Praha (CZ)/ Bratislava (SK), June 2008 - The IT Department of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Univerzita Konstantina Filozofa (FPV UKF) in Nitra, a specialised facility for educating teachers and specialists in Applied Information Technology, makes use of the Internet in connection with a new method for online education with eLearning support.
The online education method implemented by the IT Department has helped to engage students in the learning process, to eliminate problems with student attendance, and to increase the availability of study materials, such as textbooks and other literature. Online eLearning makes students' time management easier.
Customer description
The IT Department at FPV UKF educates students in the Master's study programs in the following subjects: Maths, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Pedagogy, Psychology, Ecology, Environment, English, German, Introduction to Technology, Arts, and Physical Education. In addition, the department organises daily and distance studies in Applied IT.
With assistance from scientific projects and grants, specialists of the IT Department have designed methodologies and eLearning courses that have become a crucial part of the education. Available on a distance studies platform, they have become an indispensable supplement to daily studies of Applied IT and other academic subjects, combined with Information Technology.
Current status
The objectives for launching electronic education in the IT Department were:
Some of the existing e-courses were made available not only for participants in distance courses (approximately 160 students), but also for students attending in-house courses. In-house students can access the LMS from three computer rooms using a shared log-in account. An LMS is used as an interface for accessing study materials.
The i-Tutor system is implemented on a server that runs Windows Server 2003 and the MS SQL 2000 database system. The IT Department of FPV UKF as a partner of Kontis carried out localisation of LMS/LCMS iTutor into Slovak and subsequently assisted in testing and verifying the LMS/LCMS iTutor system in an academic environment. This form of cooperation continues to develop in the context of the implementation of new projects that aim to extend and improve the University's educational processes.
Kontis Slovakia provided access to the iTutor control system including all modules to all students of the University and included a professional tool for course development: the LCMS iTutor CDS/Publisher.
Current courses
All courses are implemented in the LMS iTutor control system. The courses use unified templates with different colours to differentiate among individual types of skills. The unified form of courses is a very positive feature for students, as there is no need to adjust to a new interface with every new course. A wide variety of courses has been implemented, including Logic Computer Systems and Internet Application Programming.
