
excursions provided the students in the classroom with the videoconference realization is a good quality Internet
opportunity to really identify with the activities performed connection and elementary audiovisual devices (digital
by their classmates in the terrain, but especially with the camera or web camera, microphone, loudspeakers). The
opportunity to search for and process the information fluency of videoconference transmission can be currently
provided by the students in the terrain. ensured also by the 3.5G/HSDPA platform devices with
activated mobile Internet services. In the
I. INTRODUCTION videoconferencing environment, the properties of
Digital technologies bring a revolutionary change in the individual room connections can be set so as to optimize
way people search for, process, evaluate and use the exchange of information (quality of sound, video,
information. The extent and availability of knowledge of shared applications) at the current speed of Internet
all scientific disciplines has been growing continuously connection. A good connectivity level is signaled by a
especially due to them. This is also a reason why the green light in the upper right corner of the room. The
ability to objectively assess their quality and actual system is especially well-arranged, easy to use and
benefits is becoming a key competence that is features a wide range of settings capable of individual
exceptionally highly appreciated in the students. graphical user interface adjustment to videoconferencing
School excursions represent a special form of needs and focus. It has perfectly worked-out archiving of
instruction, involving direct interaction of the students virtual sessions with automatic conversion of files created
with the environment and linking acquired theoretical in the MS Office programs. In addition, it provides an
knowledge with the reality. Detailed information about opportunity to record and easily edit video records created
rules in nature, live organisms, various forms of life or from videoconferences. The system (it) is run using
processes and phenomena happening on Earth for a long permanent URL addresses copied by a user to a dialog
time must be adequately balanced with concrete examples box of preferred search engine. Having entered the
from life. The instruction closed in classrooms is not able specified URL address, it is necessary to enter one’s
to give a sense of these and substitute personal experience identification details (name, nick, etc.) in the box under
from a visit of a described place. On the other hand, to the “Enter as a Guest” text and then clink on the “Enter
think out carefully, prepare, plan and finally to realize the Room” button.
excursion successfully with the students requires a great B. LMS Claroline
deal of work from the teacher. The financial side of real
Claroline information system is a special program
excursions is also not insignificant. Online excursions
intended for the creation of educational projects, lessons
represent an alternative to traditional school excursions.
and online courses. It is free software, often labeled as
They represent the most modern way of multimedia
Open Source developed in 2001 at the Catholic University
presentation of scientifically proved information provided
of Louvain, Belgium. At present, the system (it) is used by
in a comprehensible form, using top-class digital
educational institutions in over 80 countries of the world.
technologies.
Since anybody can use, freely copy and disseminate the
II. APPLIED TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS software in the same or changed version and its source
code is available, it is not necessary to spend any funds on
A. Adobe Connect Pro Videoconference its procurement. However, the installation, activation,
Real-time interactive audiovisual communication is at ensuring availability on the Internet and administration
present among the most popular forms of communication. require having a very good working knowledge of the
This form of interaction is becoming an exceptionally MySQL database system, PHP programming script
attractive technology due to the minimum financial costs language and Apache web server. The information system
for the procurement of necessary equipment, increasingly in use is at present operated and freely available on a
better quality of Internet connection as well as flat rates server of the Department of Didactics in Sciences,
regardless of the amount of transferred data. A Psychology and Pedagogy at the Faculty of Natural
videoconference in the Adobe Connect Pro program Sciences of the Comenius University at the web site
system is virtual programmer-predefined and web- http://www.virtual-lab.sk/claroline/. LMS
oriented environment, interconnecting several participants Claroline consists of two functionally different but
in a videoconference room. At present, the number of interconnected interactive environments with a simple
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 35 –

E. Čipková et al. • Online Excursions
graphical user interface. There are two types of displaying Using these tools, an author decides about elementary
corresponding to these platforms. The student type is project features (Project settings) and accessible (active or
intended for individual studies, while the teacher type is visible) list of user tools. The Statistics part is of great
intended for the preparation and management of importance to the project administrator (author). It maps
educational projects with interactive multimedia contents. access to individual parts of educational project by the
The software is controlled using several tools taking into registered users as well as anonymous users in a fast,
account the type of displaying. These are in the form of well-arranged and statistically precise manner. The
hypertext links and supplemented with several easily project author is capable of detailed continuous checking
identifiable picture icons, whose main function is making of registered students’ work and reacting immediately to
work on projects faster and well-organized. objective findings or possibly making further
In order to enter the system, it is necessary to know a conclusions.
user name and password. In case that project authors
decide to publish their educational contents, also users III. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES, METHODS AND
who have not signed in may view individual parts of ORGANIZATION
prepared lessons. However, they cannot create and change The objective of research was to find out students’
projects, complete their answers, multimedia, propose interest in and opinion on realized interdisciplinary online
solutions or test the level of their knowledge by excursions as well as use of digital technologies in
completing exercises. Only registered users who have instruction with an emphasis on teamwork and problem
signed in for a project are allowed to decide about the solving.
contents and influence how the information system works. We realized in-field excursions with the students in
These users may access projects either as their various localities of the Devínska Kobyla Protected
administrators (authors, tutors) or students (solvers). Landscape Area, cultural and historical monument of the
The creation of educational projects is done in simple Devín Castle and the Bratislava ZOO. The excursions
and intuitive graphical environment (interface), where the were namely the following: “From Sandberg to Devín”,
function of tools is well-described by the names of “From Dúbravka to the Devín Castle” and “The Bratislava
hypertext links. These include: ZOO or Bilíkova for Trstená”. Before the realization of
Project description, including elementary information the excursions with the students, six trial excursions had
on the focus and educational objectives of project. taken place. The functioning and adequateness of digital
Schedule, including planned events. technologies in use as well as signal coverage of the
planned routes had been tested during these excursions,
Announcements, including information of unexpected since the essence of the realization of the excursions was
changes, current affairs, planned software outages or other online communication and data exchange between the
events intended for users and having impact on work on a classroom and the terrain. Based on findings of the trial
project. excursions, we revised planned stops and selected suitable
Documents and references, containing a list of locations supporting the idea of the interdisciplinary
information resources, web sites and study materials in excursions.
various digital formats. During the realization of the excursions, the students
Exercises, intended for test creation and administration. were divided into 2 groups. One group stayed in the
An author chooses from five elementary formats of closed classroom, where they had at their disposal multimedia
(objectively scorable) questions. classroom and specialized literature. The other group
Procedures and instructions, proposing the optimum moved to the terrain. Both groups were divided into
learning method when studying a particular educational smaller teams of 2 or 3 members, who had to
project. communicate and cooperate between the groups as well as
Assignments (tasks), by means of which students gain with the group in the classroom, while fulfilling their
the insight of a problem area, search for right solutions tasks. The teacher assigned the students in the classroom
and arrive at their own conclusions. Just like in other parts roles within the group (e.g. data collector, moderator,
of the Claroline information system, an author is not cameraman, etc.), taking into account the students’
limited by an exactly defined nature of assignment or interests, their knowledge, skills and capabilities. While
formats of attached files. Therefore it is easy to attach other students were moving to the terrain, the students in
pictures, animation, videos or audio recordings to the classroom were solving the tasks assigned using LMS
individual tasks, taking advantage of the e-learning Claroline. Each group fulfilled a specific task during the
environment. excursion. At the same time, all students worked on
achieving their common objective, hence the contribution
While the above stated tools for controlling the system of each of them was important in order to achieve the
are related mainly to the creation and contents objective. Thus teamwork, cooperation and collaboration
specialization of educational projects, the purpose of other were important.
(Discussion, Groups, Users, Chat and Cooperation) is
ensuring interconnection between individuals (registered During the realization of the individual excursions,
users). The system actively supports teamwork (group of students in the classroom changed with those in the
solvers), with the communication between its members terrain. Their roles in the terrain changed as well.
taking place in the form of online chat or created The research used questionnaire method as a measuring
discussion forum. tool. When drafting the questionnaires, we used mainly
A special category of work tools positioned in the left- scaling questions of our own. We gave the questionnaires
hand part of the Claroline information system window is to the respondents before and after the realization of the
represented by three hypertext links at its bottom margin. excursion. The questionnaire before the excursion
– 36 –
contained mostly identical questions as the questionnaire communication via videoconference did not seem to them
after the excursion. The questions concerned students’ so attractive as during the first excursion. In the course of
interest in biology, excursion topic and use of digital this excursion, there were some problems with the picture
technologies in instruction. and sound transmission in the locality, which might have
The questionnaire after the excursion contained also resulted in the decreased students’ interest to some degree.
questions concerning the assessment of the excursion However, after the last excursion in the ZOO, students’
itself and working with LMS Claroline. The second part interest in incorporating the videoconferences in
of the questionnaire consisted of a simplified version of instruction increased again to 66.92%. The increased
MCQ (Multimedia Communication Questionnaire), a interest had to do also with the excursion topic and the
method of communication assessment via fact that working with the technologies had become a
videoconference [1]. matter of course and the students could fully concentrate
on the videoconference and instruction process.
IV. RESEARCH RESULTS We were also interested in finding out students’ opinion
We realized the excursions with the first year students on working in the Claroline information system. The
of the Gymnasium in Bilíkova Street in Bratislava (31 assessment scale ranges from 1 to 5, with 1 meaning that
students – 9 boys, 22 girls). We analyzed the working in the Claroline information system was
questionnaires concerning the realized excursions. In the insufficient and 5 meaning that working in the system was
following section, we present the results of the analysis of perfect. Working in the Claroline information system was
selected questions concerning increasing the quality of assessed with the highest score (3.84) after the first
instruction process and students’ motivation also by excursion. The score of 3.84 means that working in the
means of incorporating our form of instruction in the Claroline information system (IS) was for the students
educational process. good or very good. They described the Claroline system
When analyzing the data from the questionnaires as well-organized and relatively easy to use. Even though
administration, we were interested in students’ interest in this was the first time that the students have worked with
the system, they had no problems while completing the
the excursion topic supported by digital technologies
(DTs) after the excursion (Figure 1). assignment and they learned fast how to work and orient
in the system. After the second excursion, the score
decreased by 0.47 to 3.37 which did not signify any
Change in interest in excursion topic marked change. The lower score could have been partly
due to a higher number of assignments the students in the
0,50
classroom had to solve in two hours, while the group in
0,40
the terrain walked through the woods and had no signal.
0,30 After the third excursion, the score of working in the
0,20 system increased to 3.72, which again means good or very
0,10 good score. In general, we can consider working in the
0,00
Sandb erg Devín ZOO
Claroline IS as very good, with the system being well-
organized and easy to use for the students.
During the overall analysis of the questionnaires from
Figure 1 Comparison of the interest in the excursion topic the individual excursions, we focused also on the scores
supported by the digital technologies after the excursion. concerning the change in the role and assignment of the
students into the excursion groups as well as on
The scale ranges from -1 to 1, with -1 meaning that comparing the interest in participation in another
students’ interest decreased after the excursion. 0 means excursion (Schemes no. 2, 3, 4). We compared the scores
that the interest did not change and 1 means that the between the students in the terrain and those in the
interest increased. As follows from the scheme, students’ classroom and between the genders. The results
interest in the excursion topic increased commensurate to concerning the interest in changing the role and group and
the interest in participation in another excursion range
their participation in the excursions. The obtained results
can be deemed as positive and the excursions supported from –1 to 1, with the scores from –1 to 0 meaning
by DTs as motivating the increase in students’ interest in disagreement to changing the role and group and a lack of
biology. interest in another excursion and the scores from 0 to 1
meaning agreement.
Since videoconferences are used in instruction in our
When comparing the scores concerning the interest in
country relatively rarely, we were interested in finding out
students’ interest in incorporating these in the educational changing the role (Figure 2) within three realized
process. We assessed the obtained data regardless of the excursions, we can see that all excursions in the terrain
placement into the groups and roles. The highest interest reached negative scores (Sandberg: -0.875, ZOO: -0.87,
Devín: -1).
(73.32%) in incorporating the videoconferences in the
instruction process was after the first excursion, which is The score of -1 related to the Devín excursion means
understandable as the students participated in the above absolute disagreement to change students’ roles, i.e. the
form of excursions for the first time and the experience students were fully satisfied with their roles. On the
they gained was new and interesting. After the second contrary, the scores of the students in the classroom were
excursion, students’ interest in incorporating the positive – Sandberg: 0.30, Devín: 0.14. In case of the
videoconferences in instruction decreased to 61.33%, ZOO excursion, the score was 0, meaning that the students
which we do not see as a negative result, as the students were in essence satisfied with the roles they were assigned
participated in the excursion for the second time and the and some of them would have welcomed changing the
roles during the excursion. If we were to examine in more
– 37 –
E. Čipková et al. • Online Excursions
detail the interest in changing the roles between the Last but not least, by analyzing the questionnaire data,
genders, we would notice a decreasing tendency up to the we wanted to find out students’ interest in participating in
negative scores in the students in the terrain. This result another excursion. We assessed the data from the
means that from the perspective of the attractiveness of perspective of the assignment of the students to the terrain
the environment where the excursions were realized, the and classroom and from the perspective of the gender.
most interesting environment for the students was the Regardless of the gender and their assignment to the
Bratislava ZOO. Therefore the scores related to the ZOO groups, all students were interested in participating in
excursion were -0.43 in the boys and 0.56 in the girls. another excursion, which can be considered as a very
Based on the obtained results, we can state that, regardless positive result. It is notable that the scores of the interest
of the gender, the students were not much interested in of the students in the terrain decreased from the first
changing the roles during the excursions. The result of the excursion to the third one (Sandberg: 1, Devín: 1, ZOO:
Sandberg excursion, where the score in the girls (0.09) 0.73). This result could have been due to the fact that they
was positive, could have been influenced by the fact that realized the Bratislava ZOO or Bilíkova for Trstená
more of the girls were assigned the roles in the classroom excursion from the position of teachers for their younger
and the outside environment presented via schoolmates and they must have prepared for this in
videoconference was interesting for them. However, we advance. On the contrary, the scores of the interest of the
need to note that this was a lower positive score, which students in the classroom increased. After the last two
could be negligible in general. excursions, the students in the classroom were slightly
more interested in participating in another excursion
(Sandberg: 0.43, Devín: 0.50, ZOO: 0.50). This result
Changing roles during excursions again confirmed the fact that for the students who
participated in the last excursion in the roles of teachers
0,4
the excursions did not seem as interesting as at the
0,2
0
beginning.
-0,2 Sandberg
The comparison of the interest by the gender is also
Devín
-0,4
ZOO
notable. While in the boys, the interest in another
-0,6
-0,8
excursion decreased from the first excursion to the third
-1 one (Sandberg: 0.56, Devín: 0.40, ZOO: 0.29), in the girls
Terén Trieda Chlapci Dievčatá
it increased (Sandberg: 0.59, Devín: 0.75, ZOO: 0.78). In
general, the girls were more interested in the excursions
than the boys. We assume that this result has to do with a
Figure 2 Comparison of the interest in changing the roles higher information literacy and general interest in digital
between the terrain and classroom and based on the gender within
three realized Raft excursions. technologies in the boys.
V. CONCLUSION
Figure 3 illustrates the comparison of students’ interest As follows from the experience with using the digital
in changing the group from the terrain to the classroom technologies in the instruction process so far, online
and vice versa. The results are very similar to those in the excursions provided the students in the classroom with the
previous scheme (Figure 2), since the assignment of the opportunity to really identify with the activities performed
students to the roles and groups are closely interlinked. by their classmates in the terrain, but especially with the
In general, we can state that the students were satisfied opportunity to search for and process the information
with the groups and roles they were assigned. The provided by the students in the terrain. The also managed
selection and suitability of the assignment of the students to meaningfully communicate and cooperate together
to the groups and roles depended on the teacher who when completing the assignments. However, a
realized the excursion. This fact is confirmed by the above precondition for the effective cooperation of the students
stated results of the questionnaire analysis, since the in the classroom and terrain is the necessity to be
students were divided into the groups by the teacher based equipped with good quality modern technologies as well
on their capabilities, knowledge and skills they used as wireless connection. In addition to obtaining new
within the assigned roles during the excursion and experience when working with the technologies, the
videoconference. students got acquainted with and learned how to work
with the Claroline system, which, so to say, lead them to
find the right solutions to their assignments by means of
Changing groups during excursion simple model task management. Working with the
Claroline system is beneficial in several aspects for the
0,2
students as well as teachers. It can provide them with
0
interesting opportunities, procedures and instructions that
-0,2
Sandberg are easily applicable in the instruction process. The
-0,4
-0,6
Devín students also learned how to lead the videoconference and
-0,8
ZOO
how to behave in the process.
-1 Thanks to the videoconference, the students could
Terén Trieda Chlapci Dievčatá
better imagine the environment their classmates in the
terrain were in. They could ask specific questions
concerning the assignments and thus participate in solving
Figure 3 Comparison of the interest in changing the groups
between the terrain and classroom and based on the gender within
them. The videoconferences require quality hardware and
three realized Raft excursions. software equipment as well as good transmission signal.
– 38 –
This fact may complicate the videoconference REFERENCES

management. A negative aspect of the first two online [1] BERGIN, D.A., ANDERSON, A.H., MOLNÁR, T.,
excursions was the low quality signal, causing picture and BAUMGARTNER, R., MITCHELL, S., KORPER, S., CURLEY,
especially sound interruptions during the A., ROTTMANN, J.: Providing remote accessible field trips
videoconferences. Of course, this fact negatively impacted (RAFT): an evaluation study. In Computers in Human Behavior.
the overall impression of the videoconferences. In spite of vol. 23, 2007, n. 1. pp. 192-219. ISSN 0747-5632
that, as follows from the questionnaire analysis, it was [2] ČIPKOVÁ, E., GREŠÁKOVÁ, J., GÁLOVÁ, T., KAROLČÍK,
interesting experience for the students and they would like Š., UŠÁKOVÁ, K.: Majú videokonferencie miesto vo vyučovaní
biológie? In Technológia vzdelávania. vol. 17, 2009, n. 8. pp. 3-6.
to participate in this form of the instruction process more ISSN 1335-003X
often. [3] GARDAVSKÁ, K., MOLNÁR, T., ČIPKOVÁ, E.,
BAUMGARTNER, R., KAROLČÍK, Š.: Raft exkurzie vo
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vyučovaní biológie. In: Zborník príspevkov z 5.celoštátnej
We would like to thank all members of project teams konferencie INFOVEK. Bratislava: Ústav informácií a prognóz
školstva INFOVEK, 2005. pp. 58-64. ISBN 80-7098-422-8
who have contributed to the presented work, the result of
[4] KAROLČÍK, Š., MÁZOROVÁ, H.: Claroline – informačný
the Slovak national projects Modernization of education at systém na správu a riadenie vzdelávacích projektov. In: Aktuálne
primary and secondary schools (ITMS project codes: trendy vo vyučovaní prírodovedných predmetov. Bratislava:
26110130083, 26140130013, 26110130084, ŠEVT a.s., 2007. pp. 385-388. ISBN 978-80-88707-90-5
26140130014) supported by the European Social Fund. [5] KAROLČÍK, Š.: Využitie videokonferencií vo vzdelávaní
budúcnosti. In Technológia vzdelávania, vol. 12, 2004, n. 2. pp. 12
– 15. ISSN 1335-003X.
[6] Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. Available at:
<http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/webconferen
cing/enterprise.html> (6.9.2011)
[7] Claroline. Net About Claroline. Available at:
<http://www.claroline.net/about-claroline.html> (8.9.2011)
– 39 –
Next generation IPTV solution for educational

purposes
D. Cymbalák, F. Jakab and M. Michalko
Technical University of Košice, Košice, Slovakia
david.cymbalak@cnl.sk, frantisek.jakab@cnl.sk, miroslav.michalko@cnl.sk
Abstract - The aim of this work is to design an appropriate final part of the work evaluates the results generated by
concept of IPTV for the needs of academic institutions. solution and the functionality of the resulting IPTV portal
Based on the analysis, selected existing technologies of the of new generation.
components of internet television in cooperation with newly
created components are transforming into a multifunctional II. GOALS
next-generation IPTV solution with educational abilities.
The result is a concentration of these functionalities into a The goal is to design a complex IPTV solution enabling
single complex structure in the form of portal with web the management, distribution, reception of video content
interface, which allows upload of high definition video and creation of scheduled broadcast. Work should end
content, categorization, distribution, play and assign to with the implementation of IPTV portal with user friendly
playlist of scheduled broadcast. interface.
Keywords – IPTV, VOD, Streaming, Wowza III. ANALYSIS
A. Streaming
I. INTRODUCTION
Streaming is a technology, which ensures the transfer
The issue of streaming technology and IPTV is quite of multimedia content over a network. It allows
extensive and thus more and more widespread in transmission of audio, video or even other multimedia
commercial television services and also in the educational content from sender to recipients. This technology can be
field. IPTV is a means of information delivery to the used to real-time broadcasting, but also for receiving
recipient in the form of video, audio or web content. This
video on demand (VOD). Traditional broadcasting
type of broadcast is transported through the network using
internet protocols. Usage of IPTV is polyfunctional, but it operates in a way where videos are broadcasted in real
has the largest representation in the replacement of time in accordance with pre-planned schedule or ongoing
analogue television broadcasting. Other usage includes the live events from the cameras. Receiving video on demand
possibility of remote education, which is unlike video allows recipient to choose the video content that will be
conferencing, technologically simpler option of providing transmitted at that moment.
one video stream to large number of recipients, but at the Streaming media formats compared with conventional
expense of losing interactivity from side of recipients. media formats brings many advantages. These benefits
This fact creates a new dimension in looking at education, include: media content protection against piracy,
where barriers of distance are broken down and there is controlling the flow of content, selection of allowed
opportunity to participate in full training process through recipients or easy content management. For this reason,
the network anywhere in the world. especially due to affordability, these technologies are
IPTV adapted to educational purposes appears to be a largely appearing as an appropriate means for providing
means, which could be in the future as one of the primary educational services through the Internet. This all brings a
sources of education, therefore, is appropriate to propose
new dimensions and more effective teaching methods then
an IPTV system in the form, which meets all the
requirements of learners, and it is suitable for mass usage. static text and images.
The aim of this work is to contribute new concept of IPTV Delivering of streaming media content is provided
solution for the academic environment using popular without the need to download entire files. As soon as
technologies in the field, with proper connection and computer starts playing the media, it also starts
adding newly created components. downloading content from the next sections from
Analysis of this work deals with mapping of existing streaming server. This process is called buffering, which
technologies, such as: streaming, video conversion tools, means that downloading content and playing the parts are
web players, flash technology, HTML5 and other support going at the same time. Streaming is mostly without
tools. Work continues with creation of concept showing affecting the transmission quality, in addition to the initial
interconnection between selected technologies and new buffer initialization. The aim is to provide services with
components necessary for the functionality required by streaming technologies in accordance with the limitations
academic institution. Implementation of the idea consists of network bandwidth. It is necessary to use such
of the configuration of existing components and creation technology, which ensures that the recipient is receiving
new program parts for supporting interconnection. The the data smoothly and without delay. Describing method,
however, affects the quality of video playback. The
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 41 –

D. Cymbalák et al. • Next Generation IPTV Solution for Educational Purposes
quality of transmitted media streaming is often subject to stream. This means that it is possible to impose better and
criticism. People often compare the quality of streaming sharper video into a file on relatively small size. It has a
media with the quality of conventional media files and large impact on cost savings for bandwidth and storage in
they seem inadequate. But the main and important feature the archive, unlike the previous generation’s codecs. For
of streaming media is not quality but access. comparison, H.264 uses the same quality recording and up
to 4 times less storage capacity than standard codecs.
B. Resolution and codecs Codec provides highly efficient use of the various kinds of
Standard TV broadcast formats offer a resolution up to applications, such as: Live TV, VOD, video conferencing,
720x576 pixels (SD), which means that the signal is streaming and storage. It is designed to provide excellent
drawn in 576 lines of 720 pixels. Minimum resolution quality in wide use (as 3G networks and mobile
referred to as high definition (HD) is defined as resolution streaming).
of 1280x720 pixels. Maximum commonly used high-
C. IPTV Components
resolution live video ends on the value of 1920x1080,
which is referred to as "Full HD". However there are In terms of the concept of IPTV, there are several
higher resolutions for imaging and broadcasting video, essential components needed to build IPTV solution,
which are not yet mass, because there are high costs of which provide services to end customers via the Internet.
equipment. The more pixels can device draw, the more Distribution of video content to multiple packets,
details can be received. Significant impact on the quality compression and transmission to hosts are provided by
of high resolution has the way how the image is recorded video streaming server. Conversion of media formats into
and rendered on the screen. There are two types of image a format suitable for transmission is provided by encoder.
rendering: progressive and interlaced. Interlaced image is Camera is source for providing live broadcasts. The
rendered on screen at any one time either odd or even source of video on demand consists of data storage in
lines. Rendering takes place so rapidly that the human eye combination with supporting tools such as web-based
is unable to normally capture. The smaller decline in the system for management and receiving of content (Fig. 1).
quality still occurs with rapid changes in the image and
can cause impression of flashing. By contrast, in D. Expected functionality of proposed IPTV system
progressive mode, the entire area of the screen renders the After introducing basics of IPTV technologies, it is
image in one step for one change, so that allows tracking appropriate to define the expected capabilities and
all the details together. The most common current formats functionality of the proposed IPTV solution for
are high definition 720p, 1080i and 1080p. This marking educational purposes. To make solution suitable for use in
determines the number of lines in resolution and letter academic environment to provide educational multimedia
identifying way of rendering (i - interlaced, p - content, it should meet the following requirements:
progressive). • Provide high definition for all services working
Even though the quality is not the primary feature of with video content.
streaming technology, it is the way, how can affect • Enable broadcast reception according to the
quality. When it comes to multimedia transmission schedule via a web interface.
through lines with high bandwidth, then can be used
appropriate encoding, which ensures higher quality. When • Realization of streaming broadcasts based on
it comes to the transmission through lines with lower schedule.
bandwidth, then it is possible to use the encoding, which • Include the possibility of schedule broadcast
will primarily ensures smooth playback, and then solves through a Web interface.
the issue of quality. Encoding is provided by codecs. • Provide information about scheduled broadcast
Codec is compression algorithm, which is used to reduce in the form of daily and weekly program or offer
the file size. Reducing of file size appears in process of information about the current broadcast.
transformation from conventional format to streaming
media format. Programs that provide assistance for • Integrate environment to receive messages within
encoding with codecs are called encoders. Some encoders broadcast in real time.
can encode the same source for multiple uses (depending • Enable the reception from live cameras.
on bandwidth). In terms of streaming technologies, here • Implement a live broadcast via from cameras.
are important mainly video codecs and audio codecs. The
• Provide reception of video on demand (VOD).
best known are MPEG-1, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4,
DivX, Vorbis, H.263, H.264. Each codec has ability to • Allow categorization of video content in VOD
stream with specific amount bits per second (bit rate), service.
which depends on the level of compression, on the • Allow the association name, description or other
resolution of the video, on the information contained in text fields for video content.
the transmission or on the number of audio channels. • Implement a web interface to upload new videos.
These codecs provide encapsulation of video content in
video file format. The most common video file formats • Include automated creation of thumbnails from
are AVI, OGG, MPG, MOV, ASF, WMV, FLV and MP4. video.
Different codecs can be used to create various file formats, • Include automated tool to obtain the video
this means that file formats should not be linked only to a length.
codec, but nevertheless there are some exceptions. The • Allow searching for content in the VOD service.
most widely used and most popular codec for HD is now
H.264. This codec combines the best video quality in • Offer the ability to share and spread links to the
combination with the least requirements for the data video content through social networks.
– 42 –
position and playback time. It also has possibility to live

streaming channel in HD on the schedule in real time.
This module in combination with the Wowza server
appears to be a suitable component for building new
custom automated systems for creating broadcast as part
of a new generation IPTV solution.
G. Flash Media Encoder
This software is built to stream live video in real time
and simultaneously convert to Flash. It supports codecs
Figure 1. Concept of interconnection between mentioned IPTV H.264 and On2 VP6. The program can simultaneously
components live broadcast and save the broadcast to file in FLV
format. This feature is useful for creating video archives
Based on analysis of existing technologies for the needs in IPTV solution. Encoder has various features
of IPTV, it is shown that following components are influencing quality of streaming beginning from selecting
suitable for use in this solution: Wowza Media Server, the encoding resolution, ending with the choice of filters
Stream Class Scheduler Module, Flash media encoder, to determine the bitrate. The restriction appears to be his
FFmpeg, VLC and JWplayer. platform compatibility, which is defined for Windows
E. Wowza Media Server and Mac OS, but there is lack of support for control over
the command line interface. The program could be
It is fully interactive server for streaming multimedia controlled only through a graphical interface, which
content with full support for H.264. It is Java server eliminates the possibility of automation.
platform, which is also suitable for high deployment with In this solution it will be utilized for providing live
a large number of clients in the network and with broadcasts from the cameras.
continuous operation. Wowza has wide ranging
possibilities, not only as a means for streaming stored files H. FFmpeg
(VOD) or live broadcast, but as a means to secure video Complete multiplatform solution for recording,
conferencing, shared screens or games. There is also the converting and streaming video. It can quickly convert
possibility of using modules that provide control of media files between different formats. Control is
dynamic content such as advertising or playlist. Since provided by using the command line, but the commands
Wowza is based on JAVA, there is a possibility to create are intuitive and parameters are automatically filled. It
own modules that can be fully customized. These modules can even convert video directly from a source that is
are created using an integrated environment Wowza IDE, currently streamed live. It also provides additional
which also offers the ability to configure and manage features as resize the video using high quality filters and
server activity. also directly to the live broadcast.
Concerning security, the server provides it at a high It will be utilized in current solution as tool for video
level. It includes protection against unwanted intrusions conversion, for determination the length of video and for
and even restriction to capture streaming content. These the creation of video thumbnails.
features are provided through an encrypted transfer with
RTMP / RTMPS protocol and special security token, I. VLC
which generates a strong protection against applications A combination of server and client designated to
for recording broadcast content. delivery or receive streaming media formats. VLC is built
Usage of server is extensive and it is not depend of type in a modular way. It means that it is possible to choose
of recipient’s device. Broadcast reception is possible via from a variety of different modules providing control of
the web interface, custom software applications, mobile video. It has possibility of direct conversion input to the
devices or set-top box. Wowza is able to stream to all of output container formats suitable for streaming. There is
these devices in parallel and selects the correct protocol support for managing playlists and another advantage is
and data flow depending on the client. the existence of extensions for Web browsers in form of
In this solution it will be utilized as the primary server VLC player which can play stream directly in browser.
for broadcasting. VLC can operate with filters in the streaming video
directly like showing logo or inserting RSS. Best
F. Stream Class Scheduler Module advantage of this tool is possibility to control every
Additional Wowza’s module provides control of feature via the command line interface. The potential can
streaming channels. Schedules are defined in the input be seen in creating automated scripts for broadcast.
file in the SMIL language. With appropriate In this solution it will be utilized as secondary server
modifications and additions, offers the following for broadcasting outside of the web portal (e.g. STB).
functionality: Establishment of multiple broadcast
streams (channels). Possibility of creation for each J. JWplayer
channel a broadcasting schedule (playlists). For each JWplayer is web based flash player with support of
playlist is defined date and time of playing and path to RTMP protocol and HTML5. It brings feature called
video files. For each video can be defined playback "dynamic bitrate switching", which set the bitrate of video
– 43 –
dynamically according the information from user about L. The creator of live broadcasts
bandwidth. This feature decides what bitrate has to be This role uses live video from the camera as a source
provided to best ensure the continuity and quality of play. for live streaming intended recipients. He also manages
Playback can also stop and delay live streaming, then encoding tool for live broadcast and through this tool also
store streaming in temporary memory and then re- keeps a record of live broadcast to archive for next
launched from memory for next watching. Player supports integration to VOD service.
various extensions such as publish videos directly on
social networks with one control or adding information M. The administrator of video content
directly to the video. He manages VOD section, which includes: uploading
JWplayer will be utilized to play broadcast and video new video contents, classification to categories,
on demand in web interface of current IPTV solution. nomenclature, association of textual information and
thumbnail selection. He can add, edit and delete video
K. Interconnection of components
content related to VOD section.
For the interconnection (Fig. 2) of these components is
necessary to design custom components such as: web N. Recipient of video content via web interface
portal for access and manipulation of video content, web He has allowed watching of scheduled broadcast, live
interface for creating the schedule, a database of videos broadcasts and video on demand (VOD). He can view the
and schedule, script for creating SMIL playlist for schedule, search video content and share via social
Wowza server, script for creating a playlist for VLC, networks.
storage of video files, live video source (video camera).
The overall solution is designed for availability all O. The administrator of broadcast schedule
services for all roles from anywhere via the Internet. This role creates and manages broadcasting schedule
Services for administration of broadcast or VOD not created from existing database of video content, where
depend on special programs running only at servers the video is assigned to the day of the week and exact
however, solution allows administration and configuration time, when start to broadcast. He can also assign video
via the web interface in the browser. This brings from VOD section to schedule.
consistency of solution, where almost all functions are
controlled from a single comprehensive environment. P. Recipient of broadcast via software (VLC)
Environment takes the form of a web portal with a He can receive scheduled broadcast outside the web
friendly and intuitive user interface. interface through protocols supporting VLC streaming
Overall design allows for five types (roles) of access technology. It can be done by external software players
the system: creator of live broadcasts, administrator of installed in operation system in computer or set-top box.
video content, recipient of video content via web,
administrator of broadcast schedule, recipient of IV. SOLUTION AND RESULTS
broadcast via software. Entire solution was based on an operating system of
Linux (Ubuntu 10.10, Kernel 6.2.32) with installed
LAMP server (a combination of Apache, MySQL and
PHP). It was necessary to create a shared folder for
cooperation of individual tools. In this folder are located
files related to portal, configuration files and files related
to creating schedule. Each section of the web portal is
based on interconnection of technologies HTML, PHP
and jQuery. The HTML files define placing objects on
page, location of static text, dependencies to external
JavaScript files or styles. JavaScript files define the
characteristics and behavior of objects from the jQuery
UI library. Files written in PHP furthermore ensure
connection to the database and manage dynamic objects
in the page. Code of Flash player (JWplayer) is located in
HTML files and for improving the player look it was
used modified skin.
Solution includes two files written in Bash language,
which are added in system Cron. These scripts are
designed to automate the operations related to create
broadcast schedule. For automation it was necessary to
implement two types of commands calling FFmpeg
server: getting video length and getting video thumbnail.
Wowza Media Server was used as the primary server for
the broadcast schedule. Streaming is working through
Figure 2. Design of interconnection all components in IPTV
solution.
RMTP protocol by transmitting the video content from a
specific application of Wowza server built for live
– 44 –
streaming. As a complement to server extension, it was

installed Wowza Collection Module, which contains the
Stream Class Scheduler module. It was important to add
the server configuration component called
ServerListener, which arranges loading SMIL file for
organization and schedule of broadcast.
The solution includes the usage of complementary
tools such as VLC and Flash Media Encoder. VLC server
was used only as a secondary server operating along the
Wowza Media Server for streaming to end-customers
with a specific software or set-top box. Flash Media
Encoder was used for live broadcasts such as software,
which supports video transmission from the camera. This
encoder has to run from another windows compatible
hardware with connection to cameras.
Result of work is the complex web portal containing
four basic sections for watching video content,
management video content, upload new videos and for
creating schedule of broadcast. All services are available
from one web interface for all kind of roles.
A. Watching section
The first, introductory section of the portal (Fig. 3) is
designed to receive scheduled broadcast. It allows to
watch broadcast via web player, to show current
information about ongoing stream or to appear panel for
Figure 3. Screenshot of portal section for watching live broadcast
live text messages. Live text messages can be and weekly program schedule.
dynamically updated by administrator and are shown
below video window without need for refresh page in
browser. There is also a daily and weekly program
schedule viewable from scrolling toolbar. Information
such as name of currently streamed video is displayed in
information panel above the video window.
B. Video on demand section
The second section (Fig. 4) offers video on demand
(VOD) services. Content are divided in categories located
at the top menu and subcategories, which showing like
visual icons. After clicking on the icon pops up a list of
videos belonging to that subcategory. After initialization
of video playback by clicking at thumbnail, it appears
window with video player containing information about
video. VOD Section also contains blocks showing 5 most
viewed videos and 5 latest videos. At the top of section is
the search window, which is able to search video content
in database after specification one or more letters. Search
system automatically complete words and selects the
Figure 4. VOD section of portal designed for watching categorized
appropriate records. Every video can be shared through videos.
an integrated link to social network (Facebook) and there
is also ability to switch to full screen view.
C. Upload section
To add a new video content is specified the next
section of portal called "Upload". It consists of two parts
(steps). The first step is for uploading video file from the
file system of currently connected user. Upon successful
completion of data transfer will automatically display the
second part - a step for selection thumbnail and
assignment information for video (Fig. 5). In this step,
thumbnail is created by changing position of slider, which
Figure 5. Choosing of thumbnail and adding information about new
updates actual thumbnail at display. video.
– 45 –
D. Schedule section
Environment for creating broadcast schedule is
implemented in a separate section (Fig. 6). It is divided
into bookmarks by day of the week, where each day has
the ability to add or remove blocks of the video content in
exact time. Adding video is not only possible at the end
or beginning of the schedule, but also in areas between
existing records or it can edit the beginning of
broadcasting.
CONCLUSION
This work is dealing with design and implementation of
comprehensive next-generation IPTV solution with the
possibility to use in educational process. The design of
concept was created based on an analysis of existing
technologies in combination with creation custom
components. Result of the work has been transformed into Figure 6. Environment for management broadcast schedule divided
comprehensive and centralized system in the form of web in days of week.
portal with user friendly interface. The portal was built on
HTML, PHP and JavaScript libraries in combination with
jQuery UI. Wowza Media Server in cooperation with form of modules related to CMS Drupal 7, because both
Flash technology was used as the primary technological systems are developed in the same programming
solution for video broadcast. Reception of video content languages. This integration will extend system
was provided by JWplayer, which is web based Flash functionality and usability and it will provide a central
player. As support tools programs like FFmpeg and Flash security solution covered by existing modules.
Media Live Encoder are used. The final result is a system
which allow the reception, transmission, creation and ACKNOWLEDGMENT
management of video content in high definition. This work was supported by the Slovak Cultural and
From the perspective of the end recipient of services Educational Grant Agency of Ministry of Education of
resulting web portal is designed to receive broadcast Slovak Republic (KEGA) under the contract No.
according to predefined schedule or watching video 3/7245/09(60%). This work is also the result of the project
content on demand (VOD). In terms of administration of implementation Development of the Center of Information
IPTV services, system carries out operations through the and Communication Technologies for Knowledge
portal, such as adding new videos on server and creating Systems(project number: 26220120030) supported by the
broadcast schedule. Solution has the capability to integrate Research & Development Operational Program funded by
live broadcast from the videocameras encoded in real the ERDF(40%).
time.
In terms of functionality of the overall solution can be REFERENCES
concluded that the system is suitable for use in the [1] G. O'Driscoll, Next generation IPTV services and Technologies,
academic field as a means of education, but it is not Hoboken: Wiley, 2008.
impossible his wider usage in projects offering IPTV [2] M. Michalko, Vývoj streamingového servera novej generácie,
services outside the academic environment. Diploma Thesis, Košice: Technical University of Košice, 2005.
[3] M. Angelides and H. Agius, The handbook of MPEG applications,
Future development of the presented system is aimed to Chichester: Wiley, 2011.
its integration into content management system. The goal
[4] D. Cymbalák, IPTV novej generácie, Diploma Thesis, Košice:
should be improvement of source codes of system in the Technical University of Košice, 2011.
– 46 –
E-learning system and Virtual Laboratory for the

study of Electronic Technologies
D. Demeter, J. Banský, S. Kardoš, Ľ. Livovský and I. Vehec
Technical university of Košice/Department of technologies in electronics, Košice, Slovakia
juraj.bansky@tuke.sk, dominik.demeter@tuke.sk, slavomir.kardos@tuke.sk, lubomir.livovsky@tuke.sk,
i.vehec@tuke.sk
Abstract — The paper describes the e-learning system and It will also save time and money in the education
virtual laboratory that are intended for implementation into process, because at the theoretical lessons we don’t need
electrotechnology-oriented study programs. It is a short to show the same technological process for every group of
description of the main functions of the systems as well as students again and again. It is enough to create some detail
the technologies used for the implementation. videos to get the students familiar with the processes in
our laboratories, what will prepare them for individual
Keywords — e-learning, CAD, education, open-source, video practical laboratory work.
streaming, virtual reality
II. STUDY PROGRAMME
I. INTRODUCTION Department of Technologies in Electronics of the
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics offers
The main idea of this e-learning education system is to
new study program in engineering study "Advanced
open up the laboratories for students. Before the e-
materials and technology in automotive electronics” from
learning system was created, the students have had very
academic year 2011/2012. Main subjects of the study
short time to get familiar with the facilities in the
program are:
laboratories. In most cases, they had no idea, how some
technological equipment looks like and how to use them. • Production Processes in Electronics I.
This e-learning system show the students the real view of • Production Processes in Electronics II.
laboratories and on the other side, by using videos created • Quality and Reliability Management.
in our laboratories, it shows step by step the way, how to
use the equipment and how to do some technological • Production Technologies, Structure, Properties
procedure. and Applications of Sensors.
This system is a good solution of problem with the • Design Systems in Electronics.
capacity of laboratories. The laboratories of our • Diploma Thesis I and Diploma Thesis II.
department are relatively small and there is no enough Some of them are already implemented into e-learning
space for a larger group of students to show them the courses. One of the key subjects of this specialization is
technologies. the subject “Design systems in electronics”. Goal of the
E-learning education in the field of the technologies in subject is to familiarize the students with top Computer
electronics enables the following benefits: Aided Design (CAD) system for design of the PCB.
• Solution of a limited capacity of the laboratory.
The safety regulations allow access for the
students to the laboratory only for limited
number of persons. It is necessary to repeat
practical demonstration of the principles and the
working of technological equipment for several
groups of students. The solution is on-line
connection of the laboratory with e-learning
system via camcorder and suitable internet
interface.
• An alternative of repeated viewing of
technological method without necessity of
presence in the laboratory. Video records of
technological processes or interactive
applications illustrating the processes enable in
easier way to understand all the process and
interconnect the theory with praxis.
• An alternative of such illustrating demos of
technologies including into the education
process, which are not accessible at the education Figure 1. The CAD design system - Altium Designer. [1]
institute. Choice of Altium Designer resulted from beneficial
offer for universities with potential for inclusion in project
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 47 –

D. Demeter et al. • E-learning System and Virtual Laboratory for the Study of Electronic Technologies
of educational institutes, which should result in a for sensors used in temperature, mechanical, geometric,
competition or a presentation of the students PCB designs. magnetic and chemical parameters sensing as well as of
This form allows the students to present their skills for biosensors.
scientific public and also allows addressing of potential
employers not only in region of Eastern Slovakia. Also the III. VIRTUAL TOUR
web pages of Altium Designer offer wide range of study
materials, which simplify work with the design system. A. Main functions
To increase popularity of the study program, the
The best way, how to prepare the students for
practical lessons by using technological equipment are
individual work in the laboratories is to introduce them
included into education process. Also the space for student
every piece of available equipment before they really go
is created to make functional sample of the PCB by using
to the laboratories. At the practical lessons, the student
milling machine at the end of the Design Systems in
should make real laboratory exercises instead of searching
Electronics subject study. The prepared data from the
the applicable equipment or tool, or finding the laboratory,
CAD system (GALAAD-Percival) control movement of
where the needed equipment is located in. For this reason,
the milling machine, which with the help of a special tool
we have created a real life virtual tour from our
creates the PCB pattern of conductive paths (see
laboratories.
Figure 2). This “dry” method of the PCB production was
selected because of rate of the sample production and From each laboratory at our department we have
contrary to “wet” way of the PCB production there is no created a 360° panoramic picture, by using adequate
need to liquidate the chemical waste (etching solution). technological equipment to eliminate optical defects. In
the e-learning system, these panoramas are viewed by a
special open-source web applet, which allows us to create
some clickable areas in the panoramic picture. By clicking
on these areas, the user can start some specific action, e.g.
start a video, open some web page or go to other part of
the virtual tour.
The user can look around in the laboratory by using the
buttons (see Figure 4), or through automatic tour, as well
as he can zoom to some selected part of the virtual tour.
Figure 2. GALAAD Integrated CAD-CAM-CNC software –

module Percival. [2]
Another e-learning supported subject is the Production
Technologies, Structure, Properties and Applications of
Sensors. It is focused on basic knowledge as well as for
acquaintance with new progressive trends in the area of
materials and technologies for sensors production. The
subject acquaints the students with materials used at
sensors production, with partitioning, principles (see Figure 4. Virtual tour with standard buttons
Figure 3) and characteristics of sensors, with mainly used
technologies: semiconductor, thin- and thick-film, as well In the virtual tours, the interesting objects are
as new technologies used in production of MEMS systems highlighted by different color (see Figure 5). By clicking
on them the user can open the card of the equipment, on
Figure 3. View to the sensors principles screenshot from

Figure 5. Highlighted clickable equipment
e-learning module under the Moodle platform
– 48 –
which he can find some basic information about the used with a tripod, can create detail, close-up videos. The
selected technological equipment (in which technological video from the camcorder is streamed to the LAN by the
process can be used the selected equipment, link to its user open-source video streaming program, VLC.
manual), links to the video files and animations related to Every stream will be collected by a multimedia server.
selected object and other. This server will collect the video streams from every
camera as well as from the computers connected to
B. Technologies used for creating the virtual tour different technological equipment (climatic chamber,
For creating of detail photos we have used a DSLR electronic microscope, etc.) and computers used for
camera with a tripod and a special, self-made panoramic lectures (PowerPoint presentations with audio records
head, by which we have created digital photos without any from the lecture).
optical defects. The panoramic head allowed us to create This server will use the collected multimedia materials
every photo from the same position (the camera is turning as sources for streaming them to the local network as well
around of its optical centre), what is very important as to the internet. This step is very important, because the
precondition for successful automatic sticking of the cameras can not serve more connections and on the other
created photos. If we don`t use a panoramic head, it is side, the server will be the only computer visible from the
impossible to stick the photos without getting some internet. This is a big security advantage.
optical defects because of parallaxes (see Figure 6).
The server will stream multimedia in two ways (see
Figure 7). In our local network there will be available a
multicast stream, which need less system resources, but is
reachable for everybody located in our network. To the
internet, we will send unicast stream (as known as “on
demand stream”) – it will be available only for authorized
persons. This method is less effective than multicasts,
because it request more bandwidth and creates more load
on the server, but it is not possible to stream multicasts out
of our network (most of internet providers are blocking
them).
The multimedia server will also create a copy from
every stream for future use. This will generate us a
multimedia archive, which will be used in education
process in the future. This archive will be available for
Figure 6. Optical defects because of parallax in a panorama made
students and will be searchable by different criteria.
from photos taken without the panoramatic head All component of the streaming server will be
implemented on open-source technologies. For streaming
For sticking the photos to a panorama we have used the the screen of the computers will be used application called
open-source program, Hugin. This software can be used VLC. This program will be also used for streaming the
for automatic sticking of the photos, what can save a lot of content from the multimedia server.
time. In case of some problems during the sticking, the On the client side, the stream will be viewed by a java
user can help the program to find some control points to applet, alternatively by the vlc-plugin for internet browser.
get better result. The first one seems to be a better choice, because it only
The panoramas are showed by an open source java need a java runtime environment, which can be found on
applet, PTViewer. This applet can view panorama pictures most computers (if not, the most of internet browsers have
in web pages. The applet have a lot of useful features, e.g. built in function to install it), while the vlc must be
creating of clickable areas, adjusting the size of the installed manually (it requires more technical knowledge
viewing window, zooming, manual or automatic turning from the users).
around, high resolution parts of the panorama, etc.
IV. OTHER PARTS OF THE E-LEARNING SYSTEM
A. Live video
The second fundamental parts of the e-learning system
are video files and video streaming. Existing internet
connection in every laboratory allows us to create live
online video streams from the laboratories about the
technological procedures made at our department.
For capturing the videos, we have available two types
of cameras. One IP camera with maximal resolution of 1.3
Mega-pixels at the frame rate of 15 frames per second
(30 fps at resolution of 0.8 Mpix) and a classical digital
camcorder connected to a notebook by a TV-card.
Figure 7. Communication system architecture
The first camera with fixed 4 mm lens is eligible for
creating of some overview videos about the procedures
made in the laboratories, while the second camera, if it is
– 49 –
D. Demeter et al. • E-learning System and Virtual Laboratory for the Study of Electronic Technologies
B. Video archive
A very important part of the e-learning system is a
video archive, what is made up from videos created in our
laboratories. These videos bring the students detail view to
the technological processes made in the laboratories.
The videos in the archive can be sorted by different
criteria, e.g. by technological process, by equipment, by
laboratory, etc.
C. Flash animations
The third part of the e-learning system is flash
animation support, which allows illustrating the
technological processes. The animations are linked to the
appropriate technological equipment as well as to the
steps of some technological procedure. The animations in
Figure 9. View to the Adobe Flash CS4 animated component
the system can be sorted by different criteria, too.
embedded in e-learning module about semiconductor
The preparation of animated components is realized by materials processing
using the Adobe Flash CS4. From this platform the
components are implemented into the study materials. The
mentioned software was selected behalf various reasons. CONCLUSION
In particular it provides tools for producing of interactive
animations, which allows creating of objects A number of study modules at the Department of
corresponding to real processes. In the following there is Technologies in Electronics were created in the frame of
the possibility of increased interactivity with the user, e-learning support of education. Evaluated e-learning
what is scarcely possible to achieve with utilization of system and virtual laboratory solves the capacity
classic scripting tools. limitations of laboratories at our department and it already
helps our students to get familiar with the laboratories and
In the Figure 8 and Figure 9 is static view to two of their equipments as well as with the technological
created Adobe Flash CS4 animations which illustrate the processes made at our department. Continuous preparation
semiconductor materials physics and manufacturing in and practical utilization of animated components under
particular steps. The pictures show mainly structure of all Adobe Flash platform is in progress for educational
pages for modules with color scheme, header on the top of process with the scope of technologies used in
the page and control/navigation toolbar for navigation microelectronic industry. The described system has good
across full course on the bottom of the page. preconditions to be a useful e-learning system that will
help the students to study more effective and attractive.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper was elaborated in the frame of the KEGA
project No.: 3/7117/09.
REFERENCES
[1] Ready to Teach Grant Program, United States Department
of Education,
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/readyteach/2005awards.html
[2] Adobe Flash Professional,
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/whatisflash/
[3] Cisco virtuálna učebňa pre stredné a vysoké školy, 2006,
http://servis.inet.sk/clanok/3757-cisco-virtualna-ucebna-pre-
stredne-a-vysoke-skoly
Figure 8. View to the Adobe Flash CS4 animated component [4] CAD software: http://www.altium.com
embedded in e-learning module about semiconductor [5] CAD software: http://www.galaad.net
materials physics [6] PTViewer Documentation: http://webuser.fh-
furtwangen.de/~dersch/PTVJ/doc.html
The navigation toolbar has the standard form with [7] Hugin: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
buttons for previously browsed page, for home, for next [8] VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
recommended page, list of related pages, and toolbar for
playing audio files (from left to right side). The on-line e-
learning module is only in Slovak language recently.
– 50 –
IT Industrial Certifications in Practice

Viliam Fedák*, Peter Chlebana*, Igor Sivý*, František Jakab**, James Varnham***,
Viliam Fedák, sr.****, Peter Belko*****
*
Training Institute elfa, Košice, Slovakia
** Cisco Systems, Bratislava, Slovakia
*** Certiport, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
**** Technical University of Košice, Slovakia
***** Microsoft Most Valuable Professional/Microsoft Office Master, Trnava, Slovakia
fedak@elfa.sk, chlebana@elfa.sk, sivy@elfa.sk, fjakab@cisco.com, jvarnham@certiport.com,

viliam.fedak@tuke.sk, peter@belko.info
Abstract—IT industrial certifications have become traditional educational system for a trained supply of
successful response to the extremely fast and constant workers [2].
changes in the industry of information and communication Industrial certification plays an important role in
technologies. The certifications are widely accepted within today’s ICT industry mostly because of the following
the industry as industry standards for assessment of reasons:
particular technical skills and knowledge. Speaking of local
conditions in Slovakia, concept of industrial certification • Industrial certification represents standardised
needs to put more emphasis and raise awareness. This paper method for assessment of knowledge and skills in
presents general overview on IT certifications. It defines and specialised area.
summarises the types and categories of IT certifications, • Certification schemes map directly the current
describes certification process and relation of certification to technologies with defined set of skills required to
general training process. Benefits of certification for operate these technologies.
individuals and organisations are also outlined. • Certifications are globally recognised across the
Furthermore, the paper presents one of the most globally
particular industry.
successful IT certification – Microsoft Office Specialist and
finally it shares local practical experiences with IT Certification process comprises all activities by which
certifications in Slovakia. a certification body establishes that a person fulfils
specified competence requirements. This process is
standardised and acknowledged all across the particular
I. INTRODUCTION industry.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) In other words, holding an IT industrial certificate
have become very significant part of modern civilisation. means that we are qualified enough to operate the certain
We encounter them in every-day routine, both in personal ICT and this qualification is globally recognised in the
life and work. Thanks to these technologies, new market ICT industry. Two different individuals (from different
segments, areas of business and career paths have being parts of the world) holding the same certain industry
established requiring skilled employees – from standard certificate have the same level of skills and knowledge.
information workers to highly experienced IT Particularly, the momentum of standardisation and
professionals. New technologies emerge continuously and globalisation give industrial certification a great deal of
replace the previous ones. The ability to use and utilise importance.
current ICT determines our future professional career and It is necessary to mention the difference between
job opportunities. certificate and industry certificate. The first one usually
The growth and use of ICT and the resulting demand means the documents acknowledging attendance in an
for workers with specialized skills have placed instructor-led course or any form of formal training while
a considerable pressure on traditional educational systems the industry certificate is perceived as a credential, a result
to provide a qualified and sustainable ICT workforce. In of an objective assessment procedure running by the third
response to constant changes and advances in ICT and party, that an individual met the performance
slow response from traditional education, ICT industry specifications delineated in job profiles recognised by
has established industrial certification as preferred way to industry stakeholders.
assess and measure skills and knowledge. Certification
(of skills and competences) results from voluntary II. CATEGORISATION OF IT CERTIFICATION
evaluation process whereby an individual’s knowledge There are many possible ways how to categorise the
and/or skill in a particular area of interest are available industrial certifications in IT. To bring up some
validated against a set of predetermined skills main categories:
requirements e.g. skills standards by means of an
objective assessment [1]. • Vendor orientation:
In 1989, Novell created the first IT certification in o Vendor neutral: certification is not aligned to
response to a lack of trained individuals to support their a particular producer (company) but technology
mission critical tasks and the inability to turn to the as itself (for example CompTIA)
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 51 –

V. Fedák et al. • IT Industrial Certifications in Practice
o Vendor centric (vendor specific): certification is o Web-based testing: a candidate does not have to
aligned and directly managed by a particular take an exam in the testing centre, but he can do
technology producer (e.g. Microsoft Office it via internet and online
Specialist) • Area of technology: digital literacy, desktop
• Expertise level: entry, intermediate, advanced (expert) applications, networking, operation and server
• ICT skills level Systems, development tools, process management,
virtualisation, security, etc.
o Certifications for digital literacy: assess the very
basic ICT skills (e.g. IC3, ICDL) Each type of certification has its advantages and
disadvantages. The current trend is to provide the
o Certifications for end-users (e.g. Microsoft certification exams by using computer based testing,
Office Specialist): the ones who need to have preferably as web-based (online testing).
their ICT competences assessed and certified as
a tool to do a job which is primarily related to
III. ORGANISATION OF IT CERTIFICATION
a non-ICT-sector of industry
o Certifications for IT professionals (e.g. Cisco The standard organisation model of IT certification
Certified Voice Professional): this address involves several important stakeholders (see Fig. 1).
specialists, who want to demonstrate a specific
knowledge or competence in their core activity
ICT field
• Product vs. technology oriented
o Product oriented certification: certification
focuses on a particular product and/or its version
(e.g. Microsoft Windows 7)
o Technology oriented certification focuses on the
particular technology, rather than on a specified
product/version
• Certification complexity
o One-exam certification: to acquire the industrial
certificate an individual must pass only one
single certification exam (e.g. Cisco Certified
Network Associate)
o Chain certification: an individual must
successfully pass more than one exam, or have
successfully completed lower level exam (e.g.
Check Point Certified Security Engineer)
• Language of certification
o Single language: the certification is available
only in one language
o Multi-language (localised): exams are available
in many language
Figure 1. Organisation of IT Certification
Usually, each globally recognised IT certification is
provided at least in English language. Many of them
1. Vendor (or sponsor): usually IT company which
are available in the main world language (e.g.
owns, develops and supports particular ICT
Chinese, Spanish, Russian, French etc.)
(meaning hardware, software or process). As such
• Result evaluation technology is standardised and widely accepted by
o Automatic non-human evaluation: test is the industry, the company establishes and
evaluated by a testing system, without any input maintains a certification programme for this
needed from a proctor technology. All of the globally leading ICT
o Human based evaluation: test must be evaluated companies have developed their own certification
by proctor (administrator) manually programmes (e.g. Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Oracle
etc.). Also non-commercial organisation might
• Delivery method become a vendor for IT certification – for example
o Computer based exam: exam is delivered via CompTIA which is a non-profit trade association
specialised testing software advancing global interests of IT professionals and
o Semi-computer based exam: during an exam companies.
a computer is used but part of exam is delivered 2. Certification Authority: is responsible for
traditionally (e.g. by pen&paper) developing, maintenance and updating the
o Pen&Paper based exam assessment methods for particular vendor’s
o Oral exam certification programme, certification system,
process and delivery. The authority also manages
and carries out the certification (in terms of process
– 52 –
and delivery). It must meet at least two basic certification holder has kept up with current trends in the
requirements: technology. Valid certifications may be renewed
a. Deliver an assessment based on industry indefinitely, but without timely renewal, certifications
knowledge, independent from training courses expire or become inactive. To keep certifications current,
or course providers. individuals should recertify by advancing to the next level
of certification or passing the designated recertification
b. Grant a time-limited credential to anyone who
exam(s). [4]
meets the assessment standards.
The certification authority co-operates closely with IV. PLACE OF CERTIFICATION IN TRAINING PROCESS
one or many vendors (as its clients) while still
being neutral from them. Certification authority General training process in ICT industry involves
usually operates internationally or globally. industrial certification as its natural part. In fact,
Currently there are few main global certification certification is necessary output of the whole process.
authorities: Certiport, Prometric and Pearson VUE. The process consists of several stages (see Fig. 3):
There are also other authorities which may operate 1. Definition of set of skills and standards
more locally and in more specialised segment of IT 2. Main training process (diagnostic test – training –
industry. test)
3. Testing centre is a local company or institution 3. Industrial certification
(e.g. school) which is responsible for particular
delivery of certification exams in its geographical The whole process is framed by education (meant as
area of operation. Testing centre must meet the formal education system) and work experience or
certification authority’s technical, organisation, vocational training.
process and personal requirements to ensure that
the certification process has its defined quality.
4. Test taker (or candidate) is a person who wishes
to take an exam (test).
Earning certification means successfully passing one or
several certification exams. Rules how an exam is passed
are defined by the certification authority.
Delivery process is carried out by a testing centre and is
(mostly) computer based. Exam is provided by a testing
system (local or online application). Test taker is required
to follow exam’s instructions, tasks and questions while
being passively monitored by test administrator (or
proctor). Test taker’s actions or/and results are evaluated
automatically by testing system or manually by the Figure 3. Place of certification in learning process [5]
administrator and is provided with results. Results are in
the form of test report with final overall number of points. There are several stakeholders participating in the
Certification programme is usually structured in terms whole training process: state or government (through its
of defined set of skills to achieve, level and dependencies educational system), training providers (as bodies
among exams and certification. The programme is usually delivering the particular training), certification authorities,
graphically displayed in form of a certification map to let and employers as definers of wanted qualifications.
test takers have better and more convenient overview of Certification in this model can be seen also as
the whole programme. An example of certification map a feedback on the main training process. Successful
can be seen in Fig. 2. participant should go to take an exam fully prepared and
fully aware of its skills, strengths and weaknesses.
Work experience determines a required set of skills
which need to be covered through the training process.
There should be a direct link from work experience to
definition stage.
The whole training process is obviously revolving,
which means that when finishing one stage, more
advanced stage is awaiting. This ladder finally leads to the
highest possible qualification in the industry.
V. HOW TO GET PREPARED?

In the previous section we outlined a place of
certification in general training process. However, how to
get prepared for a certification exam? Which are the best
how to succeed?
Figure 2. Map of Cisco certifications [3] Study obviously depends on the exam’s difficulty. The
length of the study might take from 1 week to several
Recertification is an important indicator to IT years. Practice show that the most optimal way for study
professionals and their employers, ensuring that the is to combine several possibilities:
– 53 –
1. Books are relatively cheap, often come with great The survey of more than 1 100 IT managers responsible
practice questions and are specifically geared for more than 3000 teams [10] shows that certified teams
towards the exams. are 28% more productive. Almost 750 of managers
2. Online certification forums are a great way to believe that certifications are important to team
interact with a community of people who are performance and 66% of managers believe that
interested in the certification. certifications improve the level of service and support
offered to IT customers. A concentration of certifications
3. Take a training class (or preparation course).
Whether it is online or in a classroom, training in a team is clearly linked to improved capability and team
offers a hands-on way to learn the material. It is performance.
more costly, but it is usually a guaranteed way to Other study of 14 000 end-users certified on Microsoft
pass exams. Office Specialist conducted [11] shows that employees
with a (Microsoft Office Specialist) certification
4. Online Practice Tests. Some are free and others
cost money, but all of them will get a test taker in contribute to more knowledgeable and productive working
the test-taking mode. Most online practice exams environment:
run from 20€ to 70€ and provide a solid way to test • 62% of certified employees say that they are more
the knowledge and readiness. productive than their non-certified co-workers.
5. Visit vendor sites to find a link that point to • 85% of supervisors say Microsoft Office Specialist
education or certification to learn everything about certified employees are more productive because of
the certification process as well as recommended their certification.
training and study tools. They often offer exam • Nearly 70% of certified employees say they make a
guides and practice questions free for the taking. greater contribution to their employers with
[6] certification.
6. Practical experience is a critical way how to • 60% of certified employees say they take on more
acquire the knowledge as well as context of the complex or difficult assignments after certifying.
technology. It is necessary to understand that one
Certification also supports the job satisfaction and
learns not just to pass the exam but to gain more
loyalty. Employees who go through the process of
knowledge, skills and move up in his qualification.
(Microsoft Office Specialist) certification are more likely
Therefore a practical experience is essential in this
to gain the skills that enable them to feel more confidence
process.
and satisfaction by progressing in their employment. By
providing certification opportunities, managers retain the
VI. WHY SHOULD I AIM FOR CERTIFICATION? skilled and dedicated employees that are essential to an
The five main reasons and motivation for an individual organization’s success.
in Europe to pursue e-skills certification are (in order of
decreasing importance): VIII. OVERVIEW OF THE MOST POPULAR IT
1. increase credibility CERTIFICATIONS IN THE WORLD
2. assessment of knowledge The following list comprises the most popular IT
3. preparation for a new position certifications in 2011 (listed in alphabetical order) [12]:
4. increase personal productivity • Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
5. fulfilment of job requirements • Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
The main reasons in other parts of the world are slightly • Checkpoint CCSA NGX certification
different. For example, ICT workers in North America go • Checkpoint CCSE NGX Certification
for certification in order to be up-to-date with new • Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)
technologies [7]. • Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP)
Critical momentum for certification comes with focus • GIAC Security Audit Essentials
on students and young people and their chances to be • Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist
successful at their future career. Personal agencies in the (MCTS)
United States of America claim that young people with IT • Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
certificate are twice as likely to be placed in the labour • vmware Certified Professional
market, 50% more likely to be hired on full time and get All of the above mentioned certifications are for IT
average 10-15% higher pay than non-certified workers professionals – senior and expert specialists in particular
[8]. areas of ICT. What is possible to see from the list is that
Survey [9] carried out in Slovakia and Czech Republic there are few categories in which these popular
in 2009 shows that 81% of respondents think that IT certifications belong: networking, security, operating
certification is important for further career. systems, virtualisation and key Microsoft technologies.
On the other hand, we can name 10 entry-level
VII. BENEFITS FOR ORGANISATIONS TO HAVE certifications which are designed to support the start of
CERTIFIED EMPLOYEES career in ICT industry [13]:
Certified professionals give an organization 1. CompTia A+
a competitive advantage. They can help increase customer 2. Microsoft Certified Professional
satisfaction, reduce operational costs, and push service to 3. Microsoft Certified Desktop Service Technician
a higher level, which translates into an excellent return on
4. CompTia Security+
investment.
– 54 –
5. Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) Associate necessary for academic work and required by
6. Sun Certified Java Programmer businesses
7. Cisco Certified Networking Associate • Enhances instructor development programs
The certification also:
8. Microsoft Office Specialist
• Enables students to progress through coursework
9. MySQL and curriculum with greater ease and efficiency
10. Graphics & Internet Certifications • Empowers students with individual
differentiation, setting them apart from others
IX. MICROSOFT OFFICE SPECIALIST – GLOBALLY pursuing future academic admissions and
RECOGNISED CERTIFICATION FOR IT WORKER employment
Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) is the credential • Delivers real-world, recognized credentials—
required by academic and business institutions, recognized MOS is a distinguished credential for students
globally as the premier credential chosen by individuals when applying for jobs, demonstrating workplace
seeking to validate their knowledge, skills and abilities readiness
relating to the Microsoft Office systems. The exam delivery system is very straightforward and is
MOS is independent confirmation of an individual’s standardised:
mastery of Microsoft Office programs via realistic, 1. Candidates take exam in proctored environment
performance-based tests. It is the only credential of its of test centre. The exam takes 45 minutes.
kind provided by Microsoft. The certification programme 2. Candidates receive printed score results. Results
was created and launched by Certiport in 1997. are then uploaded to global candidate database.
3. Certiport delivers certificate to passing
The MOS certification is structured in 3 bottom-up candidates.
levels providing a continuum for skills qualification and 4. Candidates can view their online Digital
validation: Transcripts through website www.certiport.com.
Microsoft Office Specialist (Core Certiport prepares individuals with current and
Certification) validates skills with the relevant digital skills and credentials for the competitive
Microsoft Office 2010 suite. Exams are global workforce. These solutions are delivered
available on Microsoft Office 2010 worldwide and include Certiport Internet and Computing
products: Core Certification (IC³), Microsoft Office Specialist,
1. Microsoft Word 2010 Microsoft Technology Associate, Adobe Certified
2. Microsoft Excel 2010 Associate, CompTIA Strata Fundamentals of IT
3. Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Technology and the iCritical Thinking™ Certification.
4. Microsoft Access 2010 Certiport delivers exams in 141 countries and 24
5. Microsoft Outlook 2010 languages. Roughly, 106 000 exams are administered
6. Microsoft Project 2010 monthly through a network of more than 10 000 Certiport
7. Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Centers worldwide. Totally, Certiport has delivered more
Microsoft Office Expert validates than 7.6 million exams worldwide.
advanced skills in specific Microsoft
Office applications. X. PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH IT CERTIFICATIONS
Gaining the credential requires that IN TRAINING INSTITUTE ELFA
a candidate pass either of these exams:
1. Word 2010 Expert Training Institute elfa is the leading training provider
2. Excel 2010 Expert for IT trainings and certification in Slovakia. The
Microsoft Office Master denotes company provides client with high-quality training
fluency in several important Microsoft activities, industrial certification, complex project
Office applications. To achieve this management for educational projects and e-learning and e-
designation, a candidate must pass four content services.
exams: Word 2010 Expert, Excel 2010 The institute runs, since 2004, the testing centres for all
Expert and PowerPoint 2010 and either major certification authorities: Certiport, ECDL,
Outlook 2010 or Access 2010. Prometric, Pearson VUE. Thanks to this unique
combination it is ready to accommodate clients with most
Test questions are based upon “objectives or tasks” of available IT certifications. Annual number of certified
defined by more than 400 Subject Matter Experts in candidates is approx. 1000 individuals, mostly IT
20 countries, correspond to real world tasks, written by professionals. The most popular exams are Cisco Certified
professional item writers and validated by professional Networking Associate, Microsoft Certified Professional
psychometricians. and vmware Certified Professional.
IT certification has been included in the standard
For academic institutions the MOS certification: training process for particular sets of trainings: mostly
trainings on Microsoft Office (with ECDL and/or MOS
• Provides relevant, state-of-the-art validation of certifications) or trainings on Cisco networking
course offerings technologies (CCNA certification). Certification was part
• Embeds digital literacy within programs and of several training projects focusing on increasing
curricula employability of long-term unemployed people. The
• Offers comprehensive, cost-effective way to give complex training process included diagnostic (entrance)
students the opportunity to develop skills testing, instructor-lead training, e-learning up to
– 55 –
certification itself. Also the back loop from certification to We also feel that these topics need further and more
training is important dimension for increasing the quality detailed examinations which might be very promising
of training services – as new certifications are introduced, starting point for further papers or articles.
this momentum launches process of adjusting
existing/development new training content to align to the REFERENCES
change certification programme. [1] CompTIA, The Situation and the Role Of E-Skills Industry
The comfort of testing delivery is currently being Certification In Europe. 2004, pp. 18-19
substantially extended by implementing online registration [2] Ziob, L. L., Time is flying: 10 years of IT certifications.
system for certification exams. This system helps Certification Magazine, 2005
candidates to register for an exam at the Training Institute [3] Cisco Systems, Cisco Certificate Certifications Career Poster.
elfa and is standardised for exams tested via different https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-11573, visited 10
October 2011
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[4] Príbelová, P., Non Academic Education Based on Industrial
Training Institute elfa operates as Certiport Authorised Certification, Conference ICETA 2010, Slovakia
Solution Provider for Slovakia and Czech Republic as [5] eSCC: eSkills Certification Consortium. The Situation and the
well as Microsoft Academic Solution Provider for these Role of e-Skills Industry Certification in Europe, Thessalonica,
two countries. It has broad experience and contact with Greece, 2004, pp. 37
academic sector – thanks to involvement in Microsoft IT [6] Reuscher D., How To Study for a Certification Exam.
Academy Program, Cisco Networking Academy Program http://certification.about.com/od/entrylevelcertification1/ht/howtos
and also thanks to various academic projects (e.g. national tudy.htm, visited 10 October 2011
projects Modernization of Education at the Primary [7] eSCC: eSkills Certification Consortium. The Situation and the
Role of e-Skills Industry Certification in Europe, Thessalonica,
Schools, or Modernization of Education at the Secondary Greece, 2004, pp. 33
Schools).
[8] D.Hansen. Measurable Outcomes through Industry Certifications.
Certiport. 2008, pp. 8
CONCLUSION [9] Belko P., Survey on IT Trainings and Certifications, 2009,
This paper presents general issues on phenomenon of http://belko.blog.sme.sk/c/224402/Vysledky-prieskumu-o-IT-
vzdelavani-a-certifikacii.html, last visited 10 October 2011
IT certifications. It introduces the concept, necessity and
structure of certification followed by discussing benefits [10] IDC, Impact of Training on Network Administration: Certification
Leads to Operational Productivity, November 2009
and advantages of certification for individuals as well as
[11] Certiport, Making the Difference, 2011
for companies and organisations. Further, Microsoft
[12] Nanospeck, Top IT Certifications for 2011 - An Overview,
Office Specialist as an exemplary IT certification is http://nanospeck.hubpages.com/hub/Top-IT-Certifications-For-
introduced giving also short introduction of Certiport and 2011-Best-In-Demand, visited 10 October 2011
Training Institute elfa. [13] Reuscher D., Top 10 Certifications to Begin Your IT Career,
We believe that this paper outlines and gives good first http://certification.about.com/od/entrylevelcertification1/tp/topbeg
impression on very important part of IT training industry – inner.htm, visited 10 October 2011
which is certification. We think that IT certifications have
become essential part in the IT industry.
– 56 –
Using Tag Clouds to Support the Comparison of

Qualifications, Résumés and Job Profiles
V. Gatteschi, F. Lamberti, A. Sanna and C. Demartini
Politecnico di Torino - Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica, Torino, Italy
valentina.gatteschi@polito.it, fabrizio.lamberti@polito.it, andrea.sanna@polito.it, claudio.demartini@polito.it
Abstract—The labor market is today characterized by a all qualifications based on eight reference levels, and by
marked competitiveness. The ability to accurately choose precisely defining the semantics of associated learning
the right education and training paths leading to the outcomes (expressed in terms of knowledge, skills and
acquisition of the right competences required for a given job competences), thus opening the way for the creation of a
position, as well as the capability to properly select human shared understanding in the lifelong learning domain.
resources based on precise job requirements are becoming However, the creation of a European-wide framework
more and more key factors to success. Nevertheless, the
is only part of a more complex process: in fact, even
comparison of education opportunities generally requires a
manual analysis of huge qualification descriptions and though the EQF defines a shared format for cataloguing
course syllabi, whereas staff selection (or job seeking and expressing qualifications, concrete achievements of
activities) often relies on non-automated processes mainly individuals (either resulting from formal, non-formal or
based on an extensive check of applicants’ curriculum vitae informal education and training processes) have to be
(or of possible job offers). The above tasks are extremely expressed with a syntax-independent formalism capable
time consuming and, given the large amount of information of overcoming linguistic and cultural (i.e., semantics)
to be considered, they also risk to provide unsatisfactory barriers.
results. In this paper, the above issues are addressed in the
perspective of semantic technologies. In particular, a web- In this paper we introduce the LO-MATCH platform
based application is presented, which exploits ontological (http://www.lo-match.polito.it), a web-based tool that is
descriptions and tag cloud-based visualization strategies to being implemented in the context of the MATCH
generate a direct representation of the overlap between “Informal and non-formal competences matching devise
learners’ needs and existing education and training paths, as for migrants employability and active citizenship”
well as between job seekers’ profiles and company project. The platform relies on semantic technologies to
requirements. This way, potential users are provided with tackle heterogeneity issues in the descriptions of
an effective support for matching job and study offers with qualifications/résumés and labor market’s needs due to
corresponding demands.
the use of non-shared vocabularies. Moreover, it exploits
a tag cloud-based visualization technique to quickly
I. INTRODUCTION depict aspects to be considered in the mobility and job
seeking phases. Specifically, tag cloud properties, like
In recent years, learners’ and workers’ mobility became font size and distance from the center of the cloud, are
a relevant topic in the European legislation. In fact, in
order to enhance the comparability of qualifications across used to provide an immediate overview of the main
Europe and increase the competitiveness of the European characteristics of a given qualification with respect to
labor market, several initiatives, such as the Bologna specific learner’s needs, as well as to highlight key job
Process [1] and the Bruges-Copenhagen Process [2] have seeker’s attitudes with respect to a particular job offer
been undertaken. Nevertheless, while in higher education (both from the job seeker’s and the employer’s points of
mobility between Universities and recognition of prior view).
learning are almost a praxis, a fully inclusive society The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section
where learners’ and workers’ learning outcomes could be II, research activities focused on the construction of tag
accumulated in a comprehensive lifelong learning clouds are presented, together with several application
perspective is still under construction. possibilities. Section III illustrates the main idea behind
One of the main obstacles to the implementation of the the designed platform, by discussing the steps required for
above vision was represented by the shortage of tools creating the repository the overall approach is built upon,
capable of fully supporting the readability, transferability by analyzing the proposed tag cloud-based presentation
and comparability of qualifications. In 2008, the European strategy and by finally presenting the envisaged usage
Parliament and the Council took a first step to address scenarios. Finally, Section IV provides conclusions and
such needs by establishing the European Qualification shows open research directions to be possibly investigated
Framework (EQF) [3], a common reference system acting in the future.
as a translation device to make qualifications readable and
understandable across different European countries and II. BACKGROUND
systems. With the evolution of Web 2.0 and the opportunity for
According to the EQF guidelines, the above objectives content providers and users to add metadata to published
could be reached by adopting a rigorous classification of contents, a number of techniques have been developed to
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 57 –

V. Gatteschi et al. • Using Tag Clouds to Support the Comparison of Qualifications, Résumés and Job Profiles
support users in performing search tasks, categorizing data been structured in terms of learning outcomes according
and navigating the ever growing amount of information. to the EQF indications, and each learning outcome has
In the above scenario, tag clouds started to be used as an been annotated (i.e. marked with one or more tags) in a
attractive means for providing, at a first glance, a manual or semi-automatic way by making reference to
summary of the background information hidden into concepts defined in the ontology.
websites, blogs, and various online communities (like, for In the ontology, concepts are linked to other concepts
instance, Flickr, Delicious, etc.). by means of relations, which mostly belong to the
Basically, a tag cloud exploits effective information subsumption category. Subsumption relations contribute
visualization techniques to present a visual overview of to the creation of the overall hierarchy of concepts/tags
textual data, often corresponding to a set of tags. In a tag (taxonomy) that allows the platform to deal with learning
cloud, the font size used for drawing the tag is generally outcomes expressed at different levels of details, thus
linked to importance (or frequency) of the tag itself. improving comparison results.
Originally, in tag clouds information was displayed using Collected information is then exploited to draw a cloud-
a rectangular line-by-line layout. Recently, the research based representation of a qualification (when the learning
community started studying the impact of other visual dimension is took into account), or of job applicant’s
parameters on the attractiveness of tag cloud-based characteristics/company’s requirements (when the job
representations. As a matter of example, in [4] color seeking/hiring domains are considered). In the following,
information was included to visualize the actuality of tags. the methodology for the construction of the knowledge
In [5], the impact of font weight and other text features on base, as well as the approach for the generation of the tag
the execution of various user tasks was evaluated. A cloud-based representation are presented by making
number of works dealt with the optimization of tag clouds reference to specific usage scenarios.
layout. In [6], the constraint of rectangular layouts was
removed, and a graph-based structure was used to A. Construction of the Knowledge Base
visualize relations between tags. In [7], a circular layout In order to ease the insertion of relevant information
was proposed, and tag relevance was displayed by into the knowledge base, a semi-automatic mapping
exploiting tag size as well as tag distance from the center procedure has been created. In a nutshell, the functioning
of the cloud. In [8], tag placement based on similarity was of such a tool could be summarized as follows: when the
exploited, by clustering similar tags in the cloud based on user specifies a new learning outcome (e.g., as part of a
co-occurrence. A different approach was taken in [9], qualification/résumé or of an occupational profile), the
where the basic tag cloud properties were considered with system automatically detects and suggests him or her the
regard to aesthetic criteria. relevant concepts that could be linked to each word in the
Meanwhile, several studies were presented where the newly introduced element.
actual support provided by tag cloud-based In order to perform this task, the tool exploits the
representations to the execution of traditional tasks carried Wordnet repository [12], an English thesaurus collecting
out on the web was analyzed in both qualitative and lexical and semantic relations among terms. When the
quantitative terms. Though in some contexts (e.g., user chooses a particular concept for annotating a given
information mining) more trivial visualization techniques word of the selected learning outcome, the lexical/
appeared to outperform tag clouds, in other scenarios semantic relations in the ontology are also recorded
encompassing visual browsing, multi-dimensional (together with related concepts). When a particular word
visualization, impression formation and information is not found in the repository, the user can specify another
recognition/matching, tag cloud-based representations term he or she may consider related somehow to the initial
proved to be capable of providing a valuable support one (e.g., it could be more generic, more specific, it may
[5][10]. share the same definition, etc.). Concepts associated to the
Indeed, also according to the outcomes of the above new term can then be used to annotate the selected
studies, advancements on this topic will definitely benefit learning outcome word. This way, the initial scope of the
of practical study cases demonstrating the effectiveness of ontology is extended, and new annotations could possibly
tag cloud-based techniques in concrete application rely on a more complete set of concepts and relations.
scenarios like the one presented in this work. For each concept linked to a given learning outcome, a
value of mastery/importance has to be provided (when the
III. MATCHMAKING AND TAG CLOUDS user considers some concepts more important than others).
As said above, in order to help learners and job seekers The difference between degree of mastery and importance
in the identification of education/training or working is linked to the particular kind of end user working on the
opportunities better fulfilling their needs or expectations platform: in fact, when an education and training actor (or
(in terms of missing or matching knowledge, skills and a job applicant) inserts a qualification (or curriculum
competences, respectively), as well as to support vitae) in the knowledge base, he or she has to specify a
companies in the selection of the right candidates for a degree of mastery, whereas when a company (or a learner
given job position, in the framework of the MATCH determined to find a training path fulfilling his needs) is
project the LO-MATCH semantic platform was designed. inserting its requirements, it has to specify a degree of
The proposed web tool exploits an ontology, i.e., an importance. In other words, the degree of mastery refers to
explicit specifications of a conceptualization, as defined in the (education/training or job) offer perspective of the
[11], to describe qualifications/curriculum vitae and matchmaking process, whereas the degree of importance
occupational profiles (expressing labor market’s needs) is related to the demand side.
collected in the LO-MATCH knowledge base. In order to As a matter of example, Fig. 1 shows the graphical
make the above elements comparable, descriptions have interface that allows companies and learners to specify
– 58 –
Figure 1. Insertion of a new concept in the set of company’s/learner’s requirement.
new requirements together with the associated degree of would be generated). This representation allows to
importance. In particular, the degree of importance could simultaneously display both the dimensions of the
assume the following values: low, medium-low, medium, matchmaking problem, i.e., learner’s requirements and
medium-high, high. learning outcomes associated with a particular
qualification, company’s needs and job seeker’s
B. Generation of the Tag Cloud-based Representation characteristics, etc. Thus, even non-skilled users/operators
Concepts stored in the knowledge base and their degree could easily see why a given matching has been obtained.
of importance/mastery are used to draw a cloud-based When focusing on the point of view of a learner looking
representation of a) the characteristics of the qualification for a qualification capable of filling his or her learning
better satisfying learner’s requirements, b) the features of outcome gaps (or on the perspective of an employer
a job seeker’s curriculum vitae better matching company’s searching a worker to hire), the font size used for drawing
requirements, c) the main aspects of a company’s working the tags is determined by sorting learner’s (company’s)
profile that could better valorize job position applicant’s needs in a descending order based on importance i and by
abilities. In the present implementation, the importance i calculating the relative weight of a given concept with
of a concept is represented by means of the font size (with respect to the complete set of requirements. Then, concept
larger fonts indicating more relevant concepts), whereas coordinates are computed as x = r cos(θ) and y = r sin(θ).
the degree of mastery m is linked to the distance from the In such expressions, r is defined as R(1 − m + D)/D,
center of the cloud (e.g., for applicants with an exhaustive where R is the maximum radius of the cloud, m is the
knowledge of the requested subjects, a compact tag cloud degree of mastery, D is the number of possible values in
the grading scale used for i and m, and θ is a random
TABLE I. angle. More details on the above steps are reported in [13].
DEGREE OF MASTERY FOR KNOWLEDGE ELEMENTS EXPRESSED BY TWO
JOB SEEKERS APPLYING FOR A SHOP ASSISTANT POSITION AND
The toy example reported in Table 1, presenting the
IMPORTANCE IN THE COMPANY’S PERSPECTIVE requirements of a sample job position and the curricula of
two possible applicants, should help to clarify the process.
Knowledge element First Second
(concept) applicant applicant
Company In particular, if values from 1 (low) to 5 (high) are used
for measuring i and m (i.e., D = 5), concepts product and
Product high high high
selling techniques would represent the 20% of the
Selling techniques - - high knowledge requested by the company; then, internal
procedures and policies and health and safety rules would
Negotiation techniques - high - represent the 12%; finally, the remaining concepts would
Customer identification
- high - be assigned the 4%. The font size would be determined by
techniques attributing a different value to the various percentage
Internal procedures and medium- ranges, e.g., font size 10 for values between zero and 5%,
low medium
policies high
etc. Then, assuming for instance R = 500 and choosing a
Health and safety rules medium low medium random angle θ = 335°, the ICT tag identified for the first
ICT
medium-
low low
applicant would be positioned at x = 181 and y = −84
high (assuming the center of the cloud in x = 0 and y = 0).
medium-
English
high
low low Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show the tag clouds for the curricula
medium- of the two applicants, based on the taxonomy reported in
Exposition techniques low low Fig. 4: since the company identified as a crucial aspect the
high
Organization techniques - - low knowledge of product and selling techniques, related tags
are drawn with a large font, followed by the knowledge of
medium-
Team working low
high
low internal procedures and policies and health and safety
rules, and by several minor knowledge elements. The first
Basic sales legislation low low low
applicant (Fig. 2) has a high knowledge of the product, a
Inventory techniques - - low medium-high knowledge of English and ICT, and a
medium- medium knowledge of health and safety rules. However,
Quality low low he or she has a low, or null, knowledge of other aspects of
low
Analysis techniques - - low
the work. Thus, only four elements are drawn close to the
center of the cloud, whereas missing knowledge elements,
– 59 –
V. Gatteschi et al. • Using Tag Clouds to Support the Comparison of Qualifications, Résumés and Job Profiles
Figure 2. Tag cloud-based representation of the first applicant’s

Figure 4. Portion of the ontology of interest for the tag clouds
curriculum vitae in the company’s perspective.
exemplified in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.
companies that could recognize their abilities.

The interface designed to this purpose is depicted in
Fig. 5 (still making reference to the example above). On
the left hand side, a tag cloud shows how much the
concepts expressed in the second applicant’s résumé are
made explicit in the description of the employers’
requirements. In this case, in order to shift the focus on the
applicant, the tag cloud is created by inverting i and m
(i.e., by linking the font size and the distance from the
center of the cloud to the degree of importance and the
degree of mastery, respectively). On the right hand side,
hints about those aspects the job seeker should address
further in order to increase his or her opportunities of
getting recruited by the given company are displayed: in
this case, the candidate should improve his knowledge of
health and safety rules (by raising it up to a medium
level), and acquire some knowledge of organization
techniques, inventory techniques and analysis techniques.
The job applicant could then exploit the devised
platform to find a qualification (or part of it) providing the
Figure 3. Tag cloud-based representation of the second applicant’s
curriculum vitae in the company’s perspective.
missing knowledge. In this case, the system would
automatically record his requirements together with the
like selling techniques, are placed on the external area needed level of importance, and would trigger the
(thus underlying their lack). In turn, the second applicant matchmaking with a demand input rather than with an
(Fig. 3) already had some experience in the field; in fact, offer description. It is worth remarking that, even though
he or she shows a high knowledge of product, negotiation for sake of simplicity the examples above only dealt with
techniques and customer identification techniques, a knowledge elements, in the MATCH project the described
medium-high knowledge of several other aspects, and a approach is actually used to draft a comprehensive tag
low knowledge of remaining elements. Since, according to cloud-based representation of EQF compliant learning
the ontology, negotiation and customer identification outcomes, with knowledge elements linked to action verbs
techniques are subsumed by the selling techniques and to context information in order to express skills and
concept, he or she possesses also a significant knowledge competences, respectively (according to [14]).
of selling techniques. Hence, the product, selling
techniques and internal procedures and policies tags IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
appear in the central area, thus making the second In this paper, a tag cloud-based application supporting
applicant the best (or, at least, a good) candidate for the qualifications comparison and job matchmaking is
given job. presented. The proposed tool relies on a knowledge base
The above examples analyze matchmaking results from containing qualifications, curriculum vitae and job profiles
the company’s point of view. Nonetheless, comparable expressed in terms of knowledge, skills and competences.
investigations could be carried out, for instance, from the Information stored in the knowledge base have been
perspective of job seekers, who are interested in finding annotated by exploiting an ontology initially based on the
– 60 –
Figure 5. Tag cloud letting the second applicant (whose knowledge is reported in Table 1) compare his or her expertise with company’s requirements.
Wordnet database, which has been later extended by the

users, where needed. Target users could be either learners, REFERENCES
job seekers or companies. In fact, learners could exploit [1] “Bologna Declaration Communiqué of the Meeting of European
the platform to easily and effectively find qualifications Ministers in charge of Higher Education (19 May 2001)”.
fulfilling their education and training needs. Job seekers [2] “Declaration of the European Ministers of Vocational Education
could use the tool to find the job offers better matching and Training, and the European Commission, Convened in
their abilities. Finally, through the platform, companies Copenhagen on 29 and 30 November 2002, on Enhanced
European Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training - The
could get an immediate overview of the expertise of Copenhagen Declaration”.
candidates applying for a given job position. On the one [3] “Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council
hand, thanks to the use of a uniform notation for of 23 April 2008 on the Establishment of the European
describing aspects which may be expressed in different Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning”.
terms and at different levels of details by the various [4] B.Y.L. Luo, T. Hentrich, B.M. Good, M.D. Wilkinson, “Tag
actors, the proposed tool aims at overcoming lexical and Clouds for Summarizing Web Results”, in Proc. of the 16th Int.
semantic barriers between education, training and working Conf. on World Wide Web, pp. 1203–1204, 2007.
offers and demands. Moreover, by exploiting trivial [5] A.W. Rivadeneira, D.M. Gruen, M.J. Muller, D.R. Millen,
properties of tag cloud-based representations (like font “Getting Our Head in the Clouds: Toward Evaluation Studies of
Tag Clouds”, in Proc. of the SIGCHI Conf. on Human Factors in
size and distance of tags from the center of the cloud), an Computing Systems, pp. 995–998, 2007.
immediate overview of aspects of interest resulting from
[6] B. Shaw, “Utilizing Folksonomy: Similarity Metadata from the
the comparison can be provided to heterogeneous users. del.icio.us System”, Project Proposal, December 2005.
Future works will be devoted, on the one side, at [7] K. Bielenberg, M. Zacher, “Groups in Social Software: Utilizing
considering additional factors in the construction of the Tagging to Integrate Individual Contexts for Social Navigation”,
tag cloud-based representation. On the other side, efforts Master’s Thesis, University of Bremen, 2005.
will be devoted to extend available features, e.g., by [8] I. Ad, K. Thiel, M.R. Berthold, “Distance Aware Tag Clouds”, in
introducing the possibility for the learners to identify Proc. of the IEEE Conf. on Systems Man and Cybernetics, pp.
2316–2322, 2010.
training courses providing learning outcomes associated
with a particular qualification or by letting the platform [9] F.B. Vigas, M. Wattenberg, J. Feinberg, “Partecipatory
Visualization with Wordle” in IEEE Transactions on Visualization
suggest competences and learning modules to be and Computer Graphics, vol. 15, no. 6, 2009.
considered by the companies for on-the-job continuous [10] Y. Hassan-Montero, V. Herrero-Solana, “Improving Tag-Clouds
training. Finally, the presented methodology will be as Visual Information Retrieval Interfaces”, in Proc. of the Int.
extended to other sectors, and subjective tests will be Conf. on Multidisciplinary Information Sciences and
performed with the aim at evaluating the usability and Technologies, 2006.
acceptability of the designed platform as well as to [11] T.R. Gruber, “Toward Principles for the Design of Ontologies
quantify its added value with respect to other tools for Used for Knowledge Sharing,” Int’l J. Human-Computer Studies,
comparison and matchmaking like, for instance, text- vol. 43, no. 5/6, pp. 907–928, 1995.
based facilitators. [12] C. Fellbaum, “WordNet: An Electronic Lexical Database”. MIT
Press, 1998.
[13] V. Gatteschi, F. Lamberti, A. Sanna, C. Demartini, “A Semantic
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Matchmaking System for Job Recruitment”, in Proc. of the 10th
The work discussed in this paper has been supported by International Conference on Knowledge Management and
the MATCH “Informal and non-formal competences Knowledge Technologies, pp. 50–59, 2010.
matching devise for migrants employability and active [14] B. Pernici, P. Locatelli, C. Marinoni, “The eCCO System: An
eCompetence Management Tool Based on Semantic Networks,”
citizenship” project (http://match.cpv.org), ref. 510739- in Proc. of the Workshop on Ontology Content and Evaluation in
LLP-1-2010-1-IT-GRUNDTVIG-GMP Enterprise, pp. 1088–1099, 2006.
– 61 –
Platform of Educational Process Support for the

Internet Technology Area
Adam Glumbík, Jiří Čtvrtka, Michal Radecký
VŠB - Technical university of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
adam.glumbik.st@vsb.cz, jiri.ctvrtka.st@vsb.cz, michal.radecky@vsb.cz
Teaching internet technology allows the usage of a wide mentioned purposes. The mission of this platform is the
range of approaches and tools. The platform mentioned in above-mentioned support of relation between theory and
this paper seeks to integrate these resources and also offers real-world experiences.
the possibility of direct testing of subject matter. Its
involvement in educational process has been done, and still II. CONCEPT OF TEACHING PLATFORM
is, within the subject the Development of Internet
Applications. It turned out that the usage of practical and The platform to teach Internet technology and web
interactive examples to test students' knowledge has positive application development goes a step further from this
results. So, the formed software platform is a base tool that point of view. Its aim is to provide teachers and students
brings more interactivity and student involvement during new opportunities for interactive teaching and testing the
the teaching lessons. acquired knowledge. It focuses mainly on demonstrating
the technology discussed in the examples and exercises
that seek to verify the practical knowledge and skills
I. INTRODUCTION gained from lectures and materials. Everything is placed
into a real environment of Internet or Web technologies
University subjects teaching brings a wide range of
[2].
options and approaches that are often affected mainly by
the type of these subjects, theirs content, form of teaching The main advantage, compared to traditional/non-
tools, etc. The tools and approaches used for some kind of interactive way of teaching, is direct usage of a test server
teaching are usually focused on the interpretation of the even during at the lectures. This opens up new
theory which is often problematically linked with the possibilities for presentation of information and results,
practical involvement of students already during the initial which are applicable by students during their test. The
phase of some topic presentation. Ensuring sufficient interactive lessons extended by all important educational
interactivity is thus neglected at the expense of theory, components are provided based on this platform. Also the
supported by the classical concept of interpretation in the students’ feedback of their activities during the lecture is
form of lectures. Although students have an opportunity to achieved.
check and verify the information obtained during lectures
based on laboratory or practical exercises trainings, they
are often confronted with the practical usage of gained
knowledge through their employment.
This state then penalizes the students themselves, as
well as efficiency and quality of their work for employer.
The educational process should give them sufficient
knowledge base for practice, which is unavailable for the
most of the students. But also offers of ways how to solve
common problems during practice should be a part of their
education. So, the E-learning approach is often use,
because it can include theory, practice, research or can
cover sophisticated teaching process based on innovative
and effective approaches.
A specific area in terms of education and available tools
are technological based subjects. For these subjects or
lectures, emphasis placed on practical usage of knowledge
is crucial [1]. The perception of relation between theory
and practice is one of the major outputs of the educational
process. The students should be able not only to identify
and describe issues concerned with a given topic, but
should be able to apply and use their knowledge in real
deployments.
This article discusses the possibilities of promoting the
learning process of technical subject focused on web Figure 1. Utilization of our platform directly within the teaching
development and Internet applications. The developed of internet security topic
educational platform is used as the main tool for
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 63 –

A.Glumbík et al. • Platform of Educational Process Support for the Internet Technology Area
The Figure 1 illustrates a general concept of mentioned and lectures which is prepared by teacher. The overall
platform even during the topic presentation. The security concept of the platform integration and usage was shown
of web applications is a case study topic at this moment. above in Figure 1.
The hardware devices – server is the basis for the platform It is possible to see all the functionality and relations of
operation. It can be accessed by teacher as well as the concept. Also the ways to communicate with the
students. These two roles need to have different access server is depicted. Specifically, the scheme covers issue of
rules and interfaces for obtaining interactivity from/to our web application security, which is used as a case study
platform. The administration interface is provided for example to illustrate the ability of our platform. It is also
teacher. Based on this, all the settings via an intuitive user important, that we use “special” kind of hardware
interface can be changed as well as the activity can be equipment which is prepared and installed only for the
monitored. Local Wi-fi network is primary used to purposes of the platform. In our case, we just use simple
connect to the device. Based on this connection the Atom mini PC, which fulfill all requirements as
students use the platform to test their knowledge to pass portability, MS Windows compatible hardware, sufficient
the tasks and perform the examples. performance, etc. The fact, that this type of hardware is
III. EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM FOR WEB APPLICATION
DEVELOPMENT !url::attack=yeso::
!url::attack=yes::
The basic idea of the general concept of educational ip::192.168.1.1-192.168.1.2::
platform is based on direct interactivity between teacher ip::192.168.1.6::
and students. The area of Internet technology and Web session::fine=true::
development offers rich possibilities for implementing the session::fine2=true::
post::sme=yes::
relations between theory and practice. In essence, the !post::soxme=yeser::
theory plays more supportive role in this area, mainly for
supporting the standardization of approaches and results.
But just the application of knowledge, approaches and Figure 3. Příklad kofiguračního souboru
technologies in a practical deployment is a fundamental
element for teaching of this area. not equipped by LCD display is mostly advantage because
of price and portability. The access to the server
A. Educational platform integration to the teaching environment and software of platform can be established
process by remote desktop access from any standard laptop within
range. The example of this suitable piece of hardware can
This chapter tries to describe basic process how the be Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11 see Figure 2.
concept of our platform should be used during the
lectures. The server (laptop, special portable device, etc.) B. The platform architecture
with installed platform software needs to be started to use
the platform in the classroom. This device will be act as a The administration interface is a one of the basic parts
test server during the lesson. Its job is to offer platform of the platform. It is available only for teacher. Thanks to
interface and capture and evaluation of all user this administration, the teacher can change the contents of
requirements and related responses. Also the presentation each lesson, choose the current lesson materials, tasks and
of results and monitored values is its role. The students examples, see and check the tests results, has a full control
can connect to this server via local established wireless over the tests operation and restore the whole platform to
network that is operated only for those specific purposes. its original state (prepare it for next lesson) Particular
The teacher can select the topic and its materials using the lectures are stored as an application modules. These
administration interface. This selection opens the lesson modules are divided into several functional units which
for students and also configures the server as needed. communicate between each other and which are linked to
Everything takes place only within an easy user interface platform core.
and therefore it is no need for a deeper impact into the The first part of architecture is a set of configuration
application or platform itself. The platform may also files. These configurations include the variables needed to
include materials required for a given topic presentation connect the module to the application itself, the interface
addresses and port numbers for the teacher and students
access. In addition, they also defined the location of each
part of the module. For simplicity and usability with the
widest area of technology the configuration files are
written in the form of a standard text document. The form
of their content is based on own syntax and grammar that
is chosen to allow simple definition of test case
requirements. An example configuration file is shown in
Figure 3. In this case, the sense of this configuration file
example can be unclear, but it is necessary to bear in mind
that the close relation between the configuration and a
given lesson is covered within this setting.
Another important part of each module is associated
with teaching materials. This is the content of lectures and
Figure 2. Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11 as an example of suitable server exercises. They are not being exclusively focused on
(source: www.zotac.com) textual materials, but also the animations and another
multimedia data can formed the content. Of course, the
– 64 –
scripts and application codes illustrates the topic in

practice are stored there.
Next part is an interface module for each user especially
students. Mostly it is formed by simple applications
running inside a Web browser. The interface for each
module can have its own graphic design easily changeable
using styles. Teachers use the administration interface of
whole platform primary. It may be used internally for
them, or they can present it to the students to gain a better
understanding of the ongoing testing or real-time usage of
educational platform. Teacher can also use and present a
testing part of lesson (interface for students) and illustrate
examples and procedures to be undertaken by students.
There should be a couple of examples based on mentioned
interface that is ready to offer the interactive form of test
of knowledge gained from lectures and materials on those
technologies.
The last optional part of each module consists of a
directory containing the default state of the databases and
other data used in testing. These allow semi-automated
recovery of the starting conditions of the tasks for quick
and efficient repeating of lessons.
The reason why the modules are divided in this way is
that each lecture can be easily and effectively updated.
Internet technology and its environment are rapidly
changing and our platform should be able to react to that
without a huge intervention of the programmer. Obsolete
technologies are being replaced and current technology
problems and their solutions need to be presented to the
students.
Figure 4. Administration application screenshots. The chart of
C. Technical sollution of the events capturing on the server utilization and communication snipping is depicted.
server side
From the technical point of view, the very important application. All of these things what the application is able
functionality of the platform is to capture and analyze to do, can be displayed as charts, statistics or data tables.
communication between server/platform and students [3]. An example of server utilization chart is presented on
The utilization, feedback and evaluation can be performed Figure 5.
thanks to this. The platform itself is responsible for that How it is mentioned above, the ability to capture
feature. communication and server state is crucial for our
approach. This can be performed by a several ways on the
server side:
- Incoming packet sniffing – it is based on some
special components WinPcap and WinDump.
These components offer functionality to read a
data directly from the network adapter, parse it
and filter this data based on some conditions.
- Information reading directly from the Apache
application – it is based on Apache extended
mode which generate special XML file with real-
Figure 5. Scheme of the server structure time operational information.
- Information reading from log files – Apache
The platform, via a special application written in .NET server, as well as another internet servers, creates
technologies, is able to monitor the requests that users log files included a huge amount of data about
send to the web server (in this case we use Apache as a requests, responses, errors, etc. It is also an
web server). The basic scheme of platform structure interesting source for users’ behavior and
during the testing is depicted in Figure 4. The application communication analysis [6].
is also able to track information on the facilities which are
currently communicating; it is able to detect the IP IV. CASE STUDY – PLATFORM USAGE FOR WEB
address, MAC address, browser type packet, the APPLICATIONS SECURITY TOPIC
destination and source port of the packet [5]. It is also The current most common web security problems were
necessary to be able to put Apache modules to its original included in the pilot version of the project. This selection
state and lead through the logs of all events. Finally, this of problems was motivated by the real situation of the
application can read the data directly from the Apache Web applications area. The aim is to provide not only
– 65 –
A.Glumbík et al. • Platform of Educational Process Support for the Internet Technology Area
information, but also practical examples to test problems realize attack are perfect background to explain the
discussed in terms of security of web applications and approaches to secure the forms.
subsequent attacks on them. It is not necessary to The second set of tasks is aimed at Cross site scripting
introduce the topic the depth, but it is focused on the right (XSS attacks). The first task is to use an unprotected form
directing the students within this subject. The following input element to save attacker own malicious code that
text describes a standard process of teaching based on our causes the firing of JavaScript method on the target page.
platform [2]. This code is stored to the database and it can be generated
Teacher turns on the laptop (for presentation) and the as a part of regular web page content for another users.
device that acts a server role. Runs the platform on the This can be dangerous with respect to power of
server side and chooses lecture and materials. This starts JavaScript. To determine the successful attack the
the configuration process within the server environment. platform uses a regular expression applied to query that
This process consists of system variables setting, ports checks whether the input contains all necessary elements
configuration, starting of the listening of incoming to induce the desired method. These elements are defined
requests and, optionally, deployment a database structure within the configuration of this task. As in the previous
designed for testing. After this initial step, students can case, after successfully testing there is a time for
begin to connect to a running application interface – illustration or discussion. Also, the database returns to its
standard web page within web browser, see Figure 6. original state.
Of course this is just one of the scenarios constructed
on our educational platform. The above examples show
that the students will be able to test their knowledge and
skills directly on the real server environment without any
risky behavior within real operational environment. The
result is that the students can learn how to secure the
scripts and forms by interactive way.
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

The educational platform for Internet technology is a
new interactive way to bring the topics closer to the
students and let them to test it based on examples that are
ready for them [4]. The innovative approach of this
solution is to deploy the application not on the level of the
conventional practice, but especially in the context of
interpretation lectures. This offers the teacher a simple
tool, which contains everything needed to teach this
dynamically developing area.
Figure 6. Screenshot of user interface (web pages) for students and The current state of this project is in a pilot phase with
their tasks (only in Czech version now). massive development necessity. However, the general
Teacher can use the administration interface and start the concept and prototype of the platform is already formed
presentation of a given topic. and it is ready for next extended implementation. The goal
The first topic is the SQL injection attack. After basic of our effort is to deploy this platform to the teaching of
theory introduction the students can try to perform this mostly all topics included within the Web applications
attack within the closed and secured environment of development syllabus. This should be also the
educational platform. Students select the topic within experimental operation of our platform in the real
theirs interface and get to the screen with the first set of educational world. During this initial operation we would
tasks. The first exercise is a challenge to use untreated like to identify possible shortcomings and subsequently
form input to write a query that will remove the record we want to share our platform both with professionals and
from the test table. During the students’ testing the teacher students. Our aim is to provide innovative and effective
is able to check the attempts of students in real-time tool for increasing the interactivity of the technologically
thanks to administrative interface. Also the administrative based lessons. Also, the platform would be a basis for the
interface offers information on Web server workload, students to start developing Web applications and to avoid
current data in the database and its state and a list of common mistakes. It is good way how to put their
queries that students are sending to the database server. At practical skills to upper level already during the study
the moment when a successful attack is executed, the process.
server can automatically interrupts the connection of all
users and the information on attack can be presented. REFERENCES
Now, the teacher can illustrate the successful attack and [1] D. Randy Harrison, E-Learning in 21st Century: A Framework for
analyze it, as well as discuss the unsuccessful attack of Resarch and Practise, Feb 2011.
other students. [2] S. Shah, Web 2.0 Security – Defending AJAX, RIA and SOA, Dec
2007.
Subsequently, the recovery of database to the initial
[3] L. Shklar and R. Rosen, Web Application Architecture: Principle,
state is performed. Other tasks to test knowledge of SQL Protocols and Practises, May 2009.
injection can be based on adding and editing records in the [4] M. Bullen, Making the Transition to E-learning: Strategies and
database, deleting the entire database, create a copy of Issues, Aug 2006.
each, etc. The basis for these types of tasks is a form with [5] http://www.wincap.org/windump/default.htm, Sep 2011
untreated input. The knowledge and practice how to [6] http://en.wikipedia.ork/wiki/Tcpdump, Aug 2011
– 66 –
Emulating Cisco Network Laboratory Topologies

in the Cloud
Igor Grellneth*, Martin Hruby* and Peter Vilhan**
* Institute of Computer Systems and Networks, Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, SUT, Bratislava,
Slovakia
** Institute of Applied Informatics, Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, SUT, Bratislava, Slovakia
grellneth@fiit.stuba.sk, hruby@fiit.stuba.sk, vilhan@fiit.stuba.sk
Abstract—Presently a multitude of virtualization solutions network devices. A natural candidate for addressing this
have been implemented in both classroom environments and issue was our existing VLAB.
by students at home. Their success and widespread Utilizing VLAB during lessons helped eliminate
deployment made them an ideal surrogate to real hardware problems with cabling and the need to prepare
based laboratories and an excellent aid in the learning configurations before the actual lesson begins. It can be
process. However, the intense hardware requirements often used by up to four students at once with present hardware
limit the number of emulated devices used, and the number configuration (4GB RAM). High availability of virtual
of concurrent sessions. To address these issues, in this paper laboratory allows students to use it up to 96 simulation
we propose a cloud-based virtual laboratory. hours a day and 672 simulation hours a week. If single
student needs to use it 3 hours a day, VLAB can be used
I. INTRODUCTION by 224 students [2]. However, VLAB being limited to a
single server, resources were still scarce and usage had to
Among the most popular Cisco IOS emulation tools in be scheduled in advance. The VLAB server also
recent years are Dynamips and Dynagen upon which the represents a single point of failure because an unexpected
successful GNS3 environment is based. The usefulness of outage renders all pending emulations useless and
these tools in learning was an incentive for us, and configurations are lost. We will cover the original
prompted us to create a Virtual Laboratory (only VLAB architecture of the VLAB in the following chapter and
further on) [1]. The VLAB provides a framework for address its issues in the chapter III.
virtualization of the network topology and enables
registration, authentication, reservation and resource
authorization for the student. The VLAB is implemented
on a single Unix server and this represents a few issues II. ORIGINAL CONCEPT
which we would like to address. In this paper we take our Originally, the VLAB was conceived as a server-centric
existing VLAB environment a step further and move the model where at the heart of the system was a single Unix-
existing implementation into the cloud to utilize the based server optimized for virtualization and emulation
available computing resources. tasks. As per the requirements, the server had to support
Our motivation behind this effort is to be able to deliver multiple concurrent dynamips hypervisor processes. User-
new Cisco CCNP Troubleshooting laboratory lessons to mode Linux was deployed to provide PC emulation and
students regardless of their location on a shared, cloud- together with the VLAB web-application, these three
based emulation environment. These lessons feature components formed the student interface. Students would
preconfigured networks which contain a bug, unwanted log into the VLAB web-application and schedule a
functionality or an undesirable byproduct which the laboratory lesson, which would become available to them
student has to identify and reconfigure the network in via a combination of the Server IP address and TCP port
order to achieve the desired result. Currently in class and mapped to the instance of an emulated device running on
on real equipment, the task of preparing the lab (cabling, the Server. The whole concept is depicted in Fig.1 below.
base configuration, etc.) itself brings up new issues, which
are not part of the lesson and therefore it makes the whole
troubleshooting part more complicated and spread out in
many different directions. This way it is quite difficult to
focus on the topic the lab was meant for, because the
student does not see the expected outcome described in
the lab until he solves the issues he added with the
installation of the lab itself. Having dedicated hardware
and preinstalled configurations for the Cisco CCNP
Troubleshooting course is, in our view, inefficient, time-
consuming and expensive. Therefore we propose to
conduct laboratory lessons in this course in a virtualized
environment capable of running many concurrent sessions
with automatic configuration deployment to the emulated
Figure 1. A high-level overview of the VLAB
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 67 –

I. Grellneth et al. • Emulating Cisco Network Laboratory Topologies in the Cloud
After a laboratory lesson is selected and scheduled, the functionally tested to determine whether connectivity was
topology together with an initial configuration is displayed established as desired.
to the student (see Fig.2 below).
III. PROPOSED CONCEPT
To address the shortcomings of the VLAB – mainly
susceptibility to being overloaded with increasing number
of students, the upper limit on the number of emulated
devices and the fact that it represents a single point of
failure, we propose a cloud-based virtual network
laboratory.
A cloud computing environment might provide an ideal
solution to the issues we face when delivering the Cisco
CCNP Troubleshooting course. Dynamically allocated
resources will serve well in the academic environment as,
in our view, there are a lot computing resources available
at universities, yet not many of those are utilized to their
maximum potential at all times. For our purposes we have
chosen the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (only UEC further
on), because it provides an easy to use open-source
virtualization capability, applications and flexibility to
help deploy a cloud within an organization [3]. It is
important to note that UEC is compatible with Amazon
EC2 cloud. The UEC is composed of the following key
components:
• eucalyptus-cloud – cloud controller, front-end

services
• eucalyptus-cc - includes the Cluster Controller
that provides support for the virtual network
overlay
• eucalyptus-sc - includes the Storage Controller
• eucalyptus-walrus - includes the Walrus storage
Figure 2. A loaded laboratory lesson in the VLAB web-application
system
The task of configuring the emulated devices itself can • eucalyptus-nc - includes the Node Controller
then be done my means of an applet which has established that interacts with KVM through Libvirt to
connections to all of the emulated devices (see Fig. 3) or manage individual VMs
by directly establishing secure terminal session (SSH) to
the VLAB Server. We have modified the original VLAB architecture (see
Fig. 1) and broke it up into two layers: bottom and top
(see Fig. 2). The bottom layer contains network nodes
which are part of the cloud. There should be a minimum
of 2 network nodes in the cloud active at any given time.
One of these nodes will be dedicated as a Cloud
Controller which will manage all the other nodes, virtual
machine instances and available images and resources
inside of the cloud. Other nodes in the cloud will function
as resources of computing power and storage space,
hosting the virtual machine. These nodes are running
Ubuntu Linux Server, which provides a scalable and
manageable cloud computing solution. The number of
nodes in the cloud is not limited which is important for
future growth.
The top layer in our architecture is composed of the
actual virtual machine. Users use cloud resources by an
Figure 3. The configuration applet in the VLAB web-application interface composed of our existing VLAB, a combination
of Dyn@ng and Mindterm which is a Java SSH client
A major advantage of the VLAB, above those already applet [4, 5]. It is important to note at this point, that all of
listed, is the ability to automatically score a completed the components we have chosen are free and in the public
laboratory lesson after the student has finished. This domain. We have integrated these components with little
scoring is done in a twofold manner. First the effort and only minor changes were made to the existing
configurations are compared to correct reference VLAB environment. The Fig.4 below represents a high
configurations and secondly, the entire topology is level overview of our proposed architecture.
– 68 –
<PARAM NAME="geometry" VALUE="80x24">

<PARAM NAME="local0"
VALUE="/general/127.0.0.1:7202:localhost:7202">
</APPLET>
The above underlined sections of code are dynamically

generated.
The hereby proposed and described cloud-based virtual
laboratory was successfully implemented and the
preliminary results from our testing are listed in the
following chapter.
Figure 4. A high-level overview of the proposed architecture
It is important to merge all the components of the user IV. PRELIMINARY RESULTS
interface into an easy to use, reliable and secure
component of our architecture. We have conducted preliminary testing on our proposed
architecture, focusing on the ability of Dyn@NG to spread
Dyn@NG was chosen instead of Dynagen because of requested emulations on available resources in the cloud.
the immense advantage it offers by offloading running On the below figure (Fig. 5), the load imposed on the
emulations. This in turn enables us to run a large number virtual machine is plotted over the course of the day. The
of concurrent emulations. Another advantage is the fact load decreases as more resources are allocated inside of
that students now don’t have to have user accounts on the the cloud.
virtual machine (Server) to gain access to their running
virtual laboratory. During implementation we have
identified a security imperfection of this approach. With
Dyn@NG, the resources are becoming available to
everyone, because to enable load imposed by the
emulation from client to the server to be moved, we need
to make the ports on which the hypervisor and device
consoles are running available. This situation can be partly
resolved by dynamic firewall measures limiting the
availability of those ports to only a selected IP address.
Mindterm was chosen to tunnel ports from particular
cloud node which is running the emulation to the student’s
workstation. From the student’s point of view, the whole
process of connection establishment is transparent.
Mindterm, now integrated into our VLAB web-
application will, after laboratory lesson start and resource
allocation, establish a secure (SSH) session with the
virtual machine and configure SSH tunnels as mentioned
above. To integrate the Mindterm applet into our VLAN
web-application, the following code is crucial and present
in every student’s running laboratory lesson: Figure 5. Plotted one-day load imposed on the virtual machine
<APPLET On the below figure (Fig. 6), please observe the port
CODE="com.mindbright.application.MindTerm.class" forwarding, as established during a student session. Note,
CODEBASE="./" WIDTH=0 HEIGHT=0> that the student does not have to have an active account on
<PARAM NAME="archive" the virtual machine.
VALUE="mindterm.jar"
<PARAM NAME="sepframe" VALUE="true">
<PARAM NAME="debug" VALUE="false">
<PARAM NAME="protocol" VALUE="ssh2">
<PARAM NAME="server"
VALUE="vlab.fiit.stuba.sk">
<PARAM NAME="port" VALUE="22">
<PARAM NAME="username"
VALUE="logged_in_username">
<PARAM NAME="password"
VALUE="logged_in_password">
<PARAM NAME="quiet" VALUE="true">
<PARAM NAME="alive" VALUE="20">
<PARAM NAME="term-type"
VALUE="xterm-color"> Figure 6. Port forwarding as seen in the administration of Dyn@NG
– 69 –
I. Grellneth et al. • Emulating Cisco Network Laboratory Topologies in the Cloud
Since the running laboratory lessons are being emulated quickly, securely and reliably. We believe that our
on resources inside of the cloud, the student doesn’t have proposed architecture which integrates the UEC,
access to packet dumps. Therefore we utilize the Mindterm, Dyn@NG and our existing VLAB is a good
Dyn@NG capture functionality to provide the packet approach when it comes to emulating the network
capture function to the student via the VLAB web- topologies we are faced with in the Cisco CCNP
application (as seen on Fig. 7 below). Troubleshooting course. We have not yet finished our
testing of our proposed concept, yet we believe that the
great improvement will, at least performance-wise, help us
in delivering high-quality virtualized courses.
CONCLUSION
We have proposed a cloud-based virtual laboratory,
building on our previous single-server virtual laboratory,
in order to deliver the new Cisco CCNP Troubleshooting
course. To accomplish this task we utilized existing
approaches to cloud-based computing (UEC) and
available secure terminals (Mindterm) to make the best
use of load-balancing Cisco IOS emulation (Dyn@NG).
The biggest advantages of our proposed solution are high
Figure 7. Dyn@NG packet capture feature availability of computing resources, scalability to allow
satisfaction of possible future high demands and most
importantly, a better learning experience for the students.
We have experimented with creating multiple Acknowledgement: The support by Slovak Science
simultaneous student sessions in our implemented cloud- Grant Agency (VEGA 1/0649/09 "Security and reliability
based virtual laboratory. We have also integrated the in distributed computer systems and mobile computer
Dyn@NG packet capture feature with our existing VLAB networks") is gratefully acknowledged.
web-application to allow the students to implement packet
sniffing on their running emulated topologies. This might
greatly improve the learning experience, because in a real
wired network laboratory it is not possible to capture REFERENCES
packets on serial interfaces. Therefore, solutions to some [1] I. Grellneth, M. Bielik, S. Gula, P. Marko, V. Michalec, P. Peti,
networking issues might become more apparent to the and Z. Schusterova, “VLAB at the Institute of Computer Systems
and Networks FIIT STU” Acta Electrotechnica et Informatica,
student than without the ability to observe network traffic vol. 10, pp. 65-71, April-June 2010
directly. At present time we have not concluded our
[2] I. Grellneth, Z. Schusterova, "An Aproach to Implementation of
testing of the proposed cloud-based virtual laboratory. Virtual Network Laboratory" In Proceedings of the 10th
Current testing however shows signs of great International Conference Virtual University VU'09, December 10-
improvement over our previously implemented VLAB 11, 2009, Bratislava, Slovakia. ISBN - 978-80-89316-12
environment. [3] UEC/Architecture [online], cited on September 14, 2011
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEC/Architecture
[4] Dyn@NG [online], cited on September 14, 2011
http://netgroup.polito.it/tools/dyn-ng
V. COMPARISON
[5] Mindterm – World-class Java SSH2 Client [online], cited on
In this chapter we compare our newly proposed solution September 14, 2011
with the original VLAB. The cloud-based solution is, in http://www.cryptzone.com/products/agmindterm/
our view, a modern approach to solving issues where large
amounts of computer resources need to be accessed
– 70 –
Teaching one Language in More Depth is better

than Many Languages Superficially
R. Horváth*
*Faculty of Education at Trnava University/Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Trnava, Slovakia
e-mail rhorvath@truni.sk
Abstract—This paper describes the findings on students’ As we found out by studying several public information
problems in programming learning that have been captured sources ([7], [1], [5]) and performing interviews with
through interviews and essays. It briefly introduces the new several teachers working at universities in Slovakia,
class which we intend to use in programming teaching. nowadays, three groups sustaining different programming
languages in computer science teaching are formed. The
supporters of each group have their own opinions, and it is
I. INTRODUCTION very hard to resolve the dispute. They are as follows: 1. to
We currently deal with the issue of rebuilding a series teach using Pascal or Pascal-like programming language
of programming courses at the Faculty of Education at (Pascal, Object Pascal, Delphi…); 2. to teach using C-like
Trnava University in Trnava. The programming belongs programming language (C++, C#, Java…); 3. to teach
to the less easy manageable for the students; therefore using different language – this group is autonomous and
teachers worldwide and in Slovakia constantly look for prefers completely different languages as Python [9], Lisp,
innovative ways of programming teaching. We have Scheme etc.
opened that question, too.
The question is: how to manage programming courses, Pascal is, for example, a language designed for
so that students would have better results absolving them? teaching. It is a language of verbal keywords and
The greatest chasm within the teachers worldwide is in the operators (e.g. begin, end, procedure, and, or, mod…).
selection of first language (and programming However, all these keywords are in English. Experiences
environment). Next point is that the programming courses taken over years showed us, that English is, despite the
are put into specific time-frame, but master single wide-spread in computer praxis and computer science, not
programming language can take years of study. routine for the Slovak students. That means that human
We should regard the fact, that significant per cent of readable keywords of operators and programming
students coming up to our faculty to study Computer structures don’t play such important role for Slovak
Science Teaching have never met any programming students as some other factors. Languages using C-like
language before. Worse, many of them have no idea that syntax are more symbolic (&&, ||, ++, +=, etc.). These
they will have to learn to program after they join the symbols have for most Slovak students the same meaning
faculty. If we put too much information to such as student, as English human readable keywords. Students just have
he will lost the overview quickly, fails in study, and will to memorize them… Currently, we have no solution for
leave, eventually. this issue. We can just say that this is not the key factor for
Despite of the chasm in the selection of first language, the choice of language taught. Personally, I can say that
we decided to use Java as the first language and BlueJ as foreign language makes no problem for a man, who wants
the programming tool (environment). An interview series to learn to program. I, for example, started to learn
with the students showed to us that less acceptable for programming in Basic (programming language using pure
them is to learn many programming languages and work English keywords) with help of German written manuals
with many programming tools (or environments) than as eight, maybe nine-year old boy, with having had no
learn single language and single tool. We decided to unify idea about syntax, algorithms, and with zero knowledge of
programming language and tool taught. Java and BlueJ is English or German. But… often we are forced to teach
our choice. people, who don’t want to learn to program. (That’s the
point…)
II. JAVA IN PROGRAMMING TEACHING Let us take a small thought about transition between
programming languages during study. Surely, the
There are several kinds of beginner programmers – transition process is serious problem just like the syntax of
students. Students studying at our faculty are future programming language is. Our past students had no other
computer science teachers. They are different than choice, just accept the fact they must change the
“standard” computer science students. We have to adapt programming language almost each two terms. We have
our requirements to their needs. As we mentioned, noticed that this is a problem for them, and we convinced
discussions about proper first language and first of this through interview series with the students. Several
programming tool are in progress, for years. The view is students said: “We have had to teach several times the
changing with the current trends in programming and with programming from the ground… You suppose that we are
new programming languages and environments. Computer able to program in all these languages, but the fact is that
science praxis influences the computer science teaching, we are hardly able to write any basic algorithm in some of
and so it should be… these languages…” We could not ignore these
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 71 –

R. Horváth • Teaching One Language in More Depth is better than Many Languages Superficially
expressions. So we decided to teach one language in more III. ANONYMOUS ESSAYS AND INTERVIEWS
depth than several languages superficially. One question WITH OUR STUDENTS
stayed open for some time period: which language? We
knew that transition from C-like language to Pascal-like If we want to find answers for some kinds of questions,
language is easier than the reverse. That has indicated to we have to ask. In the anonymous essays students should
teach some C-like language to make the students prepared to write their opinion on programming teaching at our
to the reverse (easier) transition way in the future, after faculty, the strengths and weaknesses they are able to see.
leaving our faculty… And after several another Also, the teacher has made many interviews with the
recommendations the faculty took the decision to teach students, whose learn programming at our faculty now, or
Java. We can say that the final choice of the starting learned it in the past. He tried to find out, what are the
programming language taught at our faculty has been most problems in the programming learning. It has been
taken with regard of other benefits of the language chosen. made in academic year 2009/2010.
Joel Spolsky published an article full of criticism Mostly, the students wrote about “big problems in
against Java. He says, what happened to the programmers’ understanding” the teacher’s explanation. They noticed
hard work? [6] He says: “Java is not hard enough to be that “only few schoolmates really understand the matter.”
used to discriminate between great programmers and Apparently, they often talked each other about the
mediocre programmers.” And more: “…the ability to problems with programming learning. The biggest
understand pointers and recursion is directly correlated problem was to “catch the train.” I think that this can
with the ability to be a great programmer.” Sure, this is a always be a problem for few students, but not for the most
good point for computer science students, but is for future of the classroom. After this happens to a student, it is
teachers too? Spolsky is talking about permanent decrease almost impossible to get in and learn continuously.
of requirements made for the students. Yes, there are no Different students wrote about different parts of the
doubts that with teaching someone who, as we expect, will curriculum which they don’t understand, finally each part
develop commercial software, we take the responsibility of the curriculum has been mentioned at least once. After
to teach him how to make good programs, good more detailed analysis of the essays we tried to get the
algorithms, and how to be a good programmer. But with most problematic parts. Ironically, they were exactly the
future teachers we are in different position. Our students elements we worked most often with. The tireless
have problems with more basic language features, they repeating of the language basics (branching statements,
don’t miss pointers, and I think they would be thankful to loops, creating the conditions, the methods definition…)
Java for covering pointers deep under layer visible to seemed to have no effect on our students’ understanding.
programmers, if they knew what the pointer is. I think Joel Only simplest language elements (as “if” and “if-else”
Spolsky is right, but with “classical” computer science statements) were mentioned as really easy understandable.
students. Maybe there should not be a differentiation Doubtless, the students need time to understand even
between “classical” computer science students and future basic language concepts. Indeed, the subject number two
teachers, but it is, nowadays. And I think it will be for a in the essays was “the time.” Students often asked to
long time in the Slovakia (and some near countries, too; if “slow down the tempo.” They often complained about the
anybody wants to know more about our school system, fast progress. They proclaimed that they need time for
please, write to me…). We should, first of all, produce thinking about discussed problems. Although they did not
teachers that are able to program, and, at least, able to forget on some situations, when teacher asked all students
create basic algorithms. to think about some problem, but it was not often enough
for them. Accepting such kinds of requests the tempo has
slowed down, but students again proclaimed that the
I am not strong Java supporter. I did not know Java tempo is still too fast. On the one side, we understand this.
before 2009. Until then I was able to compare only Pascal There is an effect called Cognitive Overload ([4]; it is
and C/C++. After meeting Java, I was able to compare it related to Cognitive Load Theory, which Mark Guzdial
with other two, and also able to better understand some mentioned in an article about introductory programming
claims that Java is more close to (Object) Pascal than courses [3]). We should avoid letting our learners suffer
C/C++. Java has C-like syntax, but I see something from it. Have enough time for thinking is important, we
different in it. I think it is better designed. The whole agree, but on the other side there is no straight solution.
language philosophy is different than the C/C++. It is Programming courses have specific time-frame. We are
strictly object oriented, and has strong object basis with unable to teach all the necessary subject matter with
optimized algorithms, which can be used by beginner and slower tempo and it is not possible to get more time for
professional programmers equally. Java claims to be programming courses. We could give more stress on
simple, object oriented, familiar and more [8]. We decided homework, and we could (again) try another way of
to teach Java, but more important is that we decided to teaching. For example, try to apply some good elements of
teach single language in introductory and following the Flow Theory [2] by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. It is
courses. So the students have better chance (more time) to always good to have clear goals and immediate
learn about how to make programs before they meet some feedback… We would like to experience if and how
other language (and before they are forced to invest the would be this applicable in our teaching, but the final
energy into the transition). Maybe/I think the decision success is mainly on the students themselves and their
with Java was not as bad. For the students will be less inner attitude.
painful to go off from Java to simpler language than the
reverse. But we have now the responsibility to make Another often mentioned problem was “the students’
introductory programming courses motivating enough. inequality.” Most of the students asked to slow down, but
several of them asked the right opposite. They claimed
– 72 –
“we are moving like a snails,” and complained about slow organic name by students, and after advancing the class
schoolmates doing too much typos. They showed not functionality far behind the borders of original (simpler
much understanding to the slower classroom mates. This logo-like) philosophy. The new name sounds
is unavoidable – experienced students will be bored and international, but this is a coincidence. In fact, the whole
beginners will claim that the tempo is too fast… Some class is written (like its predecessor) with regard to Slovak
students were able to fully reflect that they need more students. All methods and properties are named in Slovak,
autonomous action – at home alone or with the help of the and whole documentation is written in Slovak.
friends or family members (e.g. more experienced The simplest Robot’s feature is that it can paint a line
brother). Another few complained about hidden “illegal during movement, just like Logo turtle, but it has many
activities” during classroom training, like Facebook other features against the original turtle. The Robot is able
browsing and other amusements… This is inacceptable. to work in both Cartesian and Polar coordinate systems. It
We will draw the consequences in the future. accepts absolute and relative coordinates, paints images,
Individual problem is the memorising whole programs plays sounds, contains tools for basic events handling
or their parts without understanding them. Some students (mouse, keyboard, timer…), can do some primitive
admitted this, and we have observed such manners too. automated actions (like uniform straightforward
That problem is connected with the distorted concepts of movement, accelerated movement, and uniform or
computer science. Many students were surprised by the accelerated rotation), can generate some basic Java shapes
fact that they should to learn to program. They often have (dots, circles, polygons, rotated ellipses, squares, and
no idea what it exactly means “to program.” Maybe at rectangles…), draw the outlines of generated shapes or fill
least this fact will change in the near future… them, paint texts, work with text files, and much more.
The last information taken from the essays was the Many methods are polymorphic, some are getters, other
“lack of Slovak study materials.” Changing this needs just are setters, and some Robot methods are intended to be
time and hard work to make such materials. We constantly overloaded – they are invoked automatically in specific
work on new materials, because this is one of the most situations and the Robot changes its behaviour after
objective students’ requests. overloading them. We can use all that to better explain the
object oriented features, like the method overloading,
polymorphism, and their purpose. The new Robot is
The interviews confirmed some information gained intended to be used in object oriented programming
from the essays. Again, the key points were: teaching.
• the lack of time – students considered the two Eventually, here is an example showing how to
terms introductory programming courses as program a robot to follow last mouse click:
insufficient;
• the chasm between what the teacher wants to rýchlosť(10, false);
explain and what really students understand –
experienced students said that the explanation was new ObsluhaUdalostí()
simple enough, and beginners said that it was too {
professional, technical; @Override public void klik()
• the inner motivation – many students do not step {
into this study programme with the correct cieľNaMyš();
concepts, their concepts were often distorted; after }
realizing that they will have to learn to program };
they become being demotivated;
• the team – it is important to support the team Ironically now we have to translate some Slovak words
building – experienced students should help to the back to English to make the example understandable,
less experienced, students should cooperate – because the Robot (as we mentioned) is written using
helping each other to learn. Slovak language. The same example in English would
look like this:
These and some other information were gained from the
students. Some experienced students told us, they learned velocity(10, false);
by modifying existing programs. They suggested that
incomplete examples or programs ready to modification new EventHandler()
could be given to the beginners as an exercise. This is not {
a bad idea. We have heard about such techniques [3], but @Override public void click()
never tried it until now.
{
targetToMouse();
IV. THE NEW PLAN – USE NEW GRAPHICS ROBOT
}
All the circumstances consecutively led to creation a };
new tool – Graphics Robot. The Robot is a Java class and
it is a successor of the “Korytnačka” class (which means The example must be enclosed in class definition that
“turtle” in Slovak language; development of Korytnačka extends (inherits from) the Robot class. The fastest way is
started approximately in august 2010). Robot class does to put it in the constructor.
not have anything to do with original java.awt.Robot
class. It is independent class made for graphics oriented
programming partially similar to Logo. The name has
been changed from Korytnačka after dishonour original
– 73 –
R. Horváth • Teaching One Language in More Depth is better than Many Languages Superficially
I. CONCLUSION [2] Csikszentmihalyi, M.: Beyond Boredom and Anxiety:

Experiencing Flow in Work and Play. San Francisco : Jossey-
The programming teaching is wide area. There are Bass, 1975. ISBN 0-87589-261-2.
many ways how to organise introductory courses. We [3] Guzdial, M.: How we teach Introductory Computer Science is
described our situation, the decision made at our faculty, wrong. In Blog at Communications of the ACM. Trusted insights
and the new tool (Java class package) developed to cover for Computing’s Leading Professionals. 2009. [online]. http://
that decision consequences. Programming probably never cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/45725. Accessed: 28. Feb 2010.
comes to be smooth for all different kinds of students, but [4] Herrod, J.: Cognitive Overload. 2000. [online]. http://www.
jchconsulting.com/fall2000/. Accessed: 1. Aug 2011.
we can always try to make this process as motivating as
possible. The students which are interested in [5] Kotrbčík, M.: Hocičo namiesto Delhpi a Javy. [online]. http://
mito.blog.matfyz.sk/p12304-hocico-namiesto-delhpi-a-javy.
programming will appreciate it, and for the other students Accessed: 29. Feb 2010.
(not enough motivated) may be this at least a welcome [6] Spolsky, J.: The Perils of JavaSchools. 2005. [online]. http://
step. joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html.
Accessed: 28. Feb 2010.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT [7] Ščerbák, G.: Java namiesto Delphi. [online]. http://gscerbak2.
blog.matfyz.sk/p12293-java-namiesto-delphi. Accessed: 29. Feb
The publication of this paper was supported by grant 2010.
VEGA 1/0247/10. [8] The Java Language Environment. [online]. http://java.sun.com/
docs/white/langenv/Intro.doc2.html. Accessed: 6. Apr 2010.
REFERENCES [9] Zelle, J. M.: Python as a First Language. [online]. http://mcsp.
[1] Antonič, M.: Delphi namiesto Javy. [online]. http://miso.blog. wartburg.edu/zelle/python/python-first.html. Accessed: 28. Feb
matfyz.sk/p12296-delphi-namiesto-javy. Accessed: 29. Feb 2010. 2010.
– 74 –
Supporting the development of digital

competences of pupils and teachers
M. Hosťovecký*, T. Zaťková**
*Facultyof Education at Trnava University/Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Trnava, Slovakia
**Faculty of Economics and Management at Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Department of Pedagogy and
Psychology, Slovakia
e-mail marian.hostovecky@truni.sk, tzatkova@yahoo.com
Abstract—The author of this article dealing with issues of mentioned adverse trends and innovation and
developing digital skills of students in primary and modernization of curricula and teaching methods and the
secondary schools. In addition to devote his attention now increasing competence of teachers in the education
processing the results of testing students in various grades of process [4]. Among other things, to improve the quality of
the Slovak Republic and Czech Republic. Testing was the curriculum can be a vital and participate in national or
conducted at several pre-selected objects and to analyze the international projects (ESF, ERDF…). These can often be
results allow a comprehensive analysis of the cognitive level a pragmatic contribution to the intended target groups to
of students participating countries. In the project develop specific competencies. One of the following
participated in three different institutions: University of oriented projects is a project that was implemented over
Trnava in Trnava, the University of Ostrava and three years to develop digital competence through
Methodology and Evaluation Center, ops in Ostrava. The opportunities to test their students and then determine their
obtained results of the project, as well as the objectives, cognitive level. In the next section characterize a
specific focus are outlined below. particular course of project implementation.
I. INTRODUCTION II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION, OBJECTIVES AND SUPPORT

INFORMATION LITERACY
Internet has long been not only a medium allowing the
sharing of information in text or graphic form or medium Improving the quality of education in that country is
providing “chat” and e-mail based on a text. Today, in also reflected in the growth of national economy. If the
connection with the Internet constantly increasing leaders of the country preferred need to build quality
development of technical means, such as parameters and education system (i.e., building cutting-edge content of
data networks offers a wider range of options developed study programs, quality teacher training, availability of
interactive communication [1]. sufficient and high quality material and technical
equipment of schools, as well as lifelong upgrading of
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) skills and supporting the acquisition of key competences
bring with them a wide range of possibilities for their as the body and learning object) then the support of
application in the teaching process. In terms of stages of educational and regional projects is one of the possible
the learning process are the application of IT from the solutions to contribute to this goal. One project, which
motivational phase, exposure and fixing phase after was, inter alia, its content also aims to increase digital
finishing the diagnostic phase. The international project skills of the ERDF project was titled: “Diagnostics of
ERDF titled “Diagnostics of knowledge and skills of knowledge and skills of pupils in CR – Slovakia border
pupils in CR – Slovakia border region, focusing on their region focusing on their development.”
development,” we implemented the use of IT in order to
develop students’ digital skills on the one hand, as well as The project was approved in 2008. Implementation of
development of teachers on the other. In addition, it is one the project was in a period from September 2008 – August
of the diagnostic phases of at least used to the application 2011. Project leaders were: Ostrava University in Ostrava
of IT compared to other phases of the learning process. (principal investigator), Trnava University in Trnava (the
main cross-border partner) and Methodology and
In addition to the results of international comparative Evaluation Center in Ostrava. The project was funded
studies, PISA and PIRLS shows that the quality of 85% from the European Union ERDF (European Regional
education in Slovakia has a long-term downward trend. It Development Fund). Fund designated for economic and
shows that the content, but mostly learning how not to social development of the European Union (its member
meet the requirements of the current labour market [2]. As states) aimed at reducing disparities between
the Sotáková: “There may be more, we will mention only disadvantaged regions to supporting economic growth,
the most important: passive reception of information at the increasing competitiveness in the employment…
expense of their usefulness in life, individualism at the
expense of teamwork, with easy access to information, Project involved more than 200 primary and secondary
lack of internalisation and the like. In Slovakia there is a schools (including grammar), of which 155 schools from
long-term development concept of the education system” the Czech Republic and 45 schools in the Slovak
[3]. Republic. A total of 6,231 students tested. Testing could
only attend school (primary and secondary) in the border
In Slovakia there is a long-term development concept of region SR (School of Trenčín, Trnava and Žilina) and the
an educational system aimed at stopping the above-
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 75 –

M. Hosťovecký and T. Zaťková • Supporting the Development of Digital Competences of Pupils and Teachers
CR border (Moravian, Zlín, South Moravia). Other than 80% success rate, less than 20% of the success of the
schools from other regions were not included in the models) in the tests. It was also checked by formal, but
project. The project was divided into two stages of testing: also stylistic page of all the tests. Followed by another
testing input (year 2010) and testing output (year 2011). phase, this was the initial testing (first test). The first
Obtained and statistically processed the results presented phase of testing was conducted in 2010, the time of testing
below. was determined for four months (February–May). After
The aims of the project were: implementation of the testing was obtained from the
testing results are processed and subsequently evaluated.
• intervene in the situation in education on both Based on these data, the results obtained were analysed
sides of the border, for levels of competence (skills), and then made specific
• identify the causes of the educational deficiencies recommendations in the form of methodological
of elementary and secondary schools, shortcomings such as exercise, if possible as much as
• develop core competencies students, possible to reduce or eliminate. Methodological guide for
• enhance the quality of schools, teachers on the recommended methodology used in
universities throughout the school year.
• enhance the educational potential teachers,
In the next stage, after 12 months was again made the
• strengthen the competitiveness of the region second round of testing – test output. This was realized on
through human resource development and the same sample of schools, but was offered the
education, opportunity of involvement and new schools. The
• enhance cooperation between all stakeholders in difference between schools that were included in the first
the educational process. round of testing and those that were included in the
The specific objectives of the project were: second round of testing was that the schools integrated in
the second round of testing has not been evaluated relative
• verification of knowledge of pupils 3, 5 and 7 increase in students.
school year and 1 and 3 year of high school
courses: mathematics, mother tongue (or Slovak. As mentioned above, after passing exit test, the relative
Czech language), foreign language (English or. increase was observed that students achieve course with
German), science foundation (biology, chemistry, the assumption that their cognitive level of the course will
physics), be higher. These results were processed in the form of
“Test reports.” These systems were automatically
• identification of problem points in education, generated and divided into three groups:
• specification and design changes in the approach Report to the Director – contains a summary of all
to teaching, tested students, and recommendations that the director
• implementation of teacher training (eLearning) – should be taken into account in the further education of
800 teachers, their students. Of course, the report also contained data on
• organize three international conferences for which the school knew what the level of the object of
teachers – introductory and two comparative, which compared to other schools.
Report to class teacher – % contained
• strengthen contacts between the actors and the
recommendations on how many students in which subject
mutual sharing of experiences,
and which specific responsibility or not the problem.
• comparison of test results between schools, Report to the pupil – containing specific
• implementation of teaching approaches in the recommendations on the level of individual competence.
educational process of evaluating the relative
increase in knowledge, IV. ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS OBTAINED IN TESTING
• improve the quality of education, As already mentioned above, the second round of
• promote and develop human resources in testing was conducted in early 2010. After passing the test
accordance with the requirements of the was carried out comprehensive analysis and evaluation of
knowledge economy. admission testing of pupils and students of schools
involved in the project. Test results were analysed by
III. PROJECT REALIZATION: multivariate statistical test (ANCOVA, MANCOVA)
Overall, the project has been categorized into several correlations (Pearson). According to the analysis that the
separate phases of implementation. In the first phase of the project carried out by Paul Prokop. Differences in test
project were prepared tests and testing technical support results between the SR and CR, as well as differences
(server, database, web interface testing). Have been between the sexes overall results were not significant [3].
designated (selected) vocational didactics, methodology, In some subjects, however, significant differences were
who had the task on the basis of educational standards and noted. E.g. differences in the results of physics at
performance standards to propose specific tasks that could secondary schools were quite clear – the boys consistently
be used in individual tests for individual subjects (i.e., the achieve higher average scores than girls.
Slovak language, mathematics, foreign language – English Activity of innovative teaching aids directly followed
or German language, physics, biology and chemistry). up by testing the input of knowledge and skills students 3,
Prepared on the basis of the following tasks have been 5 and 7 grade of primary school and first grade grammar
developed pilot tests, these were then tested on a sample schools and secondary schools. In these teaching materials
of students and checked again the methodology to prevent of the tested objects are now ready to print, are offered
the use of suspected problems (suspected activity – more some feedback and advice to teachers to help improve the
skills of students. It places them in a particular emphasis
– 76 –
on those aspects of education, such as problem solving, 60

group work, problem solving and project below. Awarded 50
the role to contribute to the development of creativity of
pupils, the thinking, the courage to grasp the problem and 40
find a way to self, to experience the exciting action if the
30
joy of finding their own solutions to problems. The
authors of these teaching materials are trying to equip 20
pupils and students the necessary knowledge and skills
10
they will need for their future application in personal,
professional and civic life. Below is a graphical 0
representation of test results from the seventh grade: 96 97 98 99 100
Biology: Skill 96 – Identify and correct use of terms
80
Skill 97 – Qualitative and quantitative description…
70 Skill 98 – Explaining and predicting phenomena
Skill 99 – Graphical perception, creation…
60 Skill 100 – Application of knowledge, use…
Skill 101 – Observation, experimental measurement
50
Level of education: 7
SR Mathematics
40
ČR 100
30
NS
90 NS
20 80
70
10
60
SR
0 50
93 94 95 ČR
40
80
30
70 20
P rie m ern é s kó re ± S E
60 10
0
50
chlapci 6 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
40 100
dievčatá NS NS
30 90
NS NS
80
20 NS
70
10 60
0 50
93 94 95 40
Skill 93 – Perceptions of the broader context 30
Skill 94 – Graphic art 20
Skill 95 – Orientation and work with technical terms 10
0
Physics
6 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
60
Skill 6 – Understanding the concept of numbers as…
50 Skill 7 – Numerical skills
p < 0,05 Skill 8 – (data not provided)
40 Skill 9 – Orientation and work with the table
Skill 10 – Graphical perception
SR Skill 11 – Working with graphs
30
ČR Skill 12 – Knowledge and work…
20 Skill 13 – Spatial imagination
Skill 14 – Function as a relationship between variables
10
Skill 15 – Logical correctness account
0
English language
80
p<0,01
96 97 98 99 100 70 p<0,01
60
p<0,01
50
SR
40
ČR
30
20
10
0
16 17 18 19
– 77 –
M. Hosťovecký and T. Zaťková • Supporting the Development of Digital Competences of Pupils and Teachers
Skill 16 – Know rhymes CONCLUSION

Skill 17 – Vocabulary
Skill 18 – Construction of the English sentence The aim of this contribution was to analyse the current
Skill 19 – Working with prepositions status of that project and analysis of the achievements.
Level of education: 7 Our attention, we tried to address not only the
70
p<0,01 p<0,01 p<0,01
characteristics of individual stages of the project, but also
60
p<0,01
the processing of statistical results and recommendations.
50 They emerged from the experience we gained during the
40
project, i.e. the findings of a deficit in the education of
SR
students and school students involved in the project
30 ČR
followed the work of teaching materials and formed in
20 early 2011 (March–May) final testing took place. When
10 evaluating gain knowledge and skills of pupils and
0
students will show whether the proposed methods and the
46 47 48 49 50 51 curriculum effectively. Lifelong learning should be an
70 essential part of every job seeker. This aspect is also
p<0,01 p<0,05
p<0,01 p<0,01 supported by the project, which was presented in this
60
article and which will contribute to better prepared
50 graduates for success in the labour market.
40 chlapci
dievčatá
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
30
20
The publication of this paper was supported by grant
KEGA 119-005TVU-4/2010
10
0 REFERENCES
46 47 48 49 50 51
[1] Hosťovecký, Marián – Zaťková, Tímea: Options for implementing
Skill 46 – Know rhymes videoconferencing system in a combined form of education Acta
Skill 47 – Construction of the English sentence Universitatis Facultatis Paedagogicae Tyrnaviensis. Ser. C –
Skill 48 – Working with prepositions Trnava, 2010. p. 157-164.
Skill 49 – Working with opytovacími [2] Ladányiová, E.: National study report PIRLS 2006th
Skill 50 – Responses to the simple
[3] Sotáková, K.: Preparing students for their future career starts at
Skill 51 – Reading a shorter
school. Proceedings of the International Conference on Gen Y
enters the job market. NKOS, Trnava, 2010. ISBN 978-80-
970464-3-9
Differences between Slovakia and Czech Republic have [4] Law 245/2008 Z.z. on education (Education Act) and on the
been inconsistent. The girls were in some cases higher amendment of certain laws
scores than boys.
– 78 –
Hydraulic plants for face-to-face training and

remote experiments
M. Huba and M. Halás
STU Bratislava, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia
mikulas.huba, miroslav.halas (at) stuba.sk
Abstract— This paper describes simple physical hydraulic

laboratory models that are able to communicate with
computer via both the standard USB interface and through
converter cards. They show to be appropriate for evaluating
different control approaches to linear and nonlinear
controllers design and for demonstrating basic control
features in both university laboratories as well as via
Internet.
I. INTRODUCTION
The trends in control education show worldwide
increasing use of physical laboratory models. This follows
from both the necessity to verify different theories in
quasi-authentic conditions, by developing student’s skills
in such quasi-authentic environment, by meeting learning
styles of several types of students and, what is also very
important, by increased student’s motivation to approach
the theory in treating real control problems.
As it was mentioned e.g. in [7], or [11], experiments
appropriate for teaching control theory should yield:
• clear physical “visibility” of the controlled
dynamics,
• time constants in the range from miliseconds to
minutes,
• safe manipulation,
• reasonable price of purchase or of the own
development,
• availability of sensors and actuators, Figure 1. The coupled-tank hydraulic laboratory system
• easy maintenance. uDAQ28/2H
In the last years, these criteria have been extended by We have bought the first two-tank hydraulic plant
the requirement of (described in [13]) already in 1990. Due to some practical
• possible approach via Internet. requirements we have started with its modifications and
This should provide an access to the experiments [13] some time later we have started our own development.
and at the same time also develop students’ skill in the use From that time we are permanently experimenting in
of Internet, which is becoming to be important modifying different features of our systems - by keeping
communication and control tool. in mind all above requirements on the experiments
appropriate for education.
Of course, with respect to the authenticity of
experiments, these should face typical problems of
II. BASIC DESCRIPTION
controlling plants met in practice and so to enable
acquisition of necessary knowledge, attitudes and skills. Nowadays, we are working with coupled two- and
Among the most popular systems used in education three-tank plants.
today one should mention hydraulic plants that are of Both are aimed to provide support in education and
different shapes and sizes and are distributed worldwide developing skills in input-output data manipulation,
practically at each university or laboratory being active in communication with outer computer environment, plant
teaching control theory. The broad availability, however, identification and control. They can be used to study
does not mean that all of them are equally appropriate for automation, control engineering, process control and
education. applied and industrial informatics.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 79 –

M. Huba and M. Halás • Hydraulic Plants for Face-to-Face Training and Remote Experiments
The configuration of the plant can easily be modified,

for instance in Matlab/SIMULINK, by setting respective
pimps, tanks and valves active or inactive. This may be
used for developing broad scale of different experiments
ranging from simple identification up to complex
nonlinear and hybrid control applied directly in labs, or
remotely via Internet.
The plant allows measuring the levels of liquid in
respective tanks by means of the pressure sensors
positioned at the bottom of the tanks.
III. MEASUREMENT & COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

UDAQ28/2H AND UDAQ28/3H
The Measurement & Communication Systems
uDAQ28/2H and uDAQ28/3H in cooperation with the
company Digicon and the non-profit organization E-
Academia Slovaca / Slovenská e-akadémia, n.o. use own
microprocessors for the data processing and
communication. They can be connected to standard
computers via USB port without necessity of using special
converter cards and special real time control software. At
Figure 3. Simple schematic diagram of the Coupled-tank hydraulic
the same time, they simplify the communication and system uDAQ28/2H in Matlab/Simulink
control. The plants are supplied by a safety 9V and 24V
voltage adaptors.
The pumps are controlled by analogue inputs 0-9V, the IV. IDENTIFICATION AND CONTROL SOFTWARE
valves by on-off signals 24/0 V. The developed plant includes all drivers necessary for
The levels are measured by pressure sensors 0-0.5Pa operating in Matlab/SIMULINK where it is represented as
enabling individual calibration for each level, with passive a single block. The communication interface for the open
temperature compensation by a constant feed current. The source SCILAB is under development.
achievable precision better than 1% (in steady state the The plant is delivered together with a package of the
level varies by +/- 0,5mm). basic algorithms for identification and control.
Settling time for control processes is in the range For calibration of level sensors and for identification of
approximately 100 s (with respect to the level change). the full nonlinear model it is possible to use fully
Matlab Communication Interface works with sampling automatically running programs [19].
periods 250 ms and more, whereby the serial port timeout Programs for many tasks related to nonlinear control
for purpose of data readout can be lowered down to 250 are available as well, see for instance papers devoted to
ms. There is ability to raise Matlab process priority above algebraic generalized transfer functions based approaches
priority of common tasks running under MS Windows. [5], [6], [16], [17], or to design of constrained controllers
Similarly as described in [11], [12] the build in for nonlinear plants of different complexity [1], [8], [18].
processor avoids necessity to build a simulation scheme For organization of the study and laboratory work
all the time you change it. This results in the possibility to enables to use modern blended learning approach [9],
use SIMULINK block Matlab Fcn that may contain own [10], [11], [13]: after introductory preparation by the
algorithms stored in M-file and in the possibility to adjust course materials in Moodle and initial face-to-face visit to
all communication parameters in single user dialogue laboratory, the extension module WebLab [2], [3], [4]
window gives to your students the 24/7 access to the plants via
Internet enabling to enjoy a rich experience from
controlling a real process.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The developed laboratory plants bring a revolutionary
solved communication, universal connectivity to all
computers via the USB port, small & handy, maintenance
free, portable, easy assembly & disassembly!
Control of two or three output variables by two-eight
inputs yields a broad spectrum of performances with
different static, dynamic and stochastic properties.
Low price of the control system is enabled by sparing
the real time control software & converters – instead of
buying one traditional piece of equipment you may have
Figure 2. The three-tank hydraulic laboratory system uDAQ28/3H plants and teachware for the whole class.
– 80 –
The plant offers: [8] Huba, M.: Constrained Control of the Two Tank System.9th IEEE
Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation,Dubrovnik,
● visual, quasi-authentic, simple and safety 93-98, 2001.
student’s work environment supporting the “learning by [9] Huba, M.; Simunek, M.: Modular Approach to Teaching PID
playing”, “learning by doing”, or “learning by Control, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol.54, no.6,
discovering” constructivist approach, motivating students pp.3112-3121, Dec. 2007.
for experimenting and study, [10] Huba, Mikuláš - Kamenský, Martin - Bisták, Pavol - Fikar,
Miroslav: Blended Learning Course "Constrained PID
● simplified real-time control design & Control".In: Advances in Control Education 2006 : 7th IFAC
implementation that extends the possibilities of simulation Symposium. Madrid, Spain, 21.-23.6.2006. - Madrid : UNED,
tools and develops experimental skills required by 2006. - CD-Rom
practice. [11] Jelenčiak, F., Kurčík, P., Huba, M.: Thermal plant for education
and training. In: ERK - IEEE Int. Electrotechnical and Computer
Science Conference, Portorož, Slovenia, 2007, B: 318-321.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
[12] Kamenský, M., Kurčík, P., Huba, M.: Demonstration of
This work was partially supported by project VEGA Integrating Thermo-Optical Plant uDAQ28/LT into Learning
1/0656/09: Integration and development of nonlinear and Process in Control Engineering Education. In: Lifelong and
robust control methods and their application in controlling Blended Learning 2006 : Int. Conf. ICL Villach, Austria. Wien :
flying vehicles, project VEGA 1/0369/10: Algebraic International Association of Online Engineering, 2006
methods in control: theory and applications and project [13] Žáková, K., Huba, M., Zemánek, V. a M. Kabát: Experiments in
Control Education. IFAC Conference Advances in Control
KEGA 3/7245/09: Building virtual and remote Education ACE’00, Brisbane, Australia, Dec. 2000.
experiments for network of online laboratories. [14] Žilka, Vladimír - Bisták, Pavol - Kurčík, Peter: Hydraulic Plant
Remote Laboratory. In: International Conference REV 2008 :
REFERENCES Düsseldorf, Germany, 23-25 June 2008. - Wien : International
[1] Bisták, Pavol: Time Sub-Optimal Control of Three-Level Association of Online Engineering, 2008. - ISBN 978-3-89958-
352-6. - CD-Rom
Hydraulic System. In: Selected Topics on Constrained and
Nonlinear Control. Preprints. - Bratislava : STU v Bratislave, [15] Žilka, Vladimír - Bisták, Pavol - Kurčík, Peter: Hydraulic Plant
2011, 175-183 Remote Laboratory. In: International Journal of Online
Engineering. - ISSN 1861-2121. - Vol. 4, Special Issue (2008)
[2] Bisták, Pavol: Remote Laboratory Software Module for Thermo
Optical Plant. In: Selected Topics on Constrained and Nonlinear [16] Žilka, V., Halás, M.: Disturbance Decoupling of Coupled Tanks:
Control. Workbook. STU v Bratislave, 2011, 275-290 From Theory to Practice. IFAC Symposium on System Structure
and Control. Ancona, Italy, 2010
[3] Bisták, Pavol - Folvarčík, Pavol: Remote Laboratory Java Server
Based on JACOB Project. In: International Journal of Online [17] Žilka, Vladimír - Halás, Miroslav - Huba, Mikuláš: Nonlinear
Engineering. - ISSN 1861-2121. - Vol. 7, No. 1 (2011), 33-36 Continuous- and Discrete-Time Controller for a Fluid Tank
[4] Bisták, Pavol: Matlab and Java Based Virtual and Remote System. In: EUROCAST 2009 : 12th International Workshop on
Laboratories for Control Engineering. In: 17th Mediterranean Computer Aided Systems Theory. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Conference on Control and Automation : Thessaloniki, Greece, Spain, 15.-20.2.2009. - : Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran
24.-26.6.2009. - Piscataway : IEEE, 2009,. 1439-1444. Canaria, 2009. - ISBN 978-84-691-8502-5. - S. 206-207
[5] Halás, Miroslav - Huba, Mikuláš - Žilka, Vladimír: Constrained [18] Žilka, V and Huba, M: Constrained PID Control Tasks for
Discrete-Time Nonlinear Controller for a Fluid Tank System. In: Coupled Tanks Control. In: Selected Topics on Constrained and
AT&P Journal Plus, 2 (2007). – Bratislava,. 10-15. Nonlinear Control. Workbook. - STU Bratislava, 2011, 247-274
[6] Halás, M.: Discrete-time solution to the disturbance decoupling [19] Žilka, V and Huba, M: Laboratory Model of Coupled Tanks. In:
problem of coupled tanks. Process Control ‘11. Štrbské Pleso, Selected Topics on Constrained and Nonlinear Control.
Vysoké Tatry, Slovakia, 2011 Workbook. - Bratislava : STU v Bratislave, 2011, 229-246
[7] Huba, M.: Experiments in Control Education. In: CASYS
International Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems (Ed.
D.Dubois) Vol. 9, 2001. - pp. 84-93.
– 81 –
Adaptive Open Corpus E-Learning аnd

Authoring, Using Collaborative Ontology
Learning
Tatyana Ivanova*
* Technical University of Sofia, College of Energy and Electronics, Botevgrad,
tiv72@abv.bg
Abstract—Adaptive e-learning systems are better for − the LMS is not open to activities occurring outside
achieving many learning goals, but adaptive content its realm. No support of using resources or contacts
development is more difficult and expencive. The open- outside the system, time and labor – consuming
corpus model enable use and reuse of many external
updating of internal learning content;
resources to facilitate development process and ensure well-
organized actual and personalized learning content. The − in the IMS systems supporting collaboration and
main idea of this paper is controlled extension of previously communication is limited.
developed by professionals learning course in the learning There are two main approaches to improve the quality
process by learners. We propose conceptual model and
of e-learning systems: by enrichment of LMS – based
evaluation example of adaptive e-learning system, including
easy-to-use tools, allowing users to find needed in the systems (by adding additional metadata and intelligence
learning process external content and adding them as in structure and processing) [3], [6] and by using new
semantically described new learning resources in the open and learner – centric educational model [2]. Many
system. The added content may be then checked and projects have been developed in the last years to
changed by other users – learners or teachers. The system overcome the IMS – based system limitations by adding
propose tools not only for finding, manipulation, annotation intelligent and semantic web technologies[1], [5], [6].
and organization of the new content, but it ensure the The results show some improvement, but shortcomes in
enrichment of it described schema (ontology) by using communication and collaboration are still persistent.
interactive ontology learning.
Using semantic technologies is usually domain and
I. INTRODUCTION language specific and requires doing much specific
knowledge – representation tack before achieving quality
IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) specification has improvement. To investigate the open, Web – based
recognized as leading standard in e-learning. A large educational model, several PLE (Personal Learning
number of systems and tools for creation, publication and Environment) systems have been developed and tested
usage of units of learning have been developed (Moodle, [4]. Results show that they present successful solving of
Sakai, LAMS etc.). These tools facilitate student’s access communication and collaboration problems, but new
to learning content and activities, using Educational problems, related to quality of learning and interface
Modeling Languages (EML) to describe from a usage problems have been arisen.
pedagogic point of view the learning design of courses.
We believe that flexible combination of these two
Standartization, description of learning content by usage
approaches according to learning specifics and goals are
of structured metadata, professional development of
needed for development of good e-learning system. In
learning content and severe guidance of the learning
this paper we propose conceptual model and run testing
process by professional pedagogs are in the basis of IMS
example of adaptive e-learning system, including easy-to-
– based E-learning. Despite of all this enormous and
use tools, allowing users to find needed in the learning
well-done work, they are not universally used, there are
process external content and adding them as semantically
many learning courses, that don’t use them, and many
described new learning resources in the system. The
research projects, searching better solutions. Main
added content may be then checked and changed by other
drawbacks of standard IMS – based learning systems are:
users – learners or teachers. The system propose tools not
− insufficient expressiveness of underlined XML- only for finding, manipulation, annotation and
Schema- based metadata model; organization of the new content, but it ensure the
− IMS systems are directed to the average student. enrichment of it described schema (ontology) by using
Personalization capabilities are limited and rarely interactive ontology learning.
used;
II. E-LEARNING AND AUTHORING SYSTEM
− current pedagogical practice is still teacher-centric. ARCHITECTURE
The process of education is primarily institution-
centric, rather than learner centric; Our system architecture includes loosely-coupled tools
for learning, teaching and authoring, proposed as
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 83 –

T. Ivanova • Adaptive Open Corpus E-Learning аnd Authoring, Using Collaborative Ontology Learning
services. It may be used in personal learning environment internet) for necessary resources, then calls the tools for
to ensure the arrangement of different personalized views analysis of returned results metadata, or analysis of the
for different users. They are intended to facilitate learning resources themselves (based ontologies, thezauruses, or
and authoring, as well as working with semantically- templates, available in the system), call the ontology
organized resource metadata. The system architecture is learning or mapping tools when needed. Currently, our
open (internet communications for finding external system can analyze only HTML and plain text resources.
resources are assumed), and layered. It include four Annotation tool analyze the document, determine it
layers: User interface layer, providing interfaces for structure and components, using document structure
learners or teachers, Service layer, including all proposed ontology, may break them in smaller parts, supply parts
services, Metadata and knowledge layer, and e-learning with the required metadata and propose them to the E-
resources layer (Figure 1). The main resource learning resource development as potential further
development strategy assumes professionals first develop learning resources.
the most important learning resources for the course When new resource has been added to the system, it
(Base e-learning resources layer), it semantic structure may be related to the concept or property, not currently
and semantic tools, and then learners are expected to use presented in the domain ontology, but being in potential
these tools to enhance learning course according ti his interest for students. In order to guarantee opportunities
specific educational needs. for expanding and deepening the larner’s knowledge and
support qualified semantic description of educational
materials, sometimes extension of course domain
ontology, in the process of training is needed. This is
External information sources,
User interface layer (Learner or teacher)

performed by ontology learning tool. This tool may
interact to the learner, asking him about the semantic of
the consept, for which he/she search learning materials(if
Service layer
this consept not previously included in domain ontology),
Internet
and use the answers to detetermine properties and

Metadata and knowledge layer relationships of the new consept to ensure ading them in
ontology. Domain thesauruses, other ontologies, or
linguistic analysis of learning resources also may be used
Base e-learning resources layer in the ontology learning process.
Adaptive e-learning resource The Tool for developing learning resources reseive
user queries, describing it needs from new learning
Figure 1. Adaptive e-learning and authoring system architecture resources, choose development strategy and query other
servises for performing semantic search lexical, syntactic
and semantic analysis of textual resources, classification,
annotation, breaking into smaller parts, mapping or
A. User Interface Layer enrichment of domain ontologies (Figure 2).
It provides interfaces to ensure easily usage of All these tools are provided as a service. For the
learning, teaching, e-learning resource authoring and
metadata and ontology management by non-professionals
(learners or teachers). This includes personalized resource Service layer
recommender, ontology visualization tool, query
disambiguation tool, tool, helping in interactive formal User profiles management
Searching in internet
specification of the concept semantic (for supporting

ontology learning process). As user may wish to use only E- Annotation
some of the proposed tools, and different users may learning
prefer different tools, the system should propose a also a resource
Ontology mapping
tool for arrangement of chosen interface elements in develop-
personal working area of every user (similar to the PLE). ment Ontology learning
B. Service layer Information extraction
Фигура 2. Услуги и разработка на ресурси
The service layer includes implementation of all
valuable software components, implementing the min
system functionality. The system requires registration and Figure 2. Main components of the service layer
authorized login to control the quality of the developed
resources. That is why User profiles management tool is overall organization of the system service-oriented
required. In case of any change in learning resources, architecture is used. This ensures communication
information about this (who, and when this ss made) is compatibility and modularity at the level of
stored for future analysis. Resource development is communication with other systems.
carried out by a specialized tool for this purpose (Figure
2). It sends queries outside the system (usually in the
– 84 –
C. Knowledge and metadata layer example, information about the author, layout, use of
The metadata (knowledge) level contains both documents (for detailed study, to define in practice .. .) or
semantic metadata to ensure the process of developing according to their style (popular science). Depending on
resources and implemented methods and algorithms for the type of resource it could be used as part of a training
their use. Ontological representation of metadata sequence in a specific place for a particular purpose or
guarantee both storing the semantic of metadata and user.
computational reasoning on this base. Upper domain ontology is useful in many cases for
To describe various characteristics of the learning identifying closely-related domains, and making rapid
materials and learning process, several ontologies are conclusions if returned material may be in potential
used (Figure 3): Learning content ontology, Upper interest, or not. It also is used when for finding
domain ontology, Document structure ontology, Learner interdomain relationships, and in some other cases.
profile ontology, Learning goals ontology. Pedagogically-rich ontologies as Learner profile
ontology or Learning goals ontology include knowledge
about the learner, or pedagogy, needed for optimal
organization of the learning and teaching process, or
Upper domain supporting development of the high quality learning
Learning content ontology resources. Learner profile ontology may contain
ontology classifications of learning styles, learning problems of the
groups of learners, that can be used for annotation of
Learner profile resources according to the learner type, for which they
ontology are designed
Document structure
ontology Lexical - syntactic patterns are important in the
machine analysis of natural language text to automation
Learning goals of the processes of learning resource development. They
Lexical-syntactic ontology can be used in conjunction with semantic knowledge
patterns represented in ontologies in the process of identification
and categorization of text resources.
Figure 3. Knowledge and metadata layer
D. Learning resource layer
The level of educational resources include developed
Learning content ontology is previously developed for resources repository. The main resource development
each course. Therefore the system can include several strategy assumes professionals first develop the most
such ontologies. Each of them represents essential cource important learning resources for the course (Base e-
domain terms and it relationships in needed granularity. learning resources layer), and then learners are expected
In these ontologies parts of definitions and properties of to enrich learning course materials in the learning process
learned concepts are explicitly represented in machine according to his specific educational needs. The main
processable way. Every found online resource should be goal is to achieve the maximum possible degree of
evaluated on the basis of those ontologies in two aspects: automation using metadata and semantic web
whether it include connections between the concepts technologies. The main source of materials for resource
presented in the ontology and if it contains links between development is internet, and search engines are used to
some concepts that might enrich the ontology. The find needed web resources.
existence of concepts and links in the resource presented
in the Learning content ontology is a criterion for III. TESTING EXAMPLE – DEVELOPMENT
thematic proximity of the resource to the course content AND EXTENSION OF E-LEARNING
and the presence of some new concepts and relationships COURSE IN PROGRAMMING
offer the potential to broaden and deepen learner’s ENVIRONMENTS
knowledge. When new resources are added dynamically Motivation of this work comes primarily from practice.
during learning process, they may contain consepts or We first have developed a small system for to assist
relations, not included in the domain ontology. In this students in lerrning programming environments, then
case, ontology learning tool analyze relations of these increase it functionality and flexibility, adding semantic
entities to the entities in domain ontolgy, using pattern – representation of metadata, and semantic tools. Finally
based text analycis and existing system ontologies and we develop an above model to explain it architecture
tezauruses and propose to the user through graphical from more abstract point of view, make general
interface some presumptions about possible relations. If conclussions and discuss possibilities for use this
user confirm some of them, they are added to the domain architecture in other domain or other learning scenarios.
ontology. In such a way, interactive ontology learning For initial resource development we use HTML and
process is performed. JavaScript. Then we divide large resources intended to
Document structure ontology is used for classification support learning MFC programming to smaller parts and
of resources according to what media (text, video, audio) present new course organization, using terminology
they contain, what accompanying metadata include (for
– 85 –
T. Ivanova • Adaptive Open Corpus E-Learning аnd Authoring, Using Collaborative Ontology Learning
classification by developing OWL ontology. Initial determining the possible meaning of abbreviations, sa
version of this ontology is shown on Fig. 4. they are frequently used in the programming and
Writing effective working programs, using MFC computer science domain.
require excellent knowledge and programming skills in
IV. RESULTS AND STUDENT’S OPINION
basic C programming and object – oriented
programming. Our students are studying these courses, We evaluate our system by proposing it to the students,
but some of them proved to have significant gaps that write all them activity and analyze it after finishing the
need to fill, seeking materials from various sources, course of programming environment and examination.
which takes a long time. To cope with this problem, we On fig. 5 the screenshot of the domain ontology at the
use Java servlets and Tomcat to add some assistence in end of the course, opened in protégé is shown.
Figure 4. Initial version of domain ontology

Figure 5. Domain ontology at the end of course
writing clear and unambiguous queries for effective web
search, Java and WordNet libraries for development of
tools, making lexico-synthactic text analysis, Jena and
29 of all our 41 students (71%) are participated in
Protégé API for development of ontology – based
adaptive resource development or ussage of developed by
annotation tool, omtology mapping and ontology learning
other student resource process. Individual participation of
tool. Really, this take a lot of time, but not so much,
every of these students is illustrated on Fig. 6, where are
because we have found a lot of free source code, writing
sorted by final examination results. 19 students (46%)
in Java, and it modification comes sgnificantly easy, than
participate in interactive semiautomatic ontology
writing all code from scrach. We write only initial
working versions of these tools and run them on our
16
small example. On the future, they may be optimized, if
better performanse or precision are required. Despite of 14 number of added to the
fact, that programs are written and used in the domain of ontology elements
12
programming environment, the main part of softwere is number of added
domain – independent, and after after minor changes 10 learning resources
may be used in learning systems for other domains. Only
8
initial version of MFC ontology must be completely number of used added
by students resources
replaced by the semantic description of the terminology 6
of the other learning domain. Final examination
4
In the interactive ontology learning process to facilitate
domain ontology enrichment we use Web information 2
sources: Glossary of Programming Terms Used in C++ 0 learners

(http://www.steveheller.com/ glossary.htm) and 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
http://www.abbreviations.com/. To extract needed Figure 6. Student’s results, resource development and usage
relationships ftom the first resource, we use lexico-
synthactic patterns. The second resource is useful in development, adding 41 entities. 87 new adaptive
– 86 –
learning resources are added, mainly to support revision it usage. Adding of new resources to the e-learning
of studied before material. course in general leads to usage of extra concepts or
As may be seen on fig. 6, the most frequent usage of relations that are not included in the domain ontology,
adaptive resources is in group of students, achieving good describing the course semantic. That is who if we give to
results. This can be explained by the fact, that they are the students the opportunity to add new teaching
materials in the course, we should provide tools to
hardworking, but have some gaps in previous automatize their semantic description (semantic
training. For teaching this group, such adaptive e-learning annotation) and to extend the course schemma (adding
system is the most useful, because excelent students have new concepts in the domain ontology). Our test case in
lower need in searching remembering resources, and the domain of programming environments, using MFC
weak students doesn’t work very hard (may be). show that combining some natural language analysis and
Excellent students use at average 5 adaptive resources ontology learning techniques may facilitate interactive
each. At about a half of these materials discuss ontology enrichment and make possible some
knowledge, out of range of previously attended courses. semiautomatic extension of e-learning course, adding
To obtain student opinion about the system and its personalized and adaptive content. The quality of
features, we present a non-mandatory questionnaire at the developed in such a way resources should be controlled
end of the course. 37 of our 41 students filled in the by professionals, but they certainly are useful in three
questionnaire. 98.% of them were active users. Overall aspects: helping professionals better understanding
results are illustrated in Figure 7. 96% of the students learner needs, saving time and efforts in searching and
agree that adaptive resources are useful in learning. 12 % analyzing external materials, and promoting active
agree that ontologies are useful in learning, but 70% find participation of learners in the process of learning and
difficult ontology development. Having in mind the fact, resource development.
that we present an interactive ontology development
interface, maximally hiding the details of knowledge VI. REFERENCES
representation, we conclude, that courses on working [1] R. Amorim, et al, “A Learning Design Ontology based on the IMS
with knowledge and representing data at semantic level Specification”. IEEE Journal of Educational Technology Society,
(using semantic web technologies and machine reasoning volume 9, number 1, 2006, pp. 38-57.
are needed to be included in the university education to [2] S. Downes, “The Future of Online Learning and Personal Learning
Environments”, From http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/the-
make these modern and perspective technologies more future-of-online-learning-and-personal-learning-environments,
understandable for educated peoples. 2007
[3] “IMS LIP. IMS learner information package specification”.
Available at: http://www.imsglobal.org/profiles/lipinfo01.html.,
% of learners Accessed on April 20, 2011
student's opinion ontology development [4] T. Martindale, M. Dowdy. “Personal Learning Environments”. In
100%
small adaptive resources Veletsianos, G. (Ed.), Emerging technologies in distance education,
80% 98% 2010, 177-193.
96% monolite cource [5] D. Milosevic, C., Sukic, R., Sendelj. “Ontology-based Learner
60% Modeling in Intelligent Tu-toring Systemsby”. Technics
70% Technologies Education Management Ttem, Volume: 5, Issue: 2,
40% 2010
34% [6] J C. Vidal, et al,. “OPENET LD: An Ontology-Based Petri Net
20% 0% 0% 25% 20% Engine to Execute IMS LD Units of Learning”. Ninth IEEE
12% International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies,
0% 2009
useful in learning dif ficult for use tedious
Figure 7. Student’s opinion
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper we present an adaptive e-learning
resource parallel usage and enrichment approach, based
on semantic technologies. Our approach successfully
combines professional e-learning resource development
and collaborative personalized enrichment at the stage of
– 87 –
Borderless education with high speed networks

J. Janitor
Computer Networks Laboratory, Technical University of Kosice
Jozef.Janitor@tuke.sk
Abstract—Information and communication technologies People are losing expensive time during traveling and
have connected and brought people together in several exhaust gases from vehicles are not helping our nature
ways. In the last decades, the way people were able to either.
communicate and exchange information has changed As the speed of the Internet and its penetration is
everything. As the Internet started to grow, the IP protocol growing faster every year, it affects more and more
became the de facto standard in networks, more and more people. New applications are being developed that make
applications have started their journey to bring faster, more the daily life easier. Like communication through e-mails
reliable and powerful communication and collaboration has totally changed the way business works and
mechanisms to people all over the world. First it was just an transformed formal letters to something that looks more
E-mail, then Instant Messaging as a way to quickly discuss
like instant messaging, real-time communication
things, later real-time and live Voice over IP. Currently a
applications are changing absolutely everything. Real-
new phenomenon is being seen and it is real-time Video and
time Voice over IP has enabled families to have long
Voice over IP. By 2014, video is predicted to form 91% of
the global Internet traffic. The power of video is in face-to-
lasting conversations with their friends and brought back
face communication, emotions, gestures, body language, etc.
people from far to closer. Lately video communication is
The paper shows how the e-learning can be transformed
believed to be the biggest gamechanger in real-time
from only reading online content into studying online using communications. Some predictions say that by the end of
advanced videoconferencing – TelePresence. It is based on a 2014 all video content will exceed 91% of the global
case study on using Cisco TelePresence at the Technical Internet traffic [1]. The great importance of video is in
University of Kosice (TUKE), Slovakia, Europe and at visible emotions on face-to-face communication, body
Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD), Phoenix, language, gestures, etc. Researches in the area of human
Arizona, USA to develop and provide a course that is held communications show that more than 60% of all
by an instructor located at TUKE to students located at communications are derived from nonverbal behavior.
PVUSD. Real-time face-to-face video communications through
videoconferencing applications are nowadays available to
everyone on the Internet. Many of those applications are
I. INTRODUCTION not providing any guarantee of quality of service or
The educational process has not been significantly quality of experience. While for home use, that aspect
changed in the last 2000 years. The biggest change might be acceptable, for enterprises the demand on the
happened only to books. These books have moved from quality of experience is much higher. Therefore, for
the form of printed black and white papers to colored enterprise video communication the TelePresence
textbooks and nowadays to online content. This way the e- technology should be used.
learning was born. The online content can contain several TelePresence is not just a simple videoconferencing
multimedia and interactive parts, which make the learning solution. TelePresence refers to a set of technologies
process of students much easier and more effective to which allow a person to feel as if they were present in the
understand. While the books have innovated themselves, it same room. Video is delivered in Full High Definition
was always about a single teacher who has delivered the 1080p resolution, while every participant has its own
knowledge to students. place at the table which is captured and displayed at the
In some geographical areas it might be impossible to other end in real life-size. Eye contacts, as well as gestures
hire a local teacher who will be skillful enough to teach on faces and emotions are experienced the very same way
complex systems to local students. Rural areas outside of as in real life. The TelePresence room is equipped with
major cities are affected the most by this issue. When this special sound and lighting technique, which is
issue is not addressed, rural areas are unable to grow and automatically adjusted in a way that people in the room
transform into new, highly prospective areas simply are not perceiving TV screens, but people on the other
because of the lack of knowledgeable workforce. side of the “virtual” table.
Teaching advanced topics might be challenging in any
area. Especially topics that are connected with technology. II. CISCO TELEPRESENCE [2]
Technologies are changing and more importantly growing Globalization increases the need for communication
so fast, that one cannot be an expert forever in several among colleagues and partners. Business discussions
fields. Schools must seek for the new best experts in those encompass not only multiple people but also multiple
fields, who can deliver the knowledge to students in the locations.
best possible way. This is a difficult job, as those experts While today’s meeting and collaboration tools provide
are many times either already working in different a significant productivity boost, they are not a substitute
institutions, or are located in different cities. Although for in-person meetings. Videoconferences, in particular,
many schools nowadays do so, daily transportation of are often difficult to set up, challenging to use, and do not
shared staff members or students between schools and/or
institutions can be really exhausting and thus ineffective.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 89 –

J. Janitor • Borderless Education with High Speed Networks
adequately replicate the benefits of face-to-face It offers capabilities for ensuring quality of service
interaction. (QoS), security, reliability, and high availability for high-
To improve this situation, Cisco TelePresence creates bandwidth applications such as video — particularly high-
an “in-person” meeting experience over the converged definition video, which can require 1 Mbps to 5 Mbps,
network. Cisco TelePresence delivers real-time face-to- depending on the resolution.
face interactions between people and places in their work
and personal lives using advanced visual, audio, and C. Hardware-Optimized Environment
collaboration technologies. These technologies transmit The system includes purpose-built office furniture that
life-size, high-definition images and spatial discrete audio. incorporates cameras and displays, lighting, speakers,
Now it's easier than ever to discern facial expressions for microphones, and projection capability into a specially
crucial business discussions and negotiations across the designed table for larger rooms, or, in smaller
“virtual table.” configurations, into existing office furniture.
D. Software Applications
Cisco TelePresence applications incorporate a variety
of new and existing standards-based software for
accommodating converged voice and video transmissions,
including:
• IP telephony
• Groupware
• Services
E. Cisco TelePresence at the Technical University of
Kosice[4]
The Technical University of Kosice (TUKE), one of the
key leaders in Slovakia in the field of introducing new,
innovative forms of communication into educational
processes and work with students, has installed its own
Cisco TelePresence CTS-3010 room in May 2010. This
was the first installation of Cisco TelePresence CTS-3010
in an educational institution in the region of Central
Europe.
Figure 1. Cisco TelePresence effect – the virtual round table The Cisco TelePresence unit at TUKE, as well as at
other Slovak universities, is connected to the Slovak
A. Audio/Visual Technology Academic Research Network (SANET) which provides a
10Gbps optical backbone network, with interconnections
Cisco TelePresence incorporates the latest standards to CESNET and GEANT2 networks. As the backbone is
and technologies to offer the best audio and visual results: highly over-provisioned, currently it was not necessary to
• H.264 video codecs to offer the highest quality implement QoS mechanisms into the network which
and lowest bit rate simplified the Cisco TelePresence installation processes.
• Session Initiation Protocol Cisco TelePresence virtual meeting solutions are
• Native 720p and 1080p high-definition cameras designed to provide users with the feeling that they are
virtually in the same room together. To achieve this level
• Native 720p and 1080p high-definition of realism, certain conditions must be met:
encoding/decoding
• To present a life-like, high-definition image of a
• Low-latency architecture and low bandwidth person in real-time over the network requires
utilization very stringent service level requirements for
• Wideband advanced audio coding with low delay delay, delay variation (i.e. jitter), and packet
(AAC LD) loss.
• Multichannel spatial audio with echo • The meeting room environment also must
cancellation and interference filters to provide a near perfect replication of lighting,
eliminate feedback from mobile devices acoustics, and ambiance.
• Optimized environmental conditioning to provide The Cisco TelePresence unit at TUKE has passed all
the best audio and video and overall user the required conditions and TUKE has received a
experience certificate of the Cisco TelePresence eXperience. CTX is
a mark of excellence in a new and growing TelePresence
B. Network industry.
Cisco TelePresence uses the standard IP technology
deployed in corporations today and runs on an integrated III. TELEPRESENCE NETWORKS
voice, video, and data network. The system supports high- Having a TelePresence unit without a possibility to
quality, real-time voice and video communications with connect to other units would be pointless. Therefore
branch offices using broadband connections. several commercial TelePresence network operators exist
– 90 –
around the world. These networks are private, closed overcome the time until a new enterprise SBC can be
networks, that guarantee QoS service level agreements. obtained. The VoIP network between universities, high
For the real experience of TelePresence calls it is always schools and other institutions was built using the SIP
necessary to have enough bandwidth with short delay and signalization protocol. Experiences with centralization of
jitter between the endpoints. The private operator the VoIP call processing and call routing using open
provided TelePresence networks can provide that source SIP proxy servers and protocols like ENUM were
requirements. On the other hand, as these networks are utilized to provide a similar functionality as an enterprise
closed, not publicly accessible, there is a limitation on SBC can provide.
interconnection and less possibilities on creating Cisco TelePresence systems are using the standard SIP
TelePresence calls between different organizations. signalization protocol [10] to establish, manage and tear
While the public Internet does not guarantee any QoS down TelePresence calls. Therefore, it is possible to use a
parameters (as the communication might be routed from standards based SIP proxy server to provide a central
the source through several different Internet Service point for SIP based signalization routing. From the
Providers towards the destination), interconnections configuration point of view, for all new TelePresence sites
between National Research and Education Networks at Slovak universities, it is enough to configure a new SIP
(NREN) are well distributed and provide enough, usually trunk to the TelePresence SIP Proxy server from the Cisco
even over-provisioned bandwidth. Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) interface.
In the USA, the National Lambda Rail (NLR) NREN The central TelePresence SIP Proxy server was built at
operates a public Cisco TelePresence exchange that is TUKE using a Kamailio open source SIP proxy server on
used to cross-connect TelePresence units in education [3]. an Ubuntu Linux 10.04 server installation. The
Currently there are more than 60 Cisco TelePresence units configuration was updated to provide the needed
from the USA connected to that exchange point [9]. It functionality – to forward SIP messages to the called
enables all those units to communicate with one another. TelePresence site (CUCM). In the current setup, each site
TUKE is connected to the very same exchange at NLR, is manually defined with its TelePresence number in the
thus making TUKE reachable from any USA Cisco full E.164 form (e.g. 421556027000) and the
TelePresence unit and vice versa. Even though the data corresponding CUCM’s address. Future plans are to move
communication from the TUKE TelePresence unit is these parameters into a relational database, thus making
flowing generally through the public Internet (SANET- afterward changes easier and less error-prone.
GEANT2-NLR), with current TelePresence calls there Now, when a user dials a TelePresence number from
were no QoS related issues detected by the time of writing his room, the initial SIP messages are sent from his
this paper. CUCM to the TelePresence SIP Proxy server which is
then forwarding the signalization messages towards the
IV. CASE STUDY OF TELEPRESENCE USAGE AT SLOVAK corresponding CUCM. While all the signalization
UNIVERSITIES messages are flowing through the TelePresence SIP proxy
server, the media stream is forwarded directly between the
A. The TelePresence portal TelePresence units. Of course, this setup has both
The TelePresence technology is a fairly new way to advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is in lower
communicate with people over long distances in very latency which is a crucial QoS parameter for TelePresence
calls. The disadvantage is in the fact that in this setup, the
high quality. Many people are not familiar with this
TelePresence unit itself must provide non-firewalled
technology, which is caused by the lack of information in connection for the media streams (which can be handled
the local environment. Therefore, a new informational and secured using an application layer firewall with SIP
portal has been developed to provide everyone with basic inspection and dynamic port pin-holing).
information about the TelePresence technology. The
portal not only provides basic information for the general C. Scheduling
audience, but also provides information for scheduling The great advantage of Cisco TelePresence is its ease of
calls, checking calendars, etc. use. In enterprise installations, users can schedule a
meeting via TelePresence the very same way they were
B. Connecting Cisco TelePresence sites together used to schedule normal meetings. They can use Microsoft
In bigger TelePresence networks and exchanges [3], the Outlook to make a reservation for a single or multiple
network operators are using a Session Border Controller TelePresence rooms. The Cisco TelePresence Manager
device which provides a single point of connection for (CTM) will enable to use only a single touch on the
every participating TelePresence site. In the National TelePresence’s IP Phone to start the scheduled
LambdaRail TelePresence network (NLR) in USA, they TelePresence conference. This setup requires having a
were using a Cisco GSR router with an SBC blade in it Microsoft Exchange installation with other supporting
that can provide such a functionality needed for systems as well, which was not the case for TUKE.
TelePresence interconnections. Currently, they have From the beginning, the TelePresence room at TUKE
moved to Cisco’s ASR routers, which are now the was scheduled using Google Calendar with Google Apps.
preferred platform to be used as an SBC [1]. With a lack Google Calendar with Google Apps provides an easy way
of these devices either in SANET, or at TUKE, other to schedule company resources such as rooms, places,
methods to interconnect TelePresence systems in Slovakia etc., with a possibility to federate and delegate user roles
were researched. on the calendar to anyone who has a valid Google
With great experiences from a successful deployment account. That allowed for all new TelePresence sites at
of VoIP networks in a Slovak educational field, it was Slovak universities can use one unified calendaring
clear that other solutions can be used as well, at least to
– 91 –
application that is available to everyone trough a web intercontinental educational program, which is provided
browser. With one unified calendaring application, it is and delivered in a form of presentation lectures through
now very easy to schedule a conference between Cisco TelePresence!
institutions. The single touch dialing option, which is
available with CTM, is a very popular feature not to
implement. The single touch dialing was created as speed
dial on the TelePresence’s IP Phone menu. When users
press the SCHEDULED CONFERENCE menu, the
scheduler’s number is dialed out. The scheduler is an
application running inside of an Asterisk VoIP server,
which used as a frontend for the scheduler. Asterisk
provides voice guidance and assistance for the scheduled
conferences. The scheduler application uses Google’s
DATA APIs to check for planed conferences in Google
Calendar at that time and manually starts the planed
conference at the TelePresence system.
Figure 3. TelePresence session between Slovakia and USA
The course contents have been developed and realized

by the Cisco Academy (CA, ASC, ITC, NRP) [7] at
TUKE and it provided the students and staff members of
PVUSD with education in an internationally certified
course called CCNA Exploration.
The development of the course with methodology,
materials, etc. raised up several questions and challenges.
It was necessary to deal with and find optimal solutions
Figure 2. Single touch dialing with Google Calendar
for the time zone difference, which in this case was even 9
The current version of the scheduler can even work hours, language barriers, but the most important was to
with no touch at all, as it automatically starts the find a good methodology and workflow on how to provide
scheduled conference 5 minutes before it is supposed to such a course over TelePresence. While the Cisco
start. Participants just enter the TelePresence room and the TelePresence solution provides a form of a virtual round
conference starts without the need for any intervention table, compared to a class-room or a laboratory it misses,
from their side. for example a whiteboard. However, whiteboard is
essential for education. It enables to effectively present
ideas that the teacher is trying to explain to students and
thus improve the process of learning.
D. Teaching@TelePresence
The summer holidays were full of work at CNL and
RCNA at TUKE. Members were working together on the
The Computer Networks Laboratory (CNL) [5] at development of appropriate teaching methodologies for a
TUKE is operating the Cisco TelePresence unit at TUKE, course that is delivered over TelePresence. Within few
as well as developing new development activities around weeks, all the new challenges that were raised with the
the technology. One of the first development activities innovative Teaching@TelePresence course were
was the interconnection between the TelePresence unit at successfully solved. A study schedule has been developed
TUKE and the NLR network in the USA. Based on this based on the experiences from long-term teaching of local
interconnection, more than 100 USA TelePresence units, students at RCNA at TUKE. Also a methodology to
which are distributed over various universities and other provide lectures and exercises, workflow on how to
edu-institutions, have become reachable for employees collaborate and communicate between instructor and
and students of TUKE with a simple press of a dial button students, knowledge evaluation through exams, etc. were
on an IP phone of the local TelePresence unit at TUKE. introduced. The whiteboard issue has been fixed by a
During the summer holidays, representatives of CNL “virtual” whiteboard in the form of a tablet PC with a
and TUKE have exchanged contacts and started touch screen that provides the very same ease of drawing
TelePresence discussions with the representatives of diagrams, topologies, notes, etc.
Paradise Valley Unified School District (K12), Phoenix, As the first course, that was used as a proof-of-concept
Arizona, USA (PVUSD) [8]. After few e-mail exchanges and as a verification of the viability of a
and settings up a TelePresence call it was clear that both Teaching@TelePresence course, a course from RCNA’s
sides have strong enthusiasm and potential to start a portfolio was selected - CCNA Exploration - Network
common cooperation in both education and research and Fundamentals.
development. TUKE has presented its faculties, their The CCNA Exploration - Network Fundamentals
activities in the field of education and R&D. All those course is one of the most desirable courses that are
discussions have led to the creation of a first ever global available in the Cisco Networking Academy (NETACAD)
– 92 –
and it provides the fundamental basics that are essential V. FEEDBACK FROM THE TEACHING@TELEPRESENCE
for further education in the field of computer networks. The practical outcomes of the course showed that the
The selection of this particular course was highly Teaching@TelePresence is a very viable way to teach
influenced also by the lack of NETACAD in the near remote distant students and in some ways the students and
locality of PVUSD, while PVUSD has expressed high the instructor evaluated the course as even better than a
interest in such a course to educate their students and staff course in a real classroom.
members in the area of computer networks.
The lectures and the exercises of the CCNA
The first Teaching@TelePresence course was attended Exploration Network Fundaments course via
by staff members of PVUSD from various departments. In TelePresence differ only a little from a real, normal in-
total, from PVUSD, 10 people from 5 different physical class teaching and learning. The teacher of the
locations (always a pair of 2 persons), through 5 Teaching@TelePresence course can see the students in
TelePresence units have joined the course. In order to their real life-size, he registers emotions on students’
connect to one TelePresence call all those units at the faces, gestures and general body language of students
same time, a “Meet-Me” number at the NLR’s Cisco sitting on the other side of the world! Hence he is able to
TelePresence Multipoint Switch was used [2,3]. respond with the same reaction to, for example gestures
from students which might indicate difficulties with
understanding of the just explained topic, as if really
sitting together in one classroom. Students can
interactively ask questions or add comments in the very
same spontaneous manner as in a real classroom. They
can even be polite and raise their hand before asking a
question, as in a real situation ;-)
A. Feedback from Students
TABLE I.
EVALUATION QUESTIONS
Average
Rank
Figure 4. PVUSD Cisco TelePresence unit (min=1,
Question max=5)
Understanding of an instructor via TelePresence vs.
Each of the 5 physical locations at PVUSD was via normal in-class training 4.86
equipped with the Cisco TelePresence CTS-500 model, Interactivity of the course via TelePresence vs. via
which offers one Full-HD plasma screen to display the normal in-class training 4.00
teacher, and one LCD screen to display the presentation or "Falling asleep" or feeling tired in course via
the “virtual” whiteboard. TelePresence vs. via normal in-class training 2.71
Ease of use of your TelePresence installation (calling
in, connecting a PC, sharing a screen, etc.) 4.71
Sound quality in your TelePresence room 4.86
Video quality in your TelePresence room 5.00
Presentation screen quality in your TelePresence room 5.00
Sitting in a TelePresence room vs. in a normal
classroom 4.71
What is your over-all satisfaction with the first ever
Teaching@TelePresence course? 5
What do you think, what is the biggest difference

between a course that is via Teaching@TelePresence and
Figure 5. TUKE Cisco TelePresence unit a normal in-class training with local instructor?
• I don't see a big difference at all. It feels as though
At TUKE the Cisco TelePresence CTS-3010 offered 3 the instructor is in the room with you and there is
Full-HD plasma screens to display students from PVUSD no disconnect between the students and teacher. I
and one LCD screen to display the presentation and the felt more comfortable in this setting than in a
“virtual” whiteboard. face-to-face setting.
The schedule divided the course into 8 days in total, • It's easier to attend! I like that I'm not in a room
throughout 2 weeks [6]. Classes were held every week with a bunch of other students.
from Monday till Thursday. To overcome the issue of
• Not consistently seeing other participants in the
time zone differences, both parties have selected the most
class.
suitable time to start the course. Every day, the classes
started at 4:00PM local time at TUKE and 7:00AM local • the biggest different i felt was trying to answer
time at PVUSD, and ended at 8:00PM local time at TUKE questions since one doesn't see everyone and
and 11:00AM local time at PVUSD. Each session lasted doesn't know if you are talking over them or not.
for 4 hours and ended with bon appétit to lunch at PVUSD • No difference
and bon appétit to dinner at TUKE ☺
– 93 –
• There are alot less distractions via TelePresence • Not at all. I came into the TelePresence with an
since there are not that many people in the room. open mind and did not notice any cultural
• That more of the students had access to a high difference in the least.
quality instructor. • Not really... I found both instructors to be very
friendly and a pleasure to work with and learn
Are there any advantages or disadvantages of a course from.
that is going through TelePresence over normal in-class • We differ on what some items are called. Nothing
course? Please express your thoughts. shocking. I like the differences.
• I think the advantages far outweigh disadvantages. • i have done a lot of travels throughout the world
I have taken many, many classes over my so i couldn't really say anything shocking or
educational career and I got more out of this class interesting. i have been impressed on the quality
than any other class. of english over there.
• No. • No
• I like the TelePresence because it gives us more • They need to get Macs.
options of training outside our organization. We • Yes. Your sense of humor, voice inflections,
don't have qualified staff to teach all subjects. accented words and syllables, pauses during
• some advantages would be the fact you can take speech.
courses outside the realm of what the school may
have to offer you at their campus. VI. CONCLUSION
• No traveling Technologies are changing and transforming the world.
• The only disadvantage i can see is getting face to Education is part of that change. Education as we have
face time with the instructor. known it is changing and transforming the way teachers
do teach students and the way students learn from
• I do not feel there were any disadvantages, at least teachers. Nowadays we can easily deliver knowledge to
in a course on this topic. any distant place in the world. The form of the delivery,
speed and quality is dramatically shifting forward for a
Would you attend another course over TelePresence? better tomorrow. We do not have to reinvent education,
• 100% YES but we can dramatically improve its delivery.
A good example of this shift is the example of how
• 0% NO
simple TelePresence solutions can change the way schools
will seek new teachers, change the way students will
Would you rather attend the next course over interact with the teacher and in the end change everything
TelePresence or in-class? – to better.
• 100% TelePresence Together we are more powerful than we ever could be
• 0% In-class apart! Together we can change everything.
REFERENCES
Why did you choose that answer in the previous
[1] http://www.cisco.com [15.9.2011]
question? What is better/worse in that type of training?
[2] http://www.cisco.com/go/TelePresence [15.9.2011]
• The TelePresence was easy to attend and pay [3] http://www.nlr.net/TelePresence-faq.php [15.9.2011]
attention to while sitting in class with a face-to- [4] http://www.tuke.sk [15.9.2011]
face instructor can be tedious and boring. [5] http://www.cnl.sk [15.9.2011]
• I like being in a small class and not having to deal [6] http://go.cnl.sk/TelePresence_schedule [15.9.2011]
with other students. Because sometimes other [7] http://cisco.tuke.sk [15.9.2011]
students are unmotivated and distracting in a [8] http://www.pvschools.net [15.9.2011]
traditional classroom environment. [9] www.wolftech.ncsu.edu/TelePresence/directory [15.9.2011]
• In the TelePresence class there are less [10] J. Rosenberg, H. Schulzrinne, G. Camarillo, A. Johnston, J.
distractions from a regular class. Peterson, R. Sparks, M. Handley, E. Schooler. 2002. SIP: Session
Initiation Protocol, RFC 3261
• i feel that the TelePresence was an effective way
of learning, and also convenient for my situation. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
• Not having to travel This work was supported by the Slovak Cultural and
• I am distracted very easily and being in a small Educational Grant Agency of Ministry of Education of
room with only one other person helped me focus Slovak Republic under the contract No. 3/7245/09 (60%).
• TelePresence was much more convenient. This work is also the result of the project implementation
Development of the Center of Information and
Communication Technologies for Knowledge Systems
Have you noticed any cultural differences between the (project number: 26220120030) supported by the
people from the EU/Slovakia/Kosice/Technical University Research & Development Operational Program funded by
of Kosice/Computer Networks Laboratory+Regional the ERDF (40%).
Cisco Networking Academy and the US culture?
Anything shocking or interesting?
– 94 –
Hardware-software complex "Dashpoint"

for learning and communication
of deafblind people
D. Gorodnitsky, V. Kalashnikoff, E. Pavliy, E. Pinchuk, A. Tumanoff, O. Tumanova, N. Ustyan
Computer Academy Step
dgorod@exsoft.com.ua, kalashnikoff@itstep.org, pavliy@live.com, pinchuk@itstep.org, tumanoff@itstep.org,
tumanova@gmail.com, unata33@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper describes the project “Dashpoint”. II. EXISTING SOLUTIONS

Dashpoint is a hardware and software system designed to
make e-learning possible for the hearing and visually For teaching blind and deaf blind people there are
impaired. The system will also increase the communication
various tools, both classical and modern. The classic tools
include books in Braille and modern - Braille printers,
capabilities for these specific types of disabled people. Braille displays. However, these tools are not without
their drawbacks. Braille books are expensive and typically
do not contain more than 200 pages, besides the amount of
I. INTRODUCTION information per page is much smaller than normal books.
E-learning is becoming more and more popular: a large Therefore the Braille book contains relatively little
number of e-learning management systems and e-learning information when compared to the same book written for
courses have now been developed in various fields. Major the able bodied.
vendors and universities are using e-learning within their Braille printers are devices that connect to a PC. They
curricula. can print Braille on plain paper. Such devices are
E-learning is widely used in many areas. However, manufactured by several companies and are quite
there is a special category of people - disabled people - for expensive, the typical price of a Braille printer would be
whom e-learning is often the most appropriate option in in the region of $ 6,000.
many types of educational establishments and Also on the market are Braille displays. These are
organizations. Among these people with disabilities are devices that use a special panel that simultaneously
the visually impaired and this group occupies a special displays Braille characters 20-40 in one row, providing the
place. These people have particular learning difficulties user with limited vision and the possibility of a relatively
and needs. There are many different methods used to comfortably to read text. However, such devices are very
convert training materials into an audio format. However, expensive; typical prices for the monitor are $ 2,000 per
there is still a huge problem when attempting to train unit for a 20 display character and $ 5,000 per unit for a
people with multiple disabilities such as deafness, 40 display character.
especially when this is coupled with visual impairment.
These people more than any others are cut off from the The main restriction of the above devices is the expense
outside world. Normal communication is a difficulty they of buying these devices, especially for the developing
encounter on a daily basis and any form of training countries where people with visual impairment are not
becomes a long and complicated process. Overcoming this able to afford these devices for personal use. The high cost
handicap has been a major source of concern and has of Braille Monitors is largely due to the complexity of
required a huge amount of research. mechanical design, which includes a plurality of electric
motors to the rods, forming a prominent point in the
According to the British organization Sense [1] at the working field monitor.
present time within the United Kingdom there are about
356,000 people who are both deaf and blind. According to The idea of using vibrations to transmit information to
the American Association of the Deaf-Blind [2] the deaf and blind person in itself is not new, there are a few
number of such people in the USA is approximately devices using vibrations. For example: application Nokia
700,000. There are no such statistics available in many Braille Reader [3], by which the deaf and blind user can
countries of the EU, because these countries do not read a SMS on his Nokia mobile phone running Symbian.
consider deaf and blindness as an independent constraint. There is also the development by Indian engineers, as
In Asian and African countries, statistics are not readily described in [4], which is a controller-glove worn on the
available. The statistics prove there are huge numbers of hand. inside the controller a ‘Vibro’ is located on the tips
people afflicted in this way around the world. The massive of the user's fingers.
problem of integrating these people into society is Using the ‘Vibro’ instead of advancing the rods to form
becoming very serious. Braille letters in the alphabet allows us to produce a much
This project provides deaf and blind people with new more compact and above all else, is a cheaper substitute
opportunities. The ability to communicate with people for Braille display, which will be available to users with
who have similar disabilities: as well as, with people limited budgets.
without physical limitations; whilst being allowed equal We apply methods for transmission of information
opportunities to learn. The project is based on using vibration devices that are based on two types:
communication and the perception and use of tactile regular joystick controller and our own controller Vibro6.
sensations - vibration.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 95 –

D. Gorodnitsky et al. • Hardware-Software Complex "Dashpoint" for Learning and Communication of Deafblind People
III. METHOD FOR TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION

AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOLUTION
For the blind and the deaf people, the basic and most
natural way to get information is to read using the Braille
alphabet. Every character in this alphabet is a set of six
dots arranged in 3 rows and 2 columns. Each point may or
may not be convex, thus alternating convex and not
convex point, enables us to encode information. Since the
array of six binary symbols can take on only 64 variations,
the encoding of some characters used by the control
characters (similar to the escape sequences). The vast
majority of blind and deaf blind people are familiar with
the alphabet in Braille, so all the existing solutions for the Figure 2. Project of device Vibro6
information above is based on this alphabet. Transmission
of information in our product is also based on the Braille
alphabet, but Braille character encoding is not based on
convex points, our alphabet is conveyed through the use
of vibrations for Braille characters.
The simplest version of our proposed solution uses a
common communication-feedback joystick equipped with
a Vibro. This device has an output device, which uses the
Braille alphabet and allows the user to input information
by moving the joystick. As shown in Fig. 1, to transmit
one symbol alphabet Braille using a standard joystick, six
points of the symbol are transmitted simultaneously by
vibration: a convex point is passed through a strong and
continuous vibration. The non-convex point is passed
through a weak and short vibration. The transfer is made
sequentially from the top to the bottom of the first column,
and then from the top to the bottom of the second column.
After transmitting each symbol there will be transmitted
inter-symbol pause.
The main advantage of this method of communication
is its extremely low price, the cost of a controller starts Figure 3. Vibro6 engineering sample
from $10.
Obviously the main drawback of this approach is the
low data rate making the transfer of information slower In addition to the output of information, Vibro6 can
compared to a visually impaired person reading Braille. also be used by the user to input information. On the top
The visually impaired will take all the points of a of Vibro6 there is a cruciate four-way key for navigation
character simultaneously and this was not possible with a and a button which is used for confirmation of the action.
controller. Also the controller is equipped with additional buttons
(like many of today's mouse) to facilitate management of
To solve this problem, we’ve developed a special software product "Dashpoint".
controller, which we call Vibro6, this is shown in Fig. 2
and Fig. 3. This device looks like an ordinary computer Our solutions offers the following features:
mouse, there are six vibro in three rows of two motors in -The possibility of being able to communicate with the
series in the place where the palm of user is rests, ie, the user, using a normal joystick and a specially designed
location of the engine repeats the position of the points in controller with a vibro attachment so that the Braille
the symbol alphabet Braille. Vibro is placed so that you alphabet symbols are transmitted naturally and
can send Braille letters of the alphabet in parallel, which understandably
speeds up the process of transferring information from the -possibility of using a mobile phone as a platform and
PC to the user and allows you attain comparable data to run the application and at the same time as a controller
transfer speeds that provide Braille displays. (currently only supported by Windows Phone 7)
-solution is an integrated environment in which for
deaf/blind implemented opportunities related to training
and opportunities and to communications.
IV. DASHPOINT SOFTWARE

The above-described controller Virbo6 is a support tool
by which information is transmitted, the main core of
"Dashpoint" is software that implements the education
features, communication features and ability to expand the
functionality.
Figure 1. Serial Communications of Braille alphabet characters Dashpoint consists of a core, which translates the
by using the joystick symbols of the usual alphabet to the Braille alphabet and
transfer of the symbols via vibrations applied to the
controller. All other functions are implemented via a
– 96 –
separate module which we call gates. A description of the

currently existing gates:
-Edu.gate implements the functionality associated with
education. With this gate, deaf/blind can read literature
and specially prepared training materials, and could also
pass any test included in these special training materials.
-Communi.gate: allows the deaf and blind to
communicate via MSN and Google Talk, enabling
communication with other deaf/blind, and all other users.
-Social.gate: provides deaf/blind users with limited
features while using today’s popular social sites like
Facebook and Twitter.
-Info.gate enables the user to receive information via
popular stes like Wikipedia and RSS.
The kernel implements written by us Dashpoint API, Figure 5. Reading process on PC
through which the functionality of the project can be
extended by third-party developers who can create new
gates. However, even the existing gates at this time are
enough to talk about accessibility for the deaf blind users
who demand a tool for educational and communications.
Although the application is designed for use by people
deprived of their sight and hearing the application has a
GUI. The GUI is designed for people who can help
deafblind users in the early stages of learning and how to
use the application, how to pre-configure the application
and monitor its correct operation in case of difficulty for
the user. As with any new tool, it is inevitable to
encounter problems in the early stages of use. In Fig. 4-6
shows screenshots of applications demonstrating the
operation of some gates, application settings and the
mobile version.
Ease of navigation depends upon the type of controller
and there will be slight variations in use because of this. In
the application using the Vibro6, hardware buttons are
provided on the controller. Whilst still using the
conventional joystick, navigation is achieved via the
joystick movement and joystick buttons. Moreover, if the
user's PC is equipped with touch screen or graphics tablet,
the navigation is possible by means of touch on the Figure 6. Mobile Dashpoin screenshots
screen/tablet. Navigation in the mobile version uses
movement embedded in the Windows Phone 7 phone
accelerometer and touch on the phone. Interaction with third-party developers in our project is
The application for the PC is written using Microsoft. realized on the basis of Managed Extensibility
NET Framework 4.0 in the language C#, GUI is Framework. For potential developers we will provide an
implemented using WPF, xml is used to store data. The interface to input and output data to the device, the
mobile application is written using Microsoft. NET interface will be used to control the device and the
Compact Framework, the application interface is interface will navigate within the developed module.
implemented using Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft SQL The interface for input and output has the following
Server CE is used for storing data. feature set: translation of a symbol to the Braille alphabet,
translation of Braille symbol to vibration while receiving a
user-entered character or gesture.
The interface used for controlling the device performs
the following functions: a function that allows you to
adjust the reading speed, a function that returns the current
reading speed, a function for building a specific module
setting in the program settings. Also each module has its
own navigation system (menu, submenu), we provide a
seamless integrated software project.
V. PLANS FOR FUTURE OF PROJECT

At the moment the project "Dashpoint" is a set of
serviceable products, which includes software for the PC,
software for Windows Phone 7 and controller Vibro6. We
plan to continually develop the project. Over the next 6
Figure 4. Dashpoint main menu screen months we plan to implement the following functions:
-support for web cameras for gesture recognition, and
user input data
– 97 –
D. Gorodnitsky et al. • Hardware-Software Complex "Dashpoint" for Learning and Communication of Deafblind People
-server for synchronization. User is using the PC and ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Mobile versions they will be able to move seamlessly
from one device to another while maintaining progress in We thank Dmitry Barabash, Oleg Chernoy, Dmitry
learning, the history of communications in chat rooms, Korchevsky, Kyril Pushkarenko for their input and help
stories read RSS feeds, etc. with this project.
-development of game.gate, which will enable deaf
blind play locally or over a network with others in chess,
checkers and battleship. REFERENCES
-increased support of Facebook in social.gate [1] http://www.sense.org.uk/what_is_deafblindness/urgency
[2] http://www.aadb.org/FAQ/faq_DeafBlindness.html#count
-expansion of the functions in social.gate and
communi.gate in order to support other messaging [3] http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-braille-reader
systems and other social networks [4] M. Rajasenathipathi, Dr. M. Atrhanari, “Conversion of English
Text to Braile Code vibration signal for Visually Impaired
-to develop mobile applications for other mobile People,” IJCSIS International Journal of Computer Science and
platforms: Android and iPhone. Information Security, Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 59–63, 2010.
– 98 –
Projects Modernization of the educational process

in elementary and secondary schools
(2009 – 2013)
Vladimír Kanás, Miroslav Kemka
Institute of Information and Prognoses of Education, Bratislava
vladimir.kanas@uips.sk, miroslav.kemka@uips.sk
Abstract— Regional Education Reform in Slovakia is opportunities for self-fulfillment and a new system of
nationwide implemented in all schools for the third year career advancement for teachers. Another aim of these
now. The main pillars for achieving its objectives are projects is to increase the number of teachers
national projects executed by the subvention of EU in participating in the programs of continuing education to
operating program Education and coordinated by Ministry
of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak
acquire and develop their competencies required for the
Republic. This paper presents the objectives and activities of knowledge society. Basic target group for these projects
the projects Modernization of the educational process in are elementary and secondary school teachers, in total of
elementary and secondary schools. 6850 teachers. Projects are implemented between 2008
and 2013 and are co-financed by the European Union.
Keywords— MVP – ZŠ the National Project of Executive of the project: Institute of Information and
Modernization of the educational process in elementary Prognoses of Education, Staré grunty 52, 842 44
schools, MVP – SŠ the National Project of Modernization of Bratislava.
the educational process in secondary schools, e-educational
Supplier of educational services: elfa, s.r.o., Park
content, teacher’s training, study materials for the modern
education, educational portal.
Komenského 7, 040 01 Košice
I. INTRODUCTION
National educational projects - a bridge leading to
school reform?
Educational reform in primary and secondary schools Figure 1. Logos of the national projects MEP in elementary and
in Slovakia, across the EU and the world is a long-term EMP in secondary schools
process, which is an essential part of changing the world
around us.
The unmistakable signs of the reform still are:
technological modernization, human resources training
and in particular the change of learning process; whole-
area and local as well. National projects of education are
currently still seen as the fundamental pillar and tool for
the state to create the conditions in the real time to Figure 2. Logos of the Operating program Education and
achieve the objectives of the reform for all participating European Social Fund
schools in the projects.
Aims of the projects EMP in elementary schools and
II. OBJECTIVES OF NATIONAL PROJECTS MODERNIZATION EMP in secondary schools:
OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS IN ELEMENTARY AND
SECONDARY SCHOOLS • To achieve changes in forms and methods of teaching
in the schools due to the support of digital content and
Projects Modernization of the educational process in ICT.
elementary schools (MEP in elementary) i and • To prepare teachers for the active implementation of
Modernization of the educational process in secondary school reform and modernizing the education system
schools (MEP in secondary) are about to innovate and of the further education for graduates and their
modernize the content, methods and outputs of the preparation for life and work in a knowledgeable
educational process to reach new responsibilities of society.
working in modern 21st century school- less memorizing • To provide schools with computers and other
for children, more interesting and varied lessons, better technical devices and laptops for teachers
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 99 –

V. Kanás and M. Kemka • Projects Modernization of the Educational Process in Elementary and Secondary Schools (2009 – 2013)
• To provide schools with e- educational content for the Group selected the number of 6850 most suitable
selected general courses in elementary school candidates for the training.
(Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, • Expert teams for the general education courses have
Geography, History, Slovak language, Music, Art, been created (approximately 120 innovative
and for the First Grade courses) and for the general teachers).
courses in secondary (Mathematics, Physics, • The promotional and informational materials were
Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History, Slovak created.
language). • Through the IIPE portal (www.uips.sk),the
• To develop methodological materials for teachers participants could electronically log in to the project
with a theoretical background for the modernization and in the same time the support call center for
process as well as specific methodologies and schools, project participants and public started to
examples of modern forms and methods of education work.
using ICT. • There were actually two portals created and used for
the project at the beginning. In terms of current
The primary target groups are teachers: requirements arising from the practice of the projects,
• 4,325 teachers in elementary school from the whole of both are regularly updated and extended by new
Slovakia except Bratislava district (BD) and 380 features.
teachers in elementary school from BD
3.1. Educational portal
• 1,840 teachers in secondary school from all over (www.modernizaciavzdelavania.sk) serves to enable
Slovakia except Bratislava district (BD) and 305 the educational content for the participants -
teachers in secondary school from BD. trainees, for the organization of education and the
The secondary target group of the projects MED in final CONC. The portal is destined for the project
elementary and secondary schools are the students of this trainees, lectors, consultants and the final work
schools, because teachers are trained to actively apply reviewers, the members of examination
new forms and methods of education in their work with commission, the implementer and executive of the
the support of digital content and ICT. projects. This portal won second price in the
competition “E-learning in praxis”, that was
Number of participating schools and registered announced during the eight year of international
teachers overview: conference ICETA 2011. Portal is moreover the
leading "e-face" of the projects – it enables
information about the projects to the general public.
3.2. Internal portal for management and
administration of the projects
(www.mvp.elfa.sk) is destined for internal
management needs and project administration.
Range of users is therefore compared to the
education portal narrowed by the people from the
professional teams (coordinators, supervisors,
Figure 3. Source: Monitoring of the projects MEP in elementary experts, developers, lecturers and consultants), the
and secondary schools, September 2011 supplier and implementer of the projects. The portal
is not intended for trainees, schools, general public
III. PROJECTS IMPLEMENTATION not excluding.
2009
• In January, the Institute of Information and Prognoses Since October 2009 to June 2011 in the portals:
of Education (IIPE) established management team for • 1,251,053 a total number of visits,
the projects. At the same time, the building of a • 1573 average daily number of visits
professional structure for the project, managed by • 9,573,360 page seeing
coordinators and professional supervisors from • 1,617,196 seeing the detail of the education
universities and educational institutions started. In its • 59.66% of multiple visits within one day
first half public procurements by IIPE were made, the • 815,722 emails sent
expert teams for the target groups of general • 78.722 GB - of data size
education courses were formed gradually. Expert • 216 dynamic websites
teams consist of innovative teachers from elementary • 7792 registered users
schools, secondary schools and universities from the Source: elfa, s.r.o.
whole of Slovakia.
• March to September, teachers started to sign in for the • Throughout September-November, the schools were
projects. Total number of signed in teachers from gradually provided with hardware equipment for
elementary and secondary schools is 7,790. Expert special classrooms and laptops for the teachers signed
in for the projects.
– 100 –
• May to September training centers (TC) from all over • Since April, in 20 TC teachers educating in Module 2
Slovakia were selected to ensure optimum availability “The modern didactic technique in teachers work”
for trainees. At the same time, basic technical was launched. Module 3 preparation continues.
infrastructure for the TC was provided and the • In the summer, teachers started educating in Module
lecturers were selected. 3 “Using the ICT in the subject”.
• In October, the teacher training began in 28 TC in • In 2010, first 40% of trainees in Modules 2 and 3
Module 1, which was focused on digital literacy. In were educated.
the training, each participant received a methodical
material and the exercises for praxis available on the 2011
portal as well. • In March, the first final exam started.
• The teachers’ education is integrated system of three • Educating process of the teachers is completed by
Modules in the range of 100 hours for advanced to creating the final thesis and its defense and a final
106 hours for intermediate (related to a module – the examination in which they have opportunity to
same starting point for all trainees in the projects - present their readiness to implement modernization
digital literacy, a necessary requirement for many elements to the educational process in elementary or
experienced teachers). Education runs in presence and secondary school. Teachers demonstrate adequate
in distance form, ends by creating thesis and the final knowledge of ICT applications in teaching of their
examination. This teachers educating is accepted in subjects with focus on the implementation of a
the new system of teacher career. national education program in elementary or
In the final quarter of 2009, working on the additional secondary school. Teachers, who successfully
methodical materials for Module 2 and Module 3 completed the educational process of the projects,
continued. completed specialized training in law no. 317/2009
body of law: The teaching staff and professional staff
are then granted 35 credits. The programs
"Modernizing the education in elementary schools
with ICT" and "Modernizing the education in
secondary schools with ICT" are accredited
continuing education programs (specifically as
specialized training) in law no. 317/2009 body of law:
The teaching staff and professional staff.
• Until May, 3,693 training days were completed by
trainees.
• 13, 5% of all trainees (signed in teachers) calls for
specific changes in the project. To move days of
education, or to move the date of the final thesis
defense and tests. This is because of the different life
situations (change of employment, dismissal,
cancelled schools, maternity or parental leave etc.).
Figure 5. Educational portal: www.modernizaciavzdelavania.sk
2010
• In 2010, methodical textbooks for teachers for
Module 2 and the common part for Module 3 as well
as for the 17 selected subjects in elementary and
secondary schools were issued. In these, the
experimental digital content using ICT is verified.
Overall, since the projects started, number of 20
methodical textbooks for teachers – each graduated
trainee gets the textbook for Module 1, Module 2, and
the common textbook for Module 3 and textbook
aimed for the subject in which they received
education were created and issued.
Figure 6. Source: Monitoring of the projects MEP in elementary
• At the same time, there is a digital library on the and secondary schools, September 2011
educational portal of the project, where there is the
experimental digital content for every selected subject Expert team: The nature of the project
for trainees available. Creative work of expert teams throughout the year is
• In February, all trainees completed Module 1. focused on detailed analysis of the current state in the
range of modernization of education, i.e. new trends in
ICT in primary and secondary school subjects and
– 101 –
V. Kanás and M. Kemka • Projects Modernization of the Educational Process in Elementary and Secondary Schools (2009 – 2013)
analyzing and preparing the digital content for the society. That is executed as a part of the active
education process. Innovative work of experts lines in the implementation of school reform. The key to its
preparation of model guidelines for the modernization of fulfillment is considered to be teacher - with new
education using ICT. The main directions of competencies for education in the modern school.
modernization are not set on technology but on the
teaching process, changing the education atmosphere, V. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
increasing the activity of students and their own Current situation in the national projects Modernization
responsibility for their learning as well as the new of the educational process in elementary and secondary
competencies for the teacher in the process of schools can be monitored at
modernization of education. Teachers’ final thesis must http://www.modernizaciavzdelavania.sk .
be oriented on the new forms and methods of work in a
i
modern school where ICT plays the only necessary role Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of
to achieve the aim of school transformation from the Slovak Republic with support from EU Structural
traditional to modern – a 21st century school. Funds and national budget as well declared national
projects for years 2008-2013:
IV. CONCLUSION Call OPV/K/RKZ/NP/2008-3 Modernization of the
Total number of 85% Slovak elementary and educational process in elementary schools
secondary schools are involved in the national projects Of purpose: Convergence (whole Slovakia, except
Modernization of the educational process in elementary Bratislava district), project code: 26110130083
and secondary schools. This means that almost all Of purpose: Regional competitiveness and Employment
schools involved in the project were provided by (Bratislava district), project code: 26140130013
computers destined for multimedia computer classrooms Call OPV/K/RKZ /NP/2008-4 Modernization of the
(for supporting the implementation of the project MEP educational process in secondary schools
results in practice) and laptops for lecturers and trainees - Of purpose: Convergence (whole Slovakia, except
the teachers who participated in the project and began to Bratislava district), project code: 26110130084
meet the objectives of project MEP by beginning to learn Of purpose: Regional competitiveness and Employment
on the digital basis. Through this step they can get (Bratislava district), project code: 26140130014.
inspired by digital technologies that are available on the
ii
internet and free of charge, as well as the paid for Classification of MEP projects: „Modernization of the
software, to make their never-ending journey to the educational process in elementary schools“(ITMS:
modern way of teaching easier, along with the continual 26110130083, 26140130013) and „Modernization of the
self-education and updating the content of the curriculum educational process in secondary schools“(ITMS:
/ learning, which should reflect current and future needs 26110130084, 26140130014) – separately for Bratislava
of the primary target group of regional schools, as well district (of purpose Regional competitiveness and
as the projects MEP in elementary and secondary Employment) and separately for the left whole Slovakia
schools - students, as well as globally – the whole world. (of purpose Convergence), two mirror projects.
Range (85% of elementary and secondary schools
from Slovakia) and duration (2008-2013) of national ACKNOWLEDGMENT
projects Modernization of the educational process in We thank our colleagues who help us to realize
elementary and secondary schools (for the exact objectives of the national projects Modernization of the
classification of projects by the bureaucratic structures educational process and especially teachers who are
see endnote ii) are like 'quantitative' predestinating, that interested to work on their personal development and
that in addition to implementation (in later stages) and signed in in to this project.
after successful finishing of the projects (filled with
measurable indicators - in this case the number of REFERENCES
participating schools and successful teachers - graduates [1] http://www.modernizaciavzdelavania.sk
of the projects MEP) will be satisfied the basic purpose [2] http://www.uips.sk
of the projects: to prepare teachers for the active adapting [3] http://www.minedu.gov.sk
of education system for the needs of knowledgeable
– 102 –
Realization of subjective tests in the environment of

streaming services
Martin Kapa, Marek Novak, Frantisek Jakab
Department of Computers and Informatics
Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia
Email: martin.kapa@cnl.tuke.sk, marek.novak@cnl.tuke.sk, frantisek.jakab@cnl.tuke.sk
Abstract—Increasing requirements on video quality seem to In this paper we present a video quality measurement tool,
be essential while designing any video-oriented services. The a concept that is based on a real-time statistical data gathered
methods in the user-centered design of services are fairly labor at the client-side, which are lately send to a remote database.
intensive and have to consider resulting value of user experience.
However, user experience is a term that is currently very hard In order to explain the functionality of the measuring tool, we
to be defined. There are different approaches to user experience will firstly introduce the streaming technology that the tool is
assessment, which lack an ultimate method to predict expected built on. Next, we will discuss the quality of video in context
user experience. In this article, we introduce a system that enables of http streaming, followed by identification of the factors that
web service providers to measure quality of service provided to influence the resulted quality of service. These factors are key-
end-users while playing online video content that is approached
via http progressive streaming. This tool is also suitable for future components of our client-side video measuring tool. At last,
educational purposes in the field of video quality evaluation. we will analyze tool’s functional topology and components
it is composed of, with brief description of technologies and
I. I NTRODUCTION implementation process of the tool.
Nowadays, media streaming has become one of the most II. F OUNDATION
used network service oriented on multimedia. In the world of
In the following, we outline the main terms needed to
telecommunication service providers we see upward trend in
understand the problematic of this paper.
providing of combined voice, video and data services. Video
User Experience: we can understand it as an experience
can be considered as a new feature in this scheme but it
that an user achieve during the process of interaction with a
importantly change the whole aspect of the way how we work,
product or service. However, we have to have in mind that
live, learn and how we communicate between each other. Few
user experience is highly influenced by different factors like
years back YouTube was only a web-page where you went to
user expectations, experiences or state of mind.
entertain yourself while watching music videos. Nowdays we
can consider YouTube as the second biggest search engine af-
A. Assessment of User Experience
ter Google and before Yahoo, which just underline the fact that
video is potentially becoming the future source of information There are several approaches that are used to measure video
not just an instrument for entertainment. With the importance quality and corresponding user experience.
of user’s mobility the corresponding multimedia services need a) Subjective Quality Assessment:: the quality of per-
to be highly reliable to earn the trust of it’s customers. This ception is not a term that is exactly defined or can be easily
is why we need precise assessment methods and frameworks computed. It is cause of fact that it is connected at most of the
to guarantee a specific level of user experience. In order to time with particular viewer. This viewer then can define the
archive this goal we firstly need to consider which parameters quality by his own scale and internal judgment. Therefore, the
have influence on degradation of user experience and quality result is most of the time influenced not just by the quality of
of multimedia content. This has been done with signal-to-noise perceived video sequence, but also by specific state of mind
ration (SNR), peak signal-to-noise ration(PSNR) or bit error of particular viewer. There are several standards that orient on
rate (BER). However, the latest measurements shown that they subjective quality assessment of video and audio quality. They
do not correlate well with quality perceived by an end-user can be found in ITU-R Rec. BT.500-11[13] and ITU-T Rec.
[1]. Therefore, concepts such as Quality of Service(QoS) and P.910[4].
Quality of Experience (QoE)[2][3] has been introduced. But b) Objective Quality Assessment:: on the other hand
most of the current approaches are oriented to one specific compared to the subjective quality assessment, objective qual-
video content type/application or to one scenario which is ity assessment is a technique that is most of the time defined as
not enough. Video quality metrics need to be more complex a mathematical model for estimating of the subjective quality
and cross-content to provide better correlation with subjective assessment. It builds on metrics that can be automatically
ratings that are really important for appropriate decisions on evaluated by a computer. These metrics then are divided into
a suitable optimization method for video streaming. three groups on account of availability of a reference video.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 103 –

M. Kapa et al. • Realization of Subjective Tests in the Environment of Streaming Services
• Full-reference (FR) metric: is a technique where we client. The second approach uses separate streaming media
fully use reference video to compare its quality to test server, e.g. Wowza Media Server. Both methods bypass old-
video. The whole process is done in two steps, the first fashioned download-and-play technology, where you have to
step calculates the errors between original and distorted download the whole file before playing it. Nowadays, there
images and the second one has to pool the particular is a big demand on high quality for media content on the
errors to a global quality assessment[14]. Internet. This new streaming technologies had to be designed
• No-reference (NR) metric: here we analyze only test video to provide both quality and transfer time to satisfy Internet
without the need to compare it with the reference video. end-user.
However, this technique uses some prior information,
like type of encoding to be able to look on codec- A. Streaming with a Web Server
specifications. This approach is only a small evolutionary step from
• Reduced-reference (RR) metric: is a hybrid between FR download-and-play model. Uncompressed audio and video are
and NR metric in terms of the reference information. This merged together to a single media file and then placed on
approach is suitable mainly cause of managing of the standard Web server hard disk to be available for delivery on
amount of reference information we use. specific bandwidth. Next, a web page containing URL to this
media file is placed on the same Web server. When request to
B. Mean Opinion Score (MOS)
this web page from a client is sent to the server, it launches
We can defined Quality of Experience (QoE) as a number client-side media player embedded in a web browser and a
in range between 1 and 5 used to express level of quality download of the media file to the client using http protocol
in multimedia (audio, VoIP or video)[Tab. I]. MOS for voice will start. This can be achieved also by using media player and
is standardized in ITU-T R. P.800[15]. The value of MOS is specify URL to the file to start this process. Application layer
acquired by subjective assessment tests, where the attendants protocol http (in TCP/IP network model) on client-side will
rate the audio or video quality of the test sequence. generate http request. Web server after receiving this request
will start sending requested file with TCP protocol in context
TABLE I
L EVEL OF QUALITY IN MOS of http response. Unlike download-and-play model, client-side
media player starts playing media file while the file is being
MOS Quality Impairment downloaded. This is also called a progressive download. Only
5 Excellent Imperceptible certain media file formats support this type of download. As
4 Good Perceptible, but not annoying we discussed earlier, this type of streaming uses http protocol
3 Fair Slightly annoying
2 Poor Annoying that operates on top of the TCP. TCP retransmits lost packets
1 Bad Very annoying and cannot assure that all resent packets will arrive at the client
in time to be played in the media stream.
C. Parameters influencing QoE B. Streaming with a Streaming Media Server

Another important factors that we need to consider are the This type of streaming is the true streaming. It uses ded-
values of video parameters like bit rate, video resolution, frame icated streaming server to deliver data to client-side media
rate and codec, or network parameters like bandwidth, delay, player. This allows real-time broadcasting of live events and
jitter and packet loss. Bit rate represents the number of bits ability to control playback. To run own streaming server,
processed during one time unit. Video resolution is a size of there is a need to have licence of it. Some examples of
video image an is measured in pixels, where the numbers such servers are Flash Media Server, Wowza Media Server,
represent horizontal and vertical resolution. Frame rate specify Windows Media Server, Darwin Media Server (QuickTime)
a frequency at which the streaming device produce images that and Real Media Server. Streaming servers can use variety of
are called frames. Bandwidth is defined as the amount of data streaming protocols such as RTMP, RTSP and MMS that can
per one time unit that are delivered over physical network handle transfer, communication between client and server.
topology, from the source to the destination. Jitter is best
IV. Q UALITY OF VIDEO IN CONTEXT OF HTTP
represented as an end to end delay between one packet to the
STREAMING
next, within the same stream. Packet loss defines percentage
of lost packets. Delay represent lapse of time or amount of Because video data are transmitted over a communication
time during some action is awaited. Video codec is a software network, the size of digital video data is an important issue in
used for encoding and decoding of a digital data stream. multimedia technology. Consequently, this data must be com-
pressed before transmission in order to optimise the required
III. S TREAMING CONCEPTS bandwidth for the provision of a multimedia service. In a
There are two major approaches how to stream video context of the http streaming technology, we focus on two
over the network. First approach uses standard Web server, main factors - video quality and bandwidth. It is necessary
e.g. Apache Http Server Project, and uses standard hypertext to tradeoff the network capacity against the perceptual video
transfer protocol HTTP to deliver video and audio data to the quality in order to come up with the optimal performance
– 104 –
of a video service and an optimal use of underlying network

infrastructure. Moreover, coded video streams are transmitted
over network and thus exposed to channel errors and informa-
tion loss. In this article, we introduce a tool that would help
find this optimal performance for video service built on http
streaming architecture.
A. Video quality
In terms of video quality, the parameters that we must
consider are attributes like bit rate and video codec, video
resolution and frame rate. Bit rate represents the number of
bits processed during one time unit. Video resolution is a
size of a video image measured in pixels, where the numbers
represent horizontal and vertical resolution. Frame rate specify
a frequency at which the streaming device produce images that Fig. 1. Web interface of the presented system
are called frames. Video codec is software used for encoding
and decoding of a digital data stream.
A. Functional topology and components
B. Bandwidth
The system consists of several components - http server,
Digitally compressed video is transferred over a packet-
web page located on the server with specific client-side
switched network. The physical transport can take place over
scripting code, media plug-in in clients’ web browsers and
a wire or wireless, where some transfer protocols like ATM
database server. Http server provides web page with link to
or IP ensures the transport of the bitstream. The bitstream is
the video to be streamed. Web page contains specific functions
transported in packets whose headers contain sequencing and
that exploit functionality of media plug-in. Media player plug-
timing information.
in is primarily used to playback streamed video on client
C. Network topology side. Player is embedded in a web browser and processes the
video that is being downloaded. Media player plug-in has been
It’s obvious that each client can use different connection to
modified to provide needed functionality - to provide real-time
the network and generally, video streaming is provided across
video statistical data such as input bitrate, read packets, state
Internet platform, thus every client will experience different
of playback, frames per second, etc. Web page contains code
bandwidth connection to the HTTP Server. HTTP streaming
written in client-side web scripting language, so it runs on
uses TCP unicast packets to each client. Our tool is constructed
client side and handles the data gained from media plug-in.
to monitor traffic and video parameters on each client thus
The gathered data can be sent to remote database where they
providing a complex view what is the quality of service to the
are stored and third-party applications could access this data
clients.
and evaluate them. The functional topology is shown in the
V. I NTRODUCING THE T OOL [Fig. 2].
This part of the work introduces design and implementation
B. Adequate Parameter Choice
of the tool used to perform subjective assessment of video
and audio quality based on gathering statistical data from The tool monitors many parameters at client-side that help
respective measurements [Fig. 1]. It is the system that makes to find out the circumstances during assessment process and
possible to assess video quality and streaming service as a also depict characteristics of user playback. These parameters
whole on given architecture. The tool uses true streaming for can be divided into four groups (Input, Video, Audio, and User
delivering data with protocols as RTP and UDP and also video- parameters). The choice of these parameters must by adequate
on-demand principle with HTTP protocol. The tool is built in order to carry objective information about circumstances
on a variety of modern and powerful programming languages and characteristics of user video sequence playback. Input
(C/C++, AJAX, Javascript, PHP, SQL), open-source and re- parameters characterize the processing of incoming media
liable applications (VLC Videolan Project, MySQL Server, stream (total read packets, read bytes, input bit rate, read
Apache Server) and implemented with effective and high- packets rate, read bytes rate, corrupted blocks in demuxer, time
performance standards and methods (multicast, RTP protocol). of playing). Video parameters characterize the processing of
The tool represents an advantageous solution for gathering video data (displayed pictures, lost pictures, resolution, frames
different client-side statistical data and subjective assessment per second). Audio parameters characterize the processing of
data. This data are sent to remote database server and pro- audio data (decoded audio blocks, lost audio blocks) and
cessed as needed. The combination of subjective and objective finally user parameters characterize software and hardware
data makes possible to better analyze subject’s assessment and of user (total memory, available memory, cpu frequency,
to detect problems. operating system, browser, estimated connection speed.
– 105 –
M. Kapa et al. • Realization of Subjective Tests in the Environment of Streaming Services
3) Creation of user profile - for every playback instance

a new user profile is created - information about user
hardware and software and estimated connection speed
is obtained.
4) Gathering real-time statistical data during playback -
gathering data in the background about incoming played
stream.
5) Multimedia sequence assessment - - user can at any time
assess played sequence. Three aspects are assessed -
video quality, audio quality and playback quality, using
five grade numeric rating scale (1 - Excellent, 2 - Good,
3 - Fair, 4 - Poor, and 5 - Bad).
6) Sending data to database server - when all three aspects
are rated, the data are automatically sent to remote
database using AJAX technology.
7) Analysis of gathered data - data is gathered in logical
hierarchy and interpretation of results is left to admin-
istrator.
E. Implementation of gathering client-side statistical data

Gathering statistical data is performed by web browser
and Javascript. This concept is used for its simplicity, it is
not practical to ballast user with installation and maintaining
of other applications. Data represents input data for local
Fig. 2. Functional topology application embedded into web browser. The question is, how
can one get access to this data in web browser using Javascript.
Normally, it is restricted to access computer local data because
C. Obtaining Media Sequence Information of security. But the tool exploits embedded plug-in (VLC
The system stores characteristics for every multimedia se- Multimedia Plug-in) to get access. This extended functionality
quence used for testing purposes. Sooner as the sequence is has been simply added because VLC Multimedia Plug-in is
subject to assessment, it must be registered in the system and open source and can be modified as needed. To access data,
some information about it must be obtained. This information the tool calls Javascript API of the plug-in. This concept is
is automatically gathered using cgi script after the sequence really transparent, simple and powerful. Extended functionality
has been successfully uploaded to the content server. The represents creation of new Javascript object - Stats and Client
information includes general information about multimedia besides others. The example of using these objects in web
file (format, file size, overall bit rate, duration, bit rate mode, page is as shown below.
etc.), general information about video streams (format, bit rate,
width, height, display aspect ratio, frame rate, standard, color < scriptlanguage = ”Javascript” >
space, chroma subsampling, bit depth, scan type, compression var vlc = document.getElementById(”vlc”);
mode, etc.), general information about audio streams (format, var readBytes = vlc.stats.readBytes;
bit rate, channels, sampling rate, bit depth, compression mode, var readPackets = vlc.stats.readPackets;
duration, etc.) and general information about text streams var inputBitrate = vlc.stats.inputBitrate ∗ 8000
(format, video delay, etc.). This information is valuable to var displayedPictures =
identify sequences’ needs to streaming service, structure and vlc.stats.displayedPictures;
restrictions. Obtaining and storing of this information is inte- var lostPictures = vlc.stats.lostPictures;
grated to the system what increases simplicity and flexibility. var decodedVideo = vlc.stats.decodedVideo;
var decodedAudio = vlc.stats.decodedAudio;
D. Realization of Subjective Assessment var totalRAM = vlc.client.totalRAM;
1) Creation of data stream - in the case of true streaming var availRAM = vlc.client.availRAM;
administrator starts for given sequence multicast stream- var cpuSpeed = vlc.client.cpuSpeed;
ing to network with protocol RTP or UDP. In the case < /script >
of video-on-demand, for every request from user the
separate unicast HTTP data stream is produced. VI. R ELATED W ORK
2) Creation of playback instance - user requests data stream A number of studies have explored the idea of predicting
(multicast or unicast) using web browser multimedia user experience. The most interesting approaches combine
plug-in. the objective measurements with the empirical experiments
– 106 –
gaining subjective ratings such as the MOS [4] to get user [7] Clark, A.D.: Modeling the effects of burst packet loss and recency on
experience estimation. There is a lack of approaches that build subjective voice quality. In: Proceedings of the IP Telephony Workshop,
New York (March 2001)
a prediction models on this basis. Some, like [5] and [6], [8] Calyam, P., Mandrawa, W., Sridharan, M., Khan, A., Schopis, P.: H.323
correlate measurements on both the sender and receiver sides. Beacon: An H.323 application related end-to-end performance trou-
Others, like [7] and [8], use the Emodel [9], an objective bleshooting tool. In: Proceedings of NeTS 2004, Portland, OR (October
2004)
mechanism for assessing audio quality using transmission [9] G.107, I.T.R.: The Emodel, a computational model for use in transmission
parameters. An alternate approach is to utilize application- planning. Recommendations of the ITU, Telecommunications Sector
layer objective metrics, taken at the clients machine through (1998)
[10] Wang, Y., Claypool, M., Zuo, Z.: An empirical study of RealVideo
an instrumented media player application [8], [10], [11], [12]. performance across the Internet. In: Proceedings of IMW 2001, San
These approaches allow one to take measurements without Francisco, CA (November 2001)
requiring the users participation, providing a more accurate [11] Loguinov, D., Radha, H.: Measurement study of low-bitrate Internet
video streaming. In: Proceedings of IMW 2001, San Francisco, CA
assessment of the user experience, but do not provide predic- (November 2001)
tion models. [12] Nichols, J., Claypool, M., Kinicki, R., Li, M.: Measurement of the
congestion responsiveness ofWindows streaming media. In: Proceedings
of NOSSDAV,Kinsdale, Ireland (June 2004)
VII. C ONCLUSION [13] ITU-R Recommendation BT.500-11: Methodology for the subjective
assessment of the quality of television pictures, International Telecom-
Presented approach is based on the analysis of user ex- munication Union, Geneva, Switzerland, 2002.
perience sensitivity on a changes of videostreaming quality [14] M. Carnec, P. Le Callet, D. Barba, ”Full reference and reduced refer-
attributes. Using this tool, service providers take advantage of ence metrics for image quality assessment,” Signal Processing and Its
Application, 2003.
high performance tool to gather real-time client-side streaming [15] ITU-T P.800: Methods for Subjective Determination of Transmission
video statistical data. Data are retrieved and processed at Quality,International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland,
client side, so the streaming server is not unnecessary stressed. 1996
This data can be consequently sent to remote database where
they are stored and linked to particular client. Third-party
applications can access this data and evaluate them. This helps
to identify and solve problems with streaming service and
improve quality of service. Presented tool is built on open
source software, which is flexible, scalable and still improving.
In future, it can be used for testing and further educational
purposes.
VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the Slovak Scientific Grant
Agency of Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic VEGA
under the contract No.1/0525/08 (60%). This work is also
the result of the project implementation Development of
the Center of Information and Communication Technologies
for Knowledge Systems (project number: 26220120030) sup-
ported by the Research & Development Operational Program
funded by the ERDF (40%).
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[1] S. Winkler, Digital Video Quality - Vision Models and Metrics. John
Wiley & Sons, 2005.
[2] D. Soldani, M.Li and R. Cuny (Ed.), QoS and QoE Management in UMTS
Cellular Systems. John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
[3] F. Pereira, ”Sensations, perceptions and emotions towards quality of
experience evaluation for consumer electronics video adaptations,” in
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[4] P.910, I.T.R.: Subjective video quality assessment methods for multimedia
applications. Recommendations of the ITU, Telecommunications Sector
[5] Wolf, S., Pinson, M.H.: Spatial-temporal distortion metrics for in-service
quality monitoring of any digital video system. In: Proceedings of SPIE
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[6] Ashmawi, W., Guerin, R., Wolf, S., Pinson, M.H.: On the impact of
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– 107 –
Evaluation of Erlang Models in IP Network

M. Kavacký, E. Chromý, J. Šuráň*
*
Institute of Telecommunications, FEI STU Bratislava, Slovakia
matej.kavacky@stuba.sk, erik.chromy@stuba.sk, jan.suran@stuba.sk
Abstract—Our paper deals with utilization and examination traffic rules. It can change headers or drop packets. In our
of Erlang traffic theory in asynchronous networks based on case, it will be used only for packet labeling. Labeled
IP technology. We have proposed test network model with packets can be separated into individual data flows and
video traffic source. The obtained results have been then formed by traffic engineering package. IP tables
compared with calculations performed in Matlab consist of three parts: incoming, outgoing and forwarding.
environment. We have aimed to loss parameter in our We can insert rules into these groups. If packets passes
comparisons. first rule, other rules in chain are not tested and packet is
processed with the first rule definitions. For example, it
can be labeled or dropped.
I. INTRODUCTION
The IP networks were not designed for providing B. Classes
multimedia services at the beginning. These networks Classes serve for keeping our defined bandwidths. If we
were intended for data transfer without predefined paths, want to reduce speed to 2Mbit/s, we can create a class that
so that in case of breakdown of one of the routers, other ensure, that overflowed data will go to a queue and then
path could be chosen [1]. Path of packet can change and will be sent. Linux uses two common classes:
so can change transfer parameters.
If we want to use IP networks for voice, video and
• CBQ (Classfull Based Queuing).
multimedia transmission, we have to define transfer
parameters. These parameters are covered under QoS • HTB (Hierarchy Token Bucket) [14].
(Quality of Service). For observance of QoS [2]-[5]
parameters it is necessary to estimate network C. Queues
performance under load and link overflow. Queues in traffic engineering influence which data will
This problem is handled by theory of queuing systems be send and which will have to wait in queue. There exist
described in detail in [6]-[9]. Therefore we will try to use many mechanisms for queue managing and they are
Erlang models well known from synchronous assigned to CBQ or HTB. Queues are class independent.
telecommunication networks. Erlang B model deals with Basic configuration of Traffic control package includes
data loss in relation with network load. Erlang C model following types of queues:
defines probability of waiting of data in the waiting queue
and so resembles to IP network behavior, where data • FIFO (First in First Out).
queuing occurs before sending further.
• PFIFO (Priority FIFO).
II. PROPOSED MODEL • SFQ (Stochastic Fairness Queuing).
The proposed model is based on Linux open-source • RED (Random Early Detection).
operating system. In this system every part of the core is
documented and available [10]-[13]. Thanks to this D. Filters
attribute, OS Linux or its core is implemented in many Last and very important part of our flow regulation
devices (routers). In our case we used linux distribution package are filters. Filter serves for inserting data into the
Debian 4.0, installed it on a PC that serves as a router, right class. In our case, filter chooses class by labels that
web server, file server and other applications server. There were added by IP tables. But also these filters can analyze
will also be installed a simulation program for traffic packet headers and assign data to right classes. These
simulation, that will send video flows of defined filters are paired with main classes and classes then insert
parameters. Linux is capable of packet modification from data correctly based on corresponding filters.
its core and we will use this feature. Labeled packets of
video flow then will be concentrated into one link or E. Proposed Network Model
divided. We will install a custom package for traffic Our designed model of simulation environment is
engineering, where classes, queues and filters can be shown in Figure 1. We used one client for creation of
created. These three main elements are defining routing video traffic and two clients for receiving and video data
mechanisms in router. This type of server with OS linux processing. Whole communication ran through server,
installed can be a low price alternative to routers used in which stood as a router and traffic shaper. This network
commercial networks. was built and configured based on knowledge from
literature [14]-[18]. All network elements were capable of
A. IP Tables 1GBit/s (if we did not use server for link limitation, we
IP tables is a mechanism implemented directly into would not be able to correctly measure IP network
core of Linux operating system and serves for setting of IP behavior under load).
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 109 –

M. Kavacký et al. • Evaluation of Erlang Models in IP Network
server A. Erlang B Model

Erlang B model deals with probability of data loss
under link load. Its basic form is (2):
ρC
link restriction e−ρ * ρ * E 1 , C −1 ( ρ ) (2)
B = E 1,C ( ρ ) = C! =
C
ρx C + ρ * E 1, C −1 ( ρ )
data transfered ∑e
x=0
−ρ
*
x!
to server
where:
• ρ - total load [%],
• C - number of links.
We revised model (2) into form (3), which is more

appropriate for calculations. From this model results
client client
client
(data receiving) (data receiving)
relation of two parameters:
oad generating)
• ρ - link load in [%],
Figure 1. Proposed network model. • C - link speed in Mbit/s.
F. VBR Video Source ρ C
For real traffic simulation in IP network, simple model C! (3)

E1 =
with JPG frame compression is sufficient for our C
ρ k
purposes. As video source was used a webcam. It captured ∑

k=0 k!
one minute long recording, all measurements used same
data and so results were comparable. Our model is shown
in Figure 2. and was designed based on information from
[19]-[21].
Figure 3. Data loss probability in the case of constant bandwidth.
From Fig. 3 we can see following results:
• Probability of loss increases with link load.

• With increasing bandwidth data loss is decreasing.
After revision and modification of Erlang model with

parameter m, (number of sources in common path) we
used model (4) for further calculations. Other parameters
stayed the same.
Figure 2. Video model with VBR data flow. ( m .ρ ) c
E1(ρ , c, m ) = c! (4)
III. ERLANG MODELS IN MATLAB ( m .ρ ) i
∑
c
In 1917 Agner Kralup Erlang published Solution of i= 0

i!
some Probléme in The Theory of Probabilities of
Signifiance in Automatic Telephone Exchanges. In this Common path means that more flows are transferred
publication he stated his models for loss and waiting time through one way. Link bandwidth requirements are then
in telephony traffic. summarized together.
– 110 –
Model (6) extended by m parameter:
( m * ρ ) Ccp Ccp
* (7)
Ccp ! Ccp − ( m * ρ )
E 2 , C ( m * ρ ) = Ccp − 1
( m * ρ ) x ( m * ρ ) Ccp Ccp
∑
x=0 x!
+
Ccp !
*
Ccp − ( m * ρ )
where:
• ρ - link load [%].
• Ccp – link speed (for common path) in Mbit/s.
Figure 4. Data loss probability in the case of constant bandwidth 2
Mbit/s and m flows. • m – number of sources.
• Under low link load with increasing number of

sources is data loss probability reduced.
• Under higher link load (5%) this difference is not as
much notable and the loss is gradually flatten.
B. Erlang C Model
Figure 6. Probability of enqueue in case of common utilization of 4
Probability of waiting the requests in queue is described Mbit/s link.
by second Erlang model (5).
ρ C
C
*
C ! C − ρ (5) • With increasing link load and constant bandwidth, the
E 2 ,C (ρ ) = C −1
ρ x
ρ C
C probability of enqueue increases.
∑ x!
+
C !
*
C − ρ
x = 0 • With higher common path utilization, the probability
of enqueue is also higher.
For calculations form without factorials is preferable. In • With increasing of common path bandwidth, it is
case that ρ < C, we can rewrite model to (6): possible multiple use of traffic links also with higher
load.
C
E 2 ,C = E 1 ,C * (6) • Common path bandwidth affects slope of probability
C − ρ [1 − E 1 , C ( ρ )] of enqueue.
IV. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

When comparing results from MATLAB simulations
and real measurements, it is necessary to consider VBR
video characteristics and used queues for traffic shaping.
For simulation of model B we used RED mechanism,
because packets were dropped after reaching maximum
queue length. Model C uses SFQ mechanism, which does
not drop packets, but inserts them into waiting queue.
Figure 5. Probability of enqueue in case of constant bandwidth.
• With increasing link load, probability of enqueue also

increases.
• With increasing bandwidth, probability of enqueue
decreases.
• With low link speeds (under 16 Mbit/s), the
Figure 7. Loss probability in case of constant bandwidth.
behaviour of probabilities is nearly linear.
– 111 –
M. Kavacký et al. • Evaluation of Erlang Models in IP Network
• Compared to MATLAB simulations, loss is under 5%

even until full network usage. This is caused by SFQ
queue and VBR data model.
We also tried the common path utilization with Erlang

C model. Flows were put together in the same way as with
Erlang B model. The results are depicted in the Fig. 10:
• Graphs are now comparable with MATLAB

simulations, but with lower probability of loss.
• Similar to Erlang B model, it is useful to put together
more flows into one path.
Figure 8. Loss probability in case of 2 Mbit/s link and m flows.
• With increasing bandwidth, we can put together more
flows into one path and assure acceptable loss (based
A. Erlang B Model on SLA).
Firstly we measured loss in relation to link load at 2
Mbit/s link capacity. In Figure 7 we can see that graphs
look like in simulations (section III.A), but values of loss
are much lower (loss decreases with link capacity). This is
caused by VBR video characteristics, where loss does not
occurs until reaching link capacity.
The figure 8 shows Erlang B model with common link.

Each flow was transferred with some time delay against
other flows. This way we prevented overloading of the
link by VBR video. From this measurement results:
• With constant network load and increasing bandwidth

it is possible to raise the number of sources.
• With constant load and bandwidth, loss increases Figure 10. Loss probability in case of m flows and 2 Mbit/s link.
with number of sources per link.
• With increasing link capacity we can add number of V. CONCLUSION
sources per one path. The purpose of our work was to evaluate utilization of
Erlang B and C models in IP networks with VBR video
traffic source. We have pointed out the difference between
B. Erlang C Model two link shaping methods and we have found out that SFQ
The method was the same as with Erlang B model, is more suitable for this utilization. Erlang model is then a
except for the fact, that data which came later, were good choice for VBR traffic calculations with respect to
labeled as lost, because they went to waiting queue. losses. It is possible to estimate network behavior under
load with these models. These models give us only
approximately estimation. Loss probabilities were not
exactly as predicted by calculations, but lower. It is caused
by VBR video characteristics and data transfer method in
IP networks. Calculations and real measurements have
shown advantages of effective link load. Putting more
VBR flows together into one link has greatly improved
effectiveness of data transfer.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by the Grant VEGA
no. 1/0565/09 “Modelling of traffic parameters in NGN
telecommunication systems and networks”.
Figure 9. Loss probability in case of constant bandwidth.
REFERENCES
From Fig. 9 we can see following results: [1] Dostálek, L., Kabelová, A. Understanding TCP/IP, Packet,
Birmingham, 2006, ISBN 1-904811-71-0.
[2] Kováč, A., Halás, M. Vozňák, M. “Impact of Jitter on Speech
• SFQ waiting queue is a better choice for VBR video, Guality Estimation in Modified E-Model,” 12th International
because of its better handle with high-peak rate. Conference Research in Telecommunication Technology RTT
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[3] Mišuth, T., Baroňák, I. “Performance Forecast of Contact Centre [16] Davies, G. “Designing and Developing Scalable IP Network,”
with Differently Experienced Agents,” Elektrorevue. ISSN 1213- John Wiley & Sons Ltd, England, 2004, ISBN 0-470-86739-6.
1539. Vol. 15, 16.11.2010 (2010), art. no. 97. [17] Held, G. “Ethernet Networks – Fourth Edition,” John Wiley &
[4] Baroňák, I., Mičuch, J. “Preventive Methods Supporting QOS in Sons Ltd, England, 2003, ISBN 0-470-84476-0.
IP,” New Information and Multimedia Technologies. NIMT - [18] Plumley, S. “Home Networking Bible,” John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
2009: Brno, Czech Republic, 17. - 18. 9. 2009. Brno: Brno England, 2004, ISBN 0-7645-4416-0.
University of Technology, 2009. ISBN 978-80-214-3930-6.
pp. 15-23. [19] Pirogov, V. “Mastership in assembler language,” Computer Press,
Brno, 2005, ISBN 80-251-0888-0.
[5] Balogh, T., Medvecký, M.: Comparison of Priority Quauing Based
Scheduling Algorithms. In: Elektrorevue, vol. 15, 16.11.2010 [20] Pirkl, J. “Network programming in Windows and internet
(2010), art. no 93. ISSN 1213-1539. programming,” Kopp, České Budějovice, 2001, ISBN 80-7232-
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[6] Wootton, C. “A practial guide to video and audio compression,”
Focal press, USA 2005, ISBN 0-240-80630-1. [21] Chalupa, R. “1001 tips and tricks for Visual C++,” Computer
Press, Brno, 2003, ISBN 1-904811-71-0.
[7] Peško, S. “System queuing theory,” 2001,
http://frcatel.fri.uniza.sk/users/pesko/OA2/oa2m.pdf [22] Tisovský, A.: Method for Throughput Interpolation of
Computationally Intensive IPsec Process.
[8] Hayes, J. F. et al., “Modeling and Analysis of In: Telecommunications and Signal Processing TSP-2010 : 33rd
Telecommunications Networks,” Wiley Interscience, 2004. International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal
[9] Iversen, V. B. “Teletraffic Engineering Handbook,” COM Centre, Processing. Baden near Vienna, Austria, 17.-20.8.2010. - Budapest
Technical University of Denmark, 2001. : Asszisztencia Szervezö Kft., 2010. - ISBN 978-963-88981-0-4.
[10] Graf, T., Maxwell, G., Mook, R. “Linux Advanced Routing & [23] Balogh, T., Medvecký, M.: Performance Analysis of Priority
Traffic Control,” 2004 http://lartc.org/ Quauing Based Scheduling Algorithms. In: Telecommunications
[11] Thomas, K. “Beginning Ubuntu Linux From Novice to and Signal Processing TSP-2010 : 33rd International Conference
Professional,” Apress, 2006, ISBN 1-59059-627-7. on Telecommunications and Signal Processing. Baden near
Vienna, Austria, 17.-20.8.2010. - Budapest : Asszisztencia
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– 113 –
Inquiry-based learning in science enhanced by

digital technologies
Z.Ješková, M.Kireš, M.Ganajová, K. Kimáková
Institute of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of P.J.Šafárik, Košice, Slovakia
zuzana.jeskova@upjs.sk, marian.kires@upjs.sk
Abstract— The science education in Slovakia currently

faces the new curriculum reform that emphasizes the role of II. INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE EDUCATION
scientific inquiry in education that is in good
correspondence with massive European movement oriented A. What do we mean by scientific inquiry?
on implementation of Inquiry based science education. As There are many interpretations to the questions – What
many researches show, the implementation of digital do we mean by scientific inquiry? A possible short answer
technologies into science education can help a great deal in is that it is the systematic and principled process of
the process of scientific inquiry. The contribution presents pursuing and refining explanations for phenomena in the
the key ideas of inquiry-based science education with natural or material world. According to Linn, Davis and
concrete examples in physics education as well as the Bell [1] “Inquiry is the intentional process of diagnosing
projects currently running in Slovakia in this field. The problems, critiquing experiments and distinguishing
Slovak national project Modernization of education at alternatives, planning investigations, researching
primary and secondary schools is aimed at the conjectures, searching for information, constructing
implementation of new ways of education enhanced by ICT. models, debating with peers and forming coherent
This project is in a good consonance with the European 7FP arguments”. The national Science Education Standards [2]
project Establish with Safarik University in Kosice as a describes inquiry as the way scientists do research and
partner institution that is aimed at the use of IBSE elements presents this as an inquiry cycle (fig.1), while Llewellyn
in classes across Europe.
[3] describes it as inquiry-oriented learning where the
principles of constructivism are acting as the foundation
for understanding inquiry (fig.2).
I. INTRODUCTION
The science education in Slovakia currently faces new
challenges connected with the new curriculum reform
running from 2009. The reform emphasizes the role of
scientific inquiry in education that is in good
correspondence with massive European movement
oriented on implementation of Inquiry based science
education (IBSE). As many researches show, the
implementation of digital technologies into science
education can help a great deal in the process of scientific
inquiry. However, the digital technologies itself cannot
help in better understanding of scientific concepts. Their
effective use strongly depends on the teaching methods
used in the class. As research shows, traditional methods Figure 1. A 6-stage cycle for inquiry investigations and modeling [1].
such as lecture, problem solving, traditional labworks
cannot survive in the classroom in the world of all the
technologies that our students are able to handle easily in
their everyday life. The school of the 21st century has to
reflect these trends. And it is not only about trends. In
addition, purposeful and appropriate application of digital
technologies in science offers students to assist and
progress their learning and to engage them in higher-order
thinking skills.
However, to implement IBSE enhanced by digital
technologies in classrooms is not an easy task. The
success of the educational reform requires consonance of
many elements to be taken into account, such like
improvements in teacher training, change in curricula and
student assessment as well as instructional materials
available for easy use of teachers. Figure 2. A 6-stage cycle for inquiry cycle [3].
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 115 –

Z. Ješková et al. • Inquiry-based Learning in Science Enhanced by Digital Technologies
Although, many different types and levels of inquiry- III. INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE EDUCATION AND DIGITAL
based teaching and learning are available, it is widely TECHNOLOGIES
agreed that inquiry-based teaching is an organized and
intentional effort on behalf of the teacher to engage As many researches show, the implementation of digital
students in inquiry-based learning. The goal of inquiry technologies into science education, if used in an
teaching is not to transfer scientific knowledge, facts, appropriate way, can help a great deal in the process of
definitions, and concepts, but rather to enhance students´ scientific inquiry. However, the digital technologies
ability to reason and to become independent learners who themselves cannot help in better understanding of
are capable of identifying main questions and find scientific concepts. Their effective use strongly depends
relevant answers by a gradual acquisition and expansion on the teaching methods used in the class. In science
of a body of scientific knowledge and abilities. It is a education the “inquiry” approach is connected mainly
student-centered approach to science learning. with all kinds of experimentation. Concerning the
experiments in science, digital technologies play an
B. Types of inquiry-based activities important role in collecting, processing and analyzing
data. Consequently, as used in science, it becomes a
In all types of inquiry activities the most important natural part of school experimentation. In science
principle is to decrease the teacher activity and education, real-time experiments with datalogging (using
participation and to increase the student activity. The interface and sensors), remotely-controlled experiments,
levels of inquiry-based activity differ by the amount of experimentation on videoclips, and virtual experiments
teacher/material guidance, student independence and with the help of computer simulations have their strong
developed skills [4]. educational benefits. Digital technologies in this sense can
According to that there can be several types of inquiry enhance inquiry approach to teaching and learning since:
activities, namely: - It supports active learning environment allowing
1. Interactive discussion /Interactive demonstration: the students to work in a similar way as scientists do in
teacher is in charge of posing the question or their laboratories
conducting the demonstration and manipulating a - It encourages critical thinking skills. Students have
scientific apparatus. more time for exploration and analyzing results since
2. Guided discovery: same as the interactive distractions and lower-level student chores during the
demonstration, but in this case the students carry out laboratory are reduced.
the experiment introduced to them by the teacher. It is - Frequent interaction and feedback is one of the most
the traditional student laboratory work, mostly in the important features of experimentation supported by
form of cookbook labs or work driven by step-by step digital technologies. The immediacy of feedback
instructions. Usually, this concerns a group activity allows students to “self-regulate their learning”
simultaneously carried out by the whole class with a towards more individual learning without fulltime
strong focus on verifying information previously supervision of the teacher
communicated in class.
- It encourages students’ collaboration and peer
3. Guided inquiry: in this case, students work in teams instructions while discussing and analyzing results.
on their own experiment. The teacher has identified
the problem and has given a clear-cut objective:
“Find...”, “Determine...” There is no predetermined
answer and conclusions are solely based on student IV. EXAMPLES OF IBSE ACTIVITIES ENHANCED BY
work. Students are given directions or extensive (pre- DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN PHYSICS
lab) instructions, and they are guided by multiple
teacher-identified questions. A. Interactive discussion/ demonstration
4. Bounded inquiry same as in the above, but in this This activity is carried out by the teacher with active
case students are expected to design and conduct the student participation that can be supported by a prediction
experiment themselves with little or no guidance of sheets where students make predictions and answer
the teacher and only partial pre-lab orientation. The questions about the experiment presented by the teacher.
research problem to be solved is given to them by the Even if the experiment is carried out by the teacher, the
teacher, but they have the responsibility for designing experimental procedure involves student to participate,
and conducting an experiment. Bounded inquiry make predictions, think, compare and make conclusions.
activities require a definite level of experience from In fig. 3 there is an example of interactive experiment
the students, otherwise they could get lost. on the Archimedes principle using force sensor to measure
5. Open inquiry: within a given context, the student is the force on it while submerging a body into water.
expected to propose and pursue their own research
question(s) and experimental design. This will usually A cylinder of density greater than the density of water
be a semi-final assignment of senior students.
Example: “Setting up an experiment for speech (ρcylinder>ρwater) is hung from a force probe with a rigid
analysis or recognition”. Students can either compare rod. It is lowered slowly into a container of water. Sketch
high or low tones, male or female, produced by your prediction for the force probe reading as a function
musical instrument or vocally, loud or soft, etc. of time. Be sure to include the initial reading before the
cylinder touches the water, and also the reading when the
cylinder is completely submerged.
– 116 –
E. Open inquiry
In this case students learn to find and formulate their
own research question without a strict guidance of their
teacher. They learn to setup and successfully finish their
own practical experiment and draw conclusions. In fig. 7
there is a part of the worksheet students get in order to do
the open investigation.
Examples of research questions student could formulate
Figure 3 Example of a part of a demonstration worksheet,
concerning the human speech analysis:
experimental setup and results gained by measurement. - What, I any, is the difference in amplitude and
frequency between vowels a, e, o and u? Which
B. Guided discovery property can be used best to distinguish them?
Students working in groups of 2-3 explore the uniform - How to approach orally the sound of a tuning fork?
motion of a sailor or uniformly accelerated motion of a - Analysis and recognition of the sound pattern of the
cyclist. Students verify previously introduced kinematic world Earth.
concepts and relationships following step to step
instructions in their worksheets (fig.4). - How do we recognize gender in the same vowels a, e
and u? Man versus woman.
- Comparison of the spectrum of a flute and a singing
Measuring procedure: voice, producing the same note.
Play the video. Describe the sailor´s motion.
Measure the position of the sailor (choose as a video point
location). Find out:
The video is already scaled (4m horizontal ruler on the How the position, speed and
sailboat, frame rate of 5 frames per second). acceleration changes with time
The horizontal position versus time graph of your during the fall.
measurements appears on the screen. How the force acting on a jumper
Assignment: changes with time.
Describe the motion of the sailor. Check the validity of the law of
What was the initial position of the sailor? energy conservation.
What was the final position of the sailor?
How long was the motion?
What can you deduce about the sailor's speed?
Figure 4. Example of a part of the uniform motion guided discovery Figure 5. Example of a guided inquiry activity on the bungee jumper
worksheet, scaled video screenshot and experimental results. fall.
C. Guided inquiry
Students are given a problem, e.g. what the bungee If we put two different bulbs in the holders one of them
jumper fall looks like. Students working in groups of 2-3 will light up later then the other. There is a noticeable
can be given directions or extensive instructions in the delay between the two bulbs. Explain.
worksheet. They can do the investigation on the
prerecorded videclip or a real experiment with a weight
attached to the rubber string (fig.5).
D. Bounded inquiry
Students are given a problem, but the way how to solve
it has to be decided by the students. They can be given just
a small help. In fig. 6 there is an example from electricity
about the changing brightness of two different bulbs in a
dc circuit when closing the circuit. Students are given
materials and they decide an experiment to carry out to
explain this phenomenon. In this case they should
understand that for the bulb brightness the power
dissipated is crucial. Then they decide what quantities to
measure and what to compare in order to draw Figure 6 Example of a bounded inquiry on the bulbs behaviour and
conclusions. experimental results.
– 117 –
Z. Ješková et al. • Inquiry-based Learning in Science Enhanced by Digital Technologies
Human speech analysis dates back to the mid twentieth But this is not enough. The key element of the teaching
century and has been an active field of research ever since. process is a well-educated teacher who is familiar with the
Governments eagerly made and make use of it. Recently, methodology of IBSE. Hence, the continuous in-service
commercial applications come into play as well, with the teacher training as well as pre-service teacher training is
development of passive and active speech computers, an inevitable assumption to the successful implementation
robotics, automation and security. of this way of teaching. Nevertheless, there are still some
This is an open investigation. Formulate a research open questions, e.g. concerning student assessment within
question connected to sound signal analysis, which you IBSE that have not been answered yet. However, the
would like to investigate. Perform your investigation to currently running projects activities indicate a promising
answer your research questions. Prepare a presentation
about the results of your investigation for your classmates. start with a hopeful follow-up towards the expected
changes in education.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank all the co-authors of the
publications The use of ICT in physics – primary schools
and The use of ICT in physics - secondary schools for
their cooperation. We also thank the partners of the
international FP7 project Establish (No. 244749), for the
Figure 7 Example of a part of the worksheet aimed at human speech motivation towards promoting the idea of Inquiry based
open inquiry activity. science education. This work is the result of the national
projects Modernization of the education at primary and
V. IMPLEMENTATION OF IBSE IN PHYSICS CLASSES secondary schools (ITMS project codes: 26110130083,
To implement IBSE enhanced by digital technologies in 26140130013, 26110130084, 26140130014) supported by
classrooms is not an easy task. The success of the the European Social Fund as well as the international 7FP
educational reform requires consonance of many elements project ESTABLISH (European Union´s Seventh
to be taken into account, such like improvements in Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant
teacher training, change in curricula and student
agreement n° 244749).
assessment as well as instructional materials available for
easy use of teachers. The currently running educational
reform strongly emphasizes the necessity of scientific
inquiry in physics education. On the other hand, very little
has been done in order to wide successful implementation.
There is still a lack of appropriate instructional materials
and well-educated teachers. Teachers should understand
what inquiry means, what activities they can carry out
with their students, what levels are appropriate for their
students, etc. in order to move from teacher-centered
education to student-centered inquiry lessons and labs.
There are several national and international projects
currently running in Slovakia trying to help in this field. REFERENCES
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education at primary and secondary schools [5] has knowledge integration framework for instruction, in Internet
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already prepared instructional materials for the use of P.Bell, Editors.2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ
physics teachers [6, 7]. Within the project 543 physics p.47-72
teachers participate at 5 days course on how to develop [2] National Science Educational Standards, National Committee on
competencies on the use of IBSE methods enhanced by Science Education Standards and Assessment, National Research
digital competencies. The project activities are supported Council, 1995, Washington, National Academic Press
by e-learning platform offering a wide selection of [3] Llewellyn, D., Inquire Within, implementing inquiry based
instructional materials for an easy-use of teachers. The science standards, 2002, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA
Slovak national project is in a good consonance with an [4] Wenning, C., Levels of Inquiry: Hierarchies of pedagogical
international 7FP project ESTABLISH [8]. Within this practices and inquiry processes. 2005 Journal of Physics Teacher
project of a consortium of partners from 11 European Education Online, 2(3), 3-11
countries there are instructional materials for teachers and [5] Slovak National Project Modernizácia vzdelávania na základných
a stredných školách, available at
students currently being prepared. This is followed by in- https://www.modernizaciavzdelavania.sk/
service and pre-service teacher training in this field. [6] Ješková, Z. et col., Využitie IKT v predmete fyzika pre stredné
školy, pre ÚIPŠ vydala Elfa, s.r.o. Košice, ISBN 978-80-8086-
VI. CONCLUSION 146-9, 2010
The success of the effective use of IBSE method [7] Duľa, I. et col., Využitie IKT v predmete fyzika pre stredné školy,
pre ÚIPŠ vydala Elfa, s.r.o. Košice, ISBN 978-80-8086-154-4,
enhanced by digital technologies in the class depends on 2010
the consonance of several elements that have to be taken [8] Establish project, available at http://www.establish-fp7.eu/
into account. Change in curriculum and educational
materials available for teachers are a good starting point.
– 118 –
Dynamic network reconfiguration based

on application measurements with the goal
of network traffic optimization
Martin Tkačik, Katarína Kleinová, Peter Feciľak
Dept. of Computers and Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Technical University of Košice
Letná 9, 04001 Košice, Slovakia
Email: ¶Martin.Tkacik,Katarina.Kleinova,Peter.Fecilak♦@cnl.sk
Abstract—Problems of quality management of various types transmitted voice over IP network which is being
of communications in the IP network is becoming important monitored. With the goal of obtaining VoIP network
increasingly, because of a growing amount of transferring parameters we have developed a VoIP analyzer. To
data. This paper explains the basic operation of VoIP communicate with the VoIP analyzer an own
technology, problems concerning the reduction of
communication protocol has been developed.
transmitted voice quality caused by network load factor,
and ways of solving these problems. This work also deals III. ANALYSIS
with methods for detection of network topology and
automatic reconfiguration of network devices. The aim of
A. Quality of VoIP Communication
this work is an automatic network reconfiguration in the
interest of optimize VoIP traffic. For the purposes of achieving a certain quality of
voice applications over the Internet, certain criteria for
Keywords—optimization, management, measuring, VoIP, IP value of transmission parameters are required. Whereas
network, detection, load balance, QoS, IP SLA, LDAP, calling is a real-time communication, the first place in
CDP, SNMP requirements have low delay and jitter [1]. Those
requirements are followed by low error rate, which may
I. INTRODUCTION
be delivery of damaged packets, delivery in a wrong
IP network is used for transferring messages order, or in the worst case packet loss rates. A list of
demanding for low latency and for messages requiring basic network parameters and their requirements for the
error-free transmissions. Transmissions such as voice and use of VoIP communication is seen in Table I.
video have significantly different requirements for TABLE I.
transfering like computer data in the form of files, photos TYPE SIZES FOR CAMERA-READY PAPERS
or documents [1]. To ensure the quality of the Quality of sound Excellent Fair Bad
transmission, the Quality of Services (QoS) methods are bitrate [kbps] 2 – 64 (depending on the audiocodec)
being used. Individual communication links are not packetloss [%] 0-0,5 0,5-1,5 Above 1,5
constant and it is necessary to dynamically adjust the delay [ms] 0-150 150-400 Above 300
jitter [ms] 0-20 20-50 Above 50
rules governing the routing of data in the network.
In this paper the methods used for detection of With the goal of achieving the required quality of a
network topology on the 3rd layer of the OSI model are particular VoIP connection, increased priority for the
analyzed. The search of alternative routes between network transition or distribution of data sent via multiple
routers, the valuation of lines, application optimization parallel paths can be configured.
commands for routers and ongoing exporting of current Changing priority is a part of QoS techniques, which
information to an external server is also part of our consists of the sign of each packet under its competence to
solution. transmission, which we want to influence. Identification is
The aim of this work is to develop a tool which will carried out on the basis of data (IP, port) about sender and
help network administrators to prevent poor quality on recipient. For the marked packets the rules can be
real-time communication and thus the poor clarity of assigned for prioritized processing at routers [2].
human speech which is transmitted by VoIP technology Distribution of traffic on several routes leads to a
assuming that the reduced quality is caused by reduction of bandwidth that is used for the current route.
overloaded communication links in the network. This method is called loadbalancing. Its implementation in
this particular case was by using configuration of static
II. GOALS routes (static routing has increased priority over the
dynamic routing protocols) and load-sharing. This makes
The goal of this work is to develop a fully it possible to have rules on the network with an even
autonomous software running on the background of
operating system, where it can manage the quality of
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 119 –

M. Tkačik et al. • Dynamic Network Reconfiguration Based on Application Measurements with the Goal of Network Traffic Optimization
higher priority for routing, for example policy based out by gcc compiler. It is distributed in the form of a
routing. single deb package. After installing and restarting the PC,
NTT starts during Linux boot process. After an automatic
B. IP network topology discovery start, NTT is running in the background of OS in the form
CDP and SNMP protocols can be used with the goal of a daemon. Setting up all necessary parameters can be
of topology discovery [3]. For their utilization it is done by a configuration file, which is always loaded
necessary to be active on each router to which it is when applications is launching. While program is
necessary to communicate. The router’s SNMP MIB running, the processing of procedures is possible to
database can be used to obtain any information about the manage only by telnet connection. It is possible through
router. The list of neighboring routers of active router is telnet server compiled in NTT. This interface offers the
possible to obtain, when protocols SNMP and CDP are ability to enter execution instructions for reconfiguration,
cooperating. restoring data to an LDAP server, display current
C. Valuation of lines quality information concerning the structure of IP networks,
display information about current VoIP communications,
IP SLA service is the most suitable method to gather etc. Detailed reports of actually performed actions can be
network parameters with the goal of analyzing qualitative observed in statements in the console, in which NTT is
parameters of network environment [5]. IP SLA is an running.
intrusive method simulating a particular type of traffic on
the network and the transmission parameters measured on
this traffic provides a numerical rating. This result defines
the current state of the line, which may be obtained from
each router by SNMP.
D. Analysis of a VoIP connection
VoIP analyzer, which was developed as a part of this
work, allows us to list ongoing active VoIP connections.
This tool, based on sniffing SIP [4] and RTP packets,
determines which call is currently active and also detects
packet loss rates and delay variations of this Figure 1. Software tools schematic layout
communication. The resulting information is periodically
Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of a test
sent by its own protocol to the newly - developed tool for environment. In this environment there were 3 final
managing network traffic ability. subnets. On subnet 192.168.40.0/24 was ran 3 PCs with
E. Remote control of routers different operating systems, as shown. Application
Speedlimiter on Debian was used to generate synthetic
SSH or telnet are protocols which are mainly used for traffic. Application VoIPmeter on Win 7 was used as a
remote administration of systems via interactive VoIP analyzer and sending out all the information of
command line tool. This method also appears as the most ongoing calls to the NTT via custom protocol named
appropriate method for automated control of routers using ”Information Protocol VoIP”(VIP). SIP server has served
the software. Responses to the expected answers of as a registration server for SIP phones. On the Ubuntu
devices during ssh connection is possible to solve by an system there was running the test application ”Network
external tool ”expect” [6]. It processes in advance Topology Tool” and LDAP server. Each of the remaining
generated script that contain expected questions and two subnets includes one Win XP with installed software
responses to them. SIP phone ”X-Lite”. All communication between subnets
192.168.141.0/24 and 192.168.186.0/24 has been
F. Export of informations redirected so that it passes through the network card in the
All information gathered about the structure of the system Win 7. With this modification it is possible to
network and current ongoing calls should be exported to a detect phone connection between the X-Lite phones using
the VoIPmeter.
standalone server for the possibility of usage in additional
applications. Given the expected utilization of developed
tool in place of Computer Networks Laboratory at the
Technical University in Kosice, technology of directory
services by LDAP server was selected [7]. This
technology enables the creation of tree structure of
objects and each object keeps certain information about
itself.
IV. SOLUTION AND RESULTS
A. Developed tool and testing environment

The final result of this work is the application
environment called ”Network Topology Tool”(NTT). Figure 2. One of the test environment
This tool was programmed in C language and compiled
– 120 –
Figure 2 shows one of the tested IP networks. These The main difference in testing loadbalance
networks were used for testing the detection of structure, optimization versus QoS optimization was, that sending
finding alternative routes between routers, as well as for packets through different routes, although the same
automated reconfiguration of routers. In Figure 3 there is a qualitative valuation (such routes are the preferred by
segment of statement from telnet interface of NTT tool, NTT tool), may cause delivery of packets in wrong order.
which contains a text description of monitored network
topology. Concrete, information of router R4 can be seen. V. CONCLUSION
The aim of this work was to create applications, that
will run on the background of linux operating system,
where they will autonomously manage network traffic,
focusing on optimization of VoIP communications.
With the tool ”Network Topology Tool” is automatic
detection of IP network structure available. With the
information obtained directly from the network and with
information of ongoing calls it is possible to
automatically reconfigure a group of routers. This
reconfiguration may be accomplished by distribution load
or by increasing the priority of critical communications.
QoS optimization provides the necessary effect of
increasing the quality of transmitted voice. Method of
loadbalance, in case of absence of buffer on the recipient
side, could adversely affect quality of communication.
Figure 3. An extract of the detected IP network by “Network For this reason it would be appropriate to replace the
Topology Tool”
distribution of communications for redirect
communication. Redirection would be undertaken
B. Progress and results of testing through a less busy Path.
Testing optimization process based to the loadblanacing Suitable continuation of this work would extend its
and QoS is the same, except the point where the mention support for IPv6, or addition program based on updated
of that specific method was used and in results of testing. data on LDAP server for drawing the entire network
The sequence of events during the testing of Automatic topology and displaying parameters of elements.
QoS reconfiguration of network topology to optimize
VoIP communication was as follows: VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by The Slovak Cultural and
1. Manual start NTT application environment and Educational Grant Agency of Ministry of Education of
application VoIPmeter. NTT perform the whole Sslovak Republic (KEGA) under the contract no.
initialization process (detect network topology, etc.). 3/7245/09(60%). This work is also the result of the
2. Start a phone call between the X-Lite phones. project implementation: Development of The Center of
VoIPmeter captures start of VoIP communication and Information and Communication Technologies for
detects communication ports for RTP transmission. Knowledge Systems (Project number: 26220120030)
This event is sent to NTT. Supported by The Research & Development Operational
3. Transmission of RTP data with voice data in progress. Program funded by The ERDF (40%).
VoIPmeter monitors the transfer and calculate
transmission parameters, which are then sent to NTT. VII. REFERENCES
4. Launch an application ”Speedlimiter” for generating [1] WALLACE, K. VoIP bez pedchozch znalost. translated by
synthetic data to simulate network traffic. J.Gregor. 1st ed. Brno: ComputerPress a.s., 2007. 231 p.
ISBN 978-80-251-1458-2
5. NTT tool according to data from VoIPmeter detects
[2] WANG, Z. 2001. Internet QoS : architectures and mechanisms for
that the packet loss and jitter rates increases. In excess Quality of Service. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers,
of the threshold, automatic reconfiguration takes place. 2001, 239 p. ISBN 1-55860-608-4
This is done by expect scripts with [3] MAURO, D., SCHMIDT, K. Essential SNMP. 2nd ed.
dynamicallygenerated instructions for setting Assured Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media, 2005. 460 p. ISBN 0-596-00840-6
Forwarding and Expedited Forwarding, as part of QoS [4] RUSSELL, T. 2008. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): Controlling
optimization. Convergent Networks. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies,
6. After completion of optimization process, the 2008. 264 p. ISBN 0-07-148852-9
transmission parameters of the phone connection [5] CISCO SYSTEMS, Inc. Cisco IOS IP SLAs Configuration Guide:
Release 12.4. San Jose: Cisco Systems, Inc., 2008. 271 p.
return to normal.
[6] LIBES, D. Exploring Expect. Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media, 1994.
7. Termination of VoIP connection. VoIPmeter detects 608 p. ISBN 978-1-56592-090-3
this event and communicates it to NTT. The ”Network [7] VOGLMAIER, R. 2004. The ABCs of LDAP: How to Install,
Topology Tool” setup all reconfigured routers to its Run, and Administer LDAP Services. Boca Raton:Auerbach
original form on the basis of information about Publications CRC Press Company, 2004. 440 p. ISBN 0-8493-
completion of call connection. 1346-5
– 121 –
Reverse Engineering as an Education Tool in

Computer Science
Ivan Klimek, Marián Keltika and František Jakab
Computer Networks Laboratory, Technical University Košice, Slovakia
(ivan.klimek, marian.keltika, frantisek.jakab)@tuke.sk
Abstract - The concept of Reverse Engineering is used in University) [5]. Cipresso divides RE into two categories:
many fields of IT every day, to name just a few: legacy Software development related and Security related as
compatibility, binary code patching, malware analysis, shown on Figures 2 and 3. He also states that one of the
network protocols analysis, debugging or even rapid strongest motivations why teach RE is Legacy software
prototyping. Despite its broad use, reverse engineering is not maintenance and proves his point by stating that about
actively taught as a part of computer science courses. This 70% of the source code in the entire world is still written
paper tries to provide a survey of some of the real life usage in COBOL: "Since it's cost-prohibitive to rip and replace
scenarios of reverse engineering, analyzes what skills and billions of lines of legacy code, the only reasonable
ways of thinking are developed by reverse engineering and alternative has been to maintain and evolve the code,
provides examples how reverse engineering could be taught often with the help of concepts found in software reverse
by practical problem solving, introducing creative thinking engineering." Figure 1 illustrates the process of
models and strategies. We focus on the importance of maintaining legacy software systems.
reverse engineering as a tool to ignite the self-motivation of
students and systematically build their logical thinking
capabilities and analytical skills.
I. INTRODUCTION
Since the beginning of time the natural way of thinking
was to "reverse engineer" the nature; flame, tools,
Newton's apple, nuclear fusion all of them are just
examples of understanding an external process, not
necessarily deep understanding but enough to be able to
use it for our own purpose. For thousands of years man
did not understand the chemical process of flame and we
still don't know if gravitation has its own particle or not.
We look at these processes as black-boxes, describe
Figure 1. The process of maintaining legacy software systems
experimentally determined properties and just use them.
Such way of thinking is called top-down - it starts from a
complex system and tries to decompose it into sub-parts
[1, 2, 3, 4]. This way reverse engineering allows to focus Development related software reverse engineering
only on the important detail through abstracting all - for scenarios include:
the given task - unimportant details, for example use the
fire to cook without caring about how it works. • Achieving Interoperability with Proprietary
Interestingly, the whole education system takes the Software: Develop applications or device drivers that
opposite approach - “forward engineering” - builds from inter-operate (use) proprietary libraries in operating
scratch, layer upon layer of adding complexity, which is systems or applications.
also called a bottom-up approach. We don't aim to replace
• Verification that Implementation Matches Design:
the current system, we just want to provide a different
point of view that is normally not taught and as we will Verify that code produced during the forward
show can be helpful in various situations where it can development process matches the envisioned design
solve normally unsolvable problems or greatly reduce the by reversing the code back into an abstract design.
complexity of the solution.1 • Evaluating Software Quality and Robustness:
Ensure the quality of software before purchasing it by
II. REVERSE ENGINEERING performing heuristic analysis of the binaries to check
The practical aspects of Reverse Engineering (RE) for certain instruction sequences that appear in poor
were already studied deeply in the thesis Software reverse quality code.
engineering education by T. Cipresso (San José State • Legacy Software Maintenance, Re-engineering,
and Evolution: Recover the design of legacy
1 software modules when source is not available to
For the purposes of this paper we will use the term “Reverse
Engineering” (RE) as a synonym for Software Reverse Engineering make possible the maintenance, evolution, and reuse
(SRE) and Reverse Code Engineering (RCE) of the modules.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 123 –

I. Klimek et al. • Reverse Engineering as an Education Tool in Computer Science
Figure 2. Development related software reverse engineering Figure 3. Security related software reverse engineering scenarios
scenarios
As a matter of fact we are not the first to formulate

Security related software reverse engineering this idea as a famous quote by Admiral William Halsey
scenarios include: proves: "There are no great men, only great challenges
that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet."
• Detecting and Neutralizing Viruses and Malware:
Detect, analyze, or neutralize (clean) malware, Imagine being repeatedly forced to overcome all
viruses, spyware, and adware. expectations. Overcome your own limits and do what you
• Testing Cryptographic Algorithms for never thought possible. By the repeated exposure to this
Weaknesses: Test the level of data security provided practice build self-confidence and boost ego. Ego
by a given cryptographic algorithm by analyzing it for boosting is naturally addictive and thus a form of self-
weaknesses. motivation to overcome challenges [7]. Reverse
• Testing DRM or License Protection (anti- engineering is perfect for ego boosting because results
reversing): Protect software and media digital-rights can be obtained fast and without vast prior knowledge.
through application and testing of anti-reversing
techniques. To prove this statement we could look at why RE is
• Auditing the Security of Program Binaries: Audit a so popular amongst certain engineers. An example of a
program for security vulnerabilities without access to group that reverse engineers software for enjoyment is
the source code by scanning instruction sequences for CORE which stands for "Challenge of Reverse
potential exploits. Engineering" [8]. Another example could be the recent
high-profile hacking attacks of LulzSec, who draw their
name from the neologism "Lulz", (from LOLs), "laughing
III. REVERSE ENGINEERING IN EDUCATION
out loud", which often signifies laughter at the victim of a
Some universities already tried integrating Reverse prank, and "Sec," short for "Security" [9]. The same
Engineering techniques with traditional computer science factors that motivate these engineers to take the extreme
courses; one example is the University of Missouri-Rolla. risks of high-profile hacking/cracking could and should
The results were very encouraging, 77% students be used in a controlled manner to motivate students.
indicated that introducing reverse engineering
methodology reinforced concepts taught during lectures. Classical learning approach of forward engineering
Furthermore, 82% wanted it to be blended in future could be then compared to reverse engineering as
courses, especially those that dealt with design [6]. learning for success to learning through success.
Both mentioned approaches (San José State This logic can be simply demonstrated on an example
University and University of Missouri-Rolla) are trying to RE task, an application binary is provided and the
integrate reverse engineering into their coursework by students are asked to change the behavior of the
focusing only on its practical usage completely application without access to the neither source code nor
disregarding its deeper pedagogical value which we are documentation. The only technique applied is the
going to explore in the following text. execution flow control using a debugger2. A very basic
knowledge of the Assembler programming language is
Motivation comes in two forms, intrinsic and extrinsic required so that the students can monitor and control the
[7]. We are going to cover the intrinsic motivation also chain of execution3. Students need to explore the
called: self-motivation, which is the ability of oneself to behavior of the application, use analytical skills to
push and continue on a path even when obstacles are identify which part of it is important to focus on, find the
encountered without influence from other people. Clearly
self-motivation is a critical trait of a successful engineer
2
and is necessary to be able to solve problems For example using OllyDbg which is an x86 debugger that emphasizes
independently. We argue that self-motivation is to some on binary code analysis, which is useful when source code is not
available.
extent a learned trait, learned by experience. 3
Basic knowledge of jumps, calls and returns should suffice.
– 124 –
corresponding code and trace the execution flow until assignment. The only way how they could manage would
they realize the exact instructions defining the application be to look for existing solutions like libraries or whole
behavior that they have been asked to modify. Using a applications which they could combine to create a system
systematic experimental approach they modify the with the desired functionality. To make the educational
localized set of instructions and monitor the resulting point clearer they would not need to make it actually run,
behavior until the given goal is accomplished. The but just understand the API or functional parts and be
students just created their first binary patch, or we could able to combine them using pseudo-code. The simplest
say their first software "crack"4. We suppose the broad and most elegant solution should be rewarded. This way
majority of students although came into contact with the students would realize that it is possible to accomplish
software “cracks” never thought they would be able to far more than they thought in a limited time frame by
create one on the first lesson of a course. dissecting a complex system into sub-parts and reusing
existing solutions.
The same scenario can be varied depending on the
level of prior knowledge of the Assembler language for IV. CONCLUSIONS
example the execution flow could be diverted by If we define hacking as the art of creative problem
understanding the logic comparisons and changing the solving [10], reverse engineering is the art of problem
"cmp" instructions accordingly. Or a "key generator" dissecting and thus a critical part of any efficient problem
could be reverse-engineered based on the understanding solving process. In this paper we presented ideas how
of the key verification process. reverse engineering can be used to ignite student self-
motivation, systematically build their logical thinking
capabilities and analytical skills. With the exponential
The subject of reverse engineering is not limited to growth of the amount of information necessary to solve
dissecting application binaries, network protocols are an IT-related problems or to compete in the global workforce
interesting target too. We could look at them as on market, it is crucial to understand that there are only two
input/output of an application and by understanding them, options where the education system can be headed. Either
understand the application. Transport Layer Security try to compete with population rich countries like India or
(TLS) resp. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) are the most China using the traditional bottom-up approach focusing
commonly known cryptographic protocols that provide on skills and information that keep changing at a growing
communication security over the Internet. They are used rate or try to augment the education system with
in applications such as web browsing, electronic mail, techniques like reverse engineering to focus on teaching
Internet faxing, instant messaging and voice-over-IP how to think creatively instead. We argue that with the
(VoIP). The students could be asked to reverse engineer right way of thinking and a systematical approach, all
problems are solvable. Reverse engineering is the art that
an SSL-protected protocol using a network proxy5.
teaches these skills. Due to its importance we sincerely
Analyze it and either simulates a Man-in-the-Middle hope that reverse engineering will be integrated into
attack or a client that could use the network provided computer science education either as a standalone course
service without the original software. Again, analytical or as a part of existing courses.
thinking would be required to manage the "complexity"
of the protocol, focus at one layer of complexity at a time ACKNOWLEDGMENT
and work their way down through it. With only limited
This work was supported by the Slovak Cultural and
prior knowledge the students would accomplish to "hack"
Educational Grant Agency of Ministry of Education of
a protocol protected with the same mechanism that
Slovak Republic (KEGA) under the contract No.
protects most of the Internet within a single lesson. Of
3/7245/09 (60%). This work is also the result of the
course the goal is just to open the door for the students, so
project implementation Development of the Center of
that they realize they are able to accomplish more than
Information and Communication Technologies for
they thought. Further exploitation of the protocol could
Knowledge Systems (project number: 26220120030)
be given as homework; the most creative student could be
supported by the Research & Development Operational
rewarded.
Program funded by the ERDF (40%).
As already mentioned, the top-down approach REFERENCES
employed by reverse engineering is extremely valuable [1] Niklaus Wirth, “Program development by stepwise refinement,”
for example also for rapid prototyping. Let's say the Communications of the ACM, 14(4):221–227, April 1971.
students would be given the task of prototyping a system [2] Gerald M. Weinberg. The Psychology of Computer Programming.
too complex to develop from scratch, further they would New York: Dorset House, 1998.
be given only a very limited time to fulfill the [3] Eldad Eilam. Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering.
Indianapolis: Wiley, 2005.
[4] Mark Stamp. Information Security Principles and Practice. New
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Software cracking is the modification of software to remove or disable Jersey: Wiley, 2006.
features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the [5] Cipresso, Teodoro, Software Reverse Engineering Education.
software. SJSU Master's Thesis, 2009.
5 [6] Muhammad Raza Ali, "Why teach reverse engineering?," ACM
For example the Fiddler debugging proxy could be used to analyze
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Review of Economic Studies, 70: 489–520, 2003.
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I. Klimek et al. • Reverse Engineering as an Education Tool in Computer Science
[8] Wikipedia (2011), "Reverse engineering," available:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering [accessed 15
Sep 2011].
[9] Wikipedia (2011), "LulzSec," available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LulzSec [accessed 15 Sep 2011].
[10] Erickson, Jon. Hacking the Art of Exploitation. 2nd ed. San
Francisco, Calif: No Starch, 2008.
– 126 –
Curriculum as an event hierarchy model

J. Lang, V. Krajčovič
Institute of Informatics and Software Engineering
Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies
Slovak University of Technology
Ilkovičova 3, 84216 Bratislava 4, Slovakia
lang@fiit.stuba.sk, krajov@gmail.com
Abstract—Activity plays an important role in human life. composite - a complex event. For example, information
Psychology as scientific discipline knows several categories security (treatment against the intrusion of SQL injection),
of activities, motivations to activity, their characteristics etc. GUI implementation with a box for username and
A significant group of these activities expects some password, editing the general conditions of use web site
cognitions, knowledge and skills. We identify particular services, functionality for registration in the case that we
relations, arrangement respectively event hierarchy, which haven’t login data (we are not registered) may represent a
is represented by expression of requested knowledge. decomposition of complex event. The complex event will
Existing knowledge is not sufficient for execution certain be a requirement to implement the authentication form
activities. Therefore it is necessary to interact with the new web site. Analogous to the approach applied in the EDA
content - holder of such knowledge. This paper provides an and CEP we can finalize the hierarchical structures in the
alternative way of identifying of content curriculum by area of the curriculum. Such processing of content will
analogy to the technology of Complex Event Processing and provide useful solutions - event handlers - useful
Event Driven Architecture. Identified content is a key in throughout the life of a man. Learning process assumes a
relation to national-education program creating as well as hierarchy in which the content of complex events can be
school-education program. Proposed method is broken down into elementary events. Complex event
implemented by modelling tool EDUMO. aggregates elementary events and present higher logical
meaning than elementary events. Event is usually
I. INTRODUCTION represented by an object, containing information on
activities carried out in the system [4].
There are already many different systems to support Event may be linked to other events. Event consists of 3
learning in the form of Learning Management Systems aspects:
LMS, Content Management Systems and the like. Each
has proposed ways to address curriculum content. • Form - Form event is an object which may contain
However, none of them solve the problems of redundancy, attributes or data. Form may be something simple
reusability and maintainability of content curriculum. One like a string or a complex tuple data. This data may
of the objectives of our research was to verify the include data such as: the implementation period of
customary procedure (software modeling) of similar activity, place of origin, source of an event, a
processes in other application domains and thus to work description of importance and dependencies.
towards an outcome that could be described as the • Significance – Event represents an activity. This
minimum required content of the curriculum model for activity is called the importance of the event. Event
achieving a certain level of education. Analogy of concept usually contains data that describe the importance
of Complex Event Processing CEP, Complex Event of activities.
Hierarchies with events of normal human life • Relativity - The activities are linked to other
(implementation of professional skills, the key activities through time, causality or aggregation.
competencies etc.) was the motivation to the way how to
create models of desirable content curriculum. CEP as a Example of a class of events may look like this:
relatively newly established technology for creating and
managing information systems, including [4], monitoring Class InputEvent
business activities, management of business processes, {
integrate business applications, event-driven architecture, Name NewOrder;
network security and business level, in compliance with Event_Id E_ID;
real-time control and the policies used techniques for Customer Id;
detection of complex patterns events in the event cloud
OrderNo O_Id;
processing streams of events, event correlation and
abstraction, event hierarchies, and relations between Order (CD X, Book …);
events. Time T;
Causality (Id1, Id2, …);
II. ANALOGY BETWEEN CEP AND CMS EVENT }
CONCEPT
During the process of learning a variety of events occur Relationships which may arise between events are as
that affect its course and level of knowledge of the learner. follows [4]:
Discrete events in certain combinations represent a
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 127 –

J. Lang and V. Krajčovič • Curriculum as an Event Hierarchy Model
• Time relationship - defines the ordering of events

in time. For example, event A occurred before
event B.
• Causal relationship - to determine that event was
triggered by another event. For example, event A
triggered event B.
• Aggregation – if event A was triggered by more
than one event e.g. B1, B2, Bn .. then A is referred
to as the aggregated event and B1, B2, Bn are
members of the event A. Event A is also called
complex event.
Figure 2. Function definition example

An example of event hierarchy is graphically
illustrated in Figure 1. Figure includes four events:
Message sent, Message received, Acknowledgment and Let's analyze the example of an aggregate event of
Message delivered. network communication environment as shown in Figure
1. There are three elementary events: Message sended,
The first three are causally dependent on each other. So
Message received and Acknowledged. These three events
the event Message sent binds report Message received,
are aggregated by the event Message delivered, and this
which then runs the adoption event Confirmed. These
event is of higher logical importance.
three events together are aggregated by the event Message
is delivered. In CEP systems the event Message is A. Complex event example
received (complex event) is represented as a rule. Rule
compliance checks three input conditions. A more complex example of events hierarchies is listed
for the PHP language course at beginner level. The events
The analogy itself is a powerful means to solve in the hierarchy are drawn from the pages of W3C [6].
problems, and based on the mimic. Software engineering The whole hierarchy is divided into 3 levels, as shown in
was influenced by analogy to the architecture of buildings Figure 3. Event marked with the capital letter A is
(see the work of Christopher Alexander). Later Clemens et different from others because it is a prerequisite for the
al. used the software architecture analogy to a living proposed event-whole hierarchy. It is assumed that a
student who wants to undergo the PHP course passed the
course of HTML. Complex event marked by the letter B
represents the aim of the model. The complex event is a
composite of low-level events. This event has already
associated the learning content. This fact is indicated by
the checkbox marked with the letter D. Point C marks an
event that is optional. This means that for successful
course is not necessary to control the content of that
optional event.
In this event hierarchy can be traced similar features,
Figure 1. Event hierarchy of part a network communication which are also found in other programming languages.
organism [1]. And so the analogy has become in our case Events marked with a blue circle are events that are
means for identifying the minimum necessary content. general in nature for most programming languages.
Processing of such minimum event hierarchies makes
III. PROOF OF CONCEPT "Event API" for different areas of learning. Such "Event
API" could create something like a framework for creating
For verification objectives we have designed a software curriculum.
tool EDUMO. With this tool, we suggested a few
exemplary models. Figure 2 is a part of a model that B. Collaboration
captures complex event - function definition in certain In addition to the use of analogy to create curriculum
programming language. The hierarchy consists of four we use to create the minimum necessary content and
events. There are events: Function without return value, collaborative processing of identified events.
Function with return value and Function with parameters. Collaboration consists of two steps. The first step is
These are events at the lowest level. Functions with no manual. Created model contains all the events necessary
return value and with return value are independent of each to achieve the intended purpose. Identifying these events
other. Function with parameters is causally dependent on there is a cloud of events. To create a curriculum is needed
both of them. While the student learns to create functions at least two domain experts. Those following the
with appropriate parameters is important to learn how to identification of event Cloud create models of education
create a function without parameters. These three according to their own ideas. This brings us several
functions are aggregated by the event Function definition. subjective models proposals. We assume that will not
So if a student manages handling of the three events from match. The second collaboration step is automatic. This
the lower level he actually controls all types of function step is based on an algorithm that performs penetration
definitions. Aggregated events in the proposed software events and relationships of the available models. The
tool EDUMO are defined in declarative manner. result is the content which is acceptable to all involved.
– 128 –
Figure 3. Learning model for PHP Beginer Course
Graphical representation of the collaboration using operations that are carried out in the draft of models.
penetration of individual sets is shown in Figure 4. These are simple operations like add your event, delete
As a result we get a model that exists in three different event etc. There are also more complex operations as an
forms - graphical expression of models, XML file, in expression of the resulting events and the relations of the
which the model is saved and the SCORM format resulting collaborative model. To verify the accuracy of
notation Z/EVES tool was used and all tests took place
IV. OBJECTIVES correctly. The result of evaluation is presented in Figure 5.
Expression of the resulting events in the language Z is
To check the proposed method, we set the following following:
objectives:
• Evaluation of the proposed models specification \begin{schema}{GetIntersectedEvents}
• Proposed models of the content \Delta ModelEvents \\
• Export to SCORM testing and compatibility with \Delta ResultModelEvents\\
MOODLE LMS events1? : \power Events \\
During creating models of training, we tested the events2? : \power Events \\
mutual compatibility of the proposed methods and events3? : \power Events
modeling tools EDUMO. \where
resultEvents' = events1? \cap
A. Proposed models specification evaluation
events2? \cap events3?
In order to assess the accuracy of design models of \end{schema}
training, we chose we chose to rewrite the content in
B. Experimental models
During the investigation of the creation of minimum
required education models we have developed several
experimental models. These models were made
collaboratively. When creating experimental models, we
confirmed the hypothesis that people from the same area
do not create the same model. Therefore, we consider it
appropriate to use common features of available models.
During designing the models borderline situations may
occur. For example, all models will be completely
Figure 4. Resulting model of curriculum identical. This is the ideal situation, but very unlikely.
This case did not occur in our tests. It may also happen
language Z. The language Z is a mathematical language that the models are completely disjoint. If this occurs, it
for formal mathematical description of requirements. In will be appropriate to examine the level of understanding
the Z language are written mostly aggregated operations, of the intended objective. This case in our tests also did
which are carried out during models design time. In the Z not occur.
language definition of requirements we caught main
– 129 –
J. Lang and V. Krajčovič • Curriculum as an Event Hierarchy Model
C. Export compatibility with MOODLE learning • Faster retrieval of information contained in the
management system curriculum
To integrate with existing systems, we opted to export • Easier to transform the model into another format
• Portability between systems
• Easier processes automation
VI. FUTURE WORK

For the creation of courses in the LMS-based content
would be interesting to finalize the navigation in hierarchy
for purposes of knowledge measuring and understanding
of the hierarchy. User interface EDUMO is created in
such a form that meets the necessary functionality and not
always be user-friendly. Some actions should be resolved
by mouse movements such as induction of forms and the
like. Another interesting possibility could be the extension
of LMS system that can process models created in their
native form. Thus, a system that would create the
management of established models.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
The work is based on the analogy between the CEP
technology concept, the concept of EDA architecture and
the concept of events for identification of curriculum
content. Its minimal form, we have proposed to ensure by
Figure 5. Requirement evaluating with Z/EVES the collaborative approach. Given the fact that the models
were neither identical nor disjoint, the theoretical
the model to education world-wide used SCORM format. assumptions of the minimum curriculum content form
Export to this format, we tested with the system were confirmed in an embedded modeling tool EDUMO.
MOODLE [5]. The course does not support testing and The proposed models were transformed into formal
verification of knowledge yet. In the form in which it mathematical description for the purpose of verification.
appears now, it serves just as a resource for learning. To verify the accuracy of notation Z/EVES tool was used
EDUMO tool can generate HTML documents containing and all tests took place correctly. Finally we would like to
the content bounded by final model. make a recommendation for the specifications of the new
LMS systems requirements. It would by very interesting
V. DISCUSSION to incorporate the support for modeling the curriculum
The result of this work is a method and tool for creating content.
models of educational content. This describes the events
necessary to achieve a certain degree of academic or ACKNOWLEDGMENT
professional education. When designing the method we The work was supported by the Cultural and
took into consideration the ever-growing number of Educational Grant Agency of the Slovak Republic, grant
information which may include individual courses, and No. KEGA 345-032STU-4/2010.
therefore we propose a method which could produce the
smallest possible model. We have confirmed the
REFERENCES
hypothesis. People of the same environment created
different models for the same goal. In proposed approach [1] Clemens P. a kol.: Documenting Software Architectures. Views
of minimizing the content of the curriculum is found a few and Beyond 2nd Ed. 2010 Addison-Wesley. ISBN-13 978-
0201703726
problems that make them up:
[2] Hrúz, B., Ondráš, J., Flochová, J.: Discrete event systems - an
• The problem of ensuring a unique identifier for an approach to education. Istanbul: The 4th Symposium on Advances
event in Control Education, July 1997. p. 14-16.
• The problem with the events generated outside the [3] Lang J., Kákody J.: Inovácia obsahu vzdelávania vzdelávacieho
programu objektovo-orientovanou didaktickou transformáciou.
main hierarchy Trnava: AlumniPress, 2009. SCHOLA 2009. p. 256-261. ISBN
• The problem of determining the necessary content 978-80-8096-106-0.
• Problem with model representation [4] Luckham D.: The power of events. Boston : Addison-Wesley,
2007. ISBN 0201727897.
The curricula and syllabuses are only in text form. [5] MOODLE: [Online] [Date December, 5, 2010]
Created models of education across text form have the http://docs.moodle.org/en/About_Moodle.
following advantages: [6] W3C. Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition).
• They are transparent – they allow maintenance of W3C. [Online] [Date November, 26, 2010.]
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/.
large content
• You can perform update without the duplication of
parts
– 130 –
Geogebra - a complex digital tool for highly

effective math and science teaching
J. Hanč, S. Lukáč, J. Sekerák and D. Šveda
University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice / Faculty of Science, Slovakia
jozef.hanc@upjs.sk, stanislav.lukac@upjs.sk, jozef.sekerak@upjs.sk, dusan.sveda@upjs.sk
Abstract — Dynamic geometrical systems bring new tools feedback or dynamic changes of objects dependent on
for visualization and exploring mathematical ideas, the altered parameters. Aspects related to the
structures and relations in teaching of mathematics. Among provision of interactivity and feedback are further
this type of systems the Geogebra is coming to the fore these elaborate in [2]
days, thanks to its extensive options. In the methodical
textbooks for teachers created within Slovak national • use of models and simulations of the processes –
project “Modernization of education at primary and using digital technologies you can create various
secondary schools” Geogebra has an important position types of models for the representation of the objects
among used mathematical projects. This article introduces and mathematical structures and also you can execute
the main and the newest possibilities of the software simulation of the real processes.
environment Geogebra which joins dynamical geometry, All of the above also offer dynamic geometrical
work with algebraic expressions, graphs, spreadsheet, and systems and therefore also math teachers often use these
the CAS environment into an unique unit that can be usable systems to create digital teaching materials and
in teaching from primary school to university. contraptions.
Keywords — Digital literacy, Education, Mathematics, II. DYNAMIC GEOMETRICAL SYSTEMS

Dynamic geometry software.
Dynamic geometrical systems allow you to easily
construct geometrical shapes and by manipulation with the
I. INTRODUCTION objects examine and discover invariant characteristics of
the geometrical shapes and their mutual relations.
Meaningful and effective use of digital technologies in Connection of the algebraically specified rates,
teaching process can help with stimulation of active geometrical shapes and animations represents strong tool
learning and evolving of pupils’ positive attitude towards for experimental examination of geometrical models of
math and learning. Teaching supported by computer real situations and solving of various types mathematical
should be based not only on integration of digital problems.
technologies into traditional ways of teaching, it should
also respect the newest trends in the area of the teaching In general, the main reason for the integration of
theory and the newest results of the development of digital dynamic geometry systems into the teaching of
technology. mathematics is creation of an experimental, interactive
and dynamic environment conducive to active learning.
In the suggestions of the teaching process of the However if we compare tools and possibilities of
mathematical themes in the methodical textbooks for mentioned systems in introduction, it seems that Geogebra
teachers created within Slovak national project plays a special role.
“Modernization of education at primary and secondary
schools” are used various types of mathematical systems. The last version of Geogebra [3,4] became a powerful
The most common systems are: integrated software environment which combines in its
views (windows): algebra, graphics, spreadsheet, CAS and
• dynamic geometrical systems (Geogebra, Cabri II, construction all benefits of dynamic geometrical systems,
Cabri 3D, C.a.R), spreadsheets, graphic calculators, CAS systems. Since
• CAS-type programs (Wolframalpha, Mathematica, these views are mathematically connected and work in
Derive, Maxima) [1], perfect harmony, it makes from Geogebra so strong,
complex and unique program that now it has very
• spreadsheets (MS Excel, Google documents). important impacts on pedagogy in math and science
Digital technologies bring various potential options of teaching.
the improvement of the teaching process to the education. For example it is known [5, 6] that typically after any
The most proclaimed are: traditional instruction connections among ideas, concepts,
• visualization – to increase the plasticity you can use their formal representations, and the real world are often
static and dynamic graphical representation of the lacking. Because students can change interactively
data that allow you to create the adequate visual properties of exploring objects like lines, points or
imagination in pupils’ minds velocity or position vs. time graphs in any mentioned view
and see simultaneously what these changes cause in
• interactivity and dynamics - in educational remaining ones, Geogebra enables students to see
applications you can implement an immediate mathematical ideas as „living, breathing moving”.
response to external stimuli in the form of providing
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 131 –

J. Hanč et al. • Geogebra - a Complex Digital Tool for Highly Effective Math and Science Teaching
So that in any school subject using math this immediate Aforesaid relation indicates the fact that in nth step we
feedback gives students the opportunity to develop deeper add n new blocks to already built stairs. Recurrent
understanding than the traditional method of seeing only relations are in the spreadsheet realized simply by defining
static objects on a blackboard or on PC in the separated formulas with links to vicinal cells. In the figure 2 there is
types of software. a table created in described way along with graphic
It is also quite amazing that at present Geogebra has representation of the data.
tools developed in the project GeogebraTouch which
adjust the program for using at Interactive whiteboard
with all power of interactive whiteboards.
Previous Geogebra versions and applets created in them
were designed for desktop computers and laptops. So they
are not able to work on intelligent smartphones or tablets
like iPhone, Android, Windows phone or iPad.
However current Goegebra project GeoGebraMobile
[7] will soon allow the use of GeoGebra applets in modern
web browsers both on computers and new mobile phones.
This important step will permit students and teachers to
use GeoGebra’s large pool of dynamic materials on
virtually all devices with a web browser.
Figure 2. Numerical and graphical representation of data
Finally we should mention that Geogebra project called
GeogebraTube will provide a very simple, easy direct From equally increasing difference between vicinal
upload of any applet for sharing with students and rating terms of the sequence we can say that the sequence
and commenting in worldwide pedagogical community. indicates quadratic dependence. Analytical relation for
calculating nth term of the sequence can be described in
III. INTEGRATION OF GEOGEBRA INTO THE 2
METHODICAL TEXTBOOKS FOR MATH TEACHERS this form: s n = an + bn + c, a, b, c ∈ R.
In the methodical textbook the main tools of the chosen Deducing of analytical relation leads to the solution of
mathematical programs usable for support of math system of linear equations with an unknowns a, b, c. For
teaching are demonstrated. In the next part of the book the this purpose is possible to use CAS-type program.
choices of using mathematical programs in extending of Mathematical program WolframAlpha, which is available
dominant ICT competences of pupils in math teaching are online, will also formulate the analytic relation for
presented. ICT competences extended in separated calculating the nth term of sequence, after specifying the
dimensions of digital literacy are described in [8]. first few terms of sequence. This attribute is usable for
In extending the ICT competence Organizing data and checking of the results in the final step of solving the
explore relations the dynamic geometric systems and problem.
spreadsheet are mostly used. Solving problems using these All the aforesaid programs are integrated into the
programs can be part of systems of education elaborated program Geogebra, therefore all steps of solving the
in the form of interactive educating activities. As an problem are realizable with this program. The sample of
example we can use educating activity created in author's the possible solving of a problem using the program
system ToolBook Instructor focused on discovering the Geogebra is pictured in the figure 3.
attributes of tangent quadrangle [2].
In solving some problems various software systems are
used in separated steps of the solution. As an example we
can use a problem from the second chapter of methodical
textbook [9]: Children were building block stairs (see
figure 1). Figure out with how many blocks the stairs in
few next steps are built.
Figure 1. The first three steps of a building of stairs
For numerical and graphical representation of the data

the spreadsheet MS Excel is used. For finding the number
of the blocks in following steps of the building of the
stairs it is easier to use recurrent relation:
s n = s n−1 + n, s1 = 1.
Figure 3. Solving of the problem in Geogebra environment
– 132 –
In the figure 3 there are pictured four main components Similar interactive mathematical documents can be
of Geogebra, that are represented by Graphics, Algebra, created using Geogebra. We see the greatest possible use
Spreadsheet and CAS windows. Depending on active of GeoGebra for computer assisted learning of the
window the toolbar under the main menu adjusts. In the following topics of the methodical textbook:
Spreadsheet window you can work with the data and use
formulas and main functions in way similar to the
• planimetry – investigation of relationships between
elements of the right triangle, investigation of
program MS Excel. Data from the table are used for
modifications of Pythagorean theorem and its
finding points using coordinates. Defined points are
generalization, investigation of relationships
displayed in the Algebra window as depending objects. At
between angles in a circle, identification of the set
the same time they are pictured in the Graphics window.
of all points in the plane from which a given
The conic is brought forward through first five points,
segment is seen under the same angle,
using the eponymous geometric order.
For defining coefficients a, b, c in analytical relation for • Congruent and similarity transformations in the
calculating the nth term of the sequence we can use the plane – exploring the properties of axial symmetry
first three terms of the examined sequence. Received and their application in problem solving,
system of linear equations is written and solved in the composition of axial symmetries, creation and
CAS window. The results imply that analytical relation for investigation of the model of pantograf – real
defining the terms of the sequence can be described in this mechanical tool for zooming in and out of plane
form: figures,
• Elementary functions – investigation of functional
1 1 dependencies through their graphical
s n = n 2 + n. representations, investigation of properties of
2 2 functions, applications of linear, quadratic and
exponential functions to solving of real problems,
Analytical description of conic constructed in the • Derivation of functions – understanding concept of
Graphics window will be automatically listed among derivation of the function at a point using geometric
depending objects in the Algebra window. In this case the meaning, investigation of derivations of elementary
conic is parabola and is marked with c. For the set of all functions using graphical representations,
natural numbers is this description identical to the investigation of the properties of functions using
analytical relation for calculating the nth term of the derivation, use derivations to solve real problems
sequence. focused on finding extremes of functions,
IV. GEOGEBRA IN THE TEACHING OF SELECTED • Probability – modelling of random events and
MATHEMATICAL TOPICS analysis of the received results, estimation of the
probability using the relative frequency, graphical
Diversity of tools of the program Geogebra enables to representations of random events by geometric
use this system to solve different types of mathematical probability,
problems in the methodical textbook for mathematics
teachers [9]. We can demonstrate these possibilities by • Statistics – statistical data processing and their
means of the section about using mathematical programs graphical representation, investigation of the
to model real situations. Geogebra is used for a modelling relationships between data (e.g. fig.4)
of ladder fall along a perpendicular wall and for the
investigation of a track of the center of ladder during its
movement.
An interesting application of mathematical modeling is
the solving of linear optimization problems. The people
often solve decision-making problems in real life. The
solving of these problems requires finding of optimal
solutions taking into account certain restrictions that can
be often represented with linear inequalities. The
geometric model can be used to solve mathematical model
of a real situation in simpler cases. The solution is based
on geometric representation of solution of linear
inequalities system and of an investigation of target
function values in points of a plane determined by means
of geometric model. Software CAS or Geogebra can be
used for these purposes.
The main part of the methodical textbook is the fourth
chapter which contains suggestions for lesson plans of
selected mathematical topics. Several mathematical
programs, applets on internet, and other educational
software systems are applied to solving of the problems in
the methodical textbook. Interactive notebooks prepared
using system Mathematica have an important role for Fig. 4: Developing understanding of the least squares method in Statics.
educational treatment of the subject Elementary functions.
– 133 –
The next section is focused on a detailed explanation of After the estimation of the value of probability we
Geogebra application in estimating a theoretical value of approach to the accurate calculation of probability using
probability using the method Monte Carlo and on a the definition of geometric probability. We use areas of
calculation of the probability of random events using the figures as geometric measure in the definition of
geometric probability. We chose the following tasks from geometric probability. We draw the square ABCD with
the methodical textbook: Peter drew the points A, B, C, D the length of side equal to 5 cm with the vertex A in the
with coordinates (0,0), (5,0), (5,5), (0,5) in the coordinate origin of the coordinate system according to assignment of
system. What is the probability that randomly selected the problem. The square ABCD creates the sample space
point in the square ABCD has y-coordinate at least three of the random event. The triangle AED represents
times greater than x-coordinate? favorable results of the random event. The borders of the
In the methodical textbook the estimation of the triangle AED are formed by the sides of the square ABCD
probability by means of modelling of random events is and by the segment AE containing the points which y-
used at the beginning of problem solving. Spreadsheet coordinate is three times greater than x-coordinate.
Microsoft Excel is used to generate random points in the Described situation is shown in the figure 6.
specified region of the plane, to evaluate the results, and to
calculate the relative frequency. Geogebra can be also
used to execute these operations. The parts of the solution
are displayed in windows Graphics and Spreadsheet in the
figure 5.
Figure 5. Use of the definition of the geometric probability
We can see in the figure 5 that a ratio of the areas of the

triangle AED and the square ABCD equals 0.17. This
value is just the probability of explored random event. The
major advantage of prepared dynamic construction is the
possibility to change the length a of the side of square
ABCD and the slope k of line AE by means of the sliders.
Students may satisfy that a change of the side length of
square ABCD does not affect the value of the probability
because created figures are similar with the same ratio of
the similarity. The change of the slope k of line AE leads
Figure 5. Realization of the method Monte Carlo using Geogebra
to showing of the results of analogical tasks which can be
used to check students' solutions of the modifications of
The coordinates from the interval <0, 5> of one
basic task.
hundred random points are randomly generated in the
window Spreadsheet in the columns B and C using the
function Random between which is placed in the linear V. INTEGRATION OF GEOGEBRA TEACHING AND
expression. The column D contains evaluation of the LEARNING MATERIALS FOR SCIENCE SUBJECTS
condition, whether y-coordinate of a random point is at Power and unique properties of Geogebra offer to use
least three times greater than x-coordinate. The formula this software in any school subject applying mathematical
IF[C2>=3*B2,1,0] is used for this calculation. The ideas. For example in any area of physics like mechanics,
relative frequency of favorable results of the random event electricity and magnetism, optics, relativity or quantum
is calculated in the cell E2 after counting of favorable physics it supports very strongly all issues connected with
cases. New one hundred random points can be generated one of four areas of digital and scientific literacy - creating
through pressing button F9. The coordinates of random and developing new ideas to understand the world around
points in the columns B and C are used to define points in us by ICT and seeing how scientific method at this
the coordinate system and to display the points in the process works.
graph. In physics especially understanding models and
modelling by ICT were underestimated for a long time
– 134 –
and now in our modernization project belongs to main In connection with fall from Pisa Tower students can
key-skills which should be developed in student minds. develop kinematical model y= 55.86-5t2 from more
In this contribution we would like to demonstrate two fundamental physical laws and knowledge.
Geogebra applications in visualizing and applying Particularly Galileo’s free-fall law, an immediate and
mathematical models used in physics. direct conclusion of fundamental Newton’s second law:
First of them is connected with applying physical model Each falling object with shape and density allowing
simultaneously with its visualization in solving the neglecting air resistance falls with acceleration 9.81 m/s2.
following physical problem: A tennis ball is dropped from It means that every seconds speed of the object increases
Pisa Tower. When it reaches the ground and what is its its value by 9,81 m/s. The geometrical interpretation of the
speed? law is a half-line or ray running through points [0 s,0 m/s]
and [1 s, 9.81 m/s].
The expected solution of the problem using digital
technologies consists in the following steps: Since the second fundamental kinematical knowledge
says that the distance travelled by any object is
• Students have to find in reliable information represented by the area under a speed-time graph,
sources needed information. In this case height of powerful geometrical tools of Geogebra allows a very
Pisa Tower which is 55.86 m together with good quick construction of corresponding area which can be
picture of the tower. interactively changed by simple dragging of a point lying
• Then Geogebra image tool allows students to put on the speed-time graph. Exploring properties of the
an image of Pisa Tower in graphics view. dynamically changing area, students are able to find
• The following direct manipulation with coordinate required mathematical models describing changing speed
system allows calibrating the system to be and changing distance over time.
corresponding to real measures of tower. The second illustration shows a Geogebra application in
• After that slider tool containing time as electricity and magnetism. The fundamental law
independent quantity is used for simulation describing interaction between charges is Coulomb’s law
purposes. and fundamental concept describing electric field is vector
of electric field or vector of electric force.
• Next point A is put in the system as a model of
tennis ball with any fixed x-coordinate and y- Its visualization is very important for students in
coordinate given by free fall formula applied in this correct understanding Coulomb’s law as a physical model.
case: y =55.86-5t2. Since physics education research shows that students have
strong misconceptions due to lack of a clear and careful
• Finally activating animation property of the time electric-field-vector operational definition in their minds,
slider point A starts to move as a real tennis ball, so using this digital technology we give our student the
a student can see what really happens. opportunity to develop the required careful operational
Simultaneously i tis possible to stop simulation definition, where each step in Geogebra mimics perfectly
when a ball hits the ground, so student can read every operation (action) needed in finding vectors of
time of fall. (see Fig.7) electric force or field.
Figure 8 is illustration of particular example where in
Geogebra construction view student can see every
operation corresponding to any displayed step in
geometrical (graphics) window.
Fig.7 Virtual reality simulation in Geogebra Fig.8 Geogebra Application in electricity and magnetism.
– 135 –
Our experience conclude than any phase of modeling REFERENCES

as key science skill: visualizing, applying modifying or
creating can be developed in Geogebra. [1] J. Fulier, V. Ďuriš, P. Frantová, CAS vo vyučovaní matematiky.
Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa, Nitra, 2007.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS [2] M. Hančová, S. Lukáč, J. Sekerák and I. Semanišinová, “Active
We would like to thank all members of project teams learning in mathematics using ICT”, 8th International Conference
on Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications, 2010,
who have contributed to the presented work, the result of pp.417–422.
the Slovak national projects Modernization of education at [3] Geogebra – Free mathematics software for learning and teaching,
primary and secondary schools (ITMS project codes: http://www.geogebra.org/, accessed 2011 August
26110130083, 26140130013, 26110130084, [4] Hohenwarter J, Hohenwarter M, Lavicza Z (2009) Introducing
26140130014) supported by the European Social Fund. Dynamic Mathematics Software to Secondary School Teachers:
The Case of GeoGebra, Journal of Computers in Mathematics and
Science Teaching, 28(2), 135-146
[5] Betcher, Ch. and Lee, M.: The Interactive Whiteboard Revolution:
Teaching With Iwbs, Acer Prees, Camberwell, 2009, ISBN 0-864-
31817-0
[6] Redish, E.F. Teaching Physics with the Physics, Wiley, New
York, 2003
[7] Ancsin G, Hohenwarter M and Kovacs Z (2011) GeoGebra goes
Mobile, The Electronic Journal of Mathematics and Technology, 5
(2), https://php.radford.edu/~ejmt/, accessed 2011 August
[8] J. Hanč, M. Kireš and D. Šveda “The digital literacy and key
competencies as the cornerstones of primary and secondary
education modernization”, 8th International Conference on
Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications, 2010, pp.
429–432.
[9] S. Lukáč et al. “Využitie informačných a komunikačných
technológií v predmete Matematika pre stredné školy”, elfa,
Košice, 2010.
[10] M. Čihák, “MUPAD aneb zdatný matematik ve vašem počítači”,
Matematika, fyzika, informatika., vol. 12, pp. 110–118, October
2002.
[11] J. Hátle, “Matematika na internetu”, Matematika, fyzika,
informatika., vol. 18, pp. 109–114, October 2008.
– 136 –
Testing Concept Maps Electronically

E. Mechlová*, M. Malčík**
* University of Ostrava/Faculty of Science, Ostrava, Czech Republic
** University of Ostrava /Pedagogical Faculty, Ostrava, Czech Republic
erika.mechlova@osu.cz, martin.malcik@osu.cz
Abstract— Paper deals with using of concept maps in emerged the idea of representing children’s knowledge in
testing knowledge. Concept maps are widely used in the form of a concept map. Thus was born a new tool not
education and business because of they aid meaningful only for use in research, but also for many other uses.
learning, help to organize, preserve and summarize The first textbook on this theme “Learning how to
knowledge and empower creativity. One can constructe learn” [5] was published in 1984 by Joseph D. Novak and
own concept map by many software electronically. But D. Bob Gowin. Joseph D. Novak has Slovak origin,
concept maps can serve as qualitative and quantitative grandparents were born near Bratislava.
means for testing knowledge. Common used methods of Concept maps were developed to enhance meaningful
testing knowledge are one-dimensional, give relative learning in sciences. Construction of concept map
order in class or percentage rate of accuracy, and cannot includes concepts that are usually enclosed in circles or
give the relations between concepts and hierarchical boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts
indicated by connecting line linking two concepts. Words
structure of concepts. Special software was developed on the line, reffered to as as linking words or linking
and used in testing fuzzy cognitive maps that make phrases, specify the relationship between these two
possible modelling inner causal relations of concepts in concepts.
areas or systems changing in time. Results of testing Concept is defined as a perceived regularity in events
knowledge will be given. or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a
label. The label for the most concepts is a word, although
I. INTRODUCTION
sometimes we use symbols such as + or %, and sometimes
Pupils’ knowledge and skills are proved by different more than one word is used.
tests. Common used methods of testing are one Propositions are statements about some object or event
dimensional. Results of testing give relative pupil’s order in universe, either naturally occuring or constructed.
in class or percentage rate of accuracy. These results Propositions contain two or more concepts connected
cannot give the relations between pupil’s concept and using linking words or phrases to form a meaningful
hierarchical sructure of pupil’s concepts. statement. Sometimes these are called semantic units, or
Pupil understands or misunderstands a subject matter. units for meaning. . Figure 1 shows an example a concept
There are many pupils that misunderstand mathematics or map that describes the structures of concept maps an
science as follows from international testing PISA, illustrateds the above characteristics.
TIMMS, etc. Solved problem is searching where is causal
this misunderatndig in pupil’s thinking. Answer can give
the theory concept maps.
II. CONCEPT MAP
A concept map is a diagram showing the relationships
among concepts. Concept map is graphical tools for
organizing and representing knowledge [1]. Concept maps
were developed in 1972 the course of Novak’s research
program at Cornell University where he sought to follow
and understand changes in children’s knowledge of
science [2]. During the course of this study the researches
interviewed many children, and they found it difficult to
identify specific changes in the children’s understanding
of science concepts by examination of inteview Figure 1 .A concept map showing the features of concept maps
transcripts. This program was based on learning (according [1], page 2).
psychology od David Ausubel [3], [4]. The fundamental
idea in Ausubel’s cognitive psychology is that learning The concept maps are represented in a hierarchical
takes place by assimilation of new concepts and fashion with the most inclusive, most general concepts at
propositions into existing concept and propositional the top of the map and the more specific, less general
framework held by learner. This knowledge structure as concepts arranged hierarchically below. The hierarchical
held by a learner is also referred to as the indivudual’s structure for a particular domain of knowledge depends on
cognitive structure. Out of the necessity to find a better the context in which that knowledge is being applied or
way to represent children’s conceptual undrstanding considered. It is the best to construct concept maps with
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E. Mechlová and M. Malčík • Testing Concept Maps Electronically
reference to some particular question we seek to answer, Students often comment that it is hard to add linking
which we have called a focus question. The concept map words on the “lines”of their concept map. This is because
may pertain to some situation or event that we are trying of they poorly understand the relationship between the
to understand through the organization of knowledge in concepts, or the meaning of the concepts and it is the
the form of a concept map, thus providing the context for linking words that specify this relationship.
the concept map. Applying a simple graphical convention Computer-Based Concept Mapping uses software for
consisting of hierarchical spatial configuration sets of construction of concept maps. This software is as follows
nodes (concepts) and labelled links between nodes, in alphabetical order: Activity Map, Decision Explorer,
concept mapping represents the logical structure of a Diagrammer, Inspiration, Kidspiration, Mind Genius for
subject matter. Education, Mind Manager, Mind Mapper, SemNet, Star
Another characteristic of concept maps is the inclusion Think. There are two conception of software. The first
of cross-links that are relationships or links between coception has structured approach. User must define
concepts in different segments or domains of the concept format of pripering map beforehand and determine shape
map. Cross-links help to see how a concept in one domain of flowchart. No-structured approach gives to user
of knowledge represented on the map is related to a freedom for construction of proper format.
conception another domain shown on the map. Cross-links
often represent creative leaps on the part of knowledge IV. EVALUATION AND CONCEPT MAPS
producer in the creation of new knowledge. Concept maps New science texbooks include of concept maping as
can facilitate creative thinking by the hierarchical one way to summarize understandings acquired by pupils
structure that is represented in a good map and the ability after they study a unit or chapter. Change in school
to search for characterize new cross-links. practices is always slow, but it is likely that the use of
New knowledge creation is a constructive process concept maps in school instruction will increase
involving both our knowledge and our emotions or the substantially in the next decade or two.
drive to create new meanings and new ways to represent When concept maps are used in instruction, they can
these meanings. Learners struggling to create good also be used for evaluation. Now multiple choice tests are
concept maps are themselves engaged in a creative used from grade school through university. May be that
process, and this can be challenging, especially to concept mapping will be used in national examinations as
learners who have spent more of their life learning by a powerful evaluation tool.
rote. Structure of knowledge is considered as important
element of pupil’s understanding. Structure of knowledge
III. CONCEPT MAP CONSTRUCTION successful pupils has elaborate and integral structure
A person constructing the concept map has to be very bounded concepts that facilitate problem solving and the
familiar with a domain of knowledge concept map. A other cognitive activities of pupils.
good way to define the context for a concept map is to Structure of knowledge can be thought to be important
construct a focus question, that is, a question that clearly but no-measurable component of pupil’s results. Technic
specifies the problem or issue the concept map should of concept maps can represent the structure of pupil’s
help to resolve. Every concept map responds to a focus knowledge and can be means for investigation of concept
question, and a good focus question can lead to a much knowledge structure. Pupil promotes his own private view
richer concept map. of concepts and relationships between them on concept
The next step is to identify the key concepts that apply map. Thus he vizualizes results of his learning, his
to this domain. Usually 15 to 25 concepts will sufficent. preconceptions, conceptions and misconceptions.
These concepts could be listed from the most general at Misconception is a mistaken thought, idea or notion, false
the top and to the most specific at the bottom of list. This understanding of concept. Misconception is a wrong
list of concept is called a parking lot, and is only structure that has to be overcome by pupils with support
aproximate. Some concepts may remain in the parking lot of teacher.
as the map is completed if the map marker sees no good
connection for these with other concepts in the concept V. EVALUATION OF CONCEPT MAPS
map. Pupil can evaluate his ir her concept map by
The next step is to construct a preliminary concept map. comparison with concept map in instruction and this way
This can be done writing all of the concepts on sheet of eveluate his or her level of understanding of subject
paper or elecronically using computer software program matter.
such as IHMC CmapTools [6]. Computer software People who used unified scoring method are trained to
programs are better in that they allow moving of concepts test every concept map and the pupils’understanding of
together with linking statemensts and the moving of the conccept that he or she stated in his or her map.
groups of concepts and links to restructure the map. When According to this evaluation, every map is eveluated with
CmapTools is used in conjunction with a computer a measurement between 1 and 10 (McClure and Bell,
projector or two or more pupils can easily collaborate in 1990).
building a concept map and see changes as they progress
The interrelated scoring system was adopted from a
in their work. A concept map is never finished. After
method which was improved by McClure and Bell (1990).
preliminary concept map is constructed, it is always
In this method, individual maps composed from
necessary to revise this map and the other concepts can be
independent propositions which were defined in the map,
added. Good concept map usually result from theree to
were scored. A proposition is defined as a relationship
many revissions. This is one reason why using computer
between concepts, a connection of two concepts
softwae is helpful.
– 138 –
highlighted with connection line. Every proposition was

scored between 1 and 3 according to a scoring protocol
accepted the proposition as true.
Structural scoring model was adopted from a method
which was defined by Novak and Gowin [5]. According to
this model, scoring concept maps are made as follows: for
each proposition 1 point, for every hierarchical
proposition 5 points, for every diagonal connection 10
points, for every example 1 point will be given.
Another model is given as follows: for correct
proposition between two concepts 1 point, for every
hierarchical proposition 1 point (the last two level arenot
take into account), branching – to the first branching 1
point, to the next branching 3 points, correct label between
two concepts 1 point.
VI. TESTING CONCEPT MAPS ELECTRONICALLY

Concept maps are valuable diagnostic tool. This tool
was used in testing concept maps electronically. Types of
test items were as follows: shape of concept map was
given, yellow concept was given and the others were
given as propositions for pupils, see examples Fig. 2 and
Fig. 3.
Goal of test item in Fig. 2 is deper understanding
divisibility. Mistakes in solving the concept map give
misunderstudings or misconceptions of pupils. These start
new way of teaching/learning process.
Figure 3. A concept map on three-dimensional objects
Goal of test item in Fig. 3 is deper understanding three-

dimensional objects. Pupils have three-dimensional vision
very low. Mistakes in solving the concept map give
misunderstudings or misconceptions of pupils. These start
new way of teaching/learning process with real three-
dimensional objects.
Testing was carried out at secondary schools in the
Moravian-Silesian Region in September 2011. Total
number of pupils was about one hundred. Special
programe was developed for this testing and evaluation of
testing.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
Concept maps are very useful learning and diagnostic
tool as concern understanding of subject matter by pupils
and knowing teachers how to facilitate. The construction
of concept map penetrates to teaching/learning process in
the Czech schools [7].
There is much software on web and some teachers only
start using this software. Out of spite this situation, the
testing concept maps electronically was carried out and
teachers were forced to think about. The data of testing are
analyzed for further using in teaching/learning process.
REFERENCES
Figure 2. A concept map on divisibility [1] J. D. Novak, and J. Canas, “The Theory Underlying Concept Maps
and How to Construct and Use Them,” Technical Report IHMC
CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008, Florida, Institut for Human and
Machine Cognition, 2008.
– 139 –
E. Mechlová and M. Malčík • Testing Concept Maps Electronically
[2] J. D. Novak, and D. Musonda, “A twelve-year longitudinal study [6] A.J. Canas, et al. “CmapTools: A knowledge modeling and
of science concept learning,” American Educational Research sharing environment.” In A. J. Canas, J. D. Novak, and M.
Journal, 28 (1), 117-153. Gonzáles (Eds.). Concept maps: Theory, methodology, technology.
[3] D. P. Ausubel, The psychology of meaning verbal learning. New Proceedings of the first international conference on concept
York: Grune and Stratton, 1963. mapping (Vol I., pp. 125-133). Pamplona: Universidad Públice de
Navara, 2004.
[4] D. P. Ausubel, Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New
York: Holt, Rinehart, Wiston, 1968. [7] J. Mareš. “E-learning, který využívá k učení objektivní I
subjektivní mapy pojmů”, Information and Communication
[5] J. D. Novak, and D. Bob Govin, “Learning how to learn”,
Technology in Education. Ostrava: Repronis, 2010, pp. 17-33.
Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1984.
– 140 –
Innovative learning stories for teachers based on

latest IT technologies
M. Michalko*, F. Jakab*, Z. Szalay**, V. Blahová***
*
Technical University of Košice, Slovakia
** elfa s.r.o., Košice, Slovakia
*** Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava, Slovakia
miroslav.michalko@tuke.sk, frantisek.jakab@tuke.sk, szalay@elfa.sk, viera.blahova@minedu.sk
Abstract— This paper deals with new ways of teaching and Areas where change is needed in order to achieve a
learning with major support of new technologies and transformation of education include goals and objectives,
software solutions in primary and secondary schools. content and its sources, evaluation and assessment,
Children are keen to use new technology, mobile devices, structure of learning activities and interaction between
and internet applications. They use it more for out of school participants. Also there is need to redefine job descriptions
activities. School has to explore the potential of new and working habits and awareness of parents and society.
technologies and offer curricula in attractive way. ICT has the potential to create new, open learning
Connection between traditional and on-line content should environments, play an instrumental role in shifting the
be found, linking existing educational objects into IP world emphasis from a teacher-centered to a collaborative,
is necessary. Teachers are facing new challenges how to
learner-centered environment. The real need is to enhance
teach in a new setting different generation of pupils. This
the role of students from passively receiving information
paper brings review of some tools and presents selected
to being actively involved in their own learning. This
learning scenarios which should help to do so. Paper also
evolvement should help to address new roles which
presents project iTEC funded by European Commission
which helps to solve some of the problems that teachers are
teachers need to play in preparing students for an
facing. The research project wants to identify trends for
emerging knowledge-based and technology-driven
future classroom, recognize best practices and test them in society. ICT could also support long-distance exchange
1000 classrooms throughout the Europe. and interaction between geographically spread groups of
teachers and their students.
I. INTRODUCTION II. EU PROJECTS FOR EDUCATION EVOLVEMENT

Fast development in field of computers, networking and During last few years European Union has funded and
mobile technologies has already begun to transform the presented a lot of projects in the field of primary and
way how schools teach and learn. ICT is no longer fear for secondary education. Authors had an opportunity to be
some teachers and they do understand the need to involved into two very interesting ones which are shortly
implement at least some software and hardware gadgets presented below.
into teaching. For example social networks could offer
excellent tools for communication and content sharing. A. Project eMapps.com
Latest mobile phones and tablet PCs offers high First project named eMapps.com (Motivating Active
computing power which enables delivery of the Participation of Primary Schoolchildren in Digital Online
multimedia content like videos in HD. Search engines Technologies for Creative Opportunities through
allow finding answer on many questions in seconds. Multimedia) brought idea of gaming into schools and
Libraries in schools do scan and recognize text in books created real application [1].
into on-line databases as reading and searching in The main objectives of eMapps.com were to build
traditional way seems to be very obsolete for pupils. communities of creative, networking children in the New
These changes require to identify and select proper EU Member States (NMS), generating their own cultural
scenarios for teaching and to select right tools in order to content and communicating with peer groups in other
improve educational process. Question how to attract countries and to contribute to the growth of a community
pupils to study and to prepare them well for life is of teachers who are aware of the potential for change
worldwide issue. Leaders in field of education across through ‘schools without walls’ and who exchange
European countries have recognized the real need for knowledge and experience through communication with
change in curriculum with the development of ICT. There counterparts in other NMS countries.
is a broad wish to extend and exploit the potential for Project has developed adaptable interactive tool
knowledge dissemination, more effective learning and the (primarily games played on a mobile platform) with which
development of efficient education services in support of delivered learning objectives and which helped to
reform goals at affordable cost. Some proponents argue integrate the use of ICT in the delivery of the school
that reforms using ICT are intended to ensure equal access curriculum. Project also targeted goal to establish
to educational opportunities and quality education appears processes and facilities for teachers and children to access
in many ways to be dependent on the effective relevant digital content available through a variety of
deployment of ICT. sources while playing the eMapps.com games - and to
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M. Michalko et al. • Innovative Learning Stories for Teachers Based on Latest IT Technologies
make the multilingual and multicultural local content 4. To carry out large-scale pilots in up to 1,000
created during the games suitable for sharing and classrooms in at least 12 countries exploring both
repurposing for use in the wider eLearning context of the integration of technologies and how these
schools and children in NMS. impact on teaching and learning practices and the
One of the most interesting ideas of the eMapps.com engagement of a wider group of stakeholders
project was to create a child’s living map of Europe, based outside the school.
on geography, history and heritage, accessible through 5. To research the skills and competences needed
mobile devices, which can be continuously expanded as by teachers in the classroom of the future and to
an important and rich content resource for schools in NMS equip teachers and ICT co-ordinators, both
and elsewhere [1]. within and beyond the project, with the
pedagogical knowledge and skills needed to
B. Project iTEC implement project stories.
iTEC (Innovative Technologies for an Engaging 6. To evaluate the extent to which the iTEC stories
Classroom) is a four year, large-scale project that takes an have been successful in supporting collaboration,
informed look at the potential classroom of the future. The individualisation, creativity and expressiveness
key aim is to develop engaging stories for learning in the and identify those with maximum potential to
future classroom that can be validated in a large-scale have a transformative effect on the design of the
pilot and be subsequently taken to scale [2]. future classroom. Also to identify the underlying
Starting in September 2010, iTEC will bring together change processes necessary to bring about this
policy makers, researchers, technology suppliers, other transformation.
technology-enhanced learning experts and innovative 7. To widely disseminate project results and ensure
teachers in order to design and build scalable learning and they can be taken to scale by implementing a
teaching stories for the future classroom with recognition mainstreaming strategy that includes the
of the realities of pace of the educational reform process. formation of a new high-level body at European
Rigorous testing of these future classroom scenarios in level to ensure that iTEC stories and work in the
large-scale pilots will then be carried out in order to large-scale pilots contribute to the educational
significantly increase the possibility that innovation can be reform process.
mainstreamed and taken to scale when the project ends.
iTEC, therefore, will explore a vision of the future III. PROJECT ITEC LEARNING STORIES
where schools will remain the key location for learning Project iTEC consortium partners under the leadership
and assessment as part of a wider network of physical and of European Schoolnet (consortium of Ministries of
virtual learning locations. In doing so, the project Education) have created several stories [3] how education
recognises that the learning process will increasingly should be modified in order to implement new technology
engage with other stakeholders including parents and and techniques into classes. Three of nine created
cultural and business sector members and draw in adult scenarios for the first project cycle were presented to
and informal learning. iTEC also begins with a clear teachers in Slovakia in order to gather feedback and to
understanding that the starting point for change is current evaluate feasibility in such scenario implementation. Full
teaching practice and that educational policy making in texts of these three scenarios will now follow. All the
the real world must be understood as the context for this stories were distributed by the partners and tested in their
change. The project will not only examine how innovative countries.
technologies can be deployed but also the underlying
change processes that are required in order for innovative A. Recognizing Informal Learning
teaching and learning practices to be mainstreamed and Students document and reflect on their informal
taken to scale. learning that occurs outside of school. They upload this
iTEC objectives are [2]: onto a portfolio and share their learning with teachers and
1. To develop and refine a range of teaching and parents where appropriate.
learning stories that include new approaches to Ms Fierro recognises that Paulo, like several of the
assessment, (developed by project partners and students in the class, does a lot of work outside of school
teachers themselves) for the future classroom in but is less interested in the formal curriculum. As a result
order to engage teachers and pupils together with the school has created a space for students to share their
other stakeholders contributing to pupils' learning out-of-school experiences as part of their formal school
and growth. curriculum, which offers students the opportunity to get
2. To develop decision support criteria formal credits for their out-of-school activities where
(technological, pedagogical and policy-related) appropriate. Paulo collects and documents evidence about
that facilitates the selection of stories that can be the skills and knowledge he gains when involved with his
mainstreamed and taken to scale. hobby, skateboarding. He places all the evidence he
3. To develop specific teaching and learning collects onto his online portfolio. This is provided by the
activities, also involving new approaches to school, but accessible from anywhere that has an internet
assessment, based on the scenarios and test these connection. He collects evidence in a range of formats
in a pre-pilot phase with a focus group of including scans of the designs he has created for skate
teachers, with a view to determining which of logos and skate clothing, photos of the different stages of
these have the potential to be mainstreamed in a him building a ramp, and a video of other skaters using his
number of countries. ramp at a competition. He captures this evidence using a
range of different tools, including his mobile camera, a
– 142 –
friend’s video camera, uploaded computer created sit with four students who struggled with a previous
designs, and paper drawings which he has scanned in at question to act as peer mentors, whilst he revisits some
school. work with another group of students.
The student response system is linked to the school’s
LMS which ties student’s responses to other data, giving
Mr Kowalski and other teachers a better insight into
students’ progress and development. By using this more
detailed understanding of his students, Mr Kowalski alters
the students’ groups and the activities he sets them.
In order to provide greater structure for his students’
learning, Mr Kowalski uses this more detailed
understanding of his students’ interest and knowledge and
accesses an education ‘app store’ to find appropriate
resources for different students. Accessing the ‘app store’
from his laptop, Mr Kowalski adds specific resources to
the names of different students that he thinks will benefit
from a particular resource. By doing this, specific
resources are linked to a ‘graduated lesson plan’ that
Figure 1. Recognizing Informal Learning Story
Once a term Paulo and the rest of the school have the
opportunity to present their collected evidence at a ‘show
and tell’ gallery that happens in school. Paulo can also
present his work to an individual teacher if he feels
uncomfortable sharing it with a wider audience, but he is
happy to share it with other students. Teachers from
different subject areas view the students’ work and decide
if they can use the evidence to support formal assessment.
Ms Fierro teaches design and technology and decides that
she can use Paulo’s evidence to support his accreditation
in this subject, particularly in the areas of ‘use of materials
and their construction’.
Paulo’s online portfolio has a ‘school’ and ‘public’
setting which means he is able to share selected parts of
his work with anyone in the school, or with a wider
audience. He is asked if he wants to share his work with Figure 2. Reacting to Student Feedback Story
his parents using the share settings on his portfolio but he
declines. allows his students to access further resources, linked to
their progress and concerns, which are captured by the
B. Reacting to Student Feedback interactive response system. The four students who were
Building on the range of digital resources that already struggling with some key concepts have access to a video
exist, teachers have access to a Learning Management of an older learner explaining a key issue, whilst two
System (LMS) in which students can record responses students who demonstrated a good understanding access a
based on understanding and progress using a student set of challenges that ask them to plan an applied project.
response system. With this information they can adapt Mr Kowalski continues to monitor the students’ work
their teaching style appropriately. through the LMS, the interactive response system and by
As a newly qualified teacher, Mr Kowalski uses a range talking with students as they continue with their work.
of digital resources to increase the amount and quality of Towards the end of the lesson, Mr Kowalski asks each
support he gives to his learners so to provide more tailored group to rate the resources that they have used which add
formative responses to his students’ progress. Mr to the overall ratings of each resource in the ‘app store’.
Kowalski is encouraged to investigate his students’ By observing these ratings and by using all of the
understanding by monitoring their progress through an monitoring opportunities available, Mr Kowalski develops
interactive response system which is used throughout the a deeper insight into the progress of each student, which
school. Mr Kowalski asks a mixture of open and closed informs his use of the graduated lesson plan for future
questions throughout the lesson, and depending upon the lessons.
student’s responses (which are returned as a mixture of
numerical votes and free text responses,) he changes his C. Outdoor Study Projects
pedagogic approach to make sure he revisits areas that The students go out to explore the school grounds
students are challenged by and quickly builds upon areas tasked with a problem or challenge. They have to either
where they have good understanding. Seeing two students capture authentic data, or explore how concepts can be
respond with detailed written responses, he asks them to applied in the real world.
– 143 –
Ms. Rossi, a science teacher, has been liaising with the class, who are doing similar work, to comment on. The
geography teacher and they have noticed that their group also decides to post it on the public area of the
students need to develop a more in depth understanding of learning platform so they can show their parents/carers
the local natural environment and wildlife. Ms. Rossi has when they get home.
also noticed that although her class works well as
individuals, they would benefit from more group learning. IV. FIRST CYCLE FEEDBACKS COLLECTED IN
She decides to get the group to work collaboratively on a SLOVAKIA
problem based activity to do with nature and the local
environment. When deciding on a specific activity for the Presented three stories were evaluated by two
class she liaises with the geography teacher to ensure the experienced teachers at Secondary grammar school in
chosen activity could also support learning in geography. Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia. School was selected
She sets her class the challenge of finding out why the randomly, feedback does not represent general idea in
population of ladybirds has decreased in the school Slovakia but teachers provided very valuable comments.
grounds over the last year. Some notes based on face-to-face meeting is presented
below.
Carmen, a student, goes outside with her group to
collect real data to help the class’s investigation. Each A. Recognizing Informal Learning
group member has a different role and a different
Presented story was very attractive for teachers and
instrument to capture authentic data. Carmen uses her
following comments were collected:
mobile phone to capture images of the areas where most
ladybirds live, whilst others in the group record the • selection of the presented activity should be
temperature and survey habitats. Ms. Rossi lets the consulted with teacher first,
students work together in groups so she can take the role • some definitions of what is expected are needed,
of observer and coach. This helps her understand what sure creativity is required from student mostly
skills the students need to practice. She notes down what • motivation (marks) to do the task should be
skills the students need to develop to help her design interesting for them,
future learning activities. She realizes the group need
more training on using instruments without disturbing • online portfolio for such sharing is missing at the
wildlife, and also how to set specific group goals. school, but any internet platform should be
accepted,
After gathering a series of photos Carmen comes back
to class with her group and they share their data and • some older teachers (in general) probably will
findings with each other. They get some specific support not accept such way of presentation due to their
from Ms Rossi on how to use a software package to draw lack of modern technology skills,
conclusions from the group’s numerical data. Having • although this story is targeting students who do
drawn their conclusions, the group choose to create a short not like formal learning, teachers expect that the
film from their photos and data to share their findings with most active ones will be medium and better
other students in the class. They work together using students,
laptops and a web tool to create a short digital film • teacher will need to find the key how to
explaining what they found. Carmen and another student encourage shame students to present their out of
upload their photos while the rest of the group writes a school activities,
script to present their findings. They each record a part of
the presentation script and use the automatic editing • motivation is that students are encouraged to use
software on the web tool to create the film. This film is technology they like – teacher will see how they
posted on the school’s learning platform for the class to are able to present it using “their generation”
view for homework, and also for students in a geography language/technology,
• both teachers see the problem also in sharing
students outputs with other teachers at the school
– how to motivate other teachers to find time for
seeing the portfolio if many students attend such
a presentation,
• subjective marking scheme – if teacher does not
like the presented activity (e.g. graphitti) marking
could be a problem (presented subject could hide
the work of the student),
• for some teachers it could be motivating to
participate in such way of teaching – not only
because some of the student activities are
interesting, but also they will see many new
technologies at work,
• presentation of activities which are close to
presenters (students) should help to evolve
presentations skills – e.g. not focused on what to
present, but how to present it in an attractive
way.
Figure 3. Outdoor Study Projects Scenario
– 144 –
B. Reacting to Student Feedback • Students for sure will like such learning – it is
Presented story was welcomed by teachers (probably it new for them, they’re out of class, they can work
is more attractive for teachers than for students) and with technology.
following comments were collected: • Outdoor activities will be limited only to school
• Learning Management Systems as tools are very surrounding – more teachers are required to
welcomed by teachers and they see them as great monitor children at given type of lessons.
tools not only for students but also for themself, • School needs to buy some technology (video
• problem that was presented by teachers cameras, cameras, microphones, GPS, sensors ...)
immediately after reading the story could be in order to implement this story. Multiple same
summarized as “missing LMS installation in type devices are needed – problem for many
school” and “missing administrator” for such tool primary schools.
– rest of the discussion is presenting story as we • If multiple groups are outside for an outdoor
have such tool and unlimited sources for usage of activity – every group should have a different
that tool, task. To work on the same topic is demotivating
• LMS will be probably attractive only for for the groups.
good/active students. We were not able to find • Overall feeling from story is very good, but
motivation factor for “lazy” students to “wake implementation is possible only as part of after
up” and use offered source of content for study school activities.
(even from Application store),
• Feedback from students – great! For teacher who V. SOFTWARE TOOLS AVAILABLE FOR TEACHERS
is interested in quality of offered curricula this Important part for implementation of new teaching
will definitively help. But it will require a lot of practices is to have proper tools in hands. In our case it is
time to spend with feedbacks and with finding of software for communication, sharing, presentation,
attractive and user-adapted learning sources. evaluation and marking. Many applications already exist
• Time is the weakest point in this story. Teachers but still most of the teachers are not familiar how to use
like when provided “tools” save their time. Here them in teaching. Following part of this article will shortly
it will need a lot of time resources in the present just few of them as for inspiration.
adaptation phase, but later it will be great storage
of learning objects. A. Web Applications
• The software solution for voting should be the There are a lot of web services available on market
only possible way for feedbacks. There are providing content sharing and collaboration. The most
insufficient funds for such hardware solutions at known services are provided by Google, Microsoft or
most of the schools in Slovakia. large software players. For example, Google during last
years presented many interesting web-based applications
• Due to the school reform (which is in progress like Google Docs for creating, editing and sharing of
recently) in Slovakia some subjects do miss various documents for public or defined group. Also
officially approved books – LMS with digital collaboration and versioning is helpful for students with
content should be great for students in meantime. same tasks, creating common document. Google Sites
• App store – great idea! We miss such a allows simple creation of webpages for schools projects,
repository in Slovakia. No matter if content will wikis for bigger content libraries. No matter how
be for free or not – learning objects are difficult information are analyzed by Google, for teacher usage of
to find for many teachers. What about of this tools help to collaborate with student groups using
exchange of student created learning materials by simple user interface and wide sharing capabilities. Most
students? Motivation? of the applications are available as free service.
C. Outdoor Study Projects B. Learning Management Systems / Course
Last presented story teachers commented as great idea Management Systems
with high potential to be interesting for students. But there As teaching is complex process it involves also content
were some comments presented: sharing, testing and marking. For this reason Learning
• How big the groups should be? If small – good Management Systems (LMS) and Course Management
for the results, good for the involvement of every Systems (CMS) were developed. One of the well-known
member. But more teachers have to go out with CMS/LMS is Moodle [4]. Moodle has several features
the group during activity (given by law) – considered typical of an e-learning platform. Some typical
missing teachers. features of Moodle are [5]:
• Typical school hour has only 45 minutes in • Assignment submission,
Slovakia – too short time period to go out and do • Discussion forum,
something.
• Files download,
• Teachers are skeptical that this can be done
• Marking,
during normal subject hours – a lot of formal
learning has to be done during normal classes – it • Moodle instant messages,
is defined by national curriculum plan. This • Online calendar,
activity should be only as part of after school
activities.
– 145 –
• Online news and announcement (College and CONCLUSION

course level), This paper presents some ideas related to share best
• Online quiz, practices of teachers with application of the new
• Wiki. information technology developments. Several EU funded
Some other well-known LMS/CMS are Chamilo, projects in last years were trying to define new methods
Haiku, ILIAS, Blackboard, Open LMS, etc. Most of these and methodology which will lead to better educated young
solutions are available as freeware. generation. As society and customs are changing school
needs to be flexible to reflect it in proper way. Three
C. Testing tools presented stories are result of EU project iTEC which is
now in its first phase.
One of the most time consuming tasks for teacher is
verification of real student knowledge and skills. Recently Paper also presents some comments of teachers who are
market offers wide variety of tools for testing which skilled and have years of experience in Slovak educational
allows to test student in real time and to show final score. system. These teachers believe that in future more and
Moodle could do this task, almost every LMS/CMS. But more learning will occur outside traditional class rooms.
these systems do not offer generation of new tasks based Some schools are moving online to ‘virtual school’,
on pre-defined mathematic formulas and are not able to building on-line community of students, staff and parents.
display personalized recommended step by step solution. Everything is possible thanks to simple access to Internet
This is solved by application named GENEXIS [6]. It at home or at work. Due to this fact students can work on
provides functionality to create, update and spread the projects either from school or home, can be creative,
latest educational content developed by the governmental communicative and innovative. It is important to foresee
services through Internet. It allows creating unlimited future ways with support of the latest hardware and
amount of training options on any subject as well as gives software solutions.
opportunity to monitor student’s progress throughout the
study process.
Major difference between GENEXIS and other systems ACKNOWLEDGMENT
as Moodle is content editor that allows teachers to create This article is the result of the project iTEC: Innovative
exercise templates. Based on these templates GENEXIS Technologies for an Engaging Classroom (Grant
generates multiple variations of one exercise. This way agreement Nº 257566) supported by the European
each student can receive an individual exercise for Commission’s FP7 programme.
homework or test or else can train on one exercise
template several times as new exercise variation is REFERENCES
generated each time. When student completes the task
system evaluates the result and shows the solution process
[1] R. Krizova. (2008, Oct. 17), eMapps Games project website
enabling student to “learn-by-doing”. GENEXIS in [Online]. Available: http://emapps.info
licensed on per-school license [7]. [2] iTEC consortium. (2009, Jan. 10) iTEC project website [Online].
Available: http://itec.eun.org
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Services like Twitter and Facebook completely changed Scenarios [Online]. Available: http://itec.eun.org/web/
life of millions of people all around the world. Sharing guest/scenarios
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times a day from everywhere using even mobile devices http://www.moodle.org
made a small revolution in life of pupils. These services [5] Wikipedia. (2011, Sept. 10), Wikipedia : Moodle [Online].
Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle
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[6] DataPro Grupa. (2011, Sept. 22), GENEXIS Desktop [Online].
requires that teacher will prepare interesting tasks for Available: http://www.genexiseducation.com/GenExisDesktop/
pupils together with methodology aiming educational
[7] M. Michalko and F. Jakab, “Pilot implementation of GenExis
goals of given subject. testing system in Slovakia,“ in 7th Int. Conference on Emerging
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– 146 –
MACHS: an authoring tool to create serious

games for machine-tool operator training
A. Mujika*, D. Oyarzun*, I. Iparragirre*, J. Dominguez** and J. Arambarri ***
*
Vicomtech-IK4, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
** IDEKO-IK4, Elgoibar, Spain
*** Virtualware, Basauri, Spain
{amujika,doyarzun,iiparragirre}@vicomtech.org, jdominguez@ideko.es, jarambarri@virtuaware.es
Abstract—In this paper, we present the project MACHS, a The main idea of the project MACHS is that an expert
platform for the generation of serious games, i.e. courses in in machine-tool manufacturing could create a course
3D environments for machine-tool training. The platform easily and without any help. For that, we developed an
consists of two applications: an easy-to-use authoring tool authoring tool called Course Editor and a simulator that
for editing the courses and a 3D simulator for running them. runs the course designed by the user.
In this paper, we describe the features and the The paper starts with a brief overview of the state of the
functionalities of each part of the platform. We also describe art in Serious Games in section II. Next, we describe the
the structure of the XML files designed for the storage of applications that compose the system MACHS in section
the information about courses, machines, cameras, III and define the XML files used for their correct running
interaction, etc. and how we use them to link the editor and
in section IV and V. Finally, we conclude the paper and
the simulator.
describe future improvements in section VI and VII.
I. INTRODUCTION II. RELATED WORK

Serious Games are generally defined as Computer The success of the utilization of Serious Games is clear
Games that are not directly oriented to entertainment. The if we take into account the amount of fields they have
purpose of Serious Games is to use such playful aspect for been used in.
educational, informative or communicative objectives. Health and Medicine are two of the fields where the
According to experts from the European Center for Serious Games have been used most. Cabas et al. [5]
Children’s Products [1], Serious Games can be classified developed an application or training emergency medical
in five categories: Edutainment, Advergaming, Edumarket services nurses in decision making and Siqueira and
Games, Political Games and Training and Simulation Nunes [6] presented a Serious Game to train the users of
Games. medical Virtual Reality tools. Göbel et al. [7] introduced
While the first is focused on transmitting knowledge, some health exergames using a combination of game
the second uses Serious Games for marketing purposes. technology and game-based methods and concepts (e.g.
Edumarket games are a mixture of the first two types. competitive multiplayer features), mechanisms for
Political Games’ objective is to make aware of political personalization and adaptation and sensor technology.
and social topics. Finally, Trainning and Simulation Besides, it is remarkable that there are several companies
Games immerse the user in an environment whose [8, 9] dedicated to create Serious Games in this field.
behaviour replicates a real environment’s behaviour, in Several projects use Serious Games for training skills in
order the user to familiarize with it. The platform emergency situations. This kind of situation is not easy to
described in this paper was developed to create and run reproduce in the real world, but it is in a 3D environment.
courses that can be classified in the last category. Chittaro and Ranon [10] propose serious games as a tool
In recent years, the number of applications in the field to acquire personal fire safety skills and Haferkamp and
of Training Games has increased rapidly. Despite the fact Krämer [11] presented DREAD-ED, a technology-based
that most of them are in experimental phase, there are teaching methodology for in crisis management units
some commercial applications that show that Serious training. Linehan et al. [12] created a serious game
Games could be very useful. 3Dsolve [2] and BreakAway designed to teach group decision making skills to
[3], that uses Serious Games for military training or coordinators of groups that respond to real-world
PIXELearning [4], that use Serious Games to train adults emergencies such as floods, fires, volcanoes and chemical
in business and finance, are some examples. spills. The results showed that trained groups work better
than the non-trained ones. This kind of projects and other
Most of the work done in the field of Training Games different works [13, 14] show that Serious Games are
needs experts in two fields. An expert in computer games helpful to improve the work in groups.
who develops the application and an expert in the subject
to train, who designs the game logic. MACHS, the project There are projects that work in really different fields,
presented in this paper, partly funded by Basque like management of National Parks for Biodiversity
Government (IG-2009/0000607), pretends to eliminate the Conservation [15], cultural training [16, 17], language
need of the expert in computer games or 3D animation. learning [18, 19] or military training [20].
There are some projects that are similar to ours or can
be classified in the same field. Games2Train [21] is a
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 147 –

A. Mujika et al. • MACHS: an Authoring Tool to Create Serious Games for Machine-Tool Operator Training
shooter type game that aims to train students in the course and the arrows represent if it is allowed to
utilization of CAD 3D. The students are inserted in a story concatenate these steps. The user of the editor has to
where they have to meet several milestones. For example, define the name of the step, which piece has to be chosen
they have to design some pieces of the machine that will and which action has to be done with it, e.g. the user
be used to defeat their enemy. defines the step “tighten screw 1” by choosing the “screw
Rilling et al. [22] presented an interdisciplinary work on 1” in the module “carriage X” and the action “tighten”.
the application of computer game principles and Moreover, the teacher can set the statement that will
techniques within an automation industry training appear when this step is taken, e.g. “You tightened screw
scenario. 1. This is a correct step”.
Rosendo et al. [23] developed a serious game for All the items show the name of the action in order the
training of live line maintenance activities, i.e. activities teacher to catch the structure of the diagram, i.e. the
without interrupting the flow of energy on the line. The course, in a quick look.
platform uses devices such as the Nintendo Wii Remote
and 3D TV sets to provide a novel model of interaction
and navigation.
Regarding authoring tools, the work presented by Göbel
et al. [7] contains an application based on [24]. Although
it is similar to our Course Editor, the utilization of 3D
animation and the machine-tool context make them
different.
III. SYSTEM OVERVIEW

The system developed in the project MACHS contains
two main applications. The first application is an
authoring tool where an expert in machine-tool
manufacturing can design a course for students that are
learning how to use a machine or how to do its
maintenance. The second application receives the output Figure 1. The diagram and the machine in the Course Editor
of the first one and runs a course in a 3D environment
where the students must follow the steps designed by the These are the different types of items that can be defined
expert. In what follows, we will denote these two in the Course Editor:
applications Course Editor and 3D Simulator respectively.
Furthermore, the students have two options in the 3D • Initial and final steps: the user can define as many
Simulator: they can run the simulation, where the system initial and final items as he wants in the diagram.
shows the correct steps automatically or they can do an These items are identical with the usual step items.
exercise where they have to explore the 3D reproduction However, the system will identify these steps and
of a machine and try to take the correct steps to finish the will not allow the student to start a course with a
course correctly. The system supervises the exercise and step not defined as an initial one and will notify the
displays texts about the correctness of the user’s student that the course is satisfactorily finished
performance. when a final step is reached.
• Simulation steps: the teacher can define several
A. Course Editor paths that lead to a correct end in the diagram, but
As stated before, in this part, the teacher, the person that the 3D Simulator can show only one of those when
knows the machine and how it works, prepares a course the student asks the system to do so. Therefore, the
about the control or the maintenance of the machine. The teacher defines the path of steps that the 3D
main goal of the Course Editor is its usability, so that an Simulator will show with these items. The editor
expert in machine-tool manufacturing but not necessarily ensures that the chosen path is unique. Simulation
initiated in 3D applications can generate a 3D course items are similar to the usual ones, but in this case,
easily. besides the usual steps’ aspects, the user has to
define the camera used to visualize this action.
The user of this application can edit some general
During the simulation in the 3D Simulator the
features that describe the course:
system handles the camera automatically, so the
• Name: the name of the course will not appear in camera for each step has to be defined in advance.
the 3D Simulator, but it identifies the course. Moreover, the user can isolate the simulation path,
• Description of the simulation: the user defines the i.e. he can remove temporarily the items that are
statement that will be showed during the not in the simulation path in order to avoid
simulation, i.e. the option that shows the correct confusion when designing the simulation.
steps. • Incorrect steps: when the student is doing the
• Description of the exercise: the user defines the exercise, if he doesn’t choose an action that
statement that will be showed during the exercise. follows the last correct step he took, the system
The course is designed in the main diagram of the automatically tells him he is choosing an incorrect
Course Editor (see figure 1). The diagram is composed by action. Nevertheless, the teacher can set special
squares that are linked with arrows. Each item or square in incorrect steps in the diagram. In these items the
the diagram represents a step that can be taken during the statement that will appear in the 3D Simulator is
– 148 –
very important, e.g. “You have just broken the machine as we will see later. Paths between different
machine”. points of view are also predefined. This way, the camera
In order to get a better usability, the editor shows a 3D doesn’t jump directly to the new point of view and the
reproduction of the machine that will be used in the 3D student doesn’t get lost when changing the camera.
Simulator (see figure 1). The user can move the camera to Once the user chooses the exercise option, he has to
see the pieces of the machine from any point of view or click in the pieces in the correct order. Each click (left or
can use the predefined ones, i.e. the ones that can be right) represents an action, e.g. left-clicking a screw
chosen when running the 3D Simulator. This aspect is represents the action of tightening it and right-clicking
important, because the teacher has to decide which camera represents the action of loosening it. During the exercise,
will be used during the simulation in the 3D Simulator. if the user chooses the correct step designed in the
The 3D reproduction of the machine can also be used diagram of the Course Editor, the system displays the
for choosing the pieces. Instead of choosing the module texts set for each action and triggers the animation linked
and the piece in a menu, the teacher clicks the piece in the to it. If he doesn’t choose the right step, i.e. an action that
machine and the system automatically sets the details in doesn’t follow the current one in the diagram of the
the menu. The teacher also can visualize the animation Course Editor, the system displays a predefined text that
that will be triggered in the 3D Simulator when this action tells the user he is making a mistake. As seen before, the
is chosen. selected action can be an incorrect one. In this case, the
In conclusion, with the overall view of the course text defined in the Course Editor is displayed.
showed by the diagram and the help of the 3D To improve the interactivity with the machine, the
reproduction of the machine, the teacher can easily design pieces that the user can interact with are highlighted when
the course for his students. the cursor is on them (see figure 3). The user can also
remove some pieces temporarily in order to watch other
B. 3D Simulator pieces correctly. Removed pieces appear in a small menu
The 3D Simulator is the application that takes the (see figure 2) and can be returned to their places.
output of the Course Editor and automatically generates Moreover, removing a piece can be a part of the course.
the designed course in a 3D environment. The user of the
3D Simulator cannot change anything in it. He can only
interact with the application.
Once the user, a student, opens the application, a menu
shows two options. The user can ask the system to show
the correct steps he has to take to finish the exercise or he
can directly try to do the exercise. At any time, the user
can return to the main menu and change the mode.
In the first case of the main menu, the system shows all
the simulation steps set by the teacher in the Course
Editor. The system synchronizes the triggered actions and
the points of view changes as defined in the Course
Editor, in order the user to watch the steps properly.
Figure 3. A highlighted piece in the 3D Simulator
In conclusion, the student can watch the steps of the

designed course and repeat them easily with the help of
the system.
IV. EDITOR/SIMULATOR CONNECTION

As the teacher, the user of the Course Editor is not
supposed to be an expert in 3D animation. He will not be
able to change any aspect of the 3D simulator, only the
file generated by the Course Editor. Thus, the Course
Editor and the 3D Simulator have to be perfectly
synchronized in order the 3D Simulator to reproduce
exactly what has been designed in the Course Editor.
Figure 2. The menus for points of view and hidden objects
In order to achieve this synchronization, we define an
XML file denoted Virtual Course Simulation (VCS). This
In the second case, the user must interact with the file is created by the Course Editor exactly in the way the
machine without any help. For that, he can explore the 3D 3D Simulator will be able to obtain the information.
environment, changing the point of view of the camera. A Figure 4 shows the structure a VCS file.
small menu (see figure 2) in the upper left side of the
screen shows all the options. These points of view are
predefined and stored in an XML file that describes the
– 149 –
<vcs> <action id="0" name="tighten screw 1"

type="start" module="carriage Y" piece="screw 1"
<exercise> action="tighten" speech="now we tighten the
<action> screw" camera="4">
<transition/> <transition id="2" />
<transition/> </action>
…
</action> Note that the actions in the element simulation can only
… have one transition, since simulation is a sequence of
</exercise> actions with no different options.
<simulation> In summary, the VCS file contains all the information
<action> about the diagram designed in the Course Editor classified
<transition/> tidily. The element action contains all the information
</action> concerning the squares of the diagrams and the element
… transition all the information concerning the arrows.
</simulation>
</vcs> V. MACHINE DESCRIPTION
The VCS file is essential for synchronizing the Course
Figure 4. Overview of a VCS file Editor and the 3D Simulator, but it is not less important
that both applications work with the same machine.
The root of the document tree contains the name of the Besides using the same 3D model, it is necessary that the
course and the path of the file to open the corresponding machines used in both applications have exactly the same
machine. characteristics, i.e. all the modules, pieces and actions
defined in the Course Editor must be defined in the 3D
<vcs name="example" machine="myMachine.xml"> Simulator.
Therefore, we defined another XML file, called Virtual
There are two main elements in the document: exercise Machine Markup Language (VMML), which contains all
and simulation. The element exercise contains exercise’s the information needed to understand the machine’s
description in its attributes: functionality (see Figure 5).
<exercise description="Balance all the flows"> <machine>

<module>
The element exercise contains elements that contain the <piece>
information about the steps that must be taken during the <action>
exercise and called action. <callback/>
<translate/>
<action id="9" name="tighten screw" <rotation/>
type="action" module="carriage Y" piece="screw" …
action="tighten" speech="This is a correct <hide/>
step">
<measure/>
<transition id="12" />
…
<transition id="49" />
<action/>
</action>
…
</piece>
The attributes of the element are id, name, type, module, …
piece, action and speech. The attribute type can be start, </module>
action, end or incorrect, as described before. The attribute …
speech is the text that will be displayed when taking this </machine>
step. The elements called transition show which step can
be taken after the current one. Any action that doesn’t
follow the current one makes the system to display a Figure 5. Overview of a VMML file
predefined error text. However, an allowed action can be
an incorrect one and the system will display the error text, The root of the file contains the path of other files that
defined in the attribute speech. contain information about the predefined points of view
The element simulation comes after the element and measures related to the machine and its interaction.
exercise and it is very similar.
<machine name="myMach" cameras="MyCameras.xml"
measures="measureHUD.xml">
<simulation description="the simulation">
In this case, the file located in the path defined in the

In this case the elements that contain the information attribute cameras contains the predefined points of view
about the steps have a new attribute. The attribute camera for the camera and the paths that the camera will follow
indicates the id of the point of view used to watch the when changing the point of view.. The file described in
current action. the attribute measures defines the Head-Up Display
– 150 –
(HUD) that shows measures linked to some pieces. It

contains HUD’s placement, aspect, piece names and initial <rotation axisX="0.0" axisY="0.0" axisZ="1.0"
values. If new similar files were needed, the element angle="-0.5"/>
machine would contain their paths.
The main elements of the XML file are modules and • The element hide sets that this piece will be
pieces. The structure of the file follows the structure of the removed from the 3D machine when activating the
machine, i.e. if a module contains a piece in the machine current action. Moreover, it is possible to define
the element that corresponds to the module contains the the animations that will be triggered when hiding
element that corresponds to the piece. This structure is the piece or when it returns to the 3D scene. These
important in order the system to animate all the pieces or animations can be very helpful for obtaining a
the modules that are inside a module when animating such more impressive result. For example, when
module. For example, it is usual that a machine has a removing screw, an animation that represents its
carriage in each axis; X, Y and Z. If carriage Y’s rotation can be triggered, making the action more
movement is dependent of carriage X’s movement the realistic and more helpful for the student.
structure of the file will be:
<hide hidecallback="hideScrew.txt"
<module name="carriage X" file="carX.3DS"> returncallback=" returnScrew.txt"/>
<module name="carriage Y" file="carY.3DS">
<piece name="screw 1"> • As stated before, in some machines, moving some
pieces makes some parameters to change. The
Note that the attribute file can appear in any module and VMML file takes this aspect into account and
piece. The geometry of a module or a piece can be saved defines an element called measure. The change
in a specific file or it can be part of a file defined in a applied to the parameter is defined by the
higher level. In the second case, it is crucial that the name attributes. Sums, products, exponentials and even
of the piece inside the 3D model is the same as the one value tables have been implemented, but the
defined in the VCS. Furthermore, system is prepared to easily add a new formula.
Each piece element contains the list of actions that can
be done interacting with it. <measure name="caudal Z1" product="0.95" />
<action name="hide" type="click_right" The main goal of the VMML file was the simplicity of
duration="1.0"> its structure so as to easily add new features required by a
new machine. So, besides the possibility of designing any
where the attribute type indicates the interaction type, structure of modules and pieces, without losing any
e.g. click_left, ‘a’, etc. and the attribute duration sets the information about the structure of the machine, any new
duration of the action. This number is not needed during feature can be added inside the element piece and any new
the exercise, but when running the simulation, it indicates action can be added inside the element action.
how long the system has to wait until it triggers the next
action. It is important that the duration is well defined. If VI. CONCLUSION
the duration is too small, a premature change of point of In the project MACHS we developed a system that
view can make the action invisible and if the duration is makes creating Serious Games easier. The user of the
too high, the simulation can be boring for the user. Course Editor can design the course without taking into
Inside the element action, the file defines what happens account any aspect related to 3D Animation or Computer
when activating such action. Science.
• The element callback links an animation saved in a The user designs the diagram that represents the course
file to the action. Note that it is not necessary that that the students will run in the 3D Simulator and doesn’t
the animation works in the current piece, e.g. in the need to work in the 3D Simulator. It reproduces the
following case the animation works in the module designed course automatically.
“carriage Y”. This characteristic could be applied Several aspects of the Course Editor make it a friendly
to any of the following elements. interface. Mainly, the 3D reproduction of the machine
helps the user creating the desired diagram. The 3D scene
<callback module="carriage Y" piece="NULL" inserted in the authoring tool highlights the chosen piece
file="carriageYcallback.txt" /> and shows the selected point of view in order the user to
have the possibility to check he has chosen the correct
• The element translate defines the translation that features for the course. The 3D scene also reproduces the
will be applied to the piece when activating the chosen actions.
action. The election of the pieces can be made by choosing the
name in a menu, but it can also be made by clicking in the
<translate x="0.0" y="0.0" z="0.1" /> 3D machine.
For the synchronization of the Course Editor and the
• The elements called rotation define the rotation 3D Simulator we designed two new XML files called
that will be applied to the piece by giving an angle VCS and VMML. The VCS file contains the information
and an axis. In this case, it could be useful that the saved in the diagram of the Course Editor and the VMML
system accepts more than one element of this type. file describes the structure of the machine, its components
– 151 –
and their behaviour. Despite the fact that both files have a Implementation”, SVR '11 Proceedings of the 2011 XIII Symposium
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for the correct running of the system. [7] S. Göbel, S. Hardy, V. Wendel, F. Mehm, and R. Steinmetz,
“Serious games for health: personalized exergames”, Proceedings
Moreover, the simplicity of the structure of the files of the international conference on Multimedia, 2010
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Occupants of a Building in Personal Fire Safety Skills”, VS-
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Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications, 2009
The project MACHS is only the first step of a long way
[11] N. Haferkamp, and N. C. Krämer, “Disaster readiness through
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[12] C. Linehan, S. Lawson, M. Doughty, and B. Kirman, “Developing
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actions separately. This way, the user will be able to collaborative intercultural business communication”, Proceedings
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2010
Regarding the 3D Simulator, our experience in 3D
[14] M. Q. Tran, and R. Biddle, “Collaboration in serious game
animation leads us to believe that using virtual characters development: a case study”, Future Play '08 Proceedings of the
is really helpful for this kind of applications. The interface 2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, Share, 2008
becomes friendlier if there is an avatar talking with the [15] E. Vasconcelos, C. Lucena, G. Melo, M. Irving J.P. Briot, V.
student instead of a HUD that shows the text. Moreover, Sebba et al., “A Serious Game for Exploring and Training in
during the simulation, the virtual character could show Participatory Management of National Parks for Biodiversity
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[16] M. A. Zielke, M. J. Evans, F. Dufour, T. V. Christopher, J. K.
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Intercultural Communication Skills”, Proceeding of the 2009
Finally, we see that the system developed in the project conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education: Building
could have another application that make it complete. Learning Systems that Care: From Knowledge Representation to
Now, we assume that the user of the Course editor, the Affective Modelling, 2009
teacher, doesn’t have to do anything with the definitions [18] W. L. Johnson, “Serious Use of a Serious Game for Language
of the modules, the pieces and their interaction options, Learning”, International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in
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[21] Games2train Home Page, www.games2train.com
[22] S. Rilling, U. Wechselberger, and S. Mueller, “Bridging the Gap
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posture?”, Artificial & Ambient Intelligence, AISB'07, pp. 420–423, International Conference on Cyberworlds, 2010
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[4] PIXELearning, www.pixelearning.com
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[5] A. Cabas Vidani, L. Chittaro, and E. Carchietti, “Assessing Nurses'
[24] S. Göbel, L. Salvatore, R. Konrad, and F. Mehm, “StoryTec: A
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– 152 –
GENEXIS Platform and Products

V. Nikitin, V. Mazurs
Data Pro Grupa Ltd., Riga, Latvia
dpg@dataprogrupa.com, v.nikitins@dataprogrupa.com, v.mazurs@dataprogrupa.com
Abstract - GENEXIS is an e-learning solution specially GENEXIS is an e-learning solution based on exercise
developed to give teachers a power of modern software generation engine that makes the learning process more
applications for creation of learning content, sharing of efficient, attractive and engaging. It is based not only on
content with other teachers and educating their students in a „just-in-time” and „just-for-you” principles but also on
manner that corresponds to the modern internet-saturated „learning-by-doing” principle.
life. GENEXIS provides content editing, training, printing The initial idea of GENEXIS was to resolve two great
and testing services as well as allows creation of courses. problems of teaching and learning process:
GENEXIS innovative technology of content generation
introduces the new way of e-learning. Any teacher can use • Costs for development of the exercise database and
this innovative tool to create exercise templates with support;
changeable parameters. The article explains in more details • Inefficient consumption of teaching time on student
the innovative process of exercise creation, application of the knowledge evaluation and monitoring.
GENEXIS functionality and utilization of the GENEXIS It has been done by providing an attractive, engaging
platform in Latvia, Slovakia and other EU countries. and simple learning and teaching environment that reflects
Keywords: Education, E-learning, Training, Testing, the modern internet-saturated life.
Exercise Generation
A. What can GENEXIS offer right now? What are its
I. INTRODUCTION advantages and benefits?
The name ‘GENEXIS’ is formed from two words
• By using GENEXIS, teachers can produce core
“generate exercise”. And these two words represent the
principle which was introduced in the late 2007 through skills materials that can be delivered online or on
GENEXIS v.1. It contained the first prototype of the paper;
exercise editor based on content generation principle. This • Teachers can use readymade materials created by other
principle gave birth to a multitude of innovative ideas for teachers;
systems’ application in educational processes. • An exercise created in GENEXIS has hundreds of
GENEXIS v.2. was developed in 2008 and its variations that give unlimited training opportunities to
approbation was performed as a part of Leonardo da Vinci learners.
Transfer of Innovation project “Computer based Exercise • GENEXIS can be integrated with Moodle or other
Generation and Evaluation System for Mathematics, WEB portal;
Physics and Chemistry Subjects – GENEXIS” (2008- • The system has been created for teachers with the help
2009). The testing and evaluation of GENEXIS was of teachers for user-friendliness and time economy.
carried out in vocational education and mainstream
schools in 5 different countries – Latvia, Slovakia (Elfa
s.r.o), Lithuania, Estonia and the United Kingdom.
Currently GENEXIS is in the process of being adapted
also in Italy, Spain, Greece, Sweden and Turkey as a part
of another LdV project ‘E-learning Exercise GENEXIS
System – EEGS’, lead by the Italian company “Docusys
srl”.
Based on the GENEXIS platform, public educational
portal “Uzdevumi.lv” was built and introduced at the
beginning of 2009 in Latvia. At the moment it is already B. What are the main features of GENEXIS? What makes
used by 20% of Latvian schools. Portal is supported by the GENEXIS special?
Municipality of Riga City and it has been integrated with The core feature of GENEXIS is exercise generation.
leading school e-journal system in Latvia – ‘E-klase’. Typically, a student needs to practice repeating the same
Starting from 2010 GENEXIS is also being used in sort of problem solving activities to understand the logic
Slovakia as software for modernisation of educational of the solution. To facilitate this, education materials offer
processes in schools within the framework of the project a few variations on each problem type.
‘MVP Slovenska’ (modernizaciavzdelivania.sk). GENEXIS is different: in the GENEXIS system any
exercise can be replaced with an exercise template which
II. MAIN FEATURES AND ADVANTAGES OF describes a type of problem in general terms. An exercise
GENEXIS template is easy to build using the exercise editor and can
take as little as 10 minutes.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 153 –

V. Nikitin and V. Mazurs • GENEXIS Platform and Products
A. Training
GENEXIS WEB Portal for students provides
individualized training and practice opportunities,
enhanced with a simple statistics tool showing study
progress. Through GENEXIS WEB Portal students can
search for available online courses and apply to them.
GENEXIS WEB messaging functionality is used to notify
student about the activities within the system, e.g., exams,
course application status, etc. Students can expand the use
of the messaging functionality by sending messages with
attachments to teachers and other students within their
educational organization.
Fig.1 Transformation of an exercise into a GENEXIS exercise template
The specific content of the exercise template is

generated anew every time it is used, providing an
unlimited number of variations with no additional effort.
Logx(Y)
Fig.4. Three basic ways of using GENEXIS exercises

Log4(16)
Log3(9)
Log2(8)
Log2(4)
log3(3)
Fig.2. Exercise generation principle
Exercise templates and other related materials can be

biased to different vocational areas to make the learning
more relevant and attractive to the students. GENEXIS
also makes it easy for the teacher to differentiate ability
levels within a group using the same exercises.
Fig.3. GENEXIS exercise editor
GENEXIS provides exercise answer evaluation
(correct/incorrect) and step-by-step solution for all GENEXIS provides advanced way of learning through
exercises. When student solves a problem (task/exercise) WEB. The learning is intended as follows:
and submits the answer, GENEXIS automatically checks
if the answer is correct. GENEXIS is able to verify • Understanding the theory. Theoretical material can
different types of user answers. This could be text answer, be given as a part of the course and can contain
number and multiple choice answers. Additionally multimedia materials and links to related
GENEXIS is able to validate answer with mathematical or materials on WEB.
chemical formulas in it. When answer has been validated
GENEXIS shows a step-by-step solution process for the • Applying the theory in practice. This is done by
task and provides correct answer. solving the exercises. Exercises can contain task and
These features reduce the routine grind of comparing solution parts. By running the same exercise again
student answers to the answer key as well as enable student will get another variation of the task.
students to understand problems better and learn from
their mistakes. • Learning by Doing. After completing an exercise
student receives an evaluation of the answer and full
III. HOW CAN ANYONE USE GENEXIS EXERCISES? step-by-step solution. This is how student can
understand the topic on his own (without assistance).
GENEXIS exercises can be used in three different and By repeating the same exercise again he can reapply
flexible ways - a major advantage of GENEXIS over
received knowledge.
traditional textbooks.
• Checking the overall level of understanding the course
subject by completing the test(s).
– 154 –
When teacher has finished checking exam scores, tests are
set as checked and results are available to pupils on WEB.
Pupils can see personal scores, score corrections done by
teacher and comments.
GENEXIS testing plus exercise generation feature is
very useful when it is needed to assess individual progress
of students in the group. By using this feature it is
impossible to prepare exercise/exam results before the
exam or copy them from other students. Also this feature
can secure the creation of unique home works for each
student.
E. Additional feature: Exchange of content
It is possible to publish content to public library or copy
content from it. That’s how the content can be spread
among the teachers and schools.
It is also possible to send content from teacher to
teacher in another school by using special transfer form.
This way teachers lecturing on similar or related school
subjects can develop their own community and interact
with each other through GENEXIS.
IV. MVP SLOVENSKA PROJECT

Starting from 2010 GENEXIS is also being used in
Slovakia as software for modernisation of educational
processes in schools within the framework of the project
‘MVP Slovenska’ (modernizaciavzdelivania.sk). During
the four project years 7300 Slovakian teachers will
undergo the GENEXIS training courses. The specific
objective of the project is to upgrade and modernize the
content, methods and the outputs of the learning process
in the modern school of the 21st century. It is also aimed at
Fig.5. Example of an exercise in GENEXIS WEB Portal for students increasing the proportion of teachers participating in
lifelong learning process in order to obtain and develop
competencies needed for the modern knowledge-based
B. Courses society.
Teachers can send invitations to the students from During the first 6 months in 2011 several groups of
GENEXIS Desktop Application. Invitations to courses are teachers have created 988 exercises that have been used
delivered to students via e-mail and GENEXIS WEB 4889 times. The WEB portal has been used by the 3 086
Inbox. Whenever a student accepts an invitation to a unique users that have visited 39 376 pages. This shows
course, the course content becomes visible on GENEXIS good GENEXIS application and interest amongst the
WEB main page. Each course can contain theory, teachers in using the software.
exercises, tests and scheduled control works.
V. APPROBATION OF GENEXIS IN EU SCHOOLS
C. Printing
Approbation of the GENEXIS system was performed as
Traditional printed educational materials can be a part of Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project
produced using GENEXIS exercises. “Computer based Exercise Generation and Evaluation
A range of printing options support the creation of take- System for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry Subjects
home tests with answers, handouts of solution examples – GENEXIS”. The testing and evaluation of GENEXIS
and question sheets for written tests and exams. Teachers was carried out in vocational education and mainstream
themselves admit that printing is one of the most useful schools in 5 different countries – Latvia, Lithuania,
and frequently used applications of GENEXIS content. Estonia, Slovakia and United Kingdom. With the help of
partnership organizations – Business Innovation Center of
D. Testing Latvian Electronic Industry (Latvia), KTU Regional
GENEXIS includes a system of online knowledge Science Park (Lithuania), Baltic Innovation Agency
evaluation based on scheduled, timed tests. Using exam (Estonia), Elfa s.r.o. (Slovakia), Accent International
creation wizard it is possible to create a test fast and easy. Language Consultancy (UK) – 1 till 5 educational
Tasks for the test are generated only at the moment organizations were selected in each country to participate
when pupil chooses to run exam. It is not possible to in the approbation of GENEXIS. Altogether there were 21
somehow clarify the content of tasks in advance. educational organizations involved in the project.
After the test has been completed it is possible to see A. Project ‘E-Learning Exercise Genexis System’
pupil statistics which contain score and time spent on
tasks. If pupil was not present on the exam then it will be The adaptation of GENEXIS on wider European level
shown. Teachers are able to see each task, step-by-step is currently being done in five other countries as a part of
solution and result. If it is required teacher could change Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project “E-
particular question result and must leave the comment. learning Exercise Genexis System - EEGS”. The
– 155 –
V. Nikitin and V. Mazurs • GENEXIS Platform and Products
translation of GENEXIS has bee done by the project GENEXIS is an e-learning solution based on exercise
partners from 5 different countries – Italy (Docusys srl), generation engine providing all of the traditional features
Greece (SQLearn Ltd.), Spain (Fondo Fomacion Euskadi, and benefits of online learning as well as ensuring
S.L.L), Turkey (Gazi University) and Sweden (Swedish additional advantages of content generation and online
TelePedagogic Knowledge Centre AB). The approbation platform.
process in vocational education institutions and schools GENEXIS helps making the learning process more
will be launched at the end of 2011 and finalized in the efficient, by generating unlimited random variations of
middle of 2012. It is planned to involve 50 institutions to given exercises on any theme or subject.
test the systems functionality, educational content and Using GENEXIS, teacher can produce core
user guidelines that are currently being developed. skills materials that can be delivered online or on paper.
The main objectives of the project are: to introduce a
GENEXIS is designed to help teachers engage students
management system of ICT content in the VET sector of
in the learning process so that they can achieve consistent
partner countries; to create a network of VET institutions
and measurable improvements in their performance.
that are using one e-learning portal and share the library of
content; to provide teachers and trainers with technical GENEXIS uses a methodology based on exercise
skills necessary for the usage of the system and content generation which is stimulating, varied and relevant to the
creation. The project supports the Leonardo da Vinci vocational interests of the learner.
Programme’s operational objective to develop innovative The system has been created for teachers with the help
ICT based content, services, pedagogies and practice for of teachers to be easy to use whether the student is home-
lifelong learning. based, work-based or in the classroom.
GENEXIS helps making teaching and learning more
VI.GENEXIS PLATFORM productive and less frustrating, benefiting everyone
GENEXIS is used as a base platform for Latvian involved in the education and training process.
educational portal www.uzdevumi.lv and Ukrainian GENEXIS system has been adopted and tested in nine
educational portal domashki.com.ua. GENEXIS exercise European countries within the framework of two
database and exercise generation engine is used to deliver Leonardo Da Vinci Transfer of Innovation projects.
educational content to the public WEB portal, so that any GENEXIS system is already used by clients from
person can use it for self-training. private and public sectors in Latvia, United Kingdom and
In Latvia e-learning portal Uzdevumi.lv serves Slovakia.
thousands of pupils every day, delivering practical Everyday project work still continues on improving
exercises in more than 10 subjects from the school GENEXIS functionality and design to make it even better.
curricula for grades 1 till 12. We have to thank our clients and partners in different
countries for their support and feedback. Every opinion is
taken into account and it only helps us to make right
decisions for GENEXIS future and to set forward new
goals that need to be achieved.
All subjects are developed by teachers according to the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Latvian Ministry of the Education standards. In summer
2011 the size of educational database had reached 10 000
(Fig.6) exercises, and each exercise had at least 50
variations.
This publication has been funded with the support from

the European Commission. The publication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission can not be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.dataprogrupa.com
[2] http://www.genexis.lv
Fig.6. Growth of exercise database [3] http://www.uzdevumi.lv
[4] http://eegs.euproject.org/index.cfm
[5] https://www.modernizaciavzdelavania.sk
This is the biggest database of exercises in Latvia and
one of the biggest in the world. During the study year
2010/2011 portal was actively used by 41 000 pupils,
which makes up 20% of all pupils in Latvia. 2 818 000
exercises were solved during that study year.
VII. SUMMARY
– 156 –
Automated Testing of Case Studies in

Programming Courses
M. Novák*, M. Biňas*
* Department of Computers and Informatics, Technical University of Košice, Slovakia
marek.novak@tuke.sk, miroslav.binas@tuke.sk
Abstract — The majority of Learning management systems tools as jPlag and PMD. In Section IV we propose an
(LMS) provide the functionality only for evaluation of built- architecture overview of a future system connected to an
in tests activities without any support for evaluation of case existing infrastructure. The Section V describes some
studies, which are frequently used in programming courses. experimental results acquired during two years running
These have to be checked manually by an instructor, what is courses Programming, Object oriented programming and
time consuming especially in case if courses are attended Technologies Java.
with a high number of students. In this paper we propose an Although we target on the area of case studies from
automated submission process decomposed in several programming courses, concepts presented in this paper
phases. We provide a detailed description of particular may be used also in non-programming areas.
phases with selected tools as jPlag and PMD. The aim of our
work is to combine existing tools into one coherent system
connected with LMS (Moodle) and IDEs and not to go a way
II. SUBMISSION PROCESS DECOMPOSITION
of implementing a new standalone validation and Testing of a programming case study involves
assignment system. We present also some partial results and verification if the program solves given problem and
experiences using jPlag and PMD tools on our courses – fulfills required criteria and measurement the quality of a
Programming, Object oriented programming and program. Assignment testing may be divided into two
Technologies Java. types: static analysis and dynamic testing referring to
whether a program needs to be executed while it is being
assessed [4]. Dynamic testing is furthermore divided on a
I. INTRODUCTION white-box testing, when the assessment process is done by
One of the key parts of teaching is the evaluation looking into source code structure, or black-box testing,
process and examination. Its aim is to objectively assess when the assessment is done by functional behavior. In
students’ knowledge that they gained by attending a addition there are evaluated characteristics as correctness,
course. Test preparation requires a plenty of time, complexity, reliability or style of a program [5]. Our work
however the evaluation may be even more time focuses on both static and dynamic testing in separate
consuming. steps of testing procedure.
Automated test evaluation is supported by the majority The submission process can be decomposed on several
of currently used Learning management systems (LMS) as sub-processes, where each of them is used for evaluation
Moodle, Sakai, OLAT, etc. [1]. However, the problem of specific part of submitted case study. The results of
occurs when we would like to evaluate student’s skills by some sub-processes may be binary (the requirements were
implementing a program or working on some case study. full-filled or not), other may provide score in percentage.
LMS systems provide mainly the environment to upload We have decomposed submission process into
documents relevant for a case study to the system, but any following steps:
ability to evaluate at least some formal aspects of the
• Evaluate a file structure of an uploaded bundle.
student’s work is missing. These tasks have to be done
manually by the lecturer. • Verify the originality of a solution.
This paper is dedicated to the problem of automated • Compile a program.
evaluation of case studies in programming courses. • Verify the programming principles (OOP).
Related work in automation of programming assignment • Check the correctness of functional parts based on
submission and evaluation is mainly oriented in unit tests.
developing new or enhancing existing tools with a specific • Check the proper functionality of the program based
purpose as MARMOSET [2] or ProgTEST [3]. Rather on given inputs and outputs.
than going this way, we decided to combine existing tools • Create a report based on results of previous steps with
into one functional system with added value. In this paper the final score.
we propose an architecture overview of a web service in
the scope of existing environment of LMS and IDEs
already used in our courses with some partial tests of The composition and a sequence of steps of the
submission process sub-steps. evaluation process are illustrated in the Fig. 1. The sub-
processes 2 and 3 require a parameter – threshold in
The paper is organized as follows. In Section II we
percentage, above which the program is considered a
provide an overview of submission process decomposition
plagiary and threshold defining how many rules of a
into sub-processes and in Section III we describe these
particular programming methodology, e.g. object oriented
sub-processes in more detail with deeper focus on used
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 157 –

M. Novák and M. Biňas • Automated Testing of Case Studies in Programming Courses
principles (OOP), may fail and the assignment is still step, the uploaded bundle is unpacked and all required
accepted. Other sub-processes provide binary results files are verified. If something is missing a student is
meaning that assignment is either accepted or rejected. In asked to upload a bundle with right structure.
the second case a failure report with a detailed description
is sent back to a student. Naturally, a student has to correct B. Verifying the Originality
indicated failures and upload the assignment once again. To find plagiaries is labor demanding tasks, especially
in courses attended for a high number of students. Finding
a duplicate manually is usually an accident when student
forgets to change a name in comments, or other document
enclosed with an assignment or some weird bug is
common for more than one assignment.
There exist several tools for automated plagiary
detection. Usually their compare all pairs of assignments
with various software metrics or compare structure of
programs.
jPlag is one of such tools comparing the programs
based on tokens coverage. Firstly it parses the input
source code and converts it to a stream of tokens. After
that the tokens are compared in pairs for determining the
similarity of each pair. The similarity value is counted as
the percentage of the token streams that can be covered
[7].
jPlag tool is accessible as a web service, which may be
important especially when it is aimed to be included into a
larger system.
C. Verifying Programming Principles
There are available plenty of tools for static code
analysis. From tools dedicated to Java programming
language there could be mentioned open source tools as
PMD [8] and Checkstyle [9] or commercial tools as JTest
[10]. All these tools are aimed at scanning source code
and report problems like inappropriate expressions (many
nested if statements or loops), duplicated code, wrong
variable naming, dead code as unused local variables,
parameters and private methods, tight coupling or low
cohesion.
Figure 1. Activity diagram of a decomposed submission process
We have decided for PMD because changeable rule
The submission process may be completely automated, sets, possibility to overwrite descriptive messages for
or may work as a sieve, filtering students, who just try to violations and accessible plug-ins for Netbeans and
submit an assignment of someone else. In later case, the Eclipse IDE.
student will be allowed for a personal defense only when
passing all submission sub-processes. The continuous D. Running Unit Tests
monitoring of student’s progress may be also an asset, Object-oriented paradigm is widely used in introductory
forcing the student to work gradually, not at once just or basic programming courses. OOP may seem more
before the final examination. appealing to students, but it sometimes orient students
more on technological aspects. Thus the students have
III. PHASES OF A SUBMISSION PROCESS problems with designing a program or finding bugs in
their application [11]. To solve this problem many
A. File Structure Evaluation universities introduced testing concepts in their
Finalized case study on a programming course usually programming courses [12].
comprises of various data files. There are not only source As part of automated testing there may be realized unit
files, but also documentation (may be generated from a tests prepared by students and also unit tests prepared by a
source files during checking phase), executable, external lecturer. To support this approach, the students should be
libraries, readme file or other files requested by the provided a library with interfaces and a set of empty unit
instructor. On our courses we prefer Game Based test. This will navigate students which values to test and
Learning (GBL) [6] where students are implementing a therefore help them to prepare unit test properly
game during a semester. Therefore our students are
requested to upload, besides previously mentioned files, E. Running scenarios
also a user guide and a scenario how to complete the game Depending on type of a case study, students may
successfully. prepare a scenario to prove the right functionality of a
Checking the formal aspects of an uploaded assignment program. This type of testing is more visible for
is definitely time saving and easy to be implemented programming assignment, where students implement a
either as a web service or as a plug-in in LMS. During this game. For instance an adventure game has a scenario how
– 158 –
to successfully accomplish it (go west, take sword, go B. Sending the Result into LMS
north, kill a dragon). When the assignment is validated by the LANESS
Students may prepare an input scenario, which is service the result is sent back to a student providing a
bundled with a program and this way uploaded for testing. comprehensive feedback. The feedback helps a student to
The automated testing system runs the scenario on fix problems and fulfill all requirements to have the
program and evaluates its functionality. application accepted. The information about student
Obviously this type of testing is adaptable only for progress is important also for a lecturer. For this purpose
programs accepting text input and explicit sequence of LANESS sends the shortened report to LMS.
steps known before the program execution. Testing of a
successful scenario may be implemented also through unit
tests in some programs.
IV. AN ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW

Rather than developing a new system from scratch, that
will cover all phases of the submission process, we
decided to interconnect existing systems and applications
into one collaborating unit with added value. When
designing the architecture of a submission system we
came out from IDEs and information systems already used
on our courses as Netbeans, Eclipse, LMS Moodle and
student information system Mais.
The main evaluation component of a system, which
glues other existing systems, is a remote web service
LANESS (LAzy and NEgligent Student Search). It accepts
the assignment from a student, executes all validation
steps and provides a result to the student through both an
IDE and LMS Moodle.
The proposed system is not finished yet and we are
working on the implementation. From the architecture
point of view and internal processing of LANESS is
decomposed into two parts:
• uploading the assignment from IDE to a web service
and validation steps execution
• writing the results into LMS or other IS
A. Uploading an assignment to the Web service
Figure 2. LANESS Architecture - uploading and evaluation part
The simplified architecture of an uploading process is
depicted in Fig. 2. A student uses an IDE to work on an
assignment (e.g. Netbeans or Eclipse – they provide the C. Sending the Result into LMS
environment for various programming languages as Java, When the assignment is validated by the LANESS
C, C++ etc.). When the program is finished, the student service the result is sent back to a student providing a
uploads the assignment to the web service for validation. comprehensive feedback. The feedback helps a student to
This may be done only once during the semester, when the fix problems and fulfill all requirements to have the
assignment is finished or more times after some application accepted. The information about student
milestones, depending on a validation mechanism. The progress is important also for a lecturer. For this purpose
web service executes all validation steps (file structure LANESS sends the shortened report to LMS.
evaluation, originality verification, programming
principles evaluation, etc.) and prepares a result report that LMS systems are currently broadly used at the
is sent back to the student. universities providing the environment with various
features as sources management, submission assignment,
To provide a more user friendly environment, the grading, testing, calendar, etc. Since the grade or final
uploading functionality is accessible directly from an IDE evaluation on many courses comprises from more than
as an ANT task. This way a student is released from tasks one assignment (test/quiz + case study) and LMSs
such as compressing all files into one ZIP file, uploading internally support test/quiz creation and evaluation, we
the ZIP file through some web interface and downloading want to integrate LANESS results directly into LMS
the result. All is done automatically through an ANT (Fig.3). This will not force lecturers to manually transcribe
script that is executable directly from an IDE by one click. the marks from external validation system into LMS.
The student should take care only of a file structure, since
all types of documents are required to be on a predefined LMS may be connected with a university IS
place. (management of students, classes, schedules, etc.) where
final marks will be sent when course is finished.
– 159 –
case study and the remaining part depends on an approach

and creativity of a student.
B. Present Submission Procedure
Until the system and LANESS service will be ready for
a practical usage, we try to check all case studies
manually. Manual submission control conforms to that
presented in the second section. A lecturer firstly checks
formal aspects of an assignment as documentation (user
guide, system manual or Javadoc, UML diagrams).
Secondly he checks if a program compiles without errors
and if source codes comply with programming principles
of a particular language through PMD tool. If some of the
formal aspects are not fulfilled, the student is not allowed
to continue in submission and is asked to fix all
deficiencies and come again.
Naturally, in the opposite case, when the case study
contains all required parts, student is asked to introduce
his solution. Discussion between the lecturer and the
student about student’s ideas and approaches is the most
pleasant part of the submission, however many times it
turns into proving that a case study was not worked out by
the student, but by someone else. This proving, besides
checking formal aspects, consumes a lot of time and
strengths of the lecturer. Here the automated testing of
case studies may significantly help the lecturer to focus on
final phase of a submission – evaluate students own
approach to a solved problem.
Figure 3. LANESS Architecture - writing results in LMS
C. Programming Principles Verification with a PMD
Code Analyzer
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND FUTURE WORK
To verify object oriented principles in Java programs
We are trying to deploy this solution to the selected we use PMD tool. The tool is bundled into a startup
courses of undergraduate study programs at Faculty of template (Netbeans project) that students download on the
Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical first meeting. It is executable directly from Netbeans IDE
university of Košice, such as Programming, Object as an ANT task. PDM supports integration with up to 15
oriented programming (OOP) and partially at different IDEs, however we encounter a problem, where
Technologies Java (TJava). These courses are one of the command line version returns more violations than plug-in
main courses of software engineering, where the number version on the same source code.
of attending students is between 200 and 400. The given We have prepared our own ruleset and translated
numbers of students represent an interesting sample, description messages, because students had a problem to
where some of them are beginners in programming understand several violations. As an example, there could
without any previous experiences, but some of them are be mentioned frequently reported violation cyclomatic
advanced programmers with some habits. Obviously, such complexity. Students complained that official PMD
high numbers of students increase the probability of explanation is too complex for them.
plagiarism, since manual checking all the assignments is a
challenging task. The result, which is our success, was improved
readability of the source code produced by students. They
A. Case Studies and Scenarios get used to naming conventions, avoiding
overcomplicated expressions, 3 or more times embedded
As was mentioned before, to increase students’ if statements and many more, what are usual errors made
motivation we prefer Game Based Learning [6], where by novice programmers.
students continuously work through semester on a game
implementation following predefined scenarios. This type D. Originality Verification with jPlag Tool
of education creates more space for students to be creative
and to “play”. Individual courses differ a little, for At present, verification whether a case study is a
instance course OOP is denoted more to programming plagiary or not is done largely by lecturer’s intuition. We
principles and technology is hidden as much as possible, have used jPlag Web Start client to test the sets of
whereas course TJava focuses more on special classes student’s programs, but just as a post-validation after we
from Java SE and selected Java frameworks. have collected all the assignments.
What they have in common are scenarios, which define The tests were realized on a sample of 183 assignments
steps guiding the students to accomplish specific goals from the subject OOP taught in a winter semester
(e.g. to learn difference between static and non-static 2010/2011 and 122 assignments from the subject TJava
methods), sometimes very similar to a tutorial. Because of taught in a summer semester 2010/2011. The results are
these scenarios, part of a source code is similar for one shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 as histograms of programs’
coverage. The coverage or similarity between two
– 160 –
programs is measured in percentage divided into intervals source code generated by Netbeans IDE represents a
of a length of 10% and the Y-axis represents pairs of notable part of source code of the whole program. From a
programs falling into a particular interval. The number of distinct difference of coverage, visible in Fig.5, between
pairs is counted in (1), where n is number of realized the interval 60%-70% and 70%-80% we may conclude
comparisons (each program with all others). that programs with coverage above 70% may be
considered a plagiary. Programs falling into low coverage
intervals are individual case studies implemented by
(n ∙ (n-1)) / 2 (1)
skilful students.
Figure 5. Histogram created by jPlag from assignments of a subject

Figure 4. Histogram created by jPlag from assignments of a subject Technologies Java
Object Oriented Programming
For instance, the algorithm of jPlag realized 16 653 E. Simple prove of the results
comparisons among 183 programs from the OOP course. Because the proposed system is not fully functional and
From the histogram in the Fig. 4 it is easy to see that jPlag scan were realized after the end of a submission
similarity below 50% is a consequence of common procedure, when the students were already graded, we
scenarios and library provided to all students. Programs have proved the results by questionnaires. The students
located in the interval of 50% - 70% coverage imply that were asked questions about their satisfaction with a course
students cooperated, but they added also their own and a lecturer, how challenging was the case study, what
implementation. Programs with the coverage above 80% they would change on a case study in the future, etc. The
are obviously plagiary. Counted from the jPlag report, 45 students whose programs were labeled as a plagiary were
students (24,59% of all tested students) has the coverage given a list of cooperating students (from the jPlag report)
of their programs higher than 80% and are considered to and should write if the list fits. They were assured, that
be cheating. 24,59% is rather a high number, which their grades would be not degraded, if they own up.
should be decreased in the future. The interval 70% - 80%
should be considered manually by the lecturer, since there From the questionnaires, we gained about 90% success
is a high probability that students cooperated, but not in finding the plagiary. The result is thanks to truthful
primarily with the aim to copy their programs. students (only when there is no threat of sanctions) quite
high, but there should be considered some students who
Low number of program pairs above 80% coverage may not own up.
(61) on the one hand and a high number of cheating
students on the other hand is given by the fact, that usually VI. CONCLUSION
one student is an author of a program and another student
copies the program with only minor changes. If we High numbers of students attending courses, which are
consider 50 students, where half of students worked on the taught on more departments of a faculty in parallel, create
assignments on their own and the remaining 25 copied the better opportunities for lazy or worse students to cheat and
program from somebody from the first group we get only copy programs from classmates. Manual control is time
25 pairs. Naturally, this is true only when a condition that consuming and signs indicating a plagiary are easily
one original is associated with only one copy is overlooked by a lecturer.
maintained. However, the task to seek out who is an This assumption is affirmed by the results from jPlag
author and who is plagiarist lies on the shoulders of a scans realized on assignments from OOP and TJava
lecturer. courses. We have verified the originality of a set of 183
The result from a scan of TJava assignments (Fig.5) OOP assignments, where 24,59% programs were marked
shows that a bigger part of the source code was common as plagiary.
for all students. At OOP students implemented a text To speed up the submission process and to increase the
game, while at TJava students implemented a number of detected plagiaries we propose a system for
Minesweeper game with GUI. The limit of plagiary automated testing of case studies. The main part of the
coverage is therefore shifted to higher percentage, because system is a web service LANESS responsible for
– 161 –
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using an advanced submission and testing system for
principles, etc. programming courses,” In ITICSE’06: Proceedings of the 11th
The architecture of a presented system, currently in the annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in
phase of development, links to existing systems as LMS computer science education, New York, NY, 2006, pp. 13–17.
Moodle and IDEs used at our courses. We want to [3] D. M. de Souza, J. C. Maldonado, and E. F. Barbosa, “ProgTest:
integrate the service directly into IDEs to be accessible An environment for the submission and evaluation of
just by one click and the reports visible in the systems that programming assignments based on testing activities,” Software
Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), 2011 24th IEEE-
are already used at the courses. Adding a new standalone CS Conference on, May 2011, pp. 1-10, ISBN: 978-1-4577-0349-
system and therefore increasing the complexity of the 2.
submission process is not a way we would like to go. [4] Na Zhang, Xiaoan Bao,and Zuohua Ding, “Unit Testing: Static
We have realized tests with PMD and jPlag tools. Analysis and Dynamic Analysis,” Computer Sciences and
Students used PMD tool with adapted ruleset during the Convergence Information Technology, ICCIT '09. Fourth
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implementation through the whole semester. jPlag was 1-4244-5244-6 .
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OOP and TJava. Programming Assessment and Test Data Generation A review on
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978-1-4244-6715-0.
is scalability, to easily adjust the web service for a new
case study or a new course. Another thing which shouldn’t [6] M. Biňas, M. Novák, M. Michalko, and F. Jakab, “Ako motivovať
študentov softvérového inžinierstva,” In: Social Networking:
be neglected are descriptive reports for students. Feedback Proceedings of International Conferences ICT Bridges, Sunflower
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problems and successfully proceed the submission Republic, pp. 199-204, ISBN 978-80-248-2117-7.
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plagiarisms among a set of programs,” Technical Report 2000-1,
ACKNOWLEDGMENT March 28, 2000.
[8] PMD tool home page, Accessed: 15.9.2011, Online:
This work was supported by the Slovak Cultural and http://pmd.sourceforge.net/
Educational Grant Agency of Ministry of Education of [9] Checkstyle tool home page, Accessed: 15.9.2011, Online:
Slovak Republic (KEGA) under the contract No. http://checkstyle.sourceforge.net/
3/7245/09(60%). This work is also the result of the project [10] JTest tool home page, Parasoft, Accessed: 15.9.2011, Online:
implementation Development of the Center of Information http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/products/jtest.jsp/
and Communication Technologies for Knowledge [11] E. Lahtinen, K. Ala-Mutka, and H. J¨arvinen. “A study of the
Systems (project number: 26220120030) supported by the dificulties of novice programmers,” ITiCSE '05 Proceedings of the
Research & Development Operational Program funded by 10th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in
computer science education, New York, NY, USA, 2005, pp. 14–
the ERDF(40%). 18.
[12] S. H. Edwards, “Using software testing to move students from
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– 162 –
A Virtual Laboratory for the study

of Mechatronics
D. Perdukova and P. Fedor*
* Technical University of Kosice, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Mechatronics, Kosice, Slovakia
daniela.perdukova@tuke.sk, pavol.fedor@tuke.sk
Abstract—In this paper we describe the design and similar approaches, which rely only on computer
implementation of a remote virtual laboratory for simulation.
cooperative learning of Mechatronics over the Internet. The
proposed architecture provides several advantages to II. VIRTUAL LABORATORY AND REMOTE
institutions offering eLearning and distance education LABORATORY
courses in industrial automation. It facilitates the learning
process over the Internet by providing a Web based user A stage that had to cover in this investigation was the
interface that allows remote users to access and control elaboration of a taxonomy that allows to categorize the
several physical models of technological processes and also Virtual Laboratories of the Laboratories of Remote
verify created control programs via a virtual model without Access. We understand for Virtual Laboratories those
damaging the system equipment. The architecture presented ones where you can make simulations of physical devices
in the paper is not dependent on a specific SLC hardware or using software [1]. In some cases, a well designed virtual
software configuration and offers a great potential for laboratory can substitute a real laboratory, mainly when
industry by providing means of remote controlling and this incorporates elements of animation (graphics, sound,
verifying control programs in manufacturing systems virtual reality). The virtual laboratories that are accessible
located at different locations. through Internet/Intranet are highly attractive to reduce the
costs of acquisition of equipments; using a browser like
interface for a virtual laboratory has the following
I. INTRODUCTION advantages [2]:
The rapid changes in society and technology have also - It is independent of the platform.
generated a demand for more flexible engineers having - It has a great and easy way of use.
many more qualifications than just a high level of - The need of additional software is minimum in the
technical or scientific specialization. Therefore it is client's side.
important to provide the students with a real world
experience. Today this problem is getting more and more On the other hand, the Laboratories of Remote Access
attention, because the real experiment gives the students a allow that real experiments of laboratory are controlled far
sense of practical testing and they can also see the through a connection Internet or via Web. Associated to
influence of the second/higher order effect, real time these types of laboratories they are the aspects of Virtual
effects, etc. Building a virtual laboratory is a way how to Factory and Remote Factory (or Telemanufacture). The
combine information and communication technologies Remote Factory uses services offered through Servers to
with real practical experience in the educational process. It execute production operations in real time; this way the
allows students to perform experiments safely, without telemanufacture activities are present from the conception
guidance and without any limitations imposed by official until the creation of the product. On the other hand, the
working hours in the laboratory. Virtual Factory is a synthetic factory atmosphere where
they are integrated objects, activities and real processes
However, to build an experiment is expensive and it is with objects, activities and feigned processes [3].
impossible for an educational institution to have the
complete scale of experiments. For this reason the
III.SIGNIFICANCE OF BUILDING A VIRTUAL
Department of Electrical Engineering and Mechtronics of
FEI TU in Košice, in cooperation with the Department of LABORATORY
Automation and Control of the FEI in Bratislava prepared Small logic controllers nowadays present the main tools
a project (KEGA 006-005TUKE-4/2010) for building a used at basic level of automation of mechatronic systems
joint virtual laboratory dedicated to technological process and technological processes. Almost each operational and
control via small logic controllers. service engineer needs to master them regardless of
The Web-based system control architecture presented in whether he is in the position of a user or a designer of the
this paper allows remote access to a SLC-controlled systems with programmable logic controllers (PLC).
physical model of the technological process over the In the existing laboratories the teaching of subjects
Internet. The architecture provides both on-site and related to automation and control in practice is conducted
distance students with the same learning environment, and within the range of 42 hours altogether – this is to learn
minimises the difference between the qualities of learning about the automation tool (PLC) proper, its programming,
of both student bodies. Controlling the “real” details of the specific technology and verification of the
technological process via the Internet presents a design. Students fight with enormous demands - each
fundamental difference between this approach and other piece of information is new to them and this means that
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 163 –

D. Perdukova and P. Fedor • A Virtual Laboratory for the study of Mechatronics
they manage to grasp the elaboration of a formal solution control and visualization programs in the OFF LINE mode
of an automation problem during the semester, but due to and in case of need as backup PCs. The students in the
lack of time its correctness cannot be verified. In order to laboratory can work with the physical model and its PLC
increase the quality of learning and to acquire a real ability but in case when students work in ON LINE mode via the
to design control systems in practice, it is necessary to internet the real physical models of technological
enable the students to make the most of practical processes are replaced by virtual models. Further, in the
experiences in the field of control of systems with PLCs. laboratory there has been installed a laboratory server
With the given timetable structure and number of students, equipped by software that is suitable for administration of
this can be realized by more effective utilization of the more users with remote access to laboratory PCs. The PCs
laboratory and its physical tools. The students should have are connected via the university intranet to existing
the possibility to prepare their tasks in the OFF LINE internet server. In case when the workplace is free, the
mode and then verify them on the real physical model in laboratory server enables virtual transfer of the screen,
the ON LINE mode continuously over 24 hours a day, i.e. mouse, keyboard and other standard tools from laboratory
also in the time outside the standard teaching time. PC to any arbitrary PC connected to internet and thus to
The main aim of building a virtual laboratory is to work virtually with the concrete PLC and its virtual
involve a design aspect in educational process of model.
mechatronic systems because a virtual laboratory presents Physical models of technological processes and control
a new e-learning tool in which the experiments should not automats of virtual laboratory are divided into two parts
be only analysis oriented (to measure and see the results) and are located physically in two laboratories – laboratory
but also synthesis oriented [4]. at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of
Technical University in Košice (FEI TU Košice) and
IV. VIRTUAL LABORATORY DESIGN AND laboratory at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and
DEVELOPMENT Information Technology of Slovak University of
Technology in Bratislava (FEI STU Bratislava). As each
The general structural layout of the virtual laboratory is of the departments is provided with physical models of
shown in Fig. 1. The virtual laboratory includes 9 different technological processes, the joining of both
workplaces with PCs, 6 of which are interconnected with departments in the virtual laboratory will make it possible
inputs and outputs of programmable logic controllers, and for students of the two universities to use all the tools
they serve for work in ON LINE mode as well as for from both workplaces and thus gain practice in a wide
formal preparation of tasks in OFF LINE mode. Due to variety of automation tasks. Without the involvement of
the fact that in the teaching process the formal preparation both departments they would be limited to the physical
of tasks takes up significantly more time than the proper possibilities of a single local laboratory.
functional adjustment of the (relatively simple, school)
algorithms, there are 4 workplaces in the laboratory used Physical models of technological processes will serve
only in the OFF LINE mode, or for simulation/modelling only for the work in laboratory. Students will be able to
purposes. Simulation or modelling has several advantages verify the correctness of control algorithm through the
when used as a part of a virtual laboratory. It provides an virtual model of technological process which will be
effective learning environment for students to become connected with real inputs and outputs of PLC. After
acquainted with a concept and/or a specific application verifying control program students will be prepared to
related to a physical device and its control parameters at work with real physical model of technological process in
both planning and operational levels without interacting the laboratory.
with the physical equipment. Students can experiment and
learn at their own pace without the risk of hurting
themselves or damaging the equipment. In addition, the
same set of software tools can be used for both ON LINE
and OFF LINE students.
In virtual laboratory all workplaces are connected via
the local network to the laboratory server through which a
"remote desktop" access to each workplace or use of
common services of the laboratory by all workplaces is
possible. The laboratory server enables the control of the
particular workplaces through remote computers
connected to internet and administration of their use by
the students.
The laboratory as a whole has been built from the lower
(technological) level towards the upper virtual user level.
As we have mentioned in the laboratory of the department
there have been built up five physical models of
technological processes. Their analogue and binary
inputs/outputs are interconnected with the PLC. The
programming and visualization software has been
installed on independent PCs. Five PCs are connected
with the PLC through a serial line and they serve for the Figure 1. The structure of the virtual laboratory.
work with the concrete model of a technological process
in the ON LINE mode. Four PCs serve for preparation of
– 164 –
Requirements for students who want to work in Web- - Virtual model is a very powerful tool to verify control
based PLC laboratory: programs. Executing programs on actual equipment
Basic knowledge of: without testing them via virtual model may lead to
- combinational circuit, collisions and damage to the system [5]. Virtual
model helps verify programs, thus preventing damage
- sequential circuit, to the equipment. The laboratory model of tanks of
- logic control, liquid and its virtual model are shown in Fig.3.
- programming in STEP 7 language,
- ladder diagram programming,
- PLC structure and PLC components,
- PLC instructions.
V. VIRTUAL LABORATORY FEATURES AND BENEFITS

With virtual laboratory students participate from a
classroom, the office or from home through their own
PCs. This system provides students with a complete
learning environment where they can view course
material, as well as description of the physical models, the
instructions how to set the HW configuration of PLC, the
description of the control task for individual physical
model, etc. The interface of the virtual laboratory you can
see in Fig.2.
The main assets of developing the virtual laboratory is:
- VL serves for teaching subjects related to automation,
control and visualization of technological processes
and that it enables the implementation of new forms
of study (distance e-learning forms), which will
promote the innovation of the educational process at
the Department of Electrical Engineering and
Mechatronic of FEI TU in Košice and the Department
of Automation and Control of the FEI in Bratislava.
- If effectively scheduled, students can share the same
equipment over the Internet regardless of their
geographical location.
- Universities can share facilities, instead of Figure 3. The laboratory model and the virtual model of liquid tanks
individually investing on laboratory equipment, and
improve the quality of learning. - The open concept of the virtual laboratory will in the
future enable its simple enhancement by connecting
more workplaces, also from abroad
The benefits for students at bachelor, master and PhD
study level will be in:
- The higher quality of teaching.
- Higher attractiveness of study.
- Possibility of unlimited access to solution of
automation tasks in terms of time.
- Increase in practical knowledge and experience with
the design and implementation of technological
process control systems based on logic controllers.
Building up the virtual laboratory will enable students to
get practical experience in:
- design and debugging of control programs for PLCs,
concrete students will be able:
• to create new project,
• to define the HW structure of SLC according the
project of control system,
• to configure industrial networks (PROFIBUS,
TCP/IP),
Figure 2. The example of the interface of the virtual laboratory • to define outputs and inputs (type, name),
• to define required variables,
– 165 –
D. Perdukova and P. Fedor • A Virtual Laboratory for the study of Mechatronics
• to design control program in the form of ladder unique opportunities by providing a means of remote
diagram or programming language STEP7, monitoring, controlling, and diagnosing manufacturing
• to verify designed control program in simulation systems located at different locations [8]. In presented
mode, system architecture only one “active” user can interact
with the physical model and execute his SLC program,
• download control program to SLC, which runs the physical model and also runs the virtual
• debugging control program in monitor mode, model. Thus, there is no difference between the “real” and
• to switch modes in PLC, the “simulated” terms from the standpoint of SLC
programming. The architecture presented in this paper is
• to run control program in PLC, not dependent on specific SLC hardware or software. It
- application and verification of standard control represents generic Web-based system architecture for the
structures of real systems, study of industrial automation.
- remote control from arbitrary location through A virtual laboratory introduces new forms of e-learning
internet, at a larger scale [9]. Using e-learning methods combined
- OFF LINE work on the design and programming of with real measurements makes studying more attractive
control algorithms for drives, and it represents new trends in learning how to create and
- ON LINE work with real drives and their verify programs for small logic controllers without
standardised actuating structures. damaging the system to be controlled.
VI. CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In this paper, the architecture of Web-based virtual
laboratory for the study of technological process This work was supported by KEGA No. 006-
automation is presented. The system architecture allows 005TUKE-4/2010.
remote users to access and control SLC-based physical
models of technological processes via the Internet. The REFERENCES
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intelligent gate system, conveyors system, air ball system [1] F. Torres, S. Puente, F. Calderas, F. and J. Pomares, "Virtual
and wheel pendulum system. If effectively scheduled, Laboratory for Robotics and Automation", in: Proceedings IFAC
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technological process over the Internet regardless of their December 2001, pp. 189-194.
geographical location. As each of the universities (TU [2] F. P. Brooks, “What's Real About Virtual Reality?”, IEEE
Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 19/6, 1999, pp. 16–20.
Kosice and STU Bratislava) is provided with physical
models of different technological processes, the joining of [3] A. J. Alvarez, L. J. Romariz, "Telerobotics: Methodology for the
Development of a Through the Internet Robot Teleoperated
both universities in the virtual laboratory project make it System", Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences,
possible for students to use all the tools from both vol. XXIV, 2002, pp. 122-126.
workplaces and thus gain practice in a wide variety of [4] G. Copinga, M. Verhagen, and M. Van de Ven, “Toward a Web
automation tasks. Without the involvement of both based study support environment for teaching automatic control”,
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laboratory is accessible via internet, it can be exploited Int. Conf. in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization
also for the training of people who are at most and Computer Vision, Wscg'05, Czech Republic, 2005
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applied to control engineering laboratories”, IEEE Trans. Educ.,
people. The internet controlled distance experimental vol. 39/3, 1996, pp. 320–326.
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opportunities regardless of gender, race, geographical IEEE Press, Second Edition, 2003.
location or time [7]. The project contributes to [8] C. Saygin, A. F. Kahraman, “A Web-based programmable logic
improvement of the skills and competencies of people controller laboratory for manufacturing engineering education”,
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their integration and reintegration into the labour market. laboratory”, IEEE Trans Instrum Meas, 49(2), 2000, pp. 349–356.
Remote experimentation using Web-based SLC
systems is not limited to education. In manufacturing
industry, remote access to distant facilities provides
– 166 –
Maintenance software processes for web 2.0

based learning management systems
Tomáš Poklemba*, Igor Sivý* and Zdeněk Havlice*
* Technical University of Košice, Department of Computer and Informatics, Košice, Slovakia
Tomas.Poklemba@tuke.sk, Igor.Sivy@tuke.sk, Zdenek.Havlice@tuke.sk
Abstract— As we know all software products require • corrective maintenance, e.g. the removal of errors in
maintenance and support. After observing time the code
requirements for maintenance and all needed innovations • adaptive maintenance, e.g. the adjustment of software
and changes I realize that cost for those activities is
for a new operating system
somewhere around half of all bugged for software product.
The more years is software used and alive the more time • perfective maintenance, e.g. the modification of the
and costs are required. Linear dependency between code to improve performance.
realized changes and costs is changing into exponential Although the above mentioned authors agree on the
dependency as the years go. Bad and unwanted structural number and names of the categories, they differ with
changes at the very beginning of software design could regard to the definition and explanations of some of them.
overcharge software maintenance. It is nothing uncommon
that maintenance of poorly or wrong designed software
products (for example LMS) can achieve point when cost of To demonstrate the variety and the related naming
new development is lover than actual cost of maintenance. problem I will briefly describe the different definitions
In this contribution is presented a proposal of effective and explanations. Where a general agreement about
software maintenance adverted for web 2.0 based LMS certain terms or their core meaning exists, I will continue
system. Our proposal exploits what should be the proper using them.
way of software design, what are the common mistakes,
what are our personal experiences and finally how to gain 1. Corrective Maintenance: Event driven, reactive and
the low cost software maintenance. partly unscheduled modification of a software product
to correct discovered faults to keep a system
I. INTRODUCTION operational.
Almost all software developers would agree that 2. Adaptive Maintenance: Event driven modification of
shelve of maintenance is rowing future time and financial the software product due to changed or changing
cost or could lead into software absolute crash. There are environment or requirements
many theories and model driven architectures as an 3. Perfective & Preventive Maintenance: Quality
example of proper and solid maintenance. The real world driven modification of the software product to improve
of software development especially in smaller companies efficiency, performance and maintainability and
usually works slightly different as their model entities. preventing problems in the future.
Most of the code changes in real scenario of software
maintenance include just smaller complements or data
changes. With missing documentation and models from
the beginning of software development all other changes
and transformation are usually moved as potentially
dangerous. Unfortunately, nobody could develop stable
and static algorithms from the begging models. The
reason is that alive software is changing its data structure
and algorithms based on user requirements.
The main purpose of this contribution is to advertise Figure 1.
importance of software maintenances, description of
proper maintenance solution and finally explanation from II. ANALYSIS
know-how driven from our real scenarios. As an proper way and stable solution fo
V-Model
The V-model is a software development process
I. CATEGORIZATION OF MAINTENANCE
model developed by the German Federal Ministry of
Defence US. The V-model was developed with the focus
Some authors such as [Phillips 2000; Balzert 2001] on the following applications:
explain or define maintenance by listing possible
categories of maintenance and defining those. Examples
for such maintenance categories are:
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T. Poklemba et al. • Maintenance Software Processes for Web 2.0-based Learning Management Systems
• basis for contracts

• instruction for system development with detailed
descriptions of the activities and documents
• communication basis with the feature of universal
validity and project independence
This is the major difference to the Waterfall model.

The V-model can be seen as a bent Waterfall model,
enabling feedback to corresponding phases during the
process. However, the V-model still belongs to the
category of linear sequential models because one phase
needs to be completed before the process moves on to the
next phase. In addition to the needs of the organization
and the users, which are transformed into requirements
for the software product, a major aspect regarding the
input is the detailed specification of the activities. Figure 2.
The well-known V-form of the V-model can be seen
in the sub model of system development. The other sub
models are Quality Assurance, Configuration Maintenance in the V-Model
Management and Project Management. The nine phases The V-model with regard to maintenance:
of System Development, as illustrated in , are: • reduction in the number of maintenance cases as a
result of improved product quality
• SD1: System Requirements Analysis: Requirements • decrease in maintenance effort via easy
are analyzed, a description for the system and its comprehensibility and the existence of an adequate
environment is established and a risk analysis is software documentation.
realised.
• SD2: System Design: The system is divided into It is right to say that the V-model comprises all
segments. necessary activities to make use of the above listed
• SD3: Software/Hardware Analysis: Technical advantages. However, it is a complex model and only
requirements are described in more detail. suited for large
• SD4: Software Design (rough): The software projects. Furthermore it is not always possible to transfer
architecture is designed. the ideas of a perfect world model to the real world. In
• SD5: Software Design (detailed): The detailed design contrast to the previously described Waterfall model,
is specified. maintenance is not explicitly embedded in this model; it
only comes implicitly after transition to utilisation. What
• SD6: Implementation: Software components are
is said about maintenance is that maintenance itself is
coded.
reduced through proper development. Activities for
• SD7:Software Integration: Software components are
maintenance after product delivery are not described.
verified.
Thus the V-model is only suited to reduce the need for
• SD8: System Integration: Components are integrated maintenance but not for maintenance projects.
and validated; the components are integrated into
segments and the segments are afterwards integrated Maintenance Management
into the system. Maintenance management is attached to the standard
• SD9: Transition to Utilization: The finished system is as an appendix. It includes, amongst others, management
installed at the point of operation. activities which need to be performed to organise the
process. This belongs to the informative part of the
In addition to early fixed requirements and a linear standard. Determine maintenance effort Comment
sequence of activities, test cases and scenarios are In a recent paper [Sneed 2003] repeats his opinion that
important inputs for later phases which are used for the cost of maintenance is better to estimate than the cost
verification and validation of the implementation and the of new development. Although the likely return of
system requirements in the second half of the model. reengineered software is smaller than of newly developed
The final output is an operational system with all products, so is the risk. The return on investment can be
functions and a complete and detailed documentation. much better calculated as there is less uncertainty, which
Roles The main roles in the V-model are project leader, is a huge problem of new developments. However, this is
quality assurance manager, configuration management only valid for certain reengineering projects. With
representative and controller. Other roles are the usual, maintenance in the long run it is hardly possible to know
candidates like system analysts, programmers, etc. who what errors will occur or how the environment changes.
are in involved in software development. Nevertheless, it seems that many authors believe that the
estimation of costs with a horizon of one year is possible.
– 168 –
The aim is to determine the cost for maintenance for a so important that it is not suitable as a training ground.
time horizon of at least one year, i.e. the next budget Some companies go to the other extreme by explicitly
round. using maintenance tasks as a training ground for new
Required are figures about completed maintenance staff to become acquainted with the ,software. Depending
projects. This includes not only financial data but also on the tasks this may be useful, but it is the most obvious
data about elements that needed modification as well as ,difference between theory and practice. Another issue is
the source and reasons for modification requests. whether maintenance is considered as an unpopular area
Using figures from the identification and analysis to work in. Here academics and practitioners agree, partly
stages, especially from the ‘cost analysis/estimation’, and saying that long maintenance projects are a kind of
data about actual costs, evaluate the effectiveness of punishment, but not much is being done to improve this
preliminary cost estimation. Extrapolation of current image. Thus, it is necessary to promote the importance of
maintenance efforts assists the planning of future maintenance in industry and within organizations.
maintenance needs which can be used for the budget. Companies as well as their employees need to be aware
mAdditionally it should be determined what the costs of the significance of maintenance and have to
would be if no maintenance is done, i.e. identify the understand and believe that working in the
benefit or value of maintenance. field of maintenance can be as challenging as working in
The results are current and future efforts/needs for development.
maintenance and a budget draft.
Roles involved are a project reviewer to evaluate the Learning management Systems and their maintenance
project data and an accountant to analyze the financial Learning management systems are software systems
data. Supporting tools are a database analysis tool to used for on-line and independent education. From the
extract and analyze data about the system and a lookup of software maintenance they are not markedly
calculation application for financial planning. Embedding different as standard software processes. LMS are
in Process Models Linear models and XP do not cover distributed in following areas :
this aspect. RUP contains the evaluation of projects with • General LMS– are mostly used to cover education in
the aim to plan for the future but not financial planning. many individual and autonomous can cover education
in many fields
Statistical Data • Problem-oriented – are supporting tools and
Current figures about the importance of maintenance functionality for education of a particular subject.
are not available. mSurveys from Lientz and Swanson Generally study of other subject can be problematic.
conducted in the 1970s and early 1980s are still quoted in • Combination of both general and problem-oriented [4].
more recent books as for example [Balzert 2001] and
[Sommerville 2001]. Current figures are not available. Problems in this distribution and maintenance of LMS
[Lehner 1999] writes that it is often assumed how much are eliminated with creation of model driven architecture,
of the software budget is used for maintenance. And it which transforms standard learning management systems
still needs to be proven that the percentage of from the pint of maintenance into stable software solution.
maintenance of the budget increases as suggested by
other authors. However, the statements of some Tool support for Maintenance
interviewed software engineers made demonstrate or There is a gap between the tool support suggested in
indicate that at most companies, there is no separation literature and the actual tool usage in practice.
between development and maintenance in their budgets. According to software engineering literature, general
Most companies can only assume how much is spent on software tool support is very important and can be the
maintenance if they are interested in this at all. This leads crucial factor for success in maintenance projects. Many
to the next aspect. tasks such as refactoring can be partly automated using
adequate tools. Good tool support is also mentioned as
Awareness of Maintenance one reason why reengineering is getting better and more
Maintenance is not sufficiently observed or regarded efficient. One definition of reengineering even included
as important in industry. ,It is surprising that many automation through tools as one aspect. In contrast to that
companies do not have a dedicated position (or cost view are the results from the interviews. Only one
centre) for ,maintenance within otherwise detailed company, IBM, named tool support as an important
budgets. Furthermore, only one some companies has a factor influencing the quality and efficiency of its
clear definition of what maintenance is. Considering process. This company provides services for many
these facts, it is not surprising that many companies do customers. The use of tools is efficient because IBM has
not have a dedicated process for maintenance. At the first the critical mass to justify the investments. The others
branch of one ,company they presented an abstract from said that most of them tried tools at some stage but
the company’s handbook showing a maintenance process decided not to use them. The reasons are that too much
description, while at another branch they said that effort is required to adapt (to) the tools, the investments
maintenance was not included in that handbook. are simply to high, and that no tools for their software
Statements like “we do not do any maintenance” round exist. Only for simple tasks are tools such as
off the picture. In the literature, maintenance is said to be error report databases and line debuggers used.
– 169 –
T. Poklemba et al. • Maintenance Software Processes for Web 2.0-based Learning Management Systems
III. SOLUTION AND RESULTS This contribution is an explanation and introduction

As it is described in previous article of tools for into most critical parts of software maintenance. We base
software maintenance using refactoring and tracking code all articles on our experience of maintaining LMS system
changes is very useful. Our experiences will greatly with over ten thousand users. Software deployment and
confirm that. We are using source control software to code changes as well as maintenance could not be made
monitor code changes and time management from the through critical times. Models and well created manuals
very begging of development. By creating statistics and are needed to provide stable maintenance. As we
analyzing all necessary inputs we discovered really describe keep software well performed and stable
interesting achievement. Approximately 30 % of time requires proper way of maintenance. With over three
spend on development is used to maintenance designed thousand code changes and mostly related to modification
software processes. One of the most critical maintenance of processes we observe that contribution of designers
plans are applied to windows services. The reasin is that
they are independent and not user directly controlled. developers and testing site is necessary part of success.
Services are mostly doing their work through no load time
at nights. Things like sending emails sorting data or ACKNOWLEDGMENT
advertise uncommon states are their main features.
Developer has narrow abilities to test their functionality This work is the result of the project implementation:
through enormous code changes. Models and their Center of Information and Communication Technologies
dependency could solve this problem. Our model driven for Knowledge Systems (ITMS project code:
architecture connected with source control software saved 26220120020) supported by the Research& Development
our applications many times. One of the explanations is to Operational Program funded by the ERDF.
save Meta data connections between classes, services or
important code structures. Those meta data will later warn
developer that realized changes are affecting more code REFERENCES
structures than just changes. Our solution to handle all [1] Lehman M. M.: “Lifecycles and the Laws of Software Evolution”,
maintenance properly and keep all developed software in Proceedings of the IEEE, Special Issue on Software
processes stable is shown on next figure : Engineering, 19:1060-1076, 1980.
[2] Jarzabek S., “Effective Software Maintenance and Evolution: A
Reuse-Based Approach”, in Auerbach Publicatio, Taylor &
Francis Group, ISBN: 0-8493-3592-2, 2007.
[3] Grubb P.A., Takang A.A., “Software Maintenance: Concepts and
practice”, SE, ISBN 978-981-238-425-6, World Scientific 2003.
[4] IEEE Std. 610.12, “Standard Glossary of Software Engineering
Terminology”, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA,
1990.
[5] Pigoski T. M., “Practical Software Maintenance – Best Practices
for Managing Your Software Investment”, John Wiley & Sons,
New York, NY, 1997.
[6] Erlikh, L., “Leveraging Legacy System Dollars for E-Business”,
in IEEE IT Pro, May–June 2000, pp. 17–23.
[7] Port, O., “The Software Trap — Automate or Else”, in Business
Week, 3051(9), 1998, pp.142–154.
[8] Allen C., "Software maintenance – an overview”, in British
Computer Society, Programming & Software Articles, en-GB 3rd,
February 2006.
Figure 3. [9] Canfora G., Cimitile A., “Software Maintenance”, in Handbook of
Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, volume
1,World Scientific, ISBN: 981-02-4973-X, December 2001.
[10] Fyson, M. J., Boldyreff, C., “Using Application Understanding to
Support Impact Analysis”, in Journal of Software Maintenance –
Research and Practice, 10(2):93-110, 1998.
CONCLUSION
– 170 –
Using knowledge for data mining of software

processes in knowledge based LMS
Tomáš Poklemba*, Igor Sivý* and Zdeněk Havlice*
* Technical University of Košice, Department of Computer and Informatics, Košice, Slovakia
Tomas.Poklemba@tuke.sk, Igor.Sivy@tuke.sk, Zdenek.Havlice@tuke.sk
Abstract— After all of gathered experiences related to Furthermore, we assume that each component of KDM
software and data architecture I realize that integration of runs in Θ(n2) time, independent of all other components.
knowledge into data mining processes of large and complex plots an event-driven tool .KDM depends on this property
software products might be the way of success. Many for correct behavior.
software products are open minded sources of information
mostly supported by large data structures. By the years of
Rather than deploying XML, KDM chooses to evaluate of
usage and implementation of many extensions into those
mesh data sources. Furthermore, we ran a trace, over the
information systems they are holding mass of data and data
course of several months, arguing that our framework is
relationship. Not so many of themes are managing data
consequences very well and all user required data needs to
feasible. This may or may not actually hold in reality. We
be processed by software specialist. By implementing
postulate that the infamous linear-time algorithm for the
knowledge layer into data reports which are used for data investigation of semaphores [10] runs in Ω(n) time. On a
mining we could save expenses, time and discover new similar note, we assume that game-theoretic
layers and data relationships. In this work I am trying to configurations can provide the significant unification of
build and explain basics of data reports, data mining and semaphores and IPv7 without needing to explore
using of knowledge in instructive and successful learning ubiquitous technology.
management system ready to be released to real world of
business. Analysis on learning management systems
Learning management systems are software systems
I. INTRODUCTION used for on-line and independent education. LMS are
Many scholars would agree that after years of usage distributed in following areas :
and providing service for LMS systems the data structures • General LMS– are mostly used to cover education in
and its content grows rapidly. The visualization and other
many individual and autonomous can cover education
data related technologies usually help solve problems for
specific data mining query. In fact some of the specific in many fields
data mining queries might never return proper data. • Problem-oriented – are supporting tools and
Unfortunately, stable and static algorithms might not be functionality for education of a particular subject.
the panacea and they are usually not stable for long time Generally study of other subject can be problematic.
periods. Given the current status of event-driven • Combination of both general and problem-oriented [4].
methodologies, knowledge, and stable LMS systems we
could possibly build universal knowledge based data Problems in this distribution of LMS are eliminated
mining process (KDM). KDM will be the proper and by with knowledge-based principles, which transforms
design the most powerful and stable solution for data standard learning management systems into knowledge
mining in practice which embodies the essential principles based LMS. By applying knowledge based fundamentals
of unstable theory. The exploration of designed KDM into data process which helps retrieving proper sets of data
would greatly degrade static and time expensive solutions. we could possibly simplify and perform better usage of
Over years of experiences in maintenance we realize to LMS.
put our KDM design alive and in test.
II. ANALYSIS Knowledge fundamentals
In this section, we motivate a framework for architecting The first problem encountered in epistemology is
defining knowledge. Philosophers use the tripartite theory
the essential unification of using knowledge in data
of knowledge, which analyses knowledge as justified true
mining for hierarchical databases. Continuing with this belief, as a working model much of the time. The tripartite
rationale, we performed a trace for verification that our theory has, however, been refuted; Getter
design is unfounded. This is a technical property of our [www.philosophyonline.co.uk/tok/knowledge5.htm] cases
application. We ran a month-long trace verifying that our show that some justified true beliefs do not constitute
model is not feasible. knowledge. Rival analyses of knowledge have been
proposed, but there is as yet no consensus on what
This seems to hold in most cases. We show the knowledge is. This fundamental question of epistemology
relationship between KDM and efficient archetype. remains unsolved.
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T. Poklemba et al. • Using Knowledge for Data Mining of Software Processes in Knowledge-based LMS
Though philosophers are unable to provide a generally Mostly used technologies based on principle of data
accepted analysis of knowledge, we all understand mining are [3]:
roughly what we are talking about when we use words
such as “knowledge”. Thankfully, this means that it is • Pre processing
possible to get on with epistemology, leaving unsolved the • Result validation
fundamental question as to what knowledge is.
• Challenges and related data
Development of knowledge based data mining These were only few technologies used in KDM with
(KDM)
adaptability support. Theory of KDM is relatively new
Development of KDM consists of several steps: and is being constantly developed.
Adaptive Relational Learning
1. First of all analysis of data sources and data sets are at
the very begging of whole process. This step can be
provided in developed system. This is followed by
selection of the most appropriate intelligent supporting
technology. For example, LMS systems for teaching
foreign languages must have built-in multiple
language data sources of documents and syntactic
analyzers for a selected language and components.
2. Project of architecture of new KDM system is
certainly the next step. New system can be developed,
or an existing system might be updated. Nevertheless
new architecture must contain new modules for
selected knowledge support.
3. Programming and technical development must be
obviously based on outputs of previous steps. Figure 1. KDM architecture
Usage of internet and KDM in education process

Classical education form, which includes books Data mining derives its name from the similarities
resources, needs to be completed with educationist between searching for valuable business information in a
commentary and proper data representation. In a process large database — for example, finding linked products in
of education for informatics field of knowledge there are gigabytes of store scanner data — and mining a mountain
several problems, which are related to high fluctuation of for a vein of valuable ore. Both processes require either
sources data. Reliable sources are usually stored in large sifting through an immense amount of material, or
databases and forums. Of course those sources are usually intelligently probing it to find exactly where the value
not well organized and the only one way to discover data resides. Given databases of sufficient size and quality,
structure is through data models. Solutions to handle data mining technology can generate new business
online data sources for education are learning
management systems. By using LMS students are able to opportunities by providing these capabilities:
access their education materials 24 hours per day 7 days in
week. That enhances efficiency, flexibility and finally Automated prediction of trends and behaviors. Data
quality of education. Putting LMS as extension of mining automates the process of finding predictive
education with proper data representation is showing us information in large databases. Questions that
positive results. On the other hand accessibility of too traditionally required extensive hands-on analysis can
many data is reducing electivity of standard LMS and it’s now be answered directly from the data — quickly. A
data recognitions. Managers and teachers are typical example of a predictive problem is targeted
disappointed and frustrated from too many data marketing. Data mining uses data on past promotional
accommodation. They are not able to quickly find what mailings to identify the targets most likely to maximize
they needs. Here the knowledge based principles finds return on investment in future mailings. Other predictive
their place of implementation of data mining. We can
problems include forecasting bankruptcy and other forms
extend standard LMS by reducing data sets and offer users
quick and easy data search engines with background of of default, and identifying segments of a population likely
data mining principles. to respond similarly to given events.
Automated discovery of previously unknown patterns.
Data mining tools sweep through databases and identify
Principle of Adaptability, knowledge and data mining previously hidden patterns in one step. An example of
This principle brings support for individualized access pattern discovery is the analysis of retail sales data to
to data sources. Principle can be considered as follows: identify seemingly unrelated products that are often
Information about learner study progress is stored in a
purchased together. Other pattern discovery problems
student model data sets [6]. This information tells system
data rules and relationships for data mining repository so include detecting fraudulent credit card transactions and
user is provided with this information. If the data invoke a identifying anomalous data that could represent data entry
change in data storage, this information is again stored in keying errors.
relationship data model.
– 172 –
Data mining techniques can yield the benefits of Rule induction: The extraction of useful if-then rules
automation on existing software and hardware platforms, from data based on statistical significance.
and can be implemented on new systems as existing Many of these technologies have been in use for more
platforms are upgraded and new products developed. than a decade in specialized analysis tools that work with
When data mining tools are implemented on high relatively small volumes of data. These capabilities are
performance parallel processing systems, they can now evolving to integrate directly with industry-standard
analyze massive databases in minutes. Faster processing data warehouse and OLAP platforms. The appendix to
means that users can automatically experiment with more this white paper provides a glossary of data mining terms
models to understand complex data. High speed makes it
practical for users to analyze huge quantities of data. III. SOLUTION AND RESULTS
Larger databases, in turn, yield improved predictions. Innovation in the system involves
Databases can be larger in both depth and breadth: • Dynamic data retrieving
• Knowledge based data mining
More columns. Analysts must often limit the number of • Data mining business processes implementation
variables they examine when doing hands-on analysis due
to time constraints. Yet variables that are discarded The goal is to achieve that singular parts of the course
because they seem unimportant may carry information would not be accessible by the student immediately after
about unknown patterns. High performance data mining his entrance to the course but they would be figured
allows users to explore the full depth of a database, gradually. Therefore it is needed to design an adaptive
without preselecting a subset of variables. mode for displaying the content of the course.
More rows. Larger samples yield lower estimation errors For every object of the course – lessons and their parts –
and variance, and allow users to make inferences about a minimal score will be defined, which a student has to
small but important segments of a population. gain in order to view the particular object. This minimal
A recent Gartner Group Advanced Technology Research score will be defined by the lecturer of the course, so he
Note listed data mining and artificial intelligence at the will have control over the content of the course. The
top of the five key technology areas that "will clearly system will have several adaptive modes to ensure better
have a major impact across a wide range of industries possibilities of adaptive displaying of the content;
within the next 3 to 5 years."2 Gartner also listed parallel
architectures and data mining as two of the top 10 new 1. None – all objects of the course will be visible
technologies in which companies will invest during the immediately, no adaptation is done. This mode is
next 5 years. According to a recent Gartner HPC preserved due to retroactive compatibility of old
Research Note, "With the rapid advance in data capture, courses.
transmission and storage, large-systems users will
increasingly need to implement new and innovative ways 2. Test results – the visibility of course objects will be
to mine the after-market value of their vast stores of set up according to the actual score of the student
detail data, employing MPP [massively parallel which is composed of the test results. If there are
processing] systems to create new sources of business more tests in one course, the final score will be a
advantage (0.9 probability)."3 summation of the tests results. Only the better score
will be included with repeated test completing, to
The most commonly used techniques in data mining are: avoid the effect that by repeating the test the score
will raise which would not correspond to the student's
Artificial neural networks: Non-linear predictive models actual knowledge. As it is shown in the Figure 1, after
that learn through training and resemble biological neural completing a test, which will be run from a user's
networks in structure. interface, the score of the student for the particular
Decision trees: Tree-shaped structures that represent sets course will be adapted and continually the visible
of decisions. These decisions generate rules for the content for the student will be adapted based on the
classification of a dataset. Specific decision tree methods actual score.
include Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and
Chi Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) . 3. Continuous score - a continuous score will be created
Genetic algorithms: Optimization techniques that use for each student in the course, which will be increased
processes such as genetic combination, mutation, and by the student activity in the course. Every object of
natural selection in a design based on the concepts of the course – lessons and their parts - will set the value
evolution. on which the continuous score will be increased,
Nearest neighbor method: A technique that classifies each when student activates this object (enter the lesson,
record in a dataset based on a combination of the classes see the document, etc.). As it is shown in Figure 2,
of the k record(s) most similar to it in a historical dataset when the object of the course is activated, continuous
(where k ³ 1). Sometimes called the k-nearest neighbor score of the student is updated and visibility of all
technique. objects in course is adjusted according to actual
continuous score of this student.
– 173 –
T. Poklemba et al. • Using Knowledge for Data Mining of Software Processes in Knowledge-based LMS
Business implementation involves and tries to achieve REFERENCES

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all teach – Teachers. By getting created all documents Ontology as a Foundation for Knowledge Evalution in Intelligent
from system they don’t have to spend long time after E-learning Systems. 12th International Conference on Artificial
Intelligence in Education, Armsterdam, Netherlands, 2005, pp. 81-
lesson to complete what is necessary for documentation. 84
On the other hand business processes are useful for [2] [2]. SADDIK, A. E. E-Learning Standards: The Dawn Has
learning management. Mentors or others can quickly get Broken. School of Information Technology and Engineering,
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suggest real state. [3] [3]. BRUSILOVSKY, Peter: Adaptive and Intelligent echnologies
for Web-based Education, Special Issue on Intelligent Systems
and Teleteaching.
IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
[4] [4]. PEYLO, Christoph – THELEN, Tobias – ROLLINGER,
This work is an introduction into business Claus – GUST, Helmar: A web-based intelligent educational
implementation related to theories of Knowledge used in system for PROLOG, Osnabrück 2000, Institute for Semantic
Information Processing – University of Osnabrück.
learning management systems and its data mining
[5] [5]. Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, Version 1.1
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and knowledge are mostly used for KBLMS. There is a [6] [6]. BUREŠ, Miroslav - JELÍNEK, Ivan: Formální popis
set of technologies, which can be used in different adaptívniho webového systému, Praha 2004, Odborná skupina
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research for implementation into LMS system called [7] [7]. BROOKS, Christoper - McCALLA, Gordon - WINTER,
Mike: Flexible Learning Object Metadata, 2005, 12th International
MyLearning LMS. This technology requires rebuild of Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Amsterdam,
system architecture and addition of some new modules. the Netherlands, pp. 1 - 8
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useful part of development. This work maps beginning of (2004). Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, Societies (5S): A
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[9] [9] Pymm, Bob. "Building Collections for All Time: The Issue of
intelligent analysis. Significance." Australian Academic & Research Libraries. 37(1)
(2006):61-73.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT [10] [10] Koehler, AEC. Some Thoughts on the Meaning of Open
This work is the result of the project implementation: Access for University Library Technical Services Serials Review
Vol. 32, 1, 2006, p. 17
Center of Information and Communication Technologies
for Knowledge Systems (ITMS project code: [11] [11] Greenstein, Daniel I., Thorin, Suzanne Elizabeth. The Digital
Library: A Biography. Digital Library Federation (2002) ISBN
26220120020) supported by the Research& Development 1933645180. Accessed June 25, 2007.
Operational Program funded by the ERDF. [12] [12] Stanford Copyright & Fair Use - Digital Preservation and
Copyright by Peter B. Hirtle
– 174 –
E-learning solution - large scale implementation

Tomáš Poklemba*, Ján Kunštár*, Igor Sivý*, Viliam Fedák*, František Jakab*
*
elfa, s.r.o., Park Komenského 7, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
poklemba@elfa.sk, kunstar@elfa.sk, sivy@elfa.sk, fedak@elfa.sk, frantisek.jakab@tuke.sk
Abstract— After years of gathered experiences related to Problems in this distribution of LMS are eliminated
learning management systems we realize that integration of with knowledge-based principles, which transforms
business intelligence and knowledge is one of the main standard learning management systems into knowledge
reasons of success. Many LMS are let’s say open minded based LMS.
sources of information in some cases partly organized. Not
so many of themes are managing students into groups,
taking care of attendance, notifying students or creating
Development of knowledge based LMS (KBLMS)
social community. Giving students the opportunity to access
Development of KBLMS consists of several steps:
digital library sources shows us better usage and global First of all analysis of teaching materials and courses
successes of LMS. With implementation of these are at the very begging of whole process. This step can be
technologies and implementation of business intelligence we provided in developed system. This is followed by
are trying to build instructive and successful learning selection of the most appropriate intelligent supporting
management system ready. As an prove of proper technology. For example, LMS systems for teaching
implementation we would like to present you our programming languages must have built-in multiple
achievement on large scale education project - sources of documents and syntactic analyzers for a
Modernization of education process. We are successfully selected language and components for analysis of student
mastering specific requirements and custom education results.
handling coming as necessary needs from our customers. Project of architecture of new LMS system is certainly
the next step. New system can be developed, or an
I. INTRODUCTION existing system might be updated. Nevertheless new
Integration of business processes and learning architecture must contain new modules for selected
management systems is showing us new direction and knowledge support.
heading of LMS. Most of the learning systems have some Programming and technical development must be
sort of management mainly related to learning content. obviously based on outputs of previous steps.
There are not too many complex learning management Usage of internet and knowledge in education process
systems which are caring about student management
documentation generation and other business processes. In Classical education form, which includes books
my case research is pointing to business case resources, needs to be completed with educationist
implementation and knowledge related learning content. commentary. In a process of education for informatics
Managing students into groups, taking care of field of knowledge there are several problems, which are
documentation such as student attendance, learned related to high fluctuation of sources data. Reliable
themes, books acceptance and others is strongly related to sources could be web sites and forums. Of course those
business scenarios. Lector or teacher doesn’t have to sources cannot be included online in books. Solutions to
create any type of documentation to prove any sort of handle online sources of education data are learning
actions. All documents are coming from LMS. He or she management systems. By using LMS students are able to
just needs to print themes and sign it. Verification is access their education materials 24 hours per day 7 days in
confirmed by database information, copies of documents week. That enhances efficiency, flexibility and finally
protected by server. quality of education. Putting LMS as extension of
education materials is showing us positive results. On the
other hand accessibility of too many materials is reducing
II. ANALYSIS electivity of standard LMS. Student is disappointed and
frustrated from too many requirements. He is not able to
Learning management Systems quickly find what he needs. Here the knowledge based
Learning management systems are information systems principles finds their place of implementation. We can
used for on-line and independent education. LMS are extend standard LMS by reducing materials quantity whit
distributed in following areas : help of knowledge fundamentals.
• General LMS– are mostly used to cover education in
many individual and autonomous can cover education Principle of Adaptability, knowledge and business
in many fields processes
• Problem-oriented – are supporting tools and This principle brings support for individualized access
functionality for education of a particular subject. to learner study. Principle can be considered as follows:
Generally study of other subject can be problematic. Information about learner study progress is stored in a
• Combination of both general and problem-oriented student model [6]. This information tells system rules for
[4]. managing teaching materials from data repository and
then learner is provided with these materials. If the
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T. Poklemba et al. • E-learning Solution - Large Scale Implementation
materials invoke a change in learner study progress, this of students and 347,000 primary and secondary schools as
information is again stored in student model. a secondary target group. Projects is and will be
Mostly used technologies based on principle of implemented in years 2008 to 2013.
adaptability are [3]:
• Intelligent tutoring systems Education will be implemented by three modules as
• Curriculum sequencing (Optimal Path problem) follows:
• Problem solving support technologies (Intelligent • Module 1: Digital literacy teacher (between 6 and 12
analysis of student solutions, Interactive problem hours of attendance, and six hours distant form,
solving support, the example-based problem solving implemented in October 2009 to February 2010): The
support) aim of the module was to create the same "starting
• Adaptive hypermedia systems position" in general digital literacy for teachers
• Student model matching involved (or get further development of digital
These were only few technologies used in KBLMS literacy, which includes eg. the development of
with adaptability support. Theory of KBLMS is relatively teacher competencies for lifelong learning, knowledge
new and is being constantly developed. of safety issues and risks to pupils learning in virtual
space, etc.).
• Module 2: Modern didactic teaching technique at
work (in the presence 18 hours and 6 hours distance)
module is to familiarize participants with modern
didactic technology (ICT), its effective use in the
educational process. Teachers are introduced to, inter
alia, didactics work with images, animations, charts,
with multimedia, audio, photos and music, the
didactics with the Internet, with the didactics of
digital devices, learn about new forms of organizing
the educational process based on the use of interactive
whiteboards, including alternative education systems
and technologies.
• Module 3: Use of Information technologies in the
subject (within 30 hours and 24 hours Distance): the
aim is to create the proper context of modernization of
education in selected subjects (create your own
models of teaching applications of Information
technologies in teaching in those subjects), as well as
become familiar with examples models, applications
of digital content with support for ICT in teaching in
elementary and secondary schools. This module is the
core of their own methodological training of trainees.
Content is adequately and appropriately set up for the
Fig. 1: Business support for LMS needs of target groups - teachers of selected subjects.
IV. LARGE SCALE IMPLEMENTATION
III. MVP PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION INFORMATION The projects MVP are supported by large-scale portal
Our largest e-learning implementation is based on solutions (so-called educational portal project), which
national projects (MVP) “Modernizing the educational serve mainly to:
process in elementary school” and “Modernizing the • Provision of information and presentation functions,
educational process in secondary schools". Both projects and as an information base about the project (project
are prepared in accordance with the Operational Program information, cooperation and interdependence with
of education supported by Ministry of Education of the selected existing, educational portals in Slovakia, etc.)
Slovak Republic. E-learning and project is available for all • Needs of the organization and administration of the
regions in Slovak Republic. The basic aim is to activate educational process (organization of courses in
teacher education reform - education system to adapt the education projects (inclusion in the study group
knowledge society. The specific objectives of the project feedback)
is to upgrade and modernize the content, methods and • Needs of the project (promotion of "blended
outputs of the learning process for new work
responsibilities in the modern school of the 21st century. It learning": accessing learning materials for distance
is the aim of increasing the proportion of teachers learning part, communication tools, knowledge
participating in continuing education programs to obtain testing)
and develop the competencies needed for the knowledge • Needs of the digital library as a knowledge base
society. Target group is more than 6850 teachers of (repository of educational materials and
primary and secondary schools as the primary target group methodologies, support materials: books designed for
– 176 –
teachers, model lessons created using ICT teachers in One of the E-learning core functions is support of
the project, supporting methodical videos, collection communication tools. Giving students and all users’
of creative materials created by teachers during the opportunity to use our email client interface they can
project etc.) easily and clearly view and send messages to specific
• Continuous control over the work of teachers groups or users related to their education process (Fig. 4).
involved in projects (such as teachers, according to
published criteria regularly provide information on the
use of technology in teaching delivered by his subject,
in preparation for teaching, for experimental testing of
new methods of using Information technologies.
Our solution involves custom user controls and custom

web parts. Some of them are show on the figures below :
Fig. 5: Warnings and alerts
Years of experiences related to projects support and

education shows us that satisfy all necessary
administration data and requirements is thought to
Fig. 2: Learning center map overlay accomplish. To reduce the risk of failure in this
problematic our E-learning is supporting warnings and
Our E-learning is supporting over 25 learning centers alerts for users that are overdue important dates or data
all over the country. System is autonomous for each of sets (Fig. 5).
them. Giving them opportunity to manage lectors and
learning times they can achieve all administration and
education goals easily (Fig. 2).
Fig. 3: Important events and times
Personalization of our E-learning is giving us

opportunity to individually handle all important events for
each of our users and user roles such us presence Fig. 6: Digital Library
education, final exams and so on (Fig. 3).
One of the main features to support better sources of
education data is our implementation for digital library.
All object stored in digital library are categorized. Each
object contains specific Meta data information which
helps us to realize better search engines. Current status of
our digital library concept is over 700 individual digital
objects stored in 72 categories (Fig. 6).
Fig. 4: Communication tools
– 177 –
T. Poklemba et al. • E-learning Solution - Large Scale Implementation
Fig. 9: Global usage
Fig. 7: Custom learning content
Personalization of e-learning source and using

knowledge principles in this part of our E-learning
solution brings us to customer mercy and users
satisfaction (Fig. 7).
Fig. 10: Visitors overview
Visitors overview graph on Fig. 10 is showing us

dependency on students vacation or global education
process. Also improving the system brings us higher users
visits.
Fig. 8: Scoring and assessment
All lectors are using our scoring and assessment

solution for specified student tasks. Later on system is
using score values to calculate users actual percentage
value of studies graduation (Fig. 8).
V. SOLUTION AND RESULTS

Innovation in the system involves
• Dynamic content visibility

• Knowledge based test generation
• Final exam support
• Business processes implementation
The goal is to achieve that singular parts of the course

would not be accessible by the student immediately after
his entrance to the course but they would be figured
gradually. Therefore it is needed to design an adaptive
mode for displaying the content of the course.
For every object of the course – lessons and their parts Fig. 11: Visitors overview in detail
– a minimal score will be defined, which a student has to
gain in order to view the particular object. This minimal Value of over 1.3 million visits in range of 2 years is
score will be defined by the lecturer of the course, so he considerable success in country with over 5 million
will have control over the content of the course. The inhabitants.
system has several adaptive modes to ensure better
possibilities of adaptive displaying of the content.
Our implementation achieves global success of central
usage in our country. As a part of research and result of
our work we present following third party statistics:
– 178 –
• Roadshow Modern teacher implemented in November

2010 in Zilina, Presov, Kosice, Zvolen, Nitra and
Bratislava
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank all members of project teams
who have contributed to the presented work, the result of
the Slovak national projects Modernization of education at
Fig. 12: Traffic Sources primary and secondary schools (ITMS project codes:
26110130083, 26140130013, 26110130084,
Most of our users are visiting us directly. In fact that 26140130014) supported by the European Social Fund.
user are remembering our learning source and its location
we are still improving our E-learning to make users more
satisfied.
REFERENCES
[1] Lehman M. M.: “Lifecycles and the Laws of Software Evolution”,
in Proceedings of the IEEE, Special Issue on Software
Engineering, 19:1060-1076, 1980.
[2] Jarzabek S., “Effective Software Maintenance and Evolution: A
Reuse-Based Approach”, in Auerbach Publicatio, Taylor &
Fig. 13: Map overlay Francis Group, ISBN: 0-8493-3592-2, 2007.
[3] Grubb P.A., Takang A.A., “Software Maintenance: Concepts and
Business implementation involves and tries to achieve practice”, SE, ISBN 978-981-238-425-6, World Scientific 2003.
lower administration work for those who have to first of [4] IEEE Std. 610.12, “Standard Glossary of
all teach – Teachers. By getting created all documents Software Engineering Terminology”,
from system they don’t have to spend long time after IEEE Computer Society Press, Los
lesson to complete what is necessary for documentation. Alamitos, CA, 1990.
On the other hand business processes are useful for [5] Pigoski T. M., “Practical Software
learning management. Mentors or others can quickly get Maintenance – Best Practices for
Managing Your Software Investment”, John Wiley & Sons, New
important statistics or data export from systems which York, NY, 1997.
suggest real state. [6] Erlikh, L., “Leveraging Legacy System Dollars for E-Business”,
Our solution of E-learning were presented on following in IEEE IT Pro, May–June 2000, pp. 17–23.
public and technical events: [7] Port, O., “The Software Trap — Automate or Else”, in Business
Week, 3051(9), 1998, pp.142–154.
• Conference ICETA 2009 performed in November
[8] Allen C., "Software maintenance – an overview”, in British
2009 in Stara Lesna Computer Society, Programming & Software Articles, en-GB 3rd,
• Conference MVP implemented in September 2010 in February 2006.
Banska Bystrica [9] Canfora G., Cimitile A., “Software Maintenance”, in Handbook of
• Conference 2010 ICETA implemented in October Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, volume
1,World Scientific, ISBN: 981-02-4973-X, December 2001.
2010 in Stara Lesna
[10] Fyson, M. J., Boldyreff, C., “Using Application Understanding to
Support Impact Analysis”, in Journal of Software Maintenance –
Research and Practice, 10(2):93-110, 1998
– 179 –
Using of Multimedia and New Communication

Technologies in Complete Computer Support of
Education
*Peter Polačko, **Marián Bučko
*ViaNet, s.r.o., Rampová 4, 040 01 Košice, Slovak Republic
**elfa, s.r.o., Park Komenského 7, 040 01 Košice
peter.polacko@vianet.sk, bucko@elfa.sk
Abstract—The article describes practical application of

multimedia and communication systems used at the process
of education in Technical University of Košice.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the framework of projects for development of
infrastructure and modernization of IKT at Technical
University of Košice, general contractor elfa, s.r.o. has
arised a task for his subcontractor ViaNet, s.r.o. focused
on particular progress and application of new information
and communication technologies for everyday using in
the process of education at the Technical University in
Košice. The article describes the application of modern Figure 1. High capacity classroom with external
audiovisual technologies and video communication projection systems and screens, cameras and speakers
systems in the large capacity classrooms of the university.
Using of the modern audiovisual and communication There was necessary assume with using visualization
systems in process of education at university increase systems in classrooms which contains two performance
undoubtedly the quality of education on the higher level. projectors and two electrically operated projection
Audiovisual aids and communication technologies enables screens. Dimension of projection screens and projectors
teachers using material of higher quality. Therefore performance was designed according the dimensions and
students obtain more extensive information in better architecture of classroom environment.
quality and also an opportunity to be in touch with modern There was replaced old classical blackboards by new
technologies in their practical application. ceramic boards with respect to the new audiovisual
The contact of students with modern multimedia and technology. Using of old classical blackboards and their
communication technologies in everyday life of education dust has negative effect and decreases life and quality of
will help them to stop focusing on the technology as the using new technology.
barrier but move them to accept the technologies as the We use four speaker boxes for the sound system in each
tool of modern way of education and also start to classroom which are usually installed mainly on the front
concentrate more to the information that are presented at and middle part of the side wall with accent to the
the lecture. adequate quality of sound level in any place of classroom.
For the distance education and video communication
II. DESIGN PROCESS OF THE “INTEGRATED reasons there was installed two cameras in each high
MULTIMEDIA LECTURE DESK” capacity classroom:
Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk means complex i) High Definition camera for video communication
solution containing of audiovisual and communication system in the quality of 1280x720 pixels and 30
systems controlled by graphical interface of intuitive frames per seconds motion.
system of control. Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk ii) High quality CCD camera that combines a high-speed,
also contains different interface for connection of external quiet pan/tilt with a wide-angle view and 40x zoom
systems of sound and projectors with projection screens . (10x optical + 4x digital), all in a compact, easy-to-use
package.
A. External projectors with projection screens, cameras The last challenge but not simple task was realization of
and sound systems cable distribution to each of these active system integrated
According to equipping of the large capacity in the environment of high capacity classrooms.
classrooms with modern audiovisual systems, was
necessary to involve the projectors with projection B. Audiovisual and communication systems
screens, camera technologies to the classroom There was installed the Integrated Multimedia Lecture
environment and design high quality of the sound by Desk in to the each high capacity classroom. In the
integrated speaker boxes. process of Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk design we
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 181 –

P. Polačko and M. Bučko • Using of Multimedia and New Communication Technologies in Complete Computer Support of Education
was focused for next important points of requests with On the left side of the desk, there is socket with
respect to daily of education process: documentation camera, which enable to view printed
i) Installation of complete audiovisual and didactic documents or 3D subject. Its high quality optics enables to
technology of high capacity classroom into the one zoom the details of small even very small subjects.
central place with possibility of secure lock and with The last but not the easiest challenge was to develop the
respect for the operation environment request of each system of power control which power all the particular
technology and subsystem. technologies in safe condition and reliable operation of
ii) Integration of all necessary systems and technology individual integrated technologies will be ensured. The
important for daily using in process of education solution came as “one button solution”. It turns off the
iii) Integration of interactive systems which allows to whole desk with using the touch screen, the key or simply
closing the top cover counter of the desk.
work with different electronic document formats, 3D
objects and software applications The main parts of the designed sound system are:
iv) Design of simple way of control whole Integrated amplifier, echo canceler, equalizer, mixer and
microphones.
Multimedia Lecture Desk and systems inside with
main focus on simplicity and final result of simple The main parts of visual systems, displays and screens
technology for daily use. are: video matrix which ensure the switching many of
video sources to the elective range of accessible displays
and screens.
The video sources usually are: video communication
system, integrated computer, external laptops, DVD/VHS
player, document camera.
Figure 2. Audiovisual an communication systems of Integrated

Multimedia Lecture Desk
We have designed Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk
after summarize all aspects and goals mentioned
hereinbefore.
Figure 3. Interactive and control systems of Integrated
Basic interactive technology used in the Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk
Multimedia Lecture Desk are computer with keyboard and
mouse, 17” inch touch display and 4,3” inch graphical Installation of all Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desks
touch display for desk control. On the right side of the to the high capacity classrooms contains three main
desk are VGA, audio and 230V interfaces for laptops phases of process:
connection. On the top of the dest is installed interface for i) Installation of external visual systems such as
external USB memory or SD memory card connection. projectors and projection screens, cameras and speaker
The whole desk with particular systems are controlled boxes
through simple graphical interface with 4.3” inch touch ii) Integration of complete cabling and its ending in the
screen programmed for easy of use and controlling of all place of installation of the desk
systems during the education process. This is the main iii) Install all technology to the desk and preparation of the
system which helps teachers to simplify they work with desk for final installation to the classroom
dest and provides them quickly startup or open up the any environment and all systems setting and programming
function of any technology that are needed. Thera are of control
available wide range of audio inputs (total 6), then
switching matrix of video inputs different sources (total 5) iv) Desk transportation and installation at the destination
to output of any display and screen (total 4), to controlling v) Set up systems to the real operation and final
the video communication system, sound systems and administrator training.
microphones.
The desktop screen of the computer and the particular C. Video communication systems
running applications can be controlled not only by The part of Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk is also
connected keyboard and mouse but also 17” inch touch the video communication system produced by LifeSize,
screen situated on the top of the desk. The computer is one which ensure video communication in standard SIP and
of the basic interactive application for the teachers during H.323. Despite this, the system enables to use Skype and
the they work. It enables for example to edit or draw into “EVO” The World Wide Collaboration Network for the
the presentations used during teaching. communication.
– 182 –
Thanks implementation of video communication different streaming technologies for streaming of people
system in environment of high capacity classrooms there and content video. The easy way of using (“One Button
is space for connecting with external participant. This is Solution”) this kind of technology is main importance to
the way for realization of distance education for foreign keep them life in real operation.
students or to connect students with professors from System of digitalization, which ensure easy start of
foreign countries or peple from the real industry. recording and online streaming lectures and after the end
automatic save and publishing on the school web server
III. FURTHER APPLICATIONS OF INTEGRATED for next education process. The result is that students
MULTIMEDIA LECTURE DESK would have access to presentations and content where
The Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk can be adapt they had absence. The presentations could be also
for implementation to smaller classrooms at elementary or provided to external foreign users as material of e-learning
secondary schools. Adapt them for particular applications education process.
and equipment to offer the teachers complete but easily Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk is already today
controlled tool for educational process. On the other hand, prepared for the integration with system like this, where it
playful and interactive tool for pupils and students. They ensure capture and provide audio and video outputs for
can familiarize the technology that they can meet on further processing to other higher systems in process like
higher level of their education or in life. systems for streaming and publishing.
The desk can be integrated with interactive desks or
added with didactical technique. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Introduction of video communication technology on The aim of the article is to refer to particular practical
lower levels of education can lead to motivation and use of multimedia and communication technology in
inspiration in further education on higher levels and process of education on elementary, secondary schools
mediate the contact of students and professors or other and universities. We wanted to refer also to openness of
interesting people from practice. the system of Integrated Multimedia Lecture Desk and its
further possible application on lower levels of education
IV. CONCLUSION and also the opportunity of integration with the other
systems used for digitalization of education (e-learning).
The project of development of infrastructure and
modernization of IKT on Technical University in Košice REFERENCES
shows the importance of projects like this. Thanks the
realization of the project, there is multitask and “alive” [1] Zuzana Horváthova, Using of information and communication
equipment of audiovisual technology in high capacity technologies in education process, Katedra UNESCO IRIE PF
UKF, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia, September 2005.
classrooms, which can be improved, developed and added
[2] LifeSize Communications, a division of Logitech, Bring the World
new applications. to the Lecture Hall in HD, 2011.
One of these applications is for example digitalization [3] AMX, AMX SchoolView Solutions, 2011.
of education for passive participants that cannot attend the
lecture. It can be understand as implementation of
– 183 –
Influence of communication means in project

oriented education
K. Pribilová*, M. Mišút**
* Faculty of Education at Trnava University/Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Trnava, Slovakia
** Faculty of Education at Trnava University/Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Trnava, Slovakia
katarina.pribilova@truni.sk, mmisut@truni.sk
Abstract—This article describes the results of previous medium for the message, and then design and create
research in electronic communication area. It deals with the various forms of communication.
organization and implementation of research, which goal
was to find out the electronic communication impact at II. THE RESEARCH REALIZATION AND ORGANIZATION
project oriented education effectiveness within the computer
science courses at the Faculty of Education at Trnava
Within the complex research supported by VEGA grant
University in Trnava. we researched also how students use individual electronic
communication mediums in the education process realized
in the form of project oriented education. The research has
I. INTRODUCTION been realized in fall term 2009-2010 at the Faculty of
Education at Trnava University in Trnava. Students were
With the arrival of new technologies the possibilities of split into two groups face-to-face, and blended learning
communication in education will also be possibly group. The model, recommended by Turek, was used for
changed. Communication is essential for teamwork within planning and realization of the project oriented education
projects and can significantly affect learning processes [5].
and learning outcomes as well. New technologies open up
additional possibilities for the learning communities’ The research goal was set as follow: to find out how
creation. But that requires acquisition of new form and means of communication impact the project
communication skills for the teachers and students. oriented education effectiveness within the computer
science courses. Following hypotheses were tested:
Communication has significant place in education.
Intensive research has been carried out in the field of H1: Students prefer electronic communication
communication in education mainly in connection with medium with no regard of the education form.
new technology opportunities. Ohlund, Yu, Jannssch- H2: There is statistically significant difference
Pennell a Digangi [1] presented the results of research in between project assessments of students working with
which respondents were divided into four groups following mediums: 1. group – chat; 2. group – e-mail; 3.
according to the use of communication medium: (1) email, group – discussion forum; 4. group – face-to-face
(2) chat, (3) email and chat, and (4) other communication discussion.
tool. Respondents who use synchronous and asynchronous H3: Duration of the communication medium usage
forms of online discussions were largely able to fulfil the has influence on the project assessments.
required course activities. Research has shown that the The research sample consisted of 171 students in the
combined synchronous and asynchronous online third year of undergraduate study full time in the fields of
discussing maximize personal engagement in learning. Teaching. Students were classified into four working
Yout and Shapiro [2] reported a case study in which groups according to the preferred communication
student’s ranked higher asynchronous communication medium. The first group used as the preferred medium
than synchronous communication. Johnoson G. M., J. synchronous chat, the second group used the
Johnoson A. [3] [4] have done research which compared asynchronous e-mail, third group asynchronous discussion
two WebCT communication tools, synchronous chat and forum, and the last group preferably used synchronous
asynchronous discussion. The research found that about communication – face-to-face.
40% of respondents indicate that they prefer synchronous
chat and 60% of respondents preferred asynchronous III. INTERPRETATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS
discussion. Experienced users decided more often to use
chat instead of asynchronous discussion forum. Research In Hypothesis H1, we assumed that students prefer
also showed that about 43% of respondents identified that electronic communication medium with no regard of the
they learned best when used synchronous chat and about education form (Table 1, Table 2).
57% of respondents identified the asynchronous We found that electronic communications significantly
discussion. Although these studies confirm that digital outweigh a face-to-face communication and even students
communication has become one of the basic skills needed who were enrolled for face-to-face form of education have
for career advancement, but it involves more than just a higher percentage of use of electronic communication
achieving computer literacy. Success in school and at means (61,73%) compared with a face-to-face
work depends on knowing how to choose the right communication (38,27%). Based on these results we
proved the validity of the hypothesis H1. The electronic
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 185 –

K. Pribilová and M. Mišút • Influence of Communication Means in Project-oriented Education
communication means, which are largely based on between the project results are a statistically significant
impersonal and yet interactive communications are difference, so hypothesis H2 is valid (Figure 1).
becoming increasingly popular among students and
provide them with new opportunities in education.
Whether the independence of electronic communication,
where teachers and learners are not necessarily in the
same place and at the same time during communication or
gain greater opportunities to obtain information necessary
for the development tasks within the project.
TABLE I.
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE USAGES OF COMMUNICATION MEDIUM
Face-to-face Electronic means
Percentage ratio 29,5 70,5
TABLE II. Figure 1. Influence of communication means on the results

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE USAGES OF COMMUNICATION MEDIUM
DEPENDING ON THE FORM OF EDUCATION
Students achieved the best results with usage of
Electronic discussion forum as preferred communication mean.
Education form Group Face-to-face
means Students preferably used e-mail achieved the worst
1.group 29,04 70,96 results. Comparing results of different groups among
Distance
2.group 26,69 73,31
themselves, statistically significant difference exists only
learning between the second (e-mail) and the third group
3.group 27,46 72,54
(discussion forum) (p = 0,0017) (Table 4).
Face-to-face 4.group 38,27 61,73
TABLE IV.
Facts, that electronic communication is currently TUKEY POST-HOC TEST - COMPARISON OF PEER GROUPS
developing, are confirmed by further results (Table 3). Discuss
Face-to-
Groups Chat (p) E-mail (p) forum
face
TABLE III. (p)
PERCENTAGE SHARE OF COMMUNICATION MEANS BY GROUPS Chat – 0,115797 0,230079 0,766985
Face-to- E- Discuss E-mail 0,115797 – 0,001782 0,709253
Groups Chat Phone
face mail forum Discuss 0,230079 0,001782 – 0,065365
% ratio forum
of all 29,5 27,8 1,6 31,1 10 Face-to- 0,766985 0,709253 0,065365 –
means face
The e-mail, asynchronous communication mean, was Results of described research showed, that inclusion of
most often used by students in projects (31,1% of all a discussion forum as a means of communication in the
communication means). The second most common used project oriented education can improve it taking into
communication mean was a face-to-face discussion account the limits bordered the research.
represented with 29,5% portion followed by synchronous Hypothesis H3 stated that the length of interpersonal
chat with 27,8%. One of possible explanation is that communication using communication means among the
students have more time to write messages with members of project team has an impact on the results of
asynchronous means because the sender does not wait for the project. Multiple linear regression (R2 = 0,15; F(4,64)
an immediate response. This increases the ability to = 2,734; p = 0,036) showed that only the length of a face-
process information and may have a positive impact on to-face communication had statistically significant (p =
the quality of the information. 0,017) effect on the results of the project (Table 5).
Hypothesis H2 stated that there is statistically It is possible to conclude that the longer lasted face-to-
significant difference between project assessments of face communication in solving students' project, the better
students working in groups using different communication were results of the projects (Figure 2). However, the
means as preferred selection: 1. group – chat; 2. group – e- validity of hypothesis H3 is not confirmed because other
mail; 3. group – discussion forum; 4. group – face-to-face variables (time spent on the discussion forum and chat),
discussion. Research was oriented onto the influence of no significant affected the evaluation of the project.
preferred means of communication, type of
communication medium and length of communication on
the results. The goal was to find out whether the results of
each group are comparable and which one of
communication means leads to improved results for
project results. The method of analysis of variance
ANOVA F (3,64) = 5,263, p = 0,0026 confirmed that
– 186 –
TABLE V. IV. CONCLUSIONS

RESULTS OF MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSIONS WITH THE RESULTS OF THE
EVALUATION PROJECT AS A DEPENDENT VARIABLE The research results showed that preferred
communication medium and communication duration
SE
Beta
Beta
B SE B t(63) p have an impact on the project results. It also showed that
the discussion forum is a suitable communication medium
for the project teamwork. Based on these findings, it is
Group -0,294 0,133 -1,859 0,837 -2,221 0,030 suitable to include this communication medium in the
project oriented education.
Face-to- Electronic communication expands everyday in the
face whole society, mainly in industry and business. Education
0,316 0,129 0,011 0,005 2,457 0,017
in
minutes cannot ignore this trend and moreover, needs to prepare
students for life. The success of graduates in the job
Discuss
in 0,135 0,117 0,166 0,144 1,152 0,254
market is dependent on their knowledge and skills.
minutes Research described in this article has ambition to develop
educational process by improved understanding of the
Chat in
minutes
0,131 0,127 0,003 0,003 1,032 0,306 electronic communication use in project oriented
education.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Described research as well as the publication of this
paper was supported by grant VEGA 1/0247/10.
REFERENCES
[1] Ohlund, B., Yu, C. H., Jannssch-Pennell, A., & Digangi, S. A.
(2000), Impact of asynchronous and synchronous internetbased
communication on collaboration and performance among K-12
teachers. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 23, 405-
420.
[2] Shapira, P., & Youtie, J. (2001), Teaching with Internet and
multimedia technologies: Insights from an online seminar on
industrial modernization. Journal of Planning Education and
Research, 21, 71-83.
[3] Johnson, G. M., College student psycho-educational functioning
and satisfaction with online study groups. Educational
Psychology, inpress.
[4] Johnson, G. M., Synchronous and asynchronous text-based CMC
Figure 2. Multiple linear regression in educational contexts: A review of recent research. TechTrends,
in press.
[5] Turek, I.: Didaktika 2008. Iura Edition, spol. s. r. o., Bratislava
2008. ISBN 978-80-8078-198-9.
[6] Rimarčík, M.: Viacnásobná regresia. Dostupné na:
http://rimarcik.com/navigator/mr.html.
[7] Rimarčík, M.: Analýza rozptylu (ANOVA). Dostupné na:
http://rimarcik.com/navigator/anova.html.
[8] Katina, S.: ANOVA modely. Dostupné na:
http://www.defm.fmph.uniba.sk/~katina/StKaANOVAdoplnkyPC
IIstudenti.pdf.
– 187 –
Learning Chemistry Through Puzzle Based Game: Atoms to

Molecule
Maya Agarwal*, Shubhajit Saha**
*Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, **Bengal Institute of Technology, Techno India
*
maya.agarwal2@gmail.com, **shubhajit.saha@students.becs.ac.in
Abstract— This paper highlights the design of a chemistry molecules [5]. Research data also showed that the use of
based puzzle game. The design of the game is meant to teach games in education is perceived as a useful tool for learning
basic concepts of chemistry related to covalent bonds. The area of and helped to engage students in educational experiences
Educational Technology is still not so developed for young
towards achieving specific learning goals and outcomes [3, 6,
learners. An interactive technology is required for learning
effectively and efficiently. The result is Atoms to Molecule 7, 12].
(A2M). In A2M the environment of the levels are designed as The game A2M is interesting and more acceptable for
such a player will have complete feel of chemistry lab. This game students to realize the abstract concepts through the fun and
tries to intact fun with education. In this paper we are trying to interactive world of the game. With our survey, some
highlight the features of chemistry objects which are used in our practitioners used the puzzle games as a teaching tool [8, 9,
game. While teaching the basic concept of Chemistry, like bonds
10]. It seems that the game is interesting and more acceptable
between atoms and how molecules are formed teacher usually
gives examples to define the formation of bonds. However, the for students to realize the abstract concepts through the real
concepts of atoms and molecules are difficult for students to world examples.
imagine. This game A2M has clearly presented the concepts lying This paper is organized as follows. First we discuss the
behind the formation of bonds, game rules and simple game Game Description. Second, we discuss the details of the
levels is chosen as the teaching aid along with a fun puzzle game. different objects used in the game. Third, we introduce the
design of different levels used in the game and scoring
Index Terms— Chemistry, Game Based Learning, Game
patterns. Last, we report the qualitative and quantitative
Design, Puzzle.
findings from a user study with three groups of students.
I. INTRODUCTION
GAME designing is becoming very popular now a day.
This is because now a day’s games are not made only for fun
and entertainment but also for education [1]. Digital games
(video games or computer games) are positively accepted
among children and teenagers [2, 3]. Multimedia based
learning environment are more efficient than reading contexts.
It can easily grasp interest of students. However it is generally
found Digital Games Based Learning (DGBL) cannot
maintain the fun element up to that level. It is becoming very
challenging to combine education with fun in equal ratios.
Computer games with exciting interactive activities and
interesting multimedia provide a way to motivate students to Fig. 1. Atoms to Molecule game.
learn actively and interestingly. Normally the time period of
classes are 45 – 50 minutes, so it is very important to design
simple, short and interesting games. Education games, which II. GAME DESCRIPTION
take 20 hours to teach, can become boredom again. Some Atoms to Molecule (A2M) is a single player puzzle game
educational games are very complex. Educational technology where player is in a Chemistry lab. Each level consists of lab
still lacks in research on how to design game environment that equipments and atoms. The levels start with the atoms
foster knowledge construction and deepen understanding and entering from the top of the screen. The number of atoms in a
problem solving while engaging and entertaining the player at level is constant and the type of atoms is generated randomly.
the same time [4]. Player can drag and drop the atoms to make bonds with
Teachers usually need to explain the concepts of nearest atom [11]. A player can easily replace the atoms by
formulation of molecule from atom, which can be very joining them to form molecules, this molecule disappears and
new randomly generated atoms replace the used atoms.
difficult to demonstrate. It motivates this paper of applying the
game-based learning approach to assist students in
manipulating and observing the relationship of atoms to form
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 189 –

M. Agarwal and S. Saha • Learning Chemistry Through Puzzle-based Game: Atoms to Molecule
A player can make molecule by joining different atoms. The TABLE II

ATOM EYE STATE CHART
task of a player is to make molecules and solve different
puzzles of Chemistry lab. Player can arrange atoms to make Look Look
State This happens when
(Girl) (Boy)
ring, linear, small or big molecules. The lab equipments in
which A2M is played can be test tube, beaker, conical flask Normal The atom in the free state.
and other (see Fig. 1). The basic goal in each level is to make
different kinds of molecules with different objectives. To Open The atom is bonded with some
make a complete molecule all the atoms in the molecule must other atom but all its bonds are
be sleeping which can be achieved by using all their bonds not satisfied. In this state the
(see Table 2). atom jitters.
Cross It comes in contact with some
A2M is a puzzle based game base on the covalent nature of enemy causing it to break all its
atoms. Here the atoms are used as a puzzle piece and to form a bond. It changes back to normal.
molecule is to solve a puzzle. While solving these puzzle This is a short time effect.
students learns to make molecule from atoms using covalent Happy All the bonds of the atom are
bonds, which can be single, double and triple. satisfied. This is a momentary
effect; it automatically changes to
sleep after some times.
Sleep All the bonds of the atoms are
III. BASIC GAME OBJECTS satisfied.
A. Atoms Boy atoms are Hydrogen, Nitrogen and ElementX.

Girl atoms are Oxygen and Carbon
The main character of the game is atom. The look of the
atom is developed to be more attractive to the young learners.
The symbol in the head and the circular body color suggest the
type of element (see Table 1).
Figure 2. Details of Carbon Atom
The four elements with different number of bonds used in

this game are Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon.
ElementX is an element, which can make variable bonds with
maximum of three, designed to add fun in the game.
TABLE I
Figure 3. Different kind of bonds.
ATOM DETAIL CHART
Element Symbol Color Total Number of bonds B. Bond

When an atom dragged and dropped near an atom a bond
Hydrogen H Blue One
forms between them. Bonds can be Single, Double or Triple.
Oxygen O Orange Two
The atom always tries to make the highest number of bonds.
Nitrogen N Violet Three
When an atom is dragged it shows the bonds left to be formed
Carbon C Red Four and when it is brought near another atom it show the possible
ElementX X Black Variable with maximum of number of bonds that can be formed (see Fig. 3).
Three
C. Bond Angle
We have assigned the gender depending upon the total Bond angle define the angle in which the newly attached atom
number of bonds an atom can make. The intension behind will arrange itself. The angles in which an atom can be
assigning the gender is to distinguish between odd and even attached are 0, 120, 240, 60, 180 and 300 degree. The angles
number of bonds (see Table 2). For odd number of bonds in are chosen so that no two atoms are very close to each other.
atom we have assigned boy e.g. Hydrogen. For even number
of bonds in atom we have assigned girl e.g. Oxygen. D. Game Enemy
This assignment of gender leaves deep impact on children 1) Radioactive Atom
mind to easily figure out between odd and even number of This used as an enemy in the game. It has a radioactive sign
bonds an atom can make. Thus this assignment serves both the on its head and the expression of the eyes shows anger. In the
purpose of education and entertainment. game it emits green smoke (see Fig. 4). It moves randomly in
The different eye states are connected with different state an the level area and breaks all the bonds of the atom that comes
atom can have (see Table 2). in contact. To make it inactive we can drag and drop it an
empty space of the level area, but the moment it come in
– 190 –
contact with other object it becomes active again. As

radioactive substances are very harmful for our environment, TABLE III
ATOM DETAIL CHART
similarly we tried to demonstrate that radioactive substances
are enemy to our molecular structure in the game.
Level Description Learning Objective
Tutorial This is an introductory level here The player learns the

the different atoms used (see Table game controls and
1) in the game are introduced. The tries to make some
molecule a player has to make is basic molecules.
shown as a hint in the background
of the level.
Figure 4. Radioactive Atom in action Ring-O- In this level a player have to make The player learns to
Ring 8 ring molecules to move to the make ring
2) Electrode next level. molecules.
They are static enemies, they can’t move around like the Absolute This is a fast-paced level the bonus The player learns to
radioactive atom. When the atoms come in contact with the Zero in the level is ring bonus. In the make bigger ringed
level a Kelvin scale thermometer molecules within
electrode it gets a heavy shock and its bonds get split (see Fig. showing the temperature is specific time.
1). constantly increasing. A player
must make molecule to drop the
temperature to Zero Kelvin. The
IV. GAME MODES
molecule with rings gets a bonus
and the temperature decreases
A. Adventure quickly.
Adventure Mode is the primary mode, and it allows a player Clear All In this level a player has to make a The player learns the
single molecule using all the 10 trick of using all the
to learn the ways to make molecules and then advancing to the atoms present in the level for five bonds to form a
expert levels. Adventure Mode is divided into 8 stages. The times. single molecule.
stages and how it is related to learning objective are as shown Electro The level contains an electrode The player learns to
on Table 3. which decreases the level area. The make bigger
objective of the level is to make molecules efficiently
B. Lab Setup molecule having 6 or more atoms, using less area in the
which increases up to 16 at the rate screen.
Lab Setup is a sand box mode where a player can setup a lab of two atoms at a time. (see Fig. 1)
(see Fig. 7). Lab Setup is divided into: pH Scale This is a fast-paced level too; the The player learns to
bonus in the level is Hydrogen make a molecule
1) Equipment mode: Bonus. A pH meter showing a utilizing maximum
constant increase, a player must number of hydrogen.
In this mode player can add, move, rotate and clamp lab make molecule containing more
equipments in the lab area. The equipments are under physics hydrogen to drop the level in the
simulation in this mode, but the atoms are not simulated and pH meter.
are kept transparent, i.e. no collision takes place with the Clipboard In this level is player must make The player learns to
the simple molecular formula given make molecule of a
atoms. in the bottom of the screen. given molecular
Lab Equipments that are provided are electrodes, formula.
thermometer, pH scale, funnel, test tube, conical flask, Radio This level contains four radioactive The player learns to
measuring cylinder, beaker and clipboard. Active atoms. The objective is to make tackle game enemy
molecule having 2 or more atoms, while making
which keeps increasing two at a molecules.
2) Atomic Mode: time up to 10.
In this mode a player can add or remove atoms in the Lab
area. Molecules can be formed using the added atoms. The
types of atoms added are generated randomly. But the A. Atomic Value
molecules formed will not be removed automatically in this
Atomic Value (AV) of a molecule is the sum total of all
mode as it happens in case of Adventure mode. In this mode
atom’s AV present in it. AV of an atom is the number of
atoms are under physics simulation but equipments are static.
atoms it is bonded to. So more atoms it is attach to, more is the
AV and more is the score. For Example: A carbon attached to
V. SCORING
an oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, Molecular formula
The scoring pattern is chosen to suit the chemistry CH2O, AV of the molecule = 3 (for carbon) + 1 (oxygen) + 1
environment. When a molecule is formed and it meets the (hydrogen) + 1 (another hydrogen) = 6.
level objective “Atomic Value” (AV) is awarded in the form
of scores (see Fig. 5). Sometimes AV is associated with a B. Ring Bonus
bonus multiplier, which gets multiplied with the AV and the In most of the levels if a player can form ring molecule the
total is awarded. The total AV obtained in the level is AV gets multiplied with a factor. The factor depends upon the
summation of all the AV of the molecules; it is displayed in number of rings in the molecule. For Example: If a molecule
the top left corner of the game screen in the levels of the have 2 rings AV will be multiplied with (2 + 1) = 3 times.
Adventure mode (see Fig. 1).
– 191 –
M. Agarwal and S. Saha • Learning Chemistry Through Puzzle-based Game: Atoms to Molecule
were girl. Three of them were very poor in bonding concepts

of Chemistry. Five were very curious about game play.
Figure 5. A molecule disappearing showing up Molecular formula, Atomic

Value and a bonus multipler.
C. Hydrogen Bonus
With Hydrogen bonus the AV is multiplied with the total
number of Hydrogen present in it. So a player needs to attach
more hydrogen to a molecule to get more bonuses. Figure 6. Feedback Scores.
VI. TECHNOLOGY C. Procedure and Setting

We uses Microsoft XNA [13] cross-platform game engine, The user study included three parts, first the player learned
using C# and object-oriented technology to develop A2M. For the game interface, and we demonstrate a small demo
the Physics simulation we used Box2D.XNA [14] a C# port instructional video of the game [16]. A researcher gave an
for Box2D. introduction to the game controls by following demo
The collision detection of Box2D.XNA becomes very poor instructional video of the game play. Second the participants
when any molecule, a complex structure of bodies connected were instructed to stand in queue in the increasing age group.
by joints, comes in contact with other dynamic body, 4 students belong to each category. Students were introduced
equipments. The poor collision was forcing the atoms to to the first level of the game i.e. tutorial level and were
tunnel through the moveable equipments, dynamic body, but it allowed to play other levels of the game. Third, the
was not affecting the non-moveable table top, static body [14]. participants were asked few question related to learning
So in Lab Setup two different mode like Atomic and through games and game play. The user study was conducted
Equipment modes were created to solve the collision problem. in an exhibition where we presented our game to school
In the Equipment mode equipments are dynamic which allows students.
it to move and the atoms are kept transparent to avoid collision D. Measures
between atoms and equipments, where as in the Atomic mode
1) Observation
equipments are kept static and the atoms and molecule collide
A researcher took observation notes during game play, to
with the equipments.
record interesting movements of play and to generate related
questions for the interview. The observation included how the
VII. USER STUDY player interacts and the reaction of the player on their first
interaction with the game play.
A. Goals
A user study with 15 student of different age group was 2) Questionnaire
made, to understand the play experience and improve the The questionnaire was divided into three sections: feedback
game design [15]. The research questions were designed to about the game play, Chemistry concepts learned after playing
gather the feedback to improve A2M and see how the design A2M and about interesting aspects of the game. We used
was helpful in learning the basic concepts of chemistry. It also cross-checking questions to address the problem of
determined how the characterization of the chemistry elements misreporting.
helped to grab the attention of the young learners. Our main
goal is to realize how learning games can grasp the interest of 3) Interview
the player and how much knowledge they gain after playing At the end of the user study, we conducted a semi-structured
the game. We hoped to understand the patters of learning interview. The interview focused on understanding the
among children through games. subjective experience of the players, including the strategies
they adopted, things they learned, what made them adhere to
B. Participants the game, and the comparison between this game and other
educational games they had played before.
We selected fifteen participants varying from age group of
10-20. We categorize them according to their age Group 1
(10-13 years), who are still not introduced to very basic E. Findings and Discussion
concepts of chemistry, Group 2 (14-16 years) who have 1) Feedback About The Game
started with learning chemistry, Group 3 (17-20 years) who We interviewed the students about what they like and
want to explore new things out of this subject. Few of them dislike. We got positive feedback about the graphics which
have never played any educational game before. Four of them
– 192 –
included characterization of atom, bonding system and the already discussed about the design of atom, and other details
different lab equipments which build up the whole atmosphere like what elements are used, how many bonds an element can
of the game. They were comfortable with the controls of the form, and their eye expressions (see Fig. 3). We have tried to
game play which simply uses mouse to drag and drop. They explain type of bonds it can form. Details of different levels
found it very simple and effective way of learning covalent are discussed. Though A2M is educational game but to add
bonding. The negative feedback which we got about the game fun we have used enemies which are related to other concepts
was that the types of atoms used were limited, only concepts of chemistry.
of covalent bonds were shown. The score is given in the form of Atomic Value and other
bonus is added in the game. Our main contribution is to
demonstrate a practical approach of covalent bonding. In the
meantime, we hope to explore more interesting concepts of
Chemistry which can be added to our game.
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they familiar with the game play they were exited to move to
the next level before completing one.
The user study of A2M showed that it can be used as
educational tool which helped us in learning through games.
VIII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

We have discussed the basic design of A2M and how it is
related with the basic concepts of covalent bonding. We have
– 193 –
Information systems architecture modeling based

on loosely coupled structures: an e-learning use
case
José L.R. Sousa
Information Systems Department
Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology – IBMC
jsousa@ibmc.up.pt
Abstract-Traditional approaches to information system change, reduce costs or improve information system
architecture development have a little concerns with resources [2].
information technology interdependency. They are sustained
in a positivist vision of the world, where the information Fig. 1 presents expected results of the development of
systems, can be constructed from a set of requirements, done enterprise information system architecture at the enterprise
by a detached observer, who captures or elicits it. level [2].
Organizations are each more concerned about information
flow and knowledge availability as the central element for
innovation and empowerment. This flow and knowledge
have always a relation of interdependency. There is clear
construction of a technosocial system whose relevance and
differentiation come from user interrelation with
information technology. It's the structure of this
technosocial system that is the key element for the
information system architecture dynamic development. This
paper presents information technology as a commodity,
resulting from a positivist development, and blueprints a
definition of three loosely IT coupled structures namely,
software as service, computation as a service and
infrastructure as a service, structured under an information
system modeling architecture. This modeling approach
addresses an interpretive vision, and aims to give directions
to achieve and promote differentiation, for enterprise
development. An exploratory use case, regarding a two-year
e-learning project, is presented as a result of the adoption of
the presented modulation vision.
Keywords: information system architecture, information

technology, commodity, interpretivist, positivist, technosocial
systems,
Figure 1. Based on [2].
I. INTRODUCTION
Today organization success, this is only possible and In this Fig. 1, is clearly present a positivist vision, by
clearly depends, on its ability to sustainability explore one side regarding the academic studies, with goals that
information technology (IT) to support its interaction start with the word improve and fundamentally, IT related.
needs with the ecosystem, where ecosystem is the set of By another side, professional studies, address the same
elements that organization uses and develops. This is clear concern and in the two most-used models, TOGAF [3, 4]
sustainable in the fact, that is not possible, to manage the and ZACHMAN [4-7] this is even clear, with words like
huge amount of available information, that flows into the faster, alignment, efficient and integration.
enterprise ecosystem, without having the correct
technological architecture and infrastructure. In this This positivist vision of IT development gives supports
management task, a modeling approach into the design of to the conclusion that processes [8] and information
an information system architecture can be a formal technology (IT) [9, 10] as computation and infrastructures,
differentiating factor [1]. are becoming a commodity utility.
But dealing with this enterprise ecosystem, with its If we look into the word alignment, presented by
dynamic changes, puts a challenge into developing a clear ZACHMAN, it's quite controversial, since alignment, is a
approach to enterprise information system architecture long-time information system research problem with a
modeling. The most relevant consequences for this long history of fallbacks without being yet mastered [11-
architecture definition, will be the clear ability to deal with 14].
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 195 –

J. L. R. Sousa • Information Systems Architecture Modeling Based on Loosely Coupled Structures: an e-learning Use Case
This paper is developed to present a blueprint of the architecture with the integration of information technology
model that integrates the IT as a commodity utility and structures as commodity utilities.
present e-learning has a use case for this discussion. In
section 2, are presented the fundamental concepts. The The three fundamental constructs are:
method used is developed in section 3. At section 4 results • Infrastructure, as infrastructure as a service
are presented and in section 5 a discussion of paper (IaaS);
concepts and future direction are put in place. • Software, as software as a service (SaaS);
• Computation, as computation as a service (CaaS);
II. FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS Each of this construct is a structure that is loosely
A. Model blueprint coupled with the other, but from whose interdependence is
supported the information effects.
Enterprise faces today a set of challenges that are Using this notion, it assumes that information
closely related with the unpredictably of change arriving in technology, are commodities to support information
the form of interaction complexity. Complexity, and its effects and describes its critical capacities, needs and
related use with IT, has come to stay [11, 15, 16]. vulnerabilities. This IT can still be developed from a
Interdependencies generate a huge amount of information positivist vision and to “have” IT is not same to be able to
that is only manageable with the correct information manage the right information effect.
system architecture, creating a clear technosocial system.
This technosocial is the resulting structure of a unique set Presented model addresses core enterprise information
of interactions, at different structure levels, that comes system architecture modeling centered on the need of an
from interaction between user and IT and that evolves architecture that adjusts its characteristics dynamically for
along space and time. enterprise sustainability and that is able to discover the
right set of structure that can support the right information
When we look into traditional information systems, effect.
modeling approaches like TOGAF [3, 7] or ZACHMAN
[5, 7], they are unable to formalize the structure of the B. E-learning
information system architecture as set of commodities' E-learning has been seen by enterprises as a way to
utilities, since they rely on a positivist vision of the improve information flow for knowledge improvement
problems, or even demonstrate any concern about and achievement. Been basically, a web-based system that
interactions. makes information flow for knowledge, and that is
When we add the concept of commodity utility, as a available to users or learners disregarding time restrictions
set of structures, having assigned basic rules, put together or geographic proximity. Having, as often presented
to achieve a more complex behavior, we need to change advantages, availability and flexibility, when related with
the paradigm and adopt an interpretive vision, to traditional face-to-face, too many projects have costly high
understand what kind of relation are developed between failures. Addressing this problem much research has been
that structures. made in the discovery of the factors for success.
The exercise, put on the blueprint design of a modeling In e-learning and according to [18] it is possible to
approach based on the information effects, is presented in define success factors from which can be made different
Fig. 2. types of arrangements as in [19], whose reproduction is
made on Fig. 3.
Figure 2. Updated from the information effect planning model [17]
This model blueprint presented on figure 2, explores Figure 3. Perceived satisfaction constructs [19]
the concept that organization survives in a technosocial
ecosystem. This technosocial system is the resulting To be able to develop a consistence management of
architecture of structures that result from interactions with information flow to knowledge its can be considered that
IT in persecution of information effects, trough space and the information system architecture must be able to answer
time. It’s focused on the information effect, trough the to this.
development of the concepts of dynamic enterprise
– 196 –
III. METHOD responsible way. But laborattory animal science is a

The proposed model blueprint pressents the use of a developing discipline, and whatt is best-practice today may
commodity utility for each component in the modeling of not be so in five years.
the architecture of the information system that will The course contents address the following themes:
support, in this use case, the developmennt of the e-learning
project. • Biology and husbandry of laaboratory animals
• Microbiology and disease
The approach used was an actionn research [20]. A • Health hazards and safe praactices in the animal house
review of the literature and a study of soome practical cases Design and conduct of anim mal experiments
were done, and the result was: • Anesthesia, analgesia and exxperimental procedures
• Using Moodle as content managem ment for e-learning • Alternatives to animal use, u Ethical aspects and
[21], has the SaaS. Moodle solutionn was put in place legislation
and developed regarding the commodities concepts and • Analysis of scientific literatuure
relevance in e-learning community [221, 22]. • Project work for Cat C coursse
• The IaaS and CaaS were achieved from in place B. Results

available technology and already ussed for other tasks. To conduct results analyzees, regarding the expected
These elements were available at thee organization data resulted environment, had the saame set of questions on the
center. For the IaaS, was available a Gigabit Ethernet first and second years.
LAN and a WAN access with 1000Mb velocity. In Table 2 shows the questionss for each year.
CaaS sides were in placed Linuux OS and Intel
processing serviced it. TABLE II. COURSE EV
VALUATION QUESTIONS
A. Case study Quesstion

1 How useful was the site as a centtral resource of information?
The case study is a two years projecct supported on one
2 How user- friendly was the site?
teaching courses related with animal ressearch done under a 3 What is your view of e-learning?
scientific research institution. Coursses evaluated are 4 E-learning is preferable to tradittional lectures?
characterized in the table 1. 5 Traditional lectures are preferabble to e-learning?
6 It is good to have a mixture of diffferent learning approaches in a
TABLE I. CASE STUDY COURSES CA
ARACTERISTICS course like this?
Description Year Nº 7 E-learning should only be useed as a complement in topics
Studen where there is also a taught lectu
ure or practical?
ts
8 For some topics it is OK to have e-learning as the only
Laboratory Animal Science Course, CN10 2010 27 approach?
Laboratory Animal Science course FELASAA 2011 25 9 This course had the right mixturem of different learning
Cat C approaches?
The main goals of the course can be b described as the The questions where:
ability to obtain an appropriate training in animal biology,
experimental techniques and other rellevant topics as a • Regarding the use, and that'st a clear technology
prerequisite for responsible conduct with animals in problem (1 to 3).
research. In Europe, the standard for succh training is set by • Perception of what is e-learnning (4 to 6).
FELASA (Federation for European Laboratory
L Animal • Content available and complementarity between digital
Science Associations). To be consideered competent to and presence (7 to 9).
work with animals, a scientist should have
h a degree in a The valorization was done according
a to a scale from 1
life-science discipline and have particcipated in a basic to 5 where 1, was not at all usefu
ful, and 5 was, very useful.
course in Laboratory Animal Science. Figure 4 presents results regarding each year and
responses.
The courses analyzed on this casee study follow the
recommendation of FELASA for laboratory l science
training for scientists (Category C). Thhe course combines
theory (lectures, self-study) with practtical exercises and
group assignments. Focus is on how too design, plan and
carry out experiments to minimize animal harm.
These are an 80-h course either ovver two subsequent
weeks or as modules of 3-5 days overr one month. This
course gives the necessary training to obtain a permit to
work with animals in most European coountries. To get the
actual permit, it's necessary to apply to the competent
authority. In Portugal, Direcção Gerral de Veterinária
handles this permits.
Attending this course is a first step to meet the Figure 4. Evaluaation results
challenge of doing good research with
w animals in a
– 197 –
J. L. R. Sousa • Information Systems Architecture Modeling Based on Loosely Coupled Structures: an e-learning Use Case
IV. CONCLUSION [4] Leist, S. and Zellner, G. Evaluation of current architecture

frameworks. In Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 2006 ACM
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– 198 –
Transforming Vocational Education in Slovakia

K. Kleinová*, P. Feciľak*, F. Jakab**, Z. Szalay***
* Technical
University of Košice / Košice Slovakia
** Cisco
Systems Slovakia / Bratislava, Slovakia
*** elfa s.r.o. / Košice, Slovakia
katarina.kleinova@tuke.sk, peter.fecilak@tuke.sk, fjakab@cisco.com, szalay@elfa.sk
Abstract - This paper aims at presentation and sharing of discover new ways to learn, connect, share, collaborate
experience and practice from Slovakia on how the and compete.
Networking Academy program is working in Slovakia as In 1993, the Cisco started to provide a cost-effective
part of the Vocational education system of the country. The network infrastructure for schools in USA. However, it
authors present the example of the Cisco Networking soon became obvious that schools also needed skilled
Academy model - which over the past fourteen years proved network maintainers in order to effectively operate the
to be successful worldwide and resulted in continuous network. Soon, however, another problem ensued: the
growth of participating students and teachers, who are school staff lacked time and resources. Eventually, it was
willing to follow and acquire the newest IT computer found out that students themselves had a great interest in
networking skills. On February 28th 2011, the Cisco
learning networking skills, and also that they sometimes
Networking Academy has enrolled its 1 millionth
even outperform the staff. This fact was the impulse that
concurrent student for the first time and 2011 is the year of
started the Networking Academy program.
the Academy Evolution process not only in Slovakia but
globally. In October 1997, Cisco officially announced the start
of the Networking Academy initiative in 64 educational
I. INTRODUCTION institutions in USA, and very soon, the program spread
overseas. After more than 14 years of its existence,
One of the objectives of a modern educational Networking Academy operates in more than 10 000
institution is to make sure that their graduates are not only educational institution in over 165 countries [2] and nearly
able to apply ICT in their future jobs on the basis of the 4 million students participated in the program to date.
acquired ICT literacy but also that they are able to make From students in classrooms around the world accessing
use of these technologies as a tool and as an environment online activities, assessments and games to using their
for the educational process itself. The current knowledge- new IT and 21st century skills, to the 175,000 fans (and
based economy necessitates unprecedented flexibility of growing!) on Facebook, The global Networking Academy
education, but also an effective offer of various options community leverages a cloud-based infrastructure to learn,
and solutions of knowledge acquisitions in various fields collaborate and succeed in the 21st Century economy.
[6].
The program started to grow in Central and Eastern
We live in an increasingly connected world, creating a Europe [3] in parallel with the overseas and soon became
global economy and a growing need for IT skills. 21st even more dynamic concerning the number of
century jobs require 21st century skills, and for nearly 14 participating institutions and students. The institutional
years Cisco has been leading the charge to impart these framework of the network proved to be successful,
skills to the next generation of workers through institution either higher education or vocational schools
Networking Academy program [1]. found their education interest in joining the Cisco
Global initiatives such as the Networking Academy Networking community. The Cisco Networking Academy
program are significantly contributing to the formation of Program creates progressive opportunities for educational
Vocational education systems in countries all over the communities all over Europe. The program fosters local
world and Slovakia is not an exception. economic growth by developing and supporting technical
education. The demand for a highly trained, technically
perceptive workforce continues to grow with the
II. BREAF HISTORY OVERVIEW OF NEW EDUCATIONAL increasing reliance on IP networks in everyday life, as
MODEL DEVELOPMENT well as the need for larger and more highly integrated
network designs and implementations.
The history of the Cisco Networking Academy model
and the description of how the Cisco Networking
Academy operates are presented in this chapter.
III. NETWORKING ACADEMY PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
’Network’ has different meanings (network
infrastructure and social network). The Cisco Networking The Networking Academy Program is an educational
Academy provides a new approach on how to think about initiative that blends the e-learning web-based approach of
this phase in an eLearning community so as to utilize the providing centralized web access to curricula, lab
most from the networking phenomenon. Describing how exercises, exams, community features and other learning
the program was developed and operating worldwide we tools with instructor-led lessons, classroom instruction
would like to highlight three key factors, which are and hands-on labs. The Networking Academy can be
considered to be the most sensitive elements of a implemented on secondary schools, technical schools,
successful learning model, which helps students to
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 199 –

K. Kleinová et al. • Transforming Vocational Education in Slovakia
colleges, universities and community-based educational initiative that blends the e-learning web-based
organizations. approach of providing centralized web access to curricula,
lab exercises, exams, community features and other
learning tools with instructor-led lessons, classroom
A. Global Partnerships for an Educated ICT Workforce
instruction and hands-on labs. The Networking Academy
can be implemented on secondary schools, technical
Cisco Networking Academy partners with
schools, colleges, universities and community-based
educational, nonprofit, business and government
organizations.
organizations, through a powerful public-private
The content taught in the Networking Academies is
partnership model that makes it possible to accomplish
organized into so-called Curricula or Courses. Presently,
together what would not be possible alone. Networking
the complete portfolio encompasses these courses:
Academy and its partners work together to help students
succeed during and after their studies. Cisco supports its
• IT Essentials: PC Hardware and Software
educational partners with the following services:
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA),
currently in two different versions: Discovery
• Internet access, Online curricula and materials at
and Exploration
no cost to nonprofits
(4 courses for each version)
• Discounted networking equipment for hands-on
• Cisco Certified Networking Professional
labs
(CCNP)
• Cost-recovery options for instructor training
(3 courses)
• Innovative tools and resources to help students
• CCNA Security course
build professional ICT career pathways
Cisco has developed strategic collaborations with D. Learning Management System (CAC - CISCO
educational institutions, private sector, nonprofit Academy Connection)
organizations, and government agencies around the As the Academy program expanded, Cisco needed a
world. These relationships expand the professional learning management system to deliver curriculum,
opportunities of students and schools, and reach out to instruction, and assessment to Academies everywhere.
disadvantaged and at-risk populations. The Cisco Academy Connection (CAC) is the centralized
Learning Management System (LMS) website that
B. Well-functioning Institutional Framework provides the e-learning aspects of the studies in the
Networking Academy. Access to this website is protected
Willingness to make things happen is the second
by the username and password that can be created only
critical element of any education development program.
by instructors or other privileged persons within the
One of the main strengths of the Cisco Networking
system. Technically, it is a proprietary LMS created
Academy is the motivation of the management and the
especially for the needs of Networking Academies, and
instructors participating in program development. Human
its source codes or its installation package is not released
resources are committed because they share a common
to the public. The CAC provides centralized and
professional attitude that networking skills are important
controlled access to these learning tools:
to raise competitiveness both in education and in
economy. Cisco technology is not only subject of this
• Classes, Curricula and Lab Books
learning environment but also used as the main tool of
learning and communication, which shows that ICT is the • Exams and Gradebooks
core element of continuous personal and community • Special resources for students and instructors &
development. Networking Academy members, managers, Networking Academy Help Desk
instructors, students use Cisco technology (emails,
WebEx, Video-conferencing, Telepresence) when Classes
changing information. This kind of ‘learning by doing’ In order for a student to attend training, he or she
method is used all over the community, and helps all must be enrolled in a class in which the respective course
participants actively participate in a hidden lifelong is taught. A class is described by its name (can be
learning process. arbitrary), course, duration, instructor and other
supplementary data. After a class has been created,
The Networking Academy program uses the “train- students can be enrolled into it.
the-trainer“ model of preparing qualified instructors for
the individual courses. Student enrolled into a class is given access to the
respective curriculum, labs, exams and his personal
C. Professional Learning Content – Networking gradebook that tracks his score in that class. The grades
Academy portfolio are given for taking the chapter (or so-called module)
exams, the Final Exam, the Skills Exam and potentially
Cisco as a networking company provides the for a number of other activities. An instructor has always
eLearning environment and the digital content to be taught the possibility to define his own custom scores in addition
over the world. The Networking Academy Program is an
– 200 –
to those already defined. The weight of individual scores The curricula and Lab Book contents are developed
as they sum up to the overall score can be redefined as and maintained by Networking Academy Curriculum
well. Development Team at Cisco. No direct external changes
to the materials are possible; however, the instructors
Classes and lectures can be delivered in two ways, have a way how to suggest improvements using the Help
either in-person or remotely, via a so-called Blended Desk service. This way it is ensured that a curriculum is
Distance Learning (BDL). The BDL approach combines the same wherever it is taught. Also, the changes to the
the remote lectures with in-person training. curriculum are tracked and controlled centrally.
For each student, the CAC maintains a complete list Exams and Gradebooks
of all classes attended by that student, together with the Almost every module in a curriculum has a
Gradebook for historical purposes. As a general rule, the corresponding exam associated with it that can be
curriculum is always available online as a web-based activated for students and graded after a student has taken
course; however, it is not downloadable for off-line it. The exams consist of around 20 questions each,
storage to students. displayed in a web form with selectable answers. The
questions can be either Multiple Choice Single Answer
Curricula and Lab Books (MCSA) or Multiple Choice Multiple Answer (MCMA).
The curriculum is the main self-contained source of In the case of MCMA question, the correct number of
information necessary to proficiently pass the course. As answers is always indicated in the question. The scoring
a general rule, the curriculum is always available online rules are fairly simple: a predefined count of points for
as a web-based course; however, it is not downloadable each correct answer, zero points for each incorrect
for off-line storage to students. answer, and zero points for the whole question if more
answers were selected than required. There are no
The curriculum is internally divided into modules (a negative points. Also, there are no answers written by
self-contained single-topic lecture), and each module students themselves. Besides the module exams, each
consists of variable count of chapters. The curriculum course contains a so-called Final Exam that is
format is either a combination of HTML and Adobe Flash significantly larger (around 50-60 questions) and covers
content, or in the newest versions the curricula are the whole course. The Final Exam is one of required
multimedia-rich. They make frequent use of video, exams for passing the course. The types of questions and
graphics and audio content, animations, interactive scoring rules are identical to module exams.
activities and quizzes, all tailored to reinforce the
student's knowledge. As a special requirement, each course contains a so-
called Course Feedback which must be completed by
Many concepts are further illustrated by a curriculum each student. While in a form of an exam, it is not really
directly providing links to prepared Packet Tracer files. an assessment of student but rather a questionnaire of
PT is the network simulation software created by Cisco how the students perceive the quality of study materials,
and available for free to Networking Academy students learning environment and their instructor in particular.
and instructors. The PT allows to emulate network Results from the Course Feedback are anonymized and
topologies from a predefined set of devices (routers, available to both Cisco and the instructor as a feedback
switches, access points, servers, etc.), to configure them about the quality of the delivered lectures.
almost in the same way as real Cisco devices are
configured, and to observe the details and inner workings All student exam grades earned during a course are
of networks in “slow-motion”. The curricula are also stored in detail in the class gradebook. The gradebook
equipped with indexes, built-in quizzes and glossaries. In also contains scores earned for the Skills Exam (a
conformance with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation practical assignment solved as a part of final examination
Act of 1973, various curricula are also available in so- at the end of the class) and possibly other scores as well.
called accessible format for people with disabilities. The instructor can redefine the weight of each score
Currently, the default language for all curricula is present in the gradebook as it sums up to the resulting
English. The IT Essentials and CCNA curricula are also weighted score. Thereby an instructor is free to define
being translated to Arabic, French, Russian, Simplified what scores have a greater impact on the resulting score
Chinese and Spanish. of each student.
With each curriculum, a corresponding Lab Book is The gradebook also provides a way to check on
prepared that contains tasks and exercises to practice and individual students' responses to an exam and to see the
reinforce the students' knowledge gained throughout the correct answer. Moreover, for each exam, a statistical
course. The Lab Book is usually provided in two forms: a breakdown of student success in each question can be
Student Edition and the Instructor Edition including generated, both for the particular class and for the
reference solutions of the tasks. Each module of a Networking Academy world-wide. This provides a fine
curriculum contains references to individual assignments insight which questions appear to be problematic for
in the corresponding Lab Book, thereby directly leading majority of students, and vice versa.
to practical activities required to master the topic.
– 201 –
Special resources for students and instructors IV. ACADEMY EVOLUTION IN SLOVAKIA
There is a multitude of resources available for Over the past 12 years, Cisco Networking Academy
instructors teaching a particular course or maintaining an has grown to over 10,000 academies and more than
academy. For majority of courses there are PowerPoint 1,000,000, students to become the “world’s largest
presentations prepared that highlight the key concepts and classroom”. Cisco Networking Academy must keep up
points in each module of a given curriculum. Instructors with the times and prepare for the future generation of
are free to use and change these presentations to suit their learners. The program is moving from a instructor
needs. training and support model to a global resource network
Each course may have another tools associated with made up of public and private sector organizations
it. Particularly, for the new CCNA Discovery and offering a variety of resources to academies, instructors
Exploration courses, a CD/VMWare live image is and students.
prepared that contains an entire server operating system The Academy Evolution process is a union of
with various network services already preset and ready to technology and program process enhancements designed
use. This server image greatly simplifies the teaching of to help academies thrive and students meet their goals.
CCNA courses in academies that do not run their own After over 14 years of global presence of the program,
network servers. Furthermore, as a part of CAC, there is a these huge changes within the program are expected to
FTP repository of shared content. Using this repository, bring the community a new starting point where new
instructors may share their own presentations, lectures, roles and rules are defined.
lab assignments, skills-based assessments and any other This process also includes redefinition of the whole
relevant materials. partner model. The old model consisting of Cisco,
Both students and instructors have access to a section CATCs, RCNAs and LCNAs (Figure 1) is rapidly
of CAC called Forums&Chat which contains a number of changing. These changes are needed as this model is very
moderated discussion boards. limited in possibilities for cooperation among the
institutions and scalability.
E. Course alignment with industrial certifications
The today's companies are very interested in having a
common way to assess and measure the professional
knowledge and skills of their employees. Industrial
certification of persons provided by a disinterested third
party is very often the choice.
Cisco has a complex system of industrial
certifications for various network industry specializations
and knowledge levels. While the Cisco certification
portfolio is vast and diverse, the most requested
certifications can be divided into three groups according
to their complexity: the introductory Associate level, the Figure 1. The old NetAcad partner model
advanced Professional level and the highest Expert level.
Depending on the level and the specialization of the The new NetAcad partner model (Figure 2.) is
certification, it can consist of one or several certification bringing new opportunities to the community. The most
exams that must be passed before the certificate is relevant expected benefits are: closer relationship
awarded. Each exam is a paid service, and the certificate between Cisco and Academies, specialized institutions,
itself expires after 3 years. In order to stay certified, the more effective and sustainable partnerships, recognition
person must either recertify in the current level, or pass of increased community role.
an exam that extends the certification to a new
specialization or a higher level.
The contents of each course available in the
Networking Academy are closely aligned to the
respective Cisco industry certification, covering all
knowledge areas necessary to pass the certification
exam(s).
The most popular certifications of today are CCNA
and CCNP that are completely covered by the CCNA and
CCNP curricula. Currently, the CCNA certification can
be obtained by passing one composite or two partial
certification exams. The CCNP can be obtained by
passing another three or four certification exams,
depending on their scope. Figure 2. The new NetAcad partner model
The certification exams are provided by specialized
testing centers that are completely independent of the The new partner model consists of the following
Networking Academy program. subjects: Cisco, Academy Support Center, Instructor
– 202 –
Training Center, NetAcad Resource Partner and Cisco pilot testing of this new model was launched in Slovakia
Network Academy. The roles of these subjects are in September 2011. The feedback provided by this pilot
defined as follows to support the idea of cooperation and testing will influence the global Academy Evolution
community led activities. process.
Cisco V. NETACAD IN SLOVAKIA

Cisco is expected to develop and deliver teaching and The NetAcad program has during its 12 years of
learning content, systems and tools and to monitor and presence in Slovakia achieved many milestones that the
manage quality. community can be proud of. Instructors and students have
actively participated in a number of national and
Academy Support Center international events and activities and their success
The Academy Support Centers specializes and excels proves the quality of the program. The author would like
in supporting academy sustainability and excellence: on- to mention two important activities from the past period.
boarding, training administrators, critical
communications and any other support required by The former RCNA at the Technical University in
Academies. Kosice, Slovakia (TUKE) belongs to leaders in
In Slovakia, the Technical university of Kosice, implementation of new ICT and innovative methods into
former RCNA, as the only one, has applied for this role the educational process in Slovakia. This academy, as one
and was successful. It is now providing support to the of the first academies in the CEE & CIS region, has in
whole community in the country. July 2010 presented its Telepresence room and started its
cooperation with National Lambda Rail (NLR), US
Instructor Training Center research network, by connecting more than 60 US
These centers will specialize and excel in preparing Telepresence rooms at universities and educational
and developing academy instructors by providing them institutions with the Technical University in Kosice.
trainings and instructor professional development Discussions between the representatives of TUKE and
opportunities. network of US schools (K12) from the Paradise Valley
There are three ITCs in Slovakia, starting their Unified School District, Phoenix, Arizona“
activities from September 2011. All these ITCs (PVSCHOOLS) during the summer 2010 resulted in a
(Technical university of Kosice, University of Zilina and joint project. Starting on 4th September 2010, a pilot
Slovak University of Technology) are former regional CCNA 1 Exploration course for ten participants from the
academies and are experienced in instructor trainings. All PVSCHOOLS, teachers and technical staff from 5 US
instructor trainers working there have successfully passed localities, via Telepresence was realized. The instructor
the Instructor trainer qualification process and are now of the course, Peter Fecilak (TUKE), has in cooperation
eligible to train academy instructors. with his colleagues from the RCNA TUKE prepared a
unique teaching methodology for this course based on
NetAcad Resource Partner Telepresence considering the specific conditions of the
Resource partners are expected to enable more course (nine hours of time difference, language barrier,
contributions to academy success: equipment donations; missing blackboard in the Telepresence room – instead of
internships; job placement; scholar-ships; council which a computer with touchscreen – Tablet PC is used,
coordination and marketing support. etc…). The instructor has defined a time table for the
At this time, there are seven active resource partners course, system o presentations and exercises, internal
in Slovakia providing services and support to NetAcad communication for instructors and students, grading and
community in Slovakia. These partners are: Technical other organizational aspects for the course.
University of Kosice, Slovak University of Technology,
GTEC Institute, Training Institute elfa, ALEF NULA, For the further development and progress in the
ADECCO, T-Systems Slovakia and Slovanet. NetAcad program within the Academy Evolution process,
partner cooperation, sharing experience and student and
Cisco Network Academy teacher mobility can be key. Networking technologies
Academies teach students academy curriculum and and unique study programs based on NetAcad are
21stcentury skills to succeed in the global economy and creating ideal environment for the student and teacher
on the job market. mobility among educational institutions that are part of
There are about 70 academies in Slovakia, providing NetAcad. The recently introduced National Scholarship
NetAcad courses to students at both the secondary school program of the Slovak government provides the right
and university levels, and spread evenly in all regions of opportunity, http://www.scholarships.sk/en/.
the country. The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and
Sport of the Slovak Republic approved new terms and
As mentioned in this paper, the main goal of all these conditions for providing financial support under the
changes is to provide the community a new model that National Scholarship Programme for the Support of
reflects the global changes in education and the growing Mobility of students, PhD students, university teachers,
need for computer networking specialists. The process of researchers and artists: supports study and research stays
– 203 –
at universities and research organizations. It supports

two-way mobility — of foreign scholarship holders to
Slovakia as well as of Slovak scholarship holders abroad.
Scholarships cover living costs related to the scholarship More global key statistics:
stay. Slovak scholarship applicants may also apply for a • 1 million online assessments delivered monthly
travel grant. • 100 million online assessments delivered to date
The NRP, elfa, s.r.o., is in cooperation with the ASC • 272,000 Facebook fans, and it is growing daily [4]
at the Technical university of Kosice providing NetAcad
community in countries that are eligible for this support The presented numbers show that the popularity of the
help and assistance in searching for partner institutions in program is growing among the students and their number
Slovakia, members of the NetAcad community for is higher and higher every year. This encourages the
cooperation in the project. community to be more active and involved in the whole
VI. NETACAD IN NUMBERS process of Academy Evolution as it is understandable that
global education programs such as Networking Academy
The Networking Academy during its more than 14 program can provide the vocational education system
years of history has allowed many students to participate quality basics for the development of study programs
and graduate in the program and its courses. The Table I. both popular among students and welcomed by
below shows examples of current statistics from selected companies, potential employers.
countries. Students represent a distinct count of students
that were in a class in session within the past 12 months.
VII. CONCLUSION
Cisco Networking Academy has become the blended
Country Population
Active Population learning project of choice for delivering networking-
Students Penetration oriented courses in vocational and university IT
Czech Rep. 10 190 213 7 700 0,1997% education. Being one of a few ongoing and successful
collaborations between business and the educational
Hungary 9 976 062 4 645 0,1701%
sector at such a large scale and, it also has the unique
Poland 38 441 588 18 381 0,1788% notion of being something that has a real impact and
Romania 21 904 551 11 338 0,2121% importance for students and their career aspirations.
Russia 138 739 892 5 831 0,0145% Overall, Cisco Networking Academy has managed to
Slovenia 2 000 092 372 0,0673%
create an environment which motivates both the students
and instructors to continuously improve and more
Slovakia 5 477 038 5 093 0,3751% knowledgeable on their joint learning journey.
Table I. Statistics from selected countries From the perspective of Central & East Europe region
the Networking Academy program plays very important
role in the educating of IT specialists – Networking
Table II. shows the cumulative number of students professionals for the future. In many countries of the
that represents a distinct count of students that have region the program is recognized by governmental
participated in the program since inception and entities and integrated to the education system [6].
percentage change in the number of students in FY 12
compared to FY11. REFERENCES
[1] Cisco Networking Academy Program,
http://www.cisco.com/go/netacad
FY12 FY11 [2] World’s Largest Classroom Campaign, www.cisco.com/go/wlc
Students since [3] Jakab F., Czacharowska-Rybkowska A., Beni G., Kniewald K.,
Students since Schwertel M.: A Passport to Opportunity – the Learning Model of
Country program %
program inception the Cisco Networking Academy, Innovation in Learning
inception
Communities - EDEN 2009 Annual Conference 10-13 June 2009,
Slovakia 20 547 18 004 14,12 Gdansk, Poland, 8pp (Book of abstracts), full version on CD
Romania 46 464 39 838 16,63 (6p.)., ISBN 978-963-87914-2-9
Czech [4] Facebook: www.facebook.com/cisconetworkingacademy
20 346 16 299 24,83
Republic [5] P. Paluch, M. Kubina, P. Segec: The networking academy
Poland 68 719 57 966 18,55 program: Current state and future trends. 8th Int. Conference on
Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications, ICETA 2010
Hungary 16 974 14 000 21,24 - Conference Proceedings, Stara Lesna, 28.-29.10.Kosice, elfa,
Slovenia 1 347 1 103 22,12 s.r.o., pp. 383-388, ISBN 978-80-8086-166-7
[6] F. Jakab: World’s Largest Classroom. International Conference
Russia 20 081 16 560 21,26 Interactive Collaborative Learning – ICL 2011, Piestany,
Slovakia, ISBN 978-1-4577-1746-8, CD, 666-671pp., invited key-
Table II. Cumulative number of students note
– 204 –
Academia-industry link progress in knowledge-

driven economy
L. Szentirmai and L. Radács
University of Miskolc, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Miskolc, Hungary
elkerika@uni-miskolc.hu elkrad@uni-miskolc.hu
Abstract—Science and technology will improve the quality fields – aeronautics and telecommunications, for example
of life of future generations. A knowledge-driven economy goes – however its global research investments, both public
along with high-tech companies. University of Miskolc has and private, were far below those of its principal rivals,
information about industry products, marketing and namely the USA, Japan and the "Asian tigers". This
development trends, feedback on graduates' competences, the
quality of teaching, improves curriculum, teaching materials
comparatively low level of investment was not uniform.
and methods, implements its research mission successfully by In the new Member States, where resources are often
joint projects, provides graduates for the knowledge-driven fewer, the sector is sometimes precarious. Thus RTD
economy, reduces the height of the wall between academia and systems in Europe are struggling to break free of the
industry. Industry employs graduates meeting up-to-date national framework [1].
requirements, raises science and technology application in new The "fifth freedom" – the freedom of knowledge across
products. It employs new PhD-degree holders, generates and borders within the EU – will become integrated into the
mainly transfers, applies and disseminates new knowledge. existing rights of people, capital, services and goods to
move freely. By 2030 an open, fair, genuine single
I. INTRODUCTION
market for innovation will pull new ideas, talent and
In the early 2000s the European industry was not what investment from around the world [7].
it once was: although many industries were still to be For maximum economic and social impact, strategy for
found in Europe, but other economic blocs, such as Asia, information society technologies concentrates on the
were establishing themselves as the world's principal future so-called convergence generation. This involves
production sites, aided in part by a less costly workforce integrating network access and interfaces into the
and the opening up of world markets. everyday environment by making available a multitude of
European leaders therefore decided to stake the EU's services and applications through easy and "natural"
future on something in which it had always excelled: interactions.
science and technology. Knowledge would thus secure In March 2000, the Lisbon European Council adopted
the future of the Old World, through the creation of a the development of the information society as a key
knowledge-based or knowledge-driven society rooted in priority in the strategy to make Europe "the most
higher education, innovation and research: these competitive knowledge-based society in the world".
components so fundamentally inter-dependent that they
This took practical shape in the e-Europe 2002
came to be known as the knowledge triangle.
initiative, to promote "the information society for all": a
"Knowledge Triangle" has three pillars: higher education,
cheaper, faster and more reliable Internet; stimulation of
research and technological development (RTD) and
Internet use, and investment in people and skill.
innovation (i.e. the share of inventions that actually reach
the market). The challenges facing the European economy have not
changed: increasing productivity in response to the ageing
Universities' core mission will be therefore to educate
population; confronting international competition;
graduates and to ensure they are equipped to engage in
preparing for the increasing scarcity of natural resources,
the process of new knowledge creation and the
starting with fossil fuels.
dissemination and application of knowledge. The speed
of innovation will increase affecting social and economic The EU's sustained productivity growth depends
processes; they have to be proactive to plan future largely on policies to stimulate science and technology
scenarios. In future, Europe's added value would thus be and innovation systems. A high level of educational
based on the new knowledge created within the European attainment is also positively correlated with a productive,
Research Area (ERA), a source of jobs and profit. skilled and adaptable workforce and is a precondition for
lifelong learning as well as for higher labor-market
In the year 2000 Europe produced a third of the world's
participation rates.
scientific knowledge and occupied a leading role in many
_____________________________________________________ University of Miskolc (UM) with its three Engineering
The described work was carried out as part of the TÁMOP – 4.2.1.B- Faculties, four Engineering PhD Schools, Engineering
10/2/KONV-2010-0001 project in the framework of the New Hungarian Departments and 400 academic staff members together
Development Plan. The realisation of this project is supported by the with over 200 contracted industries/firms contribute to
European Union, co-financed by the European Social Fund.
the knowledge-driven economy.
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 205 –

L. Szentirmai and L. Radács • Academia-Industry Link Progress in Knowledgedriven Economy
II. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – AND WHAT THE of the world. To protect an invention, an industrialist
EUROPEANS THINK ABOUT spends up to 10 times as much in the EU as in the United
States, and 13 times as much as in Japan. The costs of
A. Science and technology maintaining a patent are even higher, often acting as a
deterrent for small businesses that are forced to cede their
Science and technology pose one of the greatest innovative technologies. This cumbersome system for
challenges facing the Union today. Advances in this field obtaining intellectual protection is not new, however, and
are crucial for its political and economic future if it is not in recent years European leaders have taken a number of
to fall hopelessly far behind the USA and the "Asian steps to correct it [8].
tigers" in the relentless technological race of the modern
world. To this end it must mobilize its true wealth: the B. Popularity ratings of Europeans on science and
creative spirit and energy of its people. This potential is research improvement
the basis for its scientific strength and competitiveness, The Eurobarometer gradually measures and analyzes
on which rests the high technical and scientific quality of EU-27 people ratings on various impacts. 69% of
its industry and agriculture. Europeans (EU-27) believe that the applications of science
The goal set in Lisbon thus remains "the appropriate and new technologies will make work more interesting.
framework for encouraging growth and jobs", especially This statement met with very broad acceptance in all the
countries.
at a time of crisis, as the European Council repeated on
20 March 2009. The EU is not alone in making this
TABLE I.
analysis. On 27 April 2009, President Obama declared POPULARITY RATINGS ON QUALITY OF LIFE IN PERCENTAGE
that he had set the goal for the United States of investing
Do not
more than 3% of GDP in research to prepare for the Quality of Life Indicators Agree Disagree
Know
future. "The challenge, in short, is nothing less than our For most people today, their
salvation", he concluded. That leaves the matter of the quality of life is better than it 85 14 1
was for their parents' generation
method to apply in implementing the Lisbon strategy. The next generation will enjoy a
This is essentially threefold: • to increase the research better quality of life than we do 58 34 8
effort to reach 3% (2% from private financing and 1% now
Developments in science and
from public financing); • to facilitate exchanges between technology have improved the 87 10 3
the private and public sector; • to encourage the creation quality of life for your generation
of skilled jobs and high-tech companies. In 2007 just Science and technology will
improve the quality of life of 78 15 7
1.85% of GDP was invested in research in the EU-27, future generations
precisely the same level as in 2000.
Source: Eurobarometer (2005-08), structured by the authors
The reason the ratio has stagnated overall in recent
years is that economic growth was strong prior to 2008
Science and technology will improve the quality of life
and investment in research grew less quickly than the
of future generations; approval rates of Estonia is 92%,
wealth produced. The fall in Europe's GDP since 2008
Slovakia 83%, Hungary 82%, EU-27 average is 78%.
has the automatic effect of producing a relative increase
in the research effort, while Member States maintained
TABLE II.
their scientific budgets and companies their RTD OPTIMISM OF EUROPEANS REGARDED EXPECTED TECHNOLOGICAL
budgets. 23 of the 27 EU countries, representing more PROGRESS
than 98% of the EU's public investment in research, are Contributions to technological progress to quality of life in
following the Commission's recommendations to respond Technological
percentage
Improvement No effect Will Do not
to the crisis by investing in research. Just two Member progress areas
support deteriorate know
States facing a very difficult financial situation were (optimism) (scepticism) (pessimism) (uncertain)
Computers and
unable to do this [11]. information 79 11 6 4
technology
The private sector should seize the new opportunities Solar energy 77 14 3 6
to work with the public sector and to develop innovative Wind energy 74 16 3 7
Mobile phones 58 23 15 4
products. This is the ultimate test of the success – or Biotechnology/
failure – of the Lisbon strategy. One figure sums up the Genetic 53 13 12 22
engineering
situation: 49% of European researchers are employed in Space
44 35 9 12
the private sector compared with 80% in the United exploration
Nanotech 40 13 5 42
States and 68% in Japan. Private sector research must be Nuclear energy 32 18 37 13
strengthened and its results converted into added value if
Source: Eurobarometer (2005-08), structured by the authors
the EU is to create a genuine knowledge-driven economy,
and it is on achieving this that the post-2010 effort and
reorientation must focus. Nobody denies that science opens the door to
knowledge. But what is the limit to the world's
Economists stress that one of the obvious reasons for
Europe's difficulties in converting its scientific excellence intelligence? Will it one day be able to explain
into economic growth lies in the nature of its system for "everything"? The statement made is the following: "one
protecting intellectual property. Registering a patent day science will be able to give a complete picture of how
remains much more expensive in Europe than in the rest nature and the universe work". One in two Europeans
– 206 –
believes that will be the case. The most optimistic are and material capacities which curtails the European
citizens in Southern Europe – the Maltese (73%) and the Research Area.
Greeks (70%) – while the people of Northern Europe are A knowledge-driven economy goes along with high-tech
the most sceptical: the Finnish (58%), the Swedes and the companies. It is high-tech that generates most of the
Dutch (54%). private investment in with the ERA is so sorely lacking.
While the IT revolution and the prospects of renewable However, the structure of the European economy is
changing, with a relative deindustrialization and a switch
energy sources (solar and wind power) draw strong to the services sector. This is not yet generating much
support, those optimistic about the biotech sector and research, less than aeronautics, the motor industry or
genetic engineering enjoy only a slim majority. With energy – sectors in which the EU retains a leading place –
regard to the biotech sector in particular, European and above all the biotechnologies and information and
citizens are divided in their reaction, between scepticism communication technologies. It is in these last three fields
(13%), pessimism (12%) and "don't know" (22%). In that the EU is being left behind, particularly by the United
contrast, a large proportion (35%) of those surveyed, States, where a lot of biotechnology start-ups grow into
remain sceptical of the benefits of space exploration major pharmaceutical companies with huge RTD budgets.
although it is indispensable for emerging technologies In Europe they remain small businesses. The same is true
like mobile phone, computing science and internet. The in the Internet sector. The EU is still waiting for its
response to nanotechnologies was the most uncertain Genentech or its Google.
(42%), while nuclear power had the largest group of Recent years have seen increased research in the
opponents (37%) probably due to Chernobyl and other manufacturing industry and services in Europe. But the
crises. decisive battle is being played out in the high-tech
industries.
III. EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA AS A SOLID PILLAR Around 50 000 or two thirds of the players involved in
OF KNOWLEDGE-DRIVEN ECONOMY the European programs come from the public networks –
universities, higher education institutions and research. Of
A. State-of-the art of the European Research Area the 435 000 researchers working in the 4 000 higher
education institutes known to the EU authorities, an
The objective is to find ways of overcoming the estimated 1 in 10 benefits to one degree or another from
continuing fragmentation of European public research. European financing.
The European Research Area (ERA) concept encompasses
three interlinked areas: This predominance of the public and academic sector
should not, however, be allowed to mask a profound
• Progress towards a new "internal market" for change that is taking place as European research policy
research, in which scientists, technologies and opens up towards the private sector. As integrated projects
knowledge can move freely; grow in size, some of Europe's leading industrial players
• Real coordination of national and regional research are increasingly involved in strategic sectors like ICT,
programs, at the European level, on the basis of nanotechnologies, aviation and space.
common priorities;
• The launch of infrastructural initiatives introduced IV. HIGHER ENGINEERING EDUCATION SERVES
and financed simultaneously at European, inter- KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND TRANSFER
governmental and inter-regional level.
"Engineering is directed to developing, providing and
The fragmentation of public research makes Europe
maintaining infrastructures, goods and services for
unattractive to businesses wanting to invest in RTD. These
industry and the community" (SARTOR). The ideal of the
companies often find it difficult to cooperate or form
university is the open, digitally networked, knowledge
partnerships with research institutes, in particular from
institution working in co-operation with industry and
one country to the next. European companies are investing
society. Some further clustering of universities is expected
more in RTD in the USA than US companies are in the
to gain leadership in one or more emerging fields. A new
EU, and the transatlantic balance of investment deficit is
EU reform will start with this "open knowledge
widening.
institution": open to industry, politics and society at large.
B. Knowledge-driven economy and framework programs University career structures would change, so that
excellence, not time served, is the criterion for
European research is torn between two poles. On the advancement in teaching and research. Striving for
one hand there is the desire to 'see big' and encourage excellence is the only choice Europe has. The ideal
partnerships between the continent's largest and most mechanism is when the EU institutions will become the
imposing names in science and technology, in order to "gold standard" to which all may aspire, but only the best
achieve a 'critical mass' and/or structure the European succeed.
Research Area. But on the other hand there is a concern
not to overlook smaller players and the vital innovative The EU's higher education performance indicators in
potential to be found in SMEs. For this first pole, FP6 was terms of research (university ranking) or in terms of
given new financial instruments with which to support not educational achievement are at 70% or less than in the
only traditional targeted research programs, but also so- United States [10]. University ranking system is to be
called 'integrated' projects and 'networks of excellence'. somewhat mono-dimensional (focused primarily on
The aim of the networks of excellence was to constitute a research) on the other hand, and do not fully cover
framework of high level scientific and technological dimensions such as teaching and learning quality of
networks, and put an end to the fragmentation of human knowledge transfer. Such mono-dimensional systems use
indicators that discriminate only among the most research-
– 207 –
intensive institutions and hence do not always provide genuine interest in collaborating with industry. This is the
useful feedback on ways forward for the majority of culture that Europe is lacking.
European universities. The ability of Europe to attract In the training and careers hierarchy at the starting
foreign brains is also less effective than in the US. blocks, girls do well. In 2005 they made up more than half
The untapped reservoir of talented young people, the university population. 59% of European female
especially in the newer Member States, is probably the students EU-27 – all disciplines together – went on to
EU's greatest underexploited asset. A young graduate will complete their basic courses (bachelor, masters, etc.) as
be able to earn a degree in one country and easily move to against 41% of male students. But at the top level (grade
another to work and teach; indeed, a growing population A which stands for the highest grade/post at which
of researchers will earn PhDs with a truly European research is normally conducted) in universities and
dimension, obtained by working in more than one research institutions, women have just one representative
Member State (Euro-PhDs). (15%) against six male colleagues (85%).
Higher education and research systems cannot be The European academic world has around 15% of
changed within short term and it is sometimes several women professors. Women were best represented at this
years before the results of reforms are evident. Most level in Romania (29%) and Latvia (26.5%) and were
Member States have introduced legislation to make least present, at around 9%, in Germany, the Netherlands,
universities more autonomous and thus able to enter into Austria, and Belgium. The percentage of 'Grade A' (EU-
cooperation with the private sector. Work is currently in 25) also varies according to area of specialization, with
progress to develop a European system for the feminization strongest in human sciences (23.9%), social
international comparison of universities with a wider sciences (16.6%) and medicine (15.6%).
range of criteria than the famous Shanghai classification. According to an OECD report, employment of human
This should make it possible to make a better appraisal of resources in science and technology (HRST) "continues in
the international performance of European universities [2]. all countries to progress much faster than overall
employment, at an average rate of 2.5% a year in the
V. ACADEMIA-INDUSTRY LINK PROGRESS USA, and 3.3% in the EU. This acceleration is due mainly
to the increase in female employment and the expansion
A. Challenges of the services sector".
The walls between industry and academia are still too According to Eurostat, 'qualified female knowledge
high; mobility of staff between them is low. Europe's past workers' are to be found principally in the high knowledge
failures at innovation are true, thus a robust whole- intensity services – which welcome the majority of higher
business model for researchers and industrialists and an science and technology (S&T) graduates, 44% of women
integrated innovation system in order to strengthen the and 56% of men. On the other hand, in the high tech
"put-through" capacities are needed [8]. When large sector with a more specifically industrial vocation, which
international companies look for a site a research facility, at European level employs over 8.7 million scientists and
they look not only for major markets, but also for a strong engineers, only 29% of 'graduate' jobs are held by women.
research and competence base. Yet to date, the fact was At this level, their presence tends to stagnate, while the
ignored that proximity of competences matters. proportion of men is growing by 2% a year.
The average rate of industry participation within the 7th In 2005, 43% of the 88 000 doctorates acquired in
Framework Program (FP7) is around 30%. The European universities were awarded to women – an
participation of industry is a question of the challenges increasingly large number, and quite impressive compared
faced by different sectors. When objectives of research are with the figure of just 25% in Japan. Since 1999, the
very important for European industrial competitiveness, growth in female doctorates (7%) has been well above that
they should be industry-driven. Often projects do not of the men, estimated at 2%. The countries posting the
respect that priority. They are coordinated by universities highest proportions of women reaching PhD level are, in
or other research organizations which are collecting particular, those of Central and Eastern Europe, with their
support from industrial corporations. The opposite strong traditions of scientific gender mix.
situation was more frequent in the first Framework In terms of specializations, life sciences come well in
Programs. Throughout Europe industrial participants say front, and engineering trails the pack. The weakness of
that they are not in the driving seat anymore. The prime this latter figure is not, however, comparable everywhere:
question is the role industry can play in the 33% of Hungarian women PhDs, and almost 25% of
implementation of the European Framework Programs. Finnish and French ones, are to be found in the
The root of the university-industry relationship in 'engineering' segment, as against just 7% in Germany.
Europe is that the EU does not have many strong centers Around 30% of all active researchers in Europe are
of excellence, like Massachusetts Institute of Technology women. They account for more than a third of the grey
(MIT), Berkeley, Stanford, and Columbia in the USA, matter resources of universities and other higher education
which are leading academic research institutions. Industry institutions and of the research carried out in countless
cannot find these kinds of partners, but the EU will public laboratories. On the other hand, they are still
establish a separate European MIT, the new European largely 'left on the shelf' by private labs, where one finds
Institute of Technology (EIT) in Hungary [9] and will only one woman for five men. Differences from one
reconcile the partners with the different approach and country to the next can, as is often the case, be quite large.
attitudes to public-private partnerships in each Member
State. The EU simply must be able to use the best The former communist countries are where the greatest
universities in Europe, to start strengthening them and proportion of women are employed in scientific structures,
creating an incentive structure where they would have a filling between 30% and 50% of jobs in the RTD sector
compared with between 20% and 35% in the EU-15. In
– 208 –
terms of research budgets, the picture is the reverse. The is the real output of higher engineering education, the
greater presence of women in the new Member States is engineer of the 21st century.
often accompanied by very limited resources. The Final Examination Board has a particular duty to
select the best three or four diploma theses between each
B. Academia-industry link progress by UM group of 20 or so prepared and presented by the students
UM-industry link [4], [5], [6] is improved in 19 main of UM. The respective theses along with the evaluation of
categories: the Board will be submitted to the Institutes of Electrical,
1. 100 to 170 industry personnel of over 200 contracted Mechanical and other Engineering of Hungary.
industry/firms are involved in joint design and evaluation 9. New 'Robert Bosch' Department of Mechatronics was
of engineering curriculum, monitoring of engineering initiated by the German Bosch GmbH Industry with
courses, organization and evaluation of industrial practice financial aid at the University of Miskolc and its
of students and graduates if and when needed. operation started on 1 July 2005 involving four Bosch
2. Gaining industry experiences in industry criterion sister companies working in Hungary. In addition to
targets mainly young lecturers by involving them in joint engineering education in the fields of mechatronics for
university-industry projects, strengthening academia- undergraduate, graduate and PhD programs with the
industry link, short-term industrial practice in summer- utilization of new laboratories like hydraulics,
time, their contribution to courses run by industry pneumatics, sensor application and development research
personnel in industry with the involvement of 12 to 15 is carried out. Bosch industry enjoys priority in the
young lecturers a year and leading industrial practice of selection of the best graduates.
200 to 400 students, both in this country and monitor 20 10. There was a complete reference laboratory equipped
to 30 students abroad. by National Instruments, the world-wide known
3. 30 to 50 joint research and technological development multinational industry, at the Department of Electrical
(RTD) projects are initiated and implemented each year and Electronic Engineering where relevant research
in all engineering science areas attributed to UM. projects, then full-day regular, in-service and other
4. University-attached research centre on applied courses can be implemented and run.
chemistry, a Regional Knowledge Centre on Logistics 11. Specific component of industry-university
and Material Science and Uni-Flexys Ltd dealing with collaboration in emerging technology is to run 3 to 10
innovation and projects with industry are working; 60 to intensive in-service training courses a year on computer-
90 academic staff participates in research carried out by aided engineering in various disciplines by academic
these units and 15 to 25 researchers deliver lectures or staff to industry personnel by industry request. Industry
conduct laboratory and other engineering practice for technical staff need emerging technology integrating
students of UM each year. theoretical background of design, operation, diagnostics,
5. Close co-operation is being established with condition monitoring, measurement performances, etc. of
respective research laboratories working in the region: the respective products, components, devices, equipment,
"Z. Bay" National Research Institute for Logistics and machines, processes, all in one to give responses to
Production Engineering and Nanotechnology Research adequate challenges by the use of software concerned.
Institute. Both researchers and academic staff cross the 12. 24 to 28 UM staff serve respective Hungarian
border to participate also in joint research project and Engineering Institutes, that maintained close co-operation
conduction of courses run at UM. with all important industries in the country, as
6. 6 to 9 joint research projects a year are launching chairpersons/members of editorial boards of their
together with few EU and third country universities, periodicals, executive-, scientific and professional
mainly Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, Canada, the USA, committees, and invited speakers of their annual
Turkey and/or few enterprises mainly in mechanical and conferences strengthen the link directly with these
electrical engineering, logistics, information technology, Institutes and indirectly by Hungarian industries, their
material science and technology, earth science and leaders and specialists as well.
technology. 13. Recognition of talented graduates: since several
7. 10 to 14 industry personnel are involved in European diploma theses go to the Engineering Institutes from all
education and research projects based on their Higher Engineering Education Institutions of the country
knowledge in manufacture, research, management and there is an evaluation committee composed of high-
the vision of respective engineering fields. ranking industry personnel and principal academics
8. 20 to 28 industry leaders' involvement in final makes decision on the first, second and third ranks of the
examination of UM students, provide feedback on theses. At the Annual Conferences of the Engineering
students' knowledge, skill and competences. Tutors and Institutes usually taking place at end of summer on
industry supervisors/referees evaluate the theses for rotation in different cities of the country the graduates
graduation and submit their joint opinion to the final deliver the summary of their theses for 500 to 600 leaders
examination board appointed by the Rector with the of respective firms and industries. The gold, silver and
involvement of industry leaders and specialists as well. bronze medals and also the 4th, 5th and 6th ranks are
All components of final examination like the results of awarded there to the selected outstanding graduates. The
basic, fundamental and applied engineering courses and summaries of the theses are published in the periodicals
the thesis after providing different weighted factors to concerned like Elektrotechnika (Electrical Engineering),
each component give the final result of the Gép (Machine Industry) or in other periodicals. This
diploma/degree. This symbolizes the knowledge, skills, event proves to be an excellent forum for the young
capability and competences of the graduate in one rank generation to get acquainted with the respective
dedicated excellent/outstanding, very good, good and professional personnel and participate by their works in
satisfactory marks written in the diploma/certificate. This knowledge transfer and brain circulation.
– 209 –
14. Short visits each year are organized for groups of way for the provision of engineering graduates to the
selected UM students to the EU and third countries' knowledge-driven economy, (vii) reduces the height of the
industries based on joint agreements between UM and wall between academia and industry what the EC
respective Engineering Institutes/Industries with the envisaged, (viii) can increase the optimism of Europeans
involvement of 20 to 30 students. regarding science and technology.
15. Industry contribution to increase or at least maintain Industry, benefitting of all progress components, (i)
the number of new entrants to UM by offering attractive can-employ engineering graduates meeting industry
technical environment for industrial practice, contributing requirements, (ii) can get familiar with teaching and
to the implementation of thesis is highly appreciated. At research missions of the UM, its infrastructure, (iii) can
the opening and closing ceremonies of academic year improve professional quality of joint conferences and
UM appreciates its industry partners' achievements and events by the active participation of UM academic staff,
awards various University medals to 3 to 5 industry MSc and PhD students, (iv) can rise science and
representatives. technology application in new products, processes and
16. UM helps industry creating more jobs for graduates services by the invitation/employment of new PhD-degree
by publicizing UM-industry link through 30 to 60 holders, (v) can generate, and mainly transfer, apply and
projects a year, by conferences, events and written and disseminate new knowledge by joint projects, seminars,
electronic media. in-service training courses and publications worldwide.
17. Knowledge generation and transfer are represented All in one UM serves as a strong research and
well by 8 to 16 engineering PhD theses presentations and competence base both for large international companies
defenses where industry leaders and specialists, one at and also for SMEs.
each board, are invited as referees, members of
evaluation boards, consultants and partly potential
employers.
18. Euro-PhD will be the future. University of Cassino, REFERENCES
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[4] Patkó, Gy. (ed): Committed to quality education, (In Hungarian:
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more than 2/3 of sessions were run by engineering Printed volume, total p.424, Stara Lesna, High Tatras, Slovakia.
departments. [10] Szentirmai L. and Radács L.: How to improve competitiveness of
The result summarized as UM is (i) possesses sufficient European industry by higher engineering education. Proceedings
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materials and methods, (v) can implement its successful
research mission partly by joint projects, (vi) can pave the
– 210 –
Tasks, Processes, and Tools: A Design

Methodology Management Approach to Design
and Development of E-Assessment
T. Dube*, M. Ma** and Z. Zhao***
*
University of Derby/School of Computing/Derby, United Kingdom
**
Glasgow School of Art / Digital Design Studio/Glasgow, United Kingdom
***Shijiazhuang Tiedao University/Faculty of Information Science and Technology/Heibe, China
t.dube@derby.ac.uk; m.ma@gsa.ac.uk; zhaozx@stdu.edu.cn
Abstract— As technological approaches continue to it as Design Methodology = Tool set + Design Flow +
dominate provision of education in this modern age, Constraints. Reference [6] views design methodology as a
effective methods and techniques should be employed in the hybrid design method that uses the techniques of data
development of the supporting systems. In this paper we analysis, structured analysis and top-down design among
discuss the use of Design Methodology Management (DMM) others. He describes the underlying design methodology
technology in the development of a formative e-assessment system model as consisting of data stores, data flows and
system to support the learning process. DMM promotes a processes as well as users. Fig 1 is a representation of this
framework type modular approach to system development model.
thereby promoting flexibility and extensibility of the system. Management - Reference [7] defines methodology
Most existing applications of design methodology management as the functionality of selecting and
management, particularly in the electrical design field, have
executing design tools. It is also viewed as the
focused on automation of the design process. Our main
management of a design methodology’s component parts,
focus is on the structural representation of the system as
i.e. management of the toolset, the design flow and any
well as the flow of data between its components. We first
discuss design of the generic e-assessment framework and
required constraints [5]. It addresses the need to manage
then describe how we used it in the context of a Data
the manner in which design tools are executed to achieve
Analysis formative assessment. a desired function.
Design Methodology Management deals with the
execution and control of the tools and tasks used in the
I. INTRODUCTION design process. Reference [8] defines design methodology
management as “the selection and execution of an
A. Definitions appropriate sequence of tools to produce a design
The three distinct key words in Design Methodology description from available specifications.” The main goal
Management are worth defining first for better of design methodology management is improved
comprehension of its meaning. productivity on the part of designers making their jobs
quick, easy and less error prone. Three attributes of an
Design - Reference [1] defines ‘design’ as firstly, a plan
ideal methodology management system are:
to bring about a man-made product, with that plan aiming
‘maintainable’, ‘parallel’, and ‘flexible’. If the system is
to achieve a prescribed goal and satisfy certain constraints;
maintainable, adding new tools and supporting new
secondly, it is seen as a process of the creative
methodologies becomes a straight-forward process.
development of such a plan. It can also be defined as a
Parallelism relates to the possibility of executing
plan for a program to solve a particular problem reflecting
independent tasks at the same time. The system can
the broad structure or architecture of the program. This
provide the user with the flexibility of either selecting and
includes the way it will be broken down into components
executing tools automatically or providing the user with
such as procedures, functions, and data structures as well
enough information about the tools so that they can
as an overview of the interrelationships between them.
manually select as appropriate.
Design creates a representation or model of the system as
argued in [2]. B. Background
Methodology – Methodology is defined as a sequenced Design Methodology Management spawned some
set of operations employed in performing a particular
function such that, given a methodology, the function can
be performed in a predictable and repeatable way [3]. DATA DATA
Reference [4] defines design methodology as “the USER PROCESS STORED
DATA
processes, techniques, or approaches employed in the FLOW FLOW
solution of a problem or in doing something: a particular
procedure or set of procedures”. Reference [5] sees design
methodology as sequence of activities required to get from Figure 1. Design Methodology System
one stage of the design process to another and summarizes
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 211 –

T. Dube et al. • Tasks, Processes, and Tools: A Design Methodology Management Approach to Design and Development of E-Assessment
research in the 1980s, but there was even more research Sequence of Tasks Methodology
activity in the 1990s as evidenced by the various research
deliverables in the form of conference and journal papers,
Design Function
and also theses within that decade (e.g. [1], [4], [5], etc.) Abstraction Task Task
The origins of DMM are linked to electrical Computer
Aided Design (CAD) frameworks. CAD frameworks can
Process
be generally described as software environments which
provide data management, design flow management, a Combination of Tools
and other Processes
tool interface, and a user interface. Data management Process Process
deals with efficient storage (in a database) and retrieval of
the design data. Design flow management is about
automatic selection and execution of tools used in the Single Executable
design process which promotes rapid production of Programme Tool Tool Tool
designs. The tool interface is used for scheduling,
integration and execution of tools whereas the user
Figure 2. Design Methodology System
interface is for interaction between the designer and the
framework. Examples of CAD frameworks include
NELSIS which emphasizes data management, and development of our e-assessment system is based.
ULYSSES which focuses on tool management. The
following statement sums up the link between CAD II. OVERVIEW OF E-ASSESSMENT PROCESSES
frameworks and DMM: “design methodology
E-assessment is one of the domains of e-learning
management systems may be regarded as ‘one of the fruits
which involves the use of technology in its provision. Our
of a good CAD framework’” [4]. An in-depth review of
working definition is given by the Joint Information
DMM systems as well as concepts is presented in [4].
Systems Committee (JISC) as, “the end-to-end
Design methodology management has been a topic of assessment processes where Information and
discussion mainly in the field of Electrical Computer Communication Technology (ICT) is used for the
Aided Design (CAD) but it is also applicable to other presentation of assessment activity and the recording of
fields of design like mechanical, manufacturing and responses” [9].
software. Different developers and researchers have
The major benefit of e-assessment systems is their
focused on different aspects of DMM. Some concentrated
flexibility in terms of global access or anytime, anywhere
on design flow management while others were interested
access. This is made possible by the use of the Internet.
in task management, etc. Our work falls under the
software design field and the main focus is on modeling of The following is an outline of the general procedures
the system using design methodology management involved in taking an e-assessment.
concepts to give a clear overview of the system including 1. Access – The user opens the system by double-
the flow of data within it. clicking on the system icon on their computer
desktop or by clicking a web link.
C. Design Methodology Management Concepts 2. Authentication – The user logs in, or registers their
The key concepts which also form the requirements of a identification details, for security reasons and also
design methodology management system are: tool, for mapping the feedback to the correct user in a
process, task, and also execution and control. personalized way.
A tool is defined as a single executable program capable 3. Presentation of assessment activity – The
of performing a specific design function. Tools are assessment material is now presented to the user,
required to be described and executed in a manner that is mainly the questions but also the instructions on the
generic and extensible regardless of being automatic or computer screen.
interactive. 4. Answering the questions – The user answers the
presented questions which may be all or more than
A process is a combination of tools and/or other one on a screen or page, or one at a time.
processes that perform a design function. This entails flow 5. Recording of responses – The system records all the
of data. user’s responses or answers to the questions.
A task is described as an abstraction of a design 6. Marking the responses – The system automatically
function. Description of tasks must support sequencing of marks the user’s responses to the questions.
tools to be executed within the task as well as intra- and 7. Presentation of feedback – The system displays the
inter-task dependency definitions like output and input feedback which can be in form of marks gained or
relations. The descriptions should also include flow indications of the correct responses, etc, following
control constructs such as conditional branching, selection the marking.
and iteration, and portability to different design Various other processes, algorithms and settings are
environments. undertaken in the background in order to accomplish the
Execution and control plays the management role of a above procedure. For example, users’ identification
design methodology management system allowing users details need to be stored somewhere, e.g. a database or a
to invoke tasks and tools and to monitor their states. The file so that the system can check the entered information
execution environment provides the processing context for at login to see if it matches the stored data. The same
tool integration and task flow models. Fig 2 summarizes applies to the recording of results stage as well as the
these descriptions and it forms a basic design marking stage. Details of these underlying processes are
methodology management framework on which described in the actual system development. Table 1
– 212 –
TABLE I.
E-ASSESSMENT SYSTEM AND USER RESPONSIBILITIES
Presentation of Recording of Marking of Presentation
assessment responses responses of feedback
Stage User System activity
Access - Double click - Show interface

system icon, or on computer screen
Figure 3. E-Assessment Design Methodology
- Click on web link
Authentication - Register - Record user
identification details, identification Another important task which has not been explicitly
or details, or mentioned before is Management of user activity which
- Login - Check user is applicable at various stages of the design methodology.
identification It includes storage of user identification details needed at
details
Presentation of - Read instructions - Display
the authentication stage, recording of user responses, etc.
assessment activity - Read questions instructions, and In Fig 4, the place of this task is shown. Dashed arrows
- Display have been used to show the relationships between the
questions on the main tasks and the implied management of user activity
computer screen
task.
Answering - Give response / - Show means to
questions answer to question answer the A double-headed arrow has been used between
questions, e.g. text Presentation of assessment activity task and the
entry box Management of user activity task to represent the fact that
Recording of - Submit given - Store user’s data related to management of user activity can flow
responses answer response
Marking of - Apply marking
either way from and to these tasks. In the first instance,
responses algorithms following Table 1, the user has to either register their
- Allocate mark identification details or login using the previously
Presentation of - View or read the - Display feedback registered details. The system manages this process by
feedback feedback on the on the computer recording the user’s details in a database. If the user
computer screen screen – show enters login details like identification number, the system
attained marks;
indicate correct checks if the user has been registered before and if so, it
answer compares the login details with the information registered
about them. Once the authentication stage is passed, the
shows the responsibilities of the user and the system in assessment activity is now displayed on the computer
following the outlined procedure. screen for the user to tackle. During this presentation of
the assessment activity stage, the user may decide to log
III. MAPPING E-ASSESSMENT PROCESSES TO DESIGN out of the system at any point. They would be able to do
METHODOLOGY MANAGEMENT MODEL that by clicking a ‘logout’ button on the computer screen.
The system manages that by recording that the user in
From the definition of e-assessment given in section II question has logged out of the system. This accounts for
of this paper as well as from the information presented in the second arrow head from the Presentation of
Table 1, we identify the e-assessment tasks to be assessment activity task to the Management of user
presented at the top level of the design methodology activity task.
management model as presented in Fig 2. The top-down
The arrow from the Recording of responses task
design approach is therefore employed to begin with.
represents the system’s responsibility to store the user’s
submitted answers to the questions in the assessment
Tasks
activity. The responses are stored in such a way that they
The main tasks are: are linked to the user’s identification details. That way, at
• Presentation of assessment activity the end of the assessment activity, the system will display
• Recording of responses relevant feedback to each user. The double-headed arrow
• Marking between Marking of responses task and the Management
• Presentation of feedback of user activity task denotes that firstly, the system
The sequencing of these tasks forms an e-assessment requires the user’s stored responses in order to mark
design methodology. This can be diagrammatically them. Secondly, following the marking, marks or results
represented as in Fig 3 showing the view of design are stored in a database to be displayed at the last stage as
methodology as activities to get from one stage of the feedback as depicted by the arrow head from the
design process to another. That way the first stage and the Management of user activity task to the Presentation of
last stage (the beginning and the end) can easily be feedback task. The arrow head at the other end represents
identified. So in our formative e-assessment system case, the notion that a user may log out of the system after
the first major activity (task) is presentation of viewing the feedback and, as previously stated, the
assessment activity and the last one is presentation of system will need to record that status.
feedback. These two tasks form the core purpose-oriented In DMM terms, the arrows, whether unidirectional or
objectives of the system, providing a means for students bi-directional represent the design flow which effectively
to engage with learning material. is the flow of data.
– 213 –
Presentation of Recording of Marking of Presentation • Management of user activity processes

assessment
activity
responses responses of feedback
One of the main processes of the ‘Management of user
activity’ task is user account management. This includes
storage of user identification details during registration,
and also verification of identification information entered
Management at login. This process is important as it unlocks the
of user
activity
system for the user since the assessment activity can only
be released when the user has been registered or when
their identification information has been confirmed. For
Figure 4. E-Assessment Design Methodology with Management Task assessments which do not need to record student details,
this process may be omitted. Due to the centrality of the
Processes role played by the ‘Management of user activity’ task in
Below the task level are the underlying processes that relation to other tasks as demonstrated in Fig 4, other
are carried out in order to perform the defined tasks processes which fall under it are, storing students
which are abstractions of the design functions. Each of answers, comparing given answer and correct answer,
the tasks has specific processes that help accomplish it selecting correct answer and displaying score or grade.
though some processes may be relevant to more than one The generic processes level of the mapped DMM
task especially considering the purpose of the model is shown in Fig 5.
Management of user activity.
• Presentation of assessment activity processes Tools
The assessment activity is presented by way of To complete the DMM framework for e-assessments,
displaying it on the computer screen as presented in Table we now define the tools required to fulfill the established
1. This includes the instructions as well as the questions. processes. Considering Fig 5, from left to right, we first
So we identify displaying instructions and questions as define the tools required for the ‘Presentation of
one of the processes needed to achieve this task. This data assessment activity processes’.
(instructions and questions) should be stored somewhere
to be displayed. As such, data management is another • Tools for Presentation of assessment activity
process which deals with storage, selection and retrieval processes
of the assessment activity. During presentation of the As previously discussed, for the questions and
activity, users should be able to move from one question instructions to be displayed, they should be stored
to the next or back to the previous. This incorporates the somewhere like a database or a file which needs to be
navigation through the assessment process. created or set up and managed. This entails such tools as:
• Recording of responses processes create, save, delete, add, update, edit, select, and open.
These tools deal with handling of data. For the process of
Storing of student answers is the eminent process of navigating through the assessment, tools required are for
the task of recording of responses. Underlying processes moving forwards and backwards and we define them as,
include identifying given answer which is important for next and previous. Login, logout or exit, are also form of
correct recording or storage of the answer. This links with navigation tools. Users may be redirected to other web
the stage of ‘Answering questions’ which is sandwiched pages or other applications via links from the displayed
between the ‘Presentation of assessment activity’ stage assessment activity pages. This requires a redirect tool. If
and the ‘Recording of responses’ stage as presented in a user is automatically presented with the next question
Table 1. after they submit an answer, submit can be added to the
• Marking processes tools for navigation.
Marking processes include applying marking • Tools for Recording of responses processes
algorithms which involve comparing given answer and The recording of responses happens when the students
correct answer, and allocating marks per question. The submit their answers. We therefore identify submit as the
process of applying marking algorithms may be fundamental tool for the process of storing students’
associated with the different question types which responses. Storing the responses to a database or file that
include: multiple choice questions (MCQ), true/false is already created means that the responses or answers are
questions, gap-filling questions, graph-plotting questions, added to already existing data so, add or insert tool is
matching questions and free-text response questions. needed. Also, since the students can navigate through the
• Presentation of feedback processes assessment backwards or forwards, they may decide to
The main process to achieve presentation of feedback change their previously recorded answers and this
is displaying score or grade. For formative assessments requires an update tool.
though, displaying correct answer may be considered the • Tools for Marking processes
main process as it is required to promote learning. Marking processes call for a tool to compare given
Depending on the purpose and/or requirements of an answer and correct answer. We call the tool pattern
assessment, the correct answer may be displayed matching. Allocation of marks is carried out following
immediately after a student submits an answer. the execution of the pattern matching tool. Therefore, the
Alternatively, the feedback for all the questions may be tool is self-contained to serve the marking processes.
displayed at the end of the assessment activity with the
given answers displayed alongside for comparison.
– 214 –
Presentation of Recording of Marking of Presentation of Management of

assessment activity responses responses feedback user activity
Displaying Storing Displaying

instructions and Applying marking
students algorithms, score or User account
questions answers grade management
considering Comparing
Data Navigation Identifying question types: given Displaying
management through given • Multiple answer and correct
assessment answer choice correct answer
• True/False answer
• Gap-filling
• Matching Allocating
Key: • Graph plot marks
• Free-text
Tasks
response
Processes
Figure 5. Processes in E-Assessment DMM model
• Tools for Presentation of feedback processes The students were to use the data to answer questions on
The marks allocated to the student’s answers during the different data analysis aspects by identifying the
the marking processes should be calculated before the correct data values from the table and also performing
grade or the score can be displayed. This brings about the calculations on the data. One of the key requirements was
calculate marks tool. The resulting calculations can be for the data variables to be randomized so as to enable the
displayed as percentage or as grades. Correct answers students to practice on different types of data each time
need to be selected from the database or file so that they they accessed the assessment. This has implications on
can be displayed, and to achieve that, a select tool is the storage of the data.
defined.
B. System Architecture
• Tools for Managing user activity processes
We used the designed e-assessment DMM model as
To manage a user’s account, tools needed are: create well as the client requirements as guide in the
account, create password and update password. The development of the system, starting with its architecture
involvement of the ‘Management of user activity as represented in Fig 6. Central to the system is the
processes’ with processes of other tasks which include, database which aids management of the assessment data
storing students answers, comparing given answer and and the flow of data through the system. The database is
correct answer, selecting correct answer and displaying storage for the following data segments: questions,
score or grade, means that some of the tools associated answers to questions (for marking purposes), question
with those processes are also relevant to it. These include, types, mark value of questions; data variables; students’
submit, add, update and select. identification details, including first name, family name
and student number; answers given by the students,
IV. IMPLEMENTATION marks allocated per question per student as well as grades
A. Requirements of a formative e-assessment system and scores. MySQL database which was already available
For the purpose of our study, we used requirements for was used while being hosted by a secure Linux server
a formative e-assessment system to support the learning which also contains the rest of the system files.
of Data Analysis techniques. A formative assessment The students interact with the system via a web
gives students an opportunity to engage with learning browser on their computers or other devices which
material and it can be used to help them prepare for connect to the internet. So the other key feature of the
summative assessment which is given at the end of a system is the display unit which can be a computer
study period normally contributing to their final grade. monitor or a mobile device screen. This is where the
registration or login form is displayed for students to fill
The stakeholder, a lecturer of Data Analysis at the in order to access the system. As noted in Table 1,
University of Derby, required an e-assessment system students access the system by clicking on a web link to
which could support first year students’ learning of data the assessment hosted on the server. The system displays
analysis techniques using excel spreadsheet. The lecturer the assessment activity onto the display unit where the
realized how students use manual methods to make students also input their responses to the assessment
various calculations instead of using Microsoft excel’s questions. Once marking is done, the students can also
built-in tools to achieve the same results quickly and view their feedback on the display unit.
probably easily. The system files and resources package on the server is
Nine different variables were given in a table with a vital component which supports the running of the of
varying data for ‘mean, median, standard deviation, the e-assessment system. The files contain definitions of
coefficient of variation, skewness measure, range, the various tools and processes as well as the flow of data
minimum value, maximum value and number of values’.
– 215 –
User Details added processes like navigation through the system using
Internet ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons. Text entry marking was
Web interface found not to be very accurate so it’s an area of further
research.
Display Unit
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we have defined design methodology
User Details Assessment activity management technology identifying the key words that
Responses Feedback make it up: design, methodology and management. While
its background shows much activity of application in the
electrical computer aided design field, the concepts of
- System files
- Resources User details
design methodology management are applicable to other
fields as well. We have demonstrated a different approach
Questions & answers
to the application of design methodology management as
Database Responses & results
well as to software design. The key concepts of design
Data variables methodology management, viz: task, process and tool,
Server
Logs indeed promote some flexibility in the design of systems.
For example, depending on the requirements of an e-
assessment system, other tools and processes can be
Figure 6. E-assessment System Architecture added to the constructed framework in order to tailor it as
appropriate.
as code statements and functions towards fulfillment of The structural representation also acts as valuable
the system tasks. The definitions therefore include documentation for the system. That way, another
connections between the display unit and the database developer could add other entities and extend the system.
where major system activity occurs. Marking algorithms, In our next publication, we aim to present other case
style sheets and configuration details are also defined in studies of adoption of the established Design
the files. We used PHP scripting language, which suits Methodology Management Framework for E-Assessment
web application developments, to develop the formative Systems to describe the various experiences due to
e-assessment system. different requirements by the stakeholders.
REFERENCES
C. System Evaluation [1] H. Zhu, Software Design Methodology: Principles to Architectural
Following completion of the development of the Styles, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.
system, the Data Analysis students were given the web [2] R. S. Pressman, Software Engineering, A Practioner’s Approach.
McGraw-Hill International Edition, 2005.
link to access the assessment. The database was designed
[3] K. W. Fiduk, et al., “Design Methodology Management, A CAD
in such a way as to track students’ activities or Framework Initiative Perspective”. Proceedings of the 27th
interactions with the system. The entries reveal that more ACM/IEEE conference on Design automation, Orlando, FL, USA.
than 100 students at least registered their identification pp. 278 – 283, 1990.
details in the system’s database. There were about 120 [4] S. Kleinfeldt, S. et al., “Design Methodology Management”,
Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 82, No. 2, February 1994 pp. 231 –
results indicating that students participated in the 250, 1994.
assessment activity. Out of the 120 results, some are for [5] A. McKnight, Flexible Design Methodology Management, Design
the same students who engaged with the learning material Management Environments in CAD, IEE Colloquium, Volume,
and practicing answering the data analysis questions Issue, 31 Jan 1991 pp. 1/1 -1/6
using the different data variables which were randomized. [6] J. E. Downs, Basic Systems Design. Hutchinson Education, 1985.
This high level of interaction with the system is an [7] R. Baldwin and J.M. Chung, “Design Methodology Management
using graph grammers”, Proceedings of the 31st annual Design
indication of students’ satisfaction with it. So basically, Automation conference, 1994 pp 472 – 478.
the system successfully served its purpose. From the few [8] K. W. Fiduk, et al., “Design Methodology Management, A CAD
survey results we got, students found the system easy to Framework Initiative Perspective.” Proceedings of the 27th
use and flexible as some accessed it from home while ACM/IEEE conference on Design Automation, Orlando, FL,
USA, 1990 pp. 278 – 283.
others within the university. Because of the structural
[9] JISC, Effective Practice with e-Assessment; HEFCE, online,
flexibility of the system enabled by design methodology http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/elearning/effprace
management technology, in response to the students and ffpraceassess.pdf, 6 May 2007.
lecturer’s feedback, we were able to add more tools for
– 216 –
Performance Comparison of IPsec and TLS

Based VPN Technologies
I. Kotuliak*, P. Rybár** and P. Trúchly*
*Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia
**Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia
ivan.kotuliak@stuba.sk, rybar@ktl.elf.stuba.sk, peter.truchly@stuba.sk
Abstract—IPsec and TLS based VPN technologies are SSL is called TLS (Transport Layer Security) and it is
widely used in nowadays networks. But one can hardly find present in all major web browsers. Its security is provided
information about their performance, especially compared by using cryptography. TLS is a client/server protocol, its
to each other. So when there was a speed and delay sensitive connection starts with a TLS handshake covering
interconnection project, a direct performance comparison negotiation between peers for algorithm support, key
had to be performed. This article realizes a performance exchange and authentication and symmetric encryption
comparison of OpenVPN and IPSec based VPN; we and data exchange. TLS encapsulates IP in UDP (User
measure what throughput each protocol can provide on Datagram Protocol). IP packets sent from a virtual
given hardware while using the same cipher and key length. network adapter are encrypted and encapsulated onto a
UDP connection and sent to a remote host over the
I. INTRODUCTION Internet. The remote host decrypts, authenticates, and de-
The buzzword of this decade in telecommunications is encapsulates the IP packets using its virtual adapter.
convergence: the convergence of telecommunications, Like TLS, IPsec is also a set of cryptographic protocols
Internet, entertainment, and information technologies for that provide secure communication over the Internet [7].
the seamless provisioning of multimedia services across IPsec connection starts with a two phase handshake and
different types of networks. Thus, the future when it is completed an arbitrary traffic can be sent via
telecommunication network can be envisioned as a group encrypted tunnel. At start a preliminary secure tunnel is
of cooperating heterogeneous fixed and mobile data created by using of a handshake protocol called an
networks which share a reliable, proven and common Internet Key Exchange (IKE) [8]. This IKE process
Internet Protocol (IP) based backbone. This authenticates the end points of the tunnel to each other,
telecommunication concept based on IP protocol is called and securely exchanges the necessary information to
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) [1], [2]. create a more permanent tunnel using symmetric
The IMS is the unified telecommunication industry encryption. IPsec has two modes: transport mode, which
approach toward an “All-IP” network architecture that protects only the transported data, and tunnel mode, which
merges the paradigms and technologies of the Internet also protects the IP header. Client-to-LAN connections
with the cellular and fixed telecommunication worlds. It typically use the transport mode, while LAN-to-LAN
aims at creating a reference service delivery platform for connections typically use tunnel mode.
provisioning of IP multimedia services in a reliable, B. Protocol implementation
secure, and controllable manner. IMS was also adopted as
the basis of the Next Generation Networks (NGN) IPsec is very flexible and can be used in many ways.
architecture specified by TISPAN [3]. IPsec is used to create a majority of the VPN products
found today. Checkpoint VPN-1, Cisco PIX, and the open
In order to interconnect IMS networks each other and to
source OpenSWAN are all examples of commonly used
prevent any security incidents some of VPN (Virtual
VPN solutions that implement IPsec. However, in addition
Private Network) tunneling or encryption should be used.
to configuration complexity, IPsec has not strayed
The VPN solutions can be based on e.g. Point-to-Point
interference with kernel space [9]. This principle breaks
Tunnelling Protocol (PPTP), IP Security standard (IPsec)
out the OS into rings of privilege. Ring0 is reserved for
or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology [4]. As PPTP
the kernel and other essential processes. Ring1 is reserved
solutions are very simple and are also regarded as very
for other system processes that require low level access to
insecure, simply because in most implementations there
hardware. When moving outward in rings, the privilege of
are many not encrypted packets that can be easily spoofed
the process is decreased. Ring3 is where most user
[5] we decided to compare only IPsec and SSL solutions.
processes, including TLS implementations, are found. The
Next section contains a brief characterization of SSL rules of architecture state that processes in higher
and IPsec protocols and their implementations. Section III numbered rings cannot interfere with processes in lower
introduces testbed used for the purpose of comparison and numbered rings. This provides greatly enhanced stability
section IV shows results and summarizes coclusions. and security in our applications and allows for multi-user,
multithreaded systems. However, IPsec needs low level
II. PROTOCOL BACKGROUND access to the interface when it modifies IP headers. It
A. Brief Protocol Description operates in ring0.
SSL is cryptographic protocol that provides secure OpenVPN is open source SSL VPN implementation for
communication over the Internet [6]. The new version of Linux and is the major player in SSL VPN field. There are
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 217 –

I. Kotuliak et al. • Performance Comparison of IPsec and TLS Based VPN Technologies
Figure 1. Experimental testbed
other commercial solutions, but none of them are used as purpose. The extra computational overhead caused by
widely as OpenVPN and are not always compatible. virtual machine added up and better showed the difference
OpenVPN uses the widespread SSL/TLS protocol to of both algorithms. The tests use IxChariot script with the
handle tunnel creation and cryptographic elements file size set to 1,000,000 bytes. The tests were performed
necessary to create a VPN (the same kind of VPN that in both directions – from Virtual Machine A to B and vice
IPsec creates) [10]. The main difference is that OpenVPN versa.
does not operate as close to kernel as IPsec in user space. The use of virtual machines in network testing might
OpenVPN does not need to be that close to kernel, seem a strange choice at first because they have the
because it uses a small “trick”. Unlike IPsec, which disadvantage of additional processing overhead. One can
requires access to the network interface, OpenVPN creates imagine this overhead as a thick layer of software between
a virtual interface which it can access without kernel our network test procedures and the actual hardware.
dependence and thus it is a little more secure and prone to Since there are 2 operating systems in the way, program
vulnerabilities by design. The other advantage is that it execution can be almost more complex compared to
can be ported more easily to other systems and it runs on normal. However, if we look at this fact from another
Windows, Linux and various Unix versions and Macs. perspective, it outlines the differences between the two
More computer and VPN users are aware of IPsec than technologies we are looking at. As already mentioned, this
OpenVPN. Therefore we would like to point out that test is about comparing two similar technologies and if
SSL/TLS based VPNs are able to encrypt link traffic in there is a small difference between those two protocols
the same way as IPsec VPNs. If looked on the handshake that is difficult to detect, this setup would emphasize them
from cryptographical point of view, it uses the same and thus make them better to detect by our network test.
principle of Diffie-Hellman problem as is used by IKE in The advantage of using this virtual machines setup was
IPsec. The SSL crypto library is then used to secure the that we could use identical configurations. The second
symmetric tunnel, again using similar encryption virtual machine (B) was created by a process called
techniques to those protecting IPsec tunnels [11]. cloning. It created an exact replica of the first machine –
other than the name and IP address there were no other
III. TESTBED SETUP AND PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS differences.
A. Testbed Setup B. Performance Parameters
In order to perform performance comparison for We performed the following IxChariot tests to evaluate
aforementioned technologies we decided to realize real- next performance parameters:
world network tests between two computers running the
Linux Debian operating system (Fig. 1). Usually, in a real 1. Throughput - Throughput is a measure of how fast
world network, there are multiple network nodes (more data flows through the cable. The test sends data
than two). This, however, is not necessary in our case. We from computer to computer, measures how much
were trying to find out what the computational complexity time it takes, and calculates the result value in Mbps.
(and thus throughput) of these two encryption methods 2. Response Time - This test measures all delays that
was. We also reviewed various network parameters of the are introduced into a data stream (by link, router),
implementation of an encrypted tunnel, such as how and is essentially what one would measure by using
encryption affects response time. the ping command.
The performance comparison was made with help of a IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
program called IxChariot. IxChariot is widely used to test
network equipment under various traffic patterns. It This section contains test results obtained by using the
consists of a console which manages so called endpoints. described test methods. The detailed results are shown
The endpoints generate (or receive) traffic and report the only for one direction (computer A to computer B)
results to the console [12]. because of size constraints, however all results (for both
The tests were done using two identical Linux Debian directions) will be summarized in table later.
systems running as Virtual machines under the Vmware A. Detailed Results - Throughput
virtualization program. Windows Vista was used as a host
operating system on two physical PCs. Although this does First test covered simple scenario with no encryption,
not usually perform very efficiently, it did serve our no VPN (from computer A to computer B). The
throughput behavior can be seen in Fig. 2 where the
– 218 –
Figure 3. Throughput measured in case with OpenVPN with 3DES

Figure 2. Throughput measured for case with no encryption, A→B cipher, A→B
measured average network throughput over the Gigabit

network was 553 Mbps. This can be explained by the fact
that we did not setup the network to use Jumbo frames.
Gigabit Ethernet without the use of Jumbo frames is much
lower than its theoretical value.
It is important to mention that the throughput chart
shows relatively large variance. It might be due to the
nature of Ethernets best effort nature or because of some
unknown variables between the physical PC and the
virtual machine. However, it is the average value that is
important to us. This value can be used as a reference for
comparison with the tested setup.
Fig. 3 shows the network throughput when OpenVPN Figure 4. Throughput measured in case with OpenVPN with AES
with 3DES cipher was applied. As expected, OpenVPN cipher, A→B
3DES exhibits decreased performance. Its average
throughput which is approximately 60 Mbps was the
lowest recorded for OpenVPN. OpenVPN setup in the test
used certificate authority and TLS mode. TLS mode is the
most powerful cryptographic mode from a security point
of view (and of course that of computational complexity).
Comparison with the mode without TLS authentication
showed that there was a performance decrease of
approximately 5%.
Fig. 4 shows the network throughput when OpenVPN
with AES cipher was applied. This test was performed
using the same configuration as the previous test, but with
a different cipher. We can see that these two ciphers have
very similar performance characteristics as for variations. Figure 5. Throughput measured in case with OpenVPN with
The same can be said of the response time. Blowfish cipher, A→B
The resultant throughput for test with OpenVPN with
Blowfish cipher is depicted in Fig. 5. This test was Next set of tests was realized with VPN based on IPsec.
performed using the Blowfish cipher – the default in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show charts of the network throughput
OpenVPN configuration. We can assume this is going to when 3DES and AES cipher have been utilized. As
be a reference configuration for most users. The average predicted, IPsec results with AES payload encryption
value of throughput is around 5.5 times lower than the were much better than previous results obtained with
reference 1 Gbps Ethernet value. The rather large default 3DES encryption. AES is clearly superior to 3DES
variation in the throughput that we saw in the unencrypted in performance. With the average performance at
test is here too. We can assume that it is present for the approximately 140 Mbps, this is a fairly logical result and
same reasons as in the previous test and is probably not one that we would have expected. IPsec with its lower
related to OpenVPN. One can say that OpenVPN with level implementation should have algorithms superior to
Blowfish cipher offers decent throughput at around 96 OpenVPN, especially when it comes to speed.
Mbps. Fig. 8 represents chart of the throughput when Blowfish
Most users will probably use the default Blowfish cipher is applied in IPsec. IPsec with Blowfish cipher
cipher and will not change it to AES, as it does not bring showed similar results to those results with AES cipher.
about any notable performance increase or better security. The blowfish was unable to overtake AES in throughput,
As we have seen, using 3DES is significantly slower and but it shows a lower variance.
will probably be used only in very specific configurations, B. Overall Results
or for compatibility reasons.
Now we will summarize and compare consolidated
results of all tests performed and say some conclusions
– 219 –
I. Kotuliak et al. • Performance Comparison of IPsec and TLS Based VPN Technologies
Figure 9. Response time for all realized tests and ciphers for both
Figure 6. Throughput measured in case with IPsec with 3DES cipher, directions of data transmitting
A→B
Figure 10. Average throughput for all realized tests and ciphers for
Figure 7. Throughput measured in case with IPsec with AES cipher, both directions of data transmitting
A→B
A notable advantage of AES is its standardization and
widespread adoption among governments and in the
private sector.
Based on Table 1 and Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 we can state
that IPsec wins over OpenVPN (while using the same type
of cipher) by a rather small margin. It is faster while using
AES and Blowfish ciphers and also has smaller delay. It
loses only when 3DES cipher is used, but this is not that
significant, since this obsolete cipher probably won’t be
used anymore.
However OpenVPN, and other SSL based solutions,
have some strong points too. Most notably, it is ease of
use and flexibility. Configuring and installing OpenVPN
Figure 8. Throughput measured in case with IPsec with Blowfish is a child’s play compared to IPsec. Let us take the
cipher, A→B documentation as an example. IPsec documentation is
spread over 6 or more different manual pages, which
from measured parameters (CPU utilization, throughput, makes it quite difficult to use. OpenVPN has one
and response time). documentation file and one “How-to”, both of them are on
The Ixia IxChariot also measured many other link OpenVPN website and also in Linux manual pages.
parameters than the one given (e.g. jitter), however there Another area where OpenVPN wins in our opinion is
was no significant variation among our tests; therefore complexity. This point has already been mentioned in this
these parameters were not further analyzed. paper, when describing community reactions to the IPsec.
We can therefore ascertain that this is true.
The performance tests we performed show that both
OpenVPN and IPsec are capable of creating high V. CONCLUSION
performance encrypted links between two or more sites.
This paper concentrated on VPN technologies which
As one can see, their performance depends on 3 main utilize SSL/TLS or IPsec protocols to create secure tunnel
factors: the interconnecting link bandwidth, the speed of for data transmission, e.g. to interconnect two IMS
the encrypting and decrypting device and the type of networks. A several tests have been performed to compare
cipher in use. Our tests show that 3DES is a cipher of the these technologies based on parameters such as
past, and should not be used today. It offers similar (or throughput, response time and so on. We can summarize
even less) security to modern ciphers such as AES or that it is difficult to choose the better of these two
Blowfish. technologies based on all views. Each user has different
Blowfish and AES offer very similar performance and needs. For our implementation we decided to choose
security. There is no known cryptanalysis and they both OpenVPN, due to its simplicity and fast and
can saturate 100 Mbps link on current desktop computers. straightforward implementation. On the other hand IPsec
– 220 –
TABLE I.
TYPE SIZES FOR CAMERA-READY PAPERS
Test Response Response Average CPU utilization CPU utilization
average maximum throughput sending node receiving node
(s) (s) (Mbps)
A->B Ethernet 0,014 0,035 553 71 81
B->A Ethernet 0,018 0,038 440 90 59
A->B OpenVPN Blowfish 0,083 0,2 96 66 90
B->A OpenVPN Blowfish 0,081 0,3 99 95 77
A->B OpenVPN AES 0,092 0,19 98 62 94
B->A OpenVPN AES 0,093 0,3 99 93 78
A->B OpenVPN 3DES 0,131 0,263 60,98 78 94
B->A OpenVPN 3DES 0,129 0,352 61,77 92 86
A->B IPsec 3DES 0,184 0,28 45 99 40
B->A IPsec 3DES 0,212 0,37 37,7 99 32
A->B IPsec AES 0.056 0.077 142 90 84
B->A IPsec AES 0.059 0.1 135 97 63
A->B IPsec Blowfish 0,066 0,087 121,76 98 73
B->A IPsec Blowfish 0,08 0,197 99,87 99 52
is somewhat faster and as it has been on the market much [5] B. Schneier and Mudge, "Cryptanalysis of Microsoft's Point-to-
longer than SSL VPN solutions and it has far more Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)," Proceedings of the 5th ACM
Conference on Communications and Computer Security, ACM
support among hardware and software vendors. Press, pp. 132-141.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT [6] T. Dierks and E. Rescorla, “The Transport Layer Security (TLS)
Protocol Version 1.2”, IETF RFC 5246, 2008,
This paper was supported by Slovak national projects http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5246.
VEGA 1/0243/10 and VEGA 1/0720/09. [7] S. Kent and K. Seo, “Security Architecture for the Internet
Protocol”, IETF RFC 4301, 2005,
REFERENCES http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4301.
[1] 3GPP, Service requirements for the Internet Protocol (IP) [8] D. Harkins and D. Carrel, “The Internet Key Exchange (IKE)”,
multimedia core network subsystem (IMS); Stage 1, 3GPP TS IETF RFC 2409, 1998, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2409.
22.228, 2011, http://www.3gpp.org/article/ims. [9] B. Schneier and N. Fergusson, “A crypthographis evaluation of
IPsec”, 2003, http://www.schneier.com/paper-ipsec.pdf.
[2] 3GPP, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS); Stage 2, 3GPP TS
23.228, 2011, http://www.3gpp.org/article/ims. [10] M. Feilner, OpenVPN: Building and Integrating Virtual Private
Networks, PACKT, 2006, 258 p.
[3] C. Esteve Rothenberg, Fixed-mobile Convergence in
TISPAN/3GPP IMS: Conception and Evaluation of Systems for [11] CH. Hossner, “OpenVPN and the SSL VPN Revolution”, paper
Seamless Vertical Handover, VDM Verlag, 2008. from SANS Institute, 2004.
[4] M. Lewis, Comparing, Designing, and Deploying VPNs, Cisco [12] Ixia, “IPsec Virtual Private Networks: Conformance and
Press, 2006, 1080 p. Performance Testing - Sample Test Plans”, 2004,
http://www.syrus.ru/files/pdf/ixia/ipsec.pdf.
– 221 –
Digital Literacy in Slovakia 2011

Marián Velšic
Institute for Public Affairs, Bratislava, Slovakia
marian@ivo.sk
Institute for Public Affairs (IPA), with the support of digitally

Accenture – Pontis Foundation, Cisco Slovakia, Hewlett- illiterate
Packard Slovakia, Microsoft Slovakia and the Slovak 24%
Telekom Foundation Fund, has carried out the fourth year
of the Digital Literacy in Slovakia survey. Findings from the
representative sociologic survey offer answers to questions
to answers regarding the ratio of digital literacy and
illiteracy within the Slovak population; population’s
experience with the info-communication technologies (ICT);
level of their digital skills, and adaptation to the ICT.
digitally
literate
I. SHARE OF DIGITALLY LITERATE SLOVAK 76%
POPULATION
Figure 2. Share of digitally literate and digitally illiterate
Being one of the key indicators of the development in population in Slovakia – 2011
the are of society’s informatisation, digital literacy of the
Slovak population is relatively positive when compared to The largest segment of the population has ‘common’
international standards. According to research results by skills, such as working with a PC (including laptops,
Eurostat, from 2005 to 2009, digital skills of Slovaks were tablets and smartphones), sending text and multimedia
slightly above the European level (EU 25). messages (SMS and MMS), e-mailing, working with a
As shown in Figure 1, the proportion of the digitally text processor, Internet browser, searching for information
literate people ranged from 65 % to 71%, with the EU and registering access to various online services, or
printing out documents. These skills are declared by 64 %
to 72 % respondents.
On the other hand, a far smaller portion of the
71
2009 respondents are able to work with more sophisticated
65 technologies. For example, working with databases,
66
working with a network (searching, transferring or
2007 copying data on a LAN), working with a graphic editor,
62
Slovakia online banking, or installing applications and setting up
65 PC functions are tasks that can be handled by only half of
EU
2006 the respondents. However, the fact that a proportion of the
60
population is skilled with ICT does not necessarily mean
71 the users are also able to use ICT without any problems.
2005 Such usage is, as will be demonstrated by further details
64
about the level of digital literacy, indeed quite
0 20 40 60 80 100
differentiated.
II. THE LEVEL OF DIGITAL LITERACY

Figure 1. Share of digitally literate population in Slovakia and EU
average (in %)
On one hand, the share of the digitally literate and the
digitally illiterate demonstrates the skills and capabilities
within the population in general, i.e. whether the
average for the individual monitored periods reached 62 population is or is not experienced in working with ICT.
% to 65 % at the most. For example, in 2009 Slovakia On the other hand, this ratio does not say anything about
outperformed Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, the level (quality) of these skills – in other words, who
Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, ‘good’ or ‘bad’ the population is at using ICT. For the
Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal and Romania purposes of assessing such skills and capabilities, the
[5]. Digital Literacy Index (DLI) is used. It takes into account
The latest results of a survey conducted by Institute for 28 indicators – answers to questions that were asked the
Public Affairs on group of 1138 respondents over the age respondents in order to determine the level of their
of 14 showed the share of the digitally literate population experience in working with ICT, its applications and
in Slovakia has again increased (see Figure 2). The share services. The index provides values on a scale from 0 =
of the digitally literate and the digitally illiterate is 76 % : digital illiteracy, to 1 = maximum level of digital literacy.
24 % [4].
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 223 –

M. Velšic • Digital Literacy in Slovakia 2011
As shown in Figure 3, the overall level of the smartphone. A very slight improvement occurred in the
population’s digital literacy did not change over the last population’s capability to work with information and
two years. While the DLI value continually increased services within the Internet’s virtual environment, such as
from 2005 to 2009, rising from 0.33 to 0.44 points, in searching for information and registering for services,
2011 it remained roughly on the same level as two years using Internetbanking, online shopping for products and
before – on 0.43 points. In other words, Slovakia’s services, downloading/uploading data, etc.
population aged 14 and above would score 43 out of the
total possible 100 points for its digital literacy.
not learning
For better illustration: if there were three levels of ICT
easily
digital literacy – Low, Medium, and High1 – then from 28%
20%
2005 to 2011 Slovakia gradually ‘worked its way’ from
Low to Medium level.
There might me various reasons why the relatively
optimistic trend from the period of 2005 to 2009 had
stopped. One of the hypotheses, supported also by the data very hard
on penetration and the use of personal computers and the 4%
Internet in Slovakia, could be a certain ‘saturation’ of ICT rather easily
within the population. In other words, those who wanted rather hard 31%
or needed to found their way of accessing ICT, while at 17%
the same time gaining necessary skills for working with
ICT. Another reason might be a subjective satisfaction
with the achieved digital capabilities, a certain level Figure 4. The willingness to adjust to/learn ICT in Slovak
beyond which there is no reason to go. population
1,00 On the other hand, deterioration was most noticeable in

the area of communication via text or multimedia
messages. It is probable this development is due to the
0,67 already mentioned penetration of smartphones, which
0,44 0,43 some part of users is only starting to be ‘acquainted’ with.
0,33 0,37 However, social network skills were at a relatively
0,33 positive level.
In 2011, majority of the assessed digital capabilities
reached a medium level. Respondents have greatest
0,00 problems with ‘working on a network’ (e.g. moving or
2005 2007 2009 2011 copying data within a LAN, searching for various types of
information, etc.), also with using databases and graphic
applications, installing software and hardware, and setting
up basic PC functions.
Figure 3. The level of digital literacy in Slovakia 2005-2011 (DLI
– Digital Literacy Index)
IV. HOW DIFFERENT SOCIAL GROUPS ADAPT TO AND
Along with inner motivation, an important role is also LEARN WORKING WITH ICT?
being played by the ability to learn and adapt. For The statistical analysis confirmed a strong link between
example, over the course of 6 years, the proportion of the level of digital literacy and the adaptability.2 In
people who have problems with adapting to ICT general, people who learn and adapt easier reach a much
practically did not change at all. As shown in Figure 4, higher level of digital literacy, and vice-versa. 20 % of the
this group still consists of one fifth of the population. population claiming they learn and adapt smoothly can be
Another 28% of those who refuse to adapt to ICT need to considered as having no problems in this area. Their
be added, too. It is this group of people who represent the digital literacy is high above the average level – 0.86
greatest ‘brake’ on development. points. Another 32 % of respondents think they mastered
ICT with small problems, but their skills are still above
III.
WHICH AREAS IMPROVED AND WHICH the national average (0.65 points). On the other hand, 17
WORSENED? % of respondents claim they learn ‘with some difficulties’,
Assessment of specific digital skills shows that in and reach only a very low level of digital literacy (0.27
comparison with 2009, the population’s ability to work points). Although another part of the population is small
with hardware and software practically did not change [3]. in volume (4 %), its members have great problems with
The only exception is an improvement in working with using ICT – they adapt with considerable difficulties and
mobile devices such as laptops, tablets or smartphones. their level of digital literacy reaches only 0.11 points. The
This can be linked to the growing interest in mobile remaining 27 % of the population completely ignores the
devices. For example, according to the latest data from process of learning new digital skills.
mobile operators, every second mobile phone is a
2
The Kendall's tau_b correlation coefficient reaches the level of 0.807
1
Low level < 0.33 points; Medium level = 0.34 to 0.66 points; High points. From a statistical point of view, this demonstrates a very high
Level > 0.67 points. degree of dependency.
– 224 –
Adapting to ICT is closely linked especially to age, With respect to the further development of digital
education, social status and type of the household, and the literacy, the survey results also make it possible to identify
related economic activity. For example, while as many as certain risk groups, i.e. groups of people, who are very
90 % of those from the group aged 14 to 17 adapt easy, likely to have great difficulties with adapting digital skills
only 6 % from the group aged 60 and above adapt without (just like they did until now), or who will completely
problems. In a similar fashion, the population’s ability to abandon any attempts at improving. In some groups, the
adapt drops dramatically with decreasing level of share of those ‘adapting with great difficulties’ and those
education. While among those university-educated 83 % who ‘do not adapt at all’ is high above the average. This
adapt easily, only 34 % claim the same from the group includes namely people above the age of 55 (more than 76
with basic level of education. Significant differences occur % of them), people with only basic level of education (66
also depending on the type and social status of the %), the unemployed (62 %), pensioners (95
household. E.g. households of younger people and those %), financially weak or poor households (72 %) or
with higher financial status adapt much better than those households of old people (96 %). In this aspect,
of older people and with poorer financial status. population’s adaptability is an important factor parameter,
Just like on the nation-wide level, the close relation which contributes towards the so-called digital gap within
between the ability to adapt and the level of digital literacy a society.
was found also on the level of various social-demographic
groups. In other words, the higher the ability to learn and V. DIGITAL DIVIDE IN SLOVAKIA
adapt within a given group (i.e. with less problems), the Several years of mapping the issue of digital literacy
better its digital skills. Naturally, the ability and revealed an troublesome fact: that the society started to
willingness to adapt is only one of the factors influencing divide into the group of those who have access to ICT,
digital literacy growth. Results already from previous and thus have the relevant level of digital literacy, and the
years showed there are quite exogenous factors, such as group of those without such access and skills. As was
work or school. [1]. confirmed by the results of this survey, the development
men 0.47
women 0.4
14 - 17 years 0.7
18 - 24 years 0.72
25 - 34 years 0.59
35 - 44 years 0.53
45 - 54 years 0.36
55 - 59 years 0.21
60 years and over 0.07
Elementary 0.28
Vocational 0.33
Secondary 0.57
University 0.74
Blue-collar 0.37
White-collar 0.67
Entrepreneur, freelancer 0.53
Student 0.76
Unemployed 0.33
Household, maternity leave 0.5
Retirees 0.06
Very well-off households 0.68

Relatively well-off hshld. 0.64
Above average 0.43
Below average 0.23
Poor households 0.19
Young individuals 0.64
Young households (with children < 7) 0.55
Average households (with children 7-18) 0.59
Adult households (with children 18+) 0.52
Three-generation households 0.36
Adult households (no children) 0.29
Senior citizens (no children) 0.05
Town of less than 2,000 0.37
Town of 2 - 5 ths. 0.4
Town of 5 - 20 ths. 0.44
Town of 20 - 50 ths. 0.44
Town of 50 - 100 ths. 0.49
0.00 0.33 0.67 1.00
Figure 5. The level of digital literacy in social groups (DLI – Digital Literacy Index)
– 225 –
M. Velšic • Digital Literacy in Slovakia 2011
in 2011 has the same trend. During the last 6 years, of income, and respondents from small cities (up to 2,000
Slovakia acquired characteristics of a digitally divided inhabitants).
society. On one side, there are social groups that can be One of the reasons for this situation is also the state’s
identified as being ‘progressive’ – is younger, more long-term ambivalent attitude towards the issue of human
educated, better qualified, socially stronger and located resources and improving the population’s digital literacy.
more in urban areas. On the other side, there is the older, When we summarise the related projects from the recent
less educated economically inactive part of the population years, we can say the state focuses predominantly on
with lower qualification (pensioners, the unemployed). supporting digital skills within the official education
While the former continues to learn and improve, the system. In other words, it provides for acquiring digital
latter is so-to-say stuck in one place, not being able to literacy by the youngest part of the population – students
adapt. However, the last monitored period (2009 – 2011) of basic schools and higher education institutions
is specific in that improvement was not achieved even in (including teachers). Therefore, the issue of improving the
the ‘progressive’ groups of the population. digital literacy of those who were not able to develop
Nevertheless, just like in the past, in 2011 the group of related skills in school, is addressed by the private sector
the digitally most literate people includes those aged 14 to in cooperation with NGOs and schools.
24, with university, college or A-levels education, those
working mentally and students, people employed in the
public sector, financially strong households, households of REFERENCES
the young people, and respondents from large cities with
[1] Digital literacy in Slovakia 2005. Empirical Data from an IVO
over 100,000 inhabitants. Sociological Survey. Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs, 2005
On the other hand, long-term low level of digital [2] Digital literacy in Slovakia 2007. Empirical Data from an IVO
literacy (or even digital illiteracy) is typical for people Sociological Survey. Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs, 2007
over the age of 55 (for the group of those aged 60 and [3] Digital literacy in Slovakia 2009. Empirical Data from an IVO
above, this reaches the level of digital illiteracy), also for Sociological Survey. Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs, 2009
people with only basic and higher education without A- [4] Digital literacy in Slovakia 2011. Empirical Data from an IVO
levels, the manual workers, pensioners, the unemployed, Sociological Survey. Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs, 2011
households of the old people, households with low level [5] Individuals' level of computer skills. Eurostat metadata. [Online]
[cit. 9/21/2011] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
– 226 –
Draft of Standards and Specifications for E-

Learning in the Section of Ministry of Education,
Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak
Republic and in the Operational Programme of
Education funded by ESF
Peter Weber
InterWay, s.r.o. / Bratislava, Slovakia
pst@interway.sk
Abstract - This paper presents the draft of Standards and framework of the ESF programme - OP of Education - in
Specifications for E-Learning in the Section of Ministry of which the Ministry serves as the managing authority. To
Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak approve these standards and specifications also for the
Republic and in the Operational Programme of Education activities funded by current and capital resources of the
funded by ESF.
state budget and other financial resources within the
framework of the Ministry of Education and within other
I. INTRODUCTION areas of social and economic life in which the Ministry
Draft of standards and specifications for electronic serves as legislative and normative state authority (system
learning (e-Learning) is a result of an initiative working of formal education, system of informal education,
group composed of academic and business linking the science and research to education, sport and to
representatives and established under the authority of the economic practise, etc.). To recommend the use of these
Minister of Education of the Slovak Republic, Mr. Ing. standards and specifications in other sections.
Eugen Jurzyca.
The initiative of the group is based on the knowledge The standards must:
of a feasibility study “Digital Content of the National • Be opened, technologically independent and stable
Programme of Education” (DONPVV), which, along with in terms of future development of IT infrastructure
other documents relating to DONPVV, do not define • Be adaptable to different requirements of
standards and specifications for e-Learning and as such, it educational institutions (primary schools, secondary
may lead to further encouragement of the current schools, lifelong learning, etc.)
situation, that is, creation of incompatible e-Learning • Ensure interoperability of different objects of
systems causing possible operational problems and educational content with different LMS (Learning
economic losses in the section of the Ministry of
Management Systems)
Education.
• Ensure reusability in different contexts and different
II. VISION applications
• Ensure availability of e-Learning objects in
To build e-Learning systems in the Section of the
accordance with the intentions of DONPVV, that is,
Ministry of Education and outside it within the
e-Learning system must be provided as a web
framework of ESF – the Operational Programme of
service.
Education – on the basis of a united standard so that it is
possible to create, share and link objects with the
Application of the standards should include:
educational content in the open environment of
• Raising an adequate level of information and
educational content creators and suppliers of learning
awareness in professional and general public in
management system (LMS, LCMS – Learning Content
relation to the benefits of standardization; providing
Management Systems ) and thus exploit the synergy
free tools for sectors, which will help with
between teachers, national and international suppliers of
standardization (if a teacher decides to use a
the content, and providers of e-Learning systems.
software tool for creation and publishing of e-
III. OBJECTIVES Learning content from the day of the adoption of the
standard and in accordance with it, and the tool is
To approve standards and specifications for e-
not available, he shall be granted obtaining the tool
Learning in the section of the Ministry of Education and
in a short period of time and without the necessary
other sections that implement e-Learning within the
current and capital investments of his institution)
978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 227 –

P. Weber • Draft of Standards and Specifications for ELearning in the Section of Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic …
• Development and adoption of legal and procedural SCORM SN (Sequencing and Navigation) defines a
rules governing the course and score of the process, method of achieving desirable behaviour of learner so
organization and documentation of e-Learning in that each LMS gradually sequences the learning activities
relation to the various systems of education (formal according to the planned “activity tree” which allows
education, informal education). individual access to each learner based on his ability to
absorb the educational content.
IV. RECOMMENDED STANDARS FOR E-LEARNING SCORM defines what must be tested to ensure the
The working group have considered a number of e- conformity of educational content and LMS systems and
Learning standards and it pronounce the SCORM it provides user tool for LMS, SCO and Content Package
(Sharable Content Object Reference Model) standards testing. In addition to testing of SCORM conformity with
drafted within the framework of ADL (Advanced provider´s own capacity or creator´s e-Learning system,
Distributed Learning Initiative) by the Office of the ADL also provides certification of e-Learning in their
United States Secretary of Defence in 1997, to best meet laboratories.
the objectives of e-Learning as defined in Art. 3 and
objectives defined in the feasibility study DONPVV. B. SCORM Development
SCORM is a referential model harmonizing partial
standards of a number of standardizing bodies: In its development, SCORM has reached a number of
• Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring and generally recognized versions:
Distribution Network for Europe (ARIADNE) • SCORM 1.2., 2001.
• Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC) It is still the most commercially used version but it
• IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee does not offer sequencing. ADL does not work on
(LTSC) its development anymore.
• IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc. • SCORM 2004, 2nd Edition, 2004.
SCORM is a world wide spread standard for e- It enhances original features of version 1.2.,
Learning. Using SCORM standard in e-Learning content integrates IEEE and IMS results and implements
development has proven to save from 50 to 80%. sequencing.
• SCORM 2004, 3rd Edition, 2006.
This version has improved definitions of the 2nd
A. SCORM Edition with regard to the development of IEEE and
IMS standards. It is spread comparably to SCORM
SCORM defines SCO (Sharable Content Object) as 1.2.
a basic element of educational content which enables • SCORM 2004, 4th Edition, 2009.
sharing and reuse of the content in a different context and The version continues to develop SCORM 2004, but
in different e-Learning courses according to the needs of it has not been significantly spread, yet.
users. SCO may contain various forms of information – All SCORM 2004 versions are compatible bottom-
text, image, photo, and video. Each SCO contains up. E-Learning products created on the basis of
metadata enabling the search and sharing of SCO by SCORM 1.2., can be upgraded to SCORM 2004
various LMS (Learning Management System) systems using relatively simple conversion ADL tools.
conforming to SCORM.
SCORM is focused on the Interface between
C. Methodology of SCORM Standards and
educational content and LMS; but it does not address
Specifications Implementation
specific features and capabilities of LMS.
SCORM CAM (Content Aggregation Model)
defines the way of elementary SCO grouping into more The working group recommends that the Ministry of
complex units; how to store, locate and manage a single Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak
SCO. Republic declared SCORM 2004 a mandatory standard
SCORM Content Package groups SCO or their for all newly-procured e-Learning systems and for the
aggregations into units representing a specific course, purchased and created educational content for these
lecture or learning module. systems within the framework of the Ministry of
SCORM RTE (Run-time and Environment) Education and The Operational Programme of Education
describes the requirements for LMS ensuring the in which the Ministry of Education serves as the
interoperability of SCO and various LMS systems. These Managing Authority. It is recommended that the Ministry
are the defined processes of location and delivery of of Education confirms SCORM 1.2. as a temporary
educational content to learner, the way of communication standard which is going to be used for the period of 3
of SCO with LMS using API (Application Program years in previously implemented e-Learning systems
Interface) and a defined data model for data exchange based on this standard (e.g.: Planet of the Knowledge).
between SCO and LMS during the implementation of After the 3-year period, the systems based on SCORM
educational process. 1.2. should be converted to conform SCORM 2004.
Moreover, it is recommended that the standard is adopted
for all newly-procured e-Learning systems and for the
– 228 –
purchased and created educational content for these operational standards of Data centre of the Ministry of
systems financed by resources other than OP of Education. Educational organizations should be allowed
Education within the framework of the Education section to use only LMS and LCMS systems in e-Learning
and subjects belonging under the legislative body of the approved by the body authorized by the Ministry of
Ministry of Education within the framework of the Education on the test basis of conformity with the
system of formal and informal education, linking the standards.
science and research to educational systems and linking
education to economic practise and systems of sport VI. E-LEARNING AND FUTURE PROJECTS OF OP OF
education. EDUCATION CALLS FOR 2011 – 2013
All SCO and LMS can be used in the section of the The working group recommends the following steps
Ministry of Education until after the test of compliance to ensure e-Learning systems to be based on the approved
with SCORM 2004. The test will be provided by an standards:
entrusted departmental organization. It is recommended • Purchase of finished educational content with LMS
to grant a time-limited exception of this rule in cases and LCMS delivered as a part of purchased
specified in Art. 4.4. educational content (it is a condition that they are
based on the proposed standard and thus are
D. Use of Existing Educational Content independent of the original software platform).
• The licence model will be applied in order to meet
the ESF price constraints for single person module
The working group is aware of the presence and or class module.
extend of the existing educational content, which has
• To provide a complex education, in addition to
been long formed by various authors and is currently
purchasing the educational content in electronic
available from various resources. The content is valuable
form it is appropriate:
in many cases and it is used in practise but its universal
• To provide simultaneously the training for using of
applicability is limited due to the absence of a unified
the content in the form of full-time education
creational standard. After the standard is adopted, the
(service).
content should be revised and preserved.
• To provide simultaneously printed textbooks to
Help can be provided in several forms: compliment the educational content because it is
crucial for learners to revise their knowledge even
• Creating software tools for conversion,
when they are not online. Acquisition of textbooks
• Conversion assistance,
as educational aids supports the effect of e-Learning
• Creating own LMS and LCMS compliant with and so it is necessary to link the books with the
SCORM 2004, which will be able to work provided educational product. The reason is that the
simultaneously with several standards, ESF funds are not designated for purchase of
common textbook collections – these should be
The working group recommends this educational purchased from current budget, and so it is highly
content to be converted into SCORM 2004 standard probable that ESF would identify such purchase as a
within the period of 3 years after introduction of the violation of additionally and overlapping of
standard. For financing, it is recommended to consider expenditures due to which the resources should be
the use of ESF and ERDF funds designated to finance returned. It is therefore appropriate to
projects on informatization of schools, development of e- systematically prevent the purchase of common
Learning content and also for support of e-Learning textbooks on the level of calls by indicating in the
content transformation to the recommended standard. call that the resource is not designated for purchase
V. OPERATING THE E-LEARNING.SYSTEMS of textbooks used in national curriculum as stated in
editorial plans or in school educational programme
The working group sees very different abilities of at involved schools (as these are commonly used
particular schools to ensure operation of e-Learning textbooks commonly available on the market and
systems; therefore it clearly supports a system with they are not modern educational aids nor they
centrally managed repository of approved curriculum comprise modern educational content and so the
which will be available in real time and accessible for all EFS resources are not designated for their purchase.
educational institutions in Data centre of the Ministry of
Education.
Once approved educational content and other VII. CONCLUSION
pedagogical aspects by an organization authorized by the The current state is defined by the presence of a great
Ministry of Education, Data centre of the Ministry of number of educational systems and educational content of
Education should be authorized to provide tests of different quality that is deployed only locally with no
conformity with the new content in the form of SCO with possibility to be shared among the schools and
SCORM 2004 standard as well as approval of LMS educational institutions. Moreover, the central
and LCMS systems based on the tests of conformity with administration is not possible, which prevents obtaining
the standard and compliance check with procedural an overview of the extent of its use and quality. The lack
– 229 –
P. Weber • Draft of Standards and Specifications for ELearning in the Section of Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic …
of measurable indicators makes it impossible to set be no more limited; the base of suppliers will be extended
requirements for newly purchased content and to focus on and opportunities of creative involvement of teachers and
its further improvement. Ultimately, the section of schools will be increased. Automated tools for creating
Education loses the opportunity to control and make use and conversion of content into SCORM format will allow
of innovative methods of education and improve the the teachers to create new educational content. Thus, it
quality of education. will be possible to obtain the feedback of needs of
The introduction of standardization of e-Learning learners and educators. Engaging university students
educational content affects several levels. The fastest with educational focus may lead to better understanding
benefit will be the procurement cost reduction. of the needs and processes of e-Learning.
Formulation of content standardization requirement will The central provision of the standardized educational
open the competition for Slovak and foreign suppliers content will, at the same time, enable the monitoring the
and will allow the use of market mechanisms to control extensive use of the content and evaluation of its quality
the price. from the perspective of learners and educators in the real-
Taking the long term view, SCORM will rapidly time. It will provide feedback for specialized
reduce operating costs, as it enables reusability of departmental organizations such as National Institute for
educational content elements (SCO) in creation of new Education, UIPŠ, ŠIOV, etc. on real operation of e-
classes. At the same time, a multiple use of SCO will be Learning. Thus, the Ministry of Education will obtain a
possible due to their inclusion into multiple modules, powerful tool for management and modernization of the
classes or subjects. Slovak educational system.
As the e-Learning systems will be based on an
internationally used standard, platforms and suppliers will
– 230 –

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ICETA 2011 • 9th IEEE International Conference on Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications • October 27-28, 2011, Stará

Lesná, The High Tatras, Slovakia

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 11 –

ACKNOWLEDGMENT [2] M. Hejný, F. Kuřina, Dítě, škola a matematika (Konstruktivistické

Implementation of Method for Dynamic Noise

Abstract—Dynamic noise visualization represents ideal tool

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 17 –

Figure 3. Data structure of the Acoustic Camera – overview

The recorded time functions can be evaluated according

Figure 10. Frequency spectrum of the recorded noise

Figure 9. Spectrogram of the emitted noise

U. S. Steel Kosice – Employees’ training

I. INTRODUCTION Qualified employees are the basis of every company's

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 21 –

III. 2010 TRAINING REVIEW

In 2010, we provided 131 900 training activities for our

Figure 3. USSK Interactive Training Center

In USSK, we also have our own Welding School for

Our e-learning programs were well received and

Figure 5. Global English site and mobile application

V. APPLICATIONS AND SYSTEM USED

Collaborative Resource Sharing for Computer

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 25 –

associated with the Academy Support Center and the • Annotation,

oriented architecture Fedora provides high level of ACKNOWLEDGMENT

MINERVA 2.0 – Slovakia into the first league

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 29 –

Despite all this, the state of knowledge economy in A. Education

D. Links between R&D and entrepreneurship

directed towards basic research, significantly more than Cause Solution

Inability to control the quality of

cipkova@fns.uniba.sk, karolcik@fns.uniba.sk, kgardavska@gymbilba.sk

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 35 –

This fact may complicate the videoconference REFERENCES

Next generation IPTV solution for educational

Keywords – IPTV, VOD, Streaming, Wowza III. ANALYSIS

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 41 –

position and playback time. It also has possibility to live

streaming. As a complement to server extension, it was

E-learning system and Virtual Laboratory for the

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 47 –

Figure 2. GALAAD Integrated CAD-CAM-CNC software –

Figure 3. View to the sensors principles screenshot from

IV. OTHER PARTS OF THE E-LEARNING SYSTEM

IT Industrial Certifications in Practice

fedak@elfa.sk, chlebana@elfa.sk, sivy@elfa.sk, fjakab@cisco.com, jvarnham@certiport.com,

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 51 –

V. HOW TO GET PREPARED?

Using Tag Clouds to Support the Comparison of

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 57 –

Figure 1. Insertion of a new concept in the set of company’s/learner’s requirement.

Figure 2. Tag cloud-based representation of the first applicant’s

companies that could recognize their abilities.

Wordnet database, which has been later extended by the

Platform of Educational Process Support for the

978-1-4577-0052-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE – 63 –

scripts and application codes illustrates the topic in

V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

Emulating Cisco Network Laboratory Topologies