ET-struct
ET-LearnTrain
Integrated Content Management System
Partners
The European Office, Vienna Board of Education (AT) Vienna Business Agency (AT)
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin (DE) Training and Education Centre of Trade and Industry, Schwerin (DE)
The City of Hranice (CZ)
The Secondary Technical School Hranice (CZ) The Statuary City of Karviná (CZ)
The University of Economy in Bydgoszcz (PL)
Lower Silesian Vocational Information and Teachers Training Centre in Wałbrzych (PL) Regional Development Agency of Gorenjska BSC (Business support centre Ltd) Kranj (SI) Institution for Adult Education Kočevje (SI)
Development and Education Centre Novo mesto (SI)
Contents
Part 1: Preparation
02
1. Introduction to the CENTRAL EUROPE project ET-
struct
02
2. The relationship between the ET-
struct
thematic Work Packages 3, 4, 5 and 6 and their
outputs during the project lifetime
03
3. The sustainability of the project outputs after project lifetime
04
4. The development process of “ET-LearnTrain”
05
4.1 The process of deciding on the content of “ET-LearnTrain” 06 4.2. The process of training project staff to develop “ET-LearnTrain” 08
Part 2: Implementation, Evaluation and Improvement
10
5. The process of implementing “ET-LearnTrain” in the ET
-struct
partner regions
10
5.1 The users 10
5.2 The learning platform 10 5.3 The set-up procedure for the learning platform 11
5.3.1 An example of the set-up procedure of the learning platform 12 5.3.2 An example of the creation of users and their privileges 13 5.3.3 An example of content creation in the LMS and in the authoring tool 13 5.3.4 An example of uploading the module to the common repository 15 5.3.5 An example of processing an elp file and preparing a module available for learners 15
5.4 The testing and verification of the learning platform 16
Part 1: Preparation
1. Introduction to the CENTRAL EUROPE project ET-
struct
ET-struct - EconomicEducational Territorial-Structure
… connecting educational-training systems to regional economies for regional stability and growth …
No one could have foreseen in 2000 and 2001 at the time when the EU formulated its Lisbon and Gothenburg goals that there would be a global financial and economic crisis starting in 2008 that would change many of these ambitious transnational goals and cause widespread uncertainty, especially in the daily lives of European citizens who see their jobs, lives and security under threat.
As new ambitious transnational goals have been formulated and presented (e.g. EU 2020, http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/index_en.htm) who can predict what will happen in the future?
One thing is certain: regional economies must be in a position to cope with the pressures. They have to be able to react to and predict changing conditions, and they must be able to educate, train and retrain their workforces to meet the challenges.
Individual citizens have to be supported so that they can contribute to their own individual economic security, as well as to the security of the region and in a wider context to a united Europe.
This was the main goal of the CENTRAL EUROPE supported project ET-struct - supporting regional stability and growth. How?
1. ET-struct brought together three of the major players that influence regions in permanent management structures: regional politics; regional economy; regional education-training.
2. ET-struct compiled a dynamic inventory of skills and competences needed for CENTRAL EUROPE (new-skills-for-new-jobs) 3. ET-struct developed and piloted on-site and online learning systems to educate, train and retrain regional workforces. The motto of ET-struct is:
… connecting educational-training systems to regional economies for regional stability and growth …
During the three year project lifetime (2010 - 2012), 16 partners from 6 EU CENTRAL EUROPE countries, plus a partner from the West-Ukraine worked together towards regional stability and growth ...:
• Lead Partner: European Office, Vienna Board of Education (AT) • Partner 2: Vienna Business Agency (AT)
• Partner 3: Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin (DE) • Partner 4: Training and Education Centre of Trade and Industry, Schwerin (DE)
• Partner 5: City of Hranice (CZ)
• Partner 6: Secondary Technical School Hranice (CZ) • Partner 7: Statutory City of Karviná (CZ)
• Partner 8: The University of Economy in Bydgoszcz (PL)
• Partner 9: Lower Silesian Vocational Information and Teachers Training Centre in Wałbrzych (PL)
• Partner 10: BSC - Business Support Centre Ltd Kranj, Regional development agency of Gorenjska region (SI) • Partner 11: Institute for Adult Education Kočevje (SI)
• Partner 12: Development and Education Centre Novo mesto (SI) • Partner 13: Modena Formazione (IT)
• Partner 14: CNA Modena - National Confederation of Crafts and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Modena (IT) • Partner 15: Region of Veneto, Department of Labour (IT)
• Partner 16: ENAIP Veneto Regional Agency of Vocational Training (IT) • Partner 17: Association of Student-Economists of Zakarpattya (UA)
The project is implemented through the CENTRAL EUROPE Programme co-financed by the ERDF. ETstruct consists of 6 Work Packages (WP):
• WP1: Project management and coordination
• WP2: Communication, knowledge management and dissemination • WP3: ET-Inventory (thematic WP)
• WP4: ET-Academy and ET-LearnTrain (thematic WP) • WP5: ET-Pilot Actions (thematic WP)
2. The relationship between the ET-
struct
thematic Work Packages 3, 4,
5 and 6 and their outputs during the project lifetime
ET-struct work packages were tightly coupled as presented in Figure 1. Results of WP3 directly influenced WP4 and WP6. WP6 outputs were developed on the basis of the results in WP4 and WP5.
Figure 1: ET-struct Project Architechture 2010 – 2012
During the project lifetime, ET-struct worked to achieve the following:
• Work Package 3 – “ET-Inventory” a transnational inventory which documented the legal framework, statistical data, economic trends, the regional education/training demands and the regional education/training offer in the ET-struct regions. The inventory served as a predictor to gain insight into the new skills that will be needed for the changing demands of the regional economies in the ET-struct regions.
The “ET-Inventory” is available as downloadable PDF file at http://www.etstruct.eu/publications.
• Work Package 4 – based on “ET-Inventory”, a trial learning platform - “ET-LearnTrain” (Transnational Tool)– was developed and implemented which offers online and on-site training for regional workforces in the ET-struct regions.
• This trial learning platform had two parts:
1. a transnational core of online-learning/training modules for all the ET-struct regions (these modules were written in the ET-struct project language - English),
2. regional blended-learning/training modules (online and on-site) (written in the national language of the regional project partner (i.e. either DE, or CZ, or IT, or PL, or SI, or UA) with a summary of the module(s) in the ET-struct project language – English.
These regional learning/training modules were based on the regional demand for new-skills-for-new-jobs.
Technically, the online modules were accessed on the ET-struct homepage http://www.etstruct.eu, and/or on any other project-related homepage(s).
The on-site modules were taught at any project-related regional education/training institution.
• A Management Handbook - “ET-Academy” (the present document) (Transnational Tool) – was compiled to document the development, the pedagogy, the methodology, and the piloting of the Integrated Content Management System (ICMS) (“ET-LearnTrain”). Due to the fact that the project domain was education and training, a learning management system with the capability of CMS was applied
• Work Package 5 – two different types of pilot actions tested
1. in Work Package 4: Pilot Action Type 1 - the effectiveness of the two transnational tools: the trial learning platform (“ET-LearnTrain”) and the Management Handbook (“ET-Academy”) as well as
2. in Work Package 6: Pilot Action Type 2 - the strategy to set up permanent regional management structures – the joint transnational strategy and action plan (“ET-Strategy & Action”)
• Work Package 6 – “ET-Management” the development and implementation of permanent regional management structures, which link regional politics to the regional economy (i.e. regional education/training demand) and to the regional education/training offer in the ET-struct regions.
3. The sustainability of the project outputs after project lifetime
After the ET-struct project lifetime, all project related tasks will be assigned to permanent regional structures. Figure 2 depicts their sustainability.
Figure 2: Sustainability after 2010
After project lifetime (i.e. in 2013 and afterwards), the project will have set up permanent regional management structures which will link regional politics to the regional economy (i.e. regional education/training demand) and to the regional education/training offer in the former ET-struct regions.
Exact details of the stakeholders involved and how these permanent management structures will to be set up, managed, maintained, and sustained are delineated in the Joint Policy Guidelines and Action Plan “ET-Strategy & Action”, and in the concept for “ET-Management” which was developed in Work Package 6.
The “ET-Joint Strategy and Action Plan” is available as downloadable pdf file at http://www.etstruct.eu/publications.
Within these permanent regional management structures there will be mechanisms to predict the changing demands of regional economies (new-skills-for-new-jobs).
Based on these predictions there will be on-going updates of the learning platforms (online and on-site) in the former ET-struct regions and of the management needed to maintain the regional learning platforms, which were set up during project lifetime.
4. The development process of “ET-LearnTrain”
The learning platform “ET-LearnTrain” had a transnational core of nine online learning/training modules. These transnational core learning/ training modules were written in English (the ET-struct project language). The modules were valid for all the ET-struct regions.
Figure 3 depicts the development process of the modules.
The tool also incorporated regional blended-learning/training modules based on the regional demand for new-skills-for-new-jobs.
These regional blended learning/training modules were written in the regional project partner national language (i.e. either DE, or CZ, or IT, or
PL, or SI, or UA) with a summary of the module in the ET-struct project language English.
For access to the ET-LearnTrain learning platform go to: http://www.etstruct.eu and click “ET-LearnTrain”
Figure 3: Development process of the modules.
1. ET-struct was a transnational, process-oriented project i.e. the products/outputs were extremely important; at the same time the process to develop and implement these products/outputs was equally important.
2. This was the added value of ET-struct that the project partners will be able to continue to develop, improve, and increase the products/outcomes after the project lifetime because of the “know-how” gained during the project lifetime. This is also the basis for the sustainability of the project after project lifetime.
3. The process development of “ET-LearnTrain” was divided into two phases.
4. Phase 1: Development Phase (Feb – Sep 2011 = 8 months). In this phase, the partnership gained experience in developing sub-modules for the Transnational Core and their own Regional Modules. The object was to create a minimum product/output (Transnational Core/Regional Modules) that were to be piloted/tested/evaluated in the next phase.
For this reason, the requirements for the learning modules were set at a minimum i.e. 2 online learning participant hours per sub-module in the transnational core and a minimum of 2 participant blended learning hours for the regional modules.
5. According to international research approx. 49 development hours1 are needed to create 1 online learning hour.
In other words to create a sub-module with 2 online learning hours for the Transnational Core approx. 98 development hours were needed.
6. The same research showed that 2 blended learning hours (online and on-site) required approx. 71 development hours (1 online learning hour = 49 development hours (as above) + 1 on-site learning hour (“ILT” – Instructor-Led Training) = 22 development hours). This relationship can however change depending on “how much” online learning and “how much” on-site learning.
7. 1 learning hour meant the time (60 minutes) that the “ET-LearnTrain” client will invest to gain comprehension of the content. 8. Phase 2: Improvement Phase (Sep 2011 – Sep 2012 = 12 months). Based on the feedback from the pilot phase in Work Package 5,
the project partners then had one year to improve their modules.
1 This figure and the other figures on this page are general, average figures. The actual amount of development time needed to produce one learning hour heavily depends on the content matter that is being developed.
4.1 The process of deciding on the content of “ET-LearnTrain”
The basis for the contents of “ET-LearnTrain” was the “ET-Inventory”, a transnational inventory that documented the legal framework, statistical data, economic trends, the regional education/training demands, and the regional education/training offer in the ET-struct regions, and the ET-struct environment as a whole.
The Inventory also predicted the new skills that would be needed for the changing demands of the regional economies in the ET-struct
regions.
The Inventory was compiled from individual regional surveys that each ET-struct partner region carried out.
This was the fact-finding phase of “ET-LearnTrain”. In a first concept for the “ET-LearnTrain”, which was sent to the ET-struct partnership, the following list of possible modules for the Transnational Core was suggested:
• Entrepreneurship • Language skills
• Intercultural understanding
• Environment protection, eco-remediation • Sustainable growth
• Renewable sources of energy
• Elderly care, with the emphasis on e-inclusion, e-health, enhancing workplaces for older employees
In a brainstorming phase within the ET-struct partnership (e-mail, telephone, Skype) the partnership moved towards concentrating on only one of the above-suggested modules: Entrepreneurship.
In an elaboration phase, the Work Package Leaders of the ET-struct project met to discuss the feedback from the partnership and to decide on the content of the “ET-LearnTrain” transnational core.
Again, in a brainstorming phase with the Work Package Leaders the decision was taken to suggest to the partnership the following content for the Transnational Core:
ET-LearnTrain Transnational Core Content Entrepreneurship in Booming Sectors in CENTRAL EUROPE
Predisposition Test
Entrepreneurship sub-modules Booming sectors in CENTRAL EUROPE sub-modules Introduction: “Starting up my own business”
1. “My business idea” 1. “Renewable sources of energy” 2. “My business organisation” 2. “Health and care”
3. “Marketing my business” 3. Agro-foods” 4. “Financing my business” 4. “Tourism” 5. “The EU and my business”
1. Target group: young people aged 15-20. Why? The Transnational Core modules were in English. Based on the regional surveys and the “ET-Inventory”, the partnership could define the educational background of this target group and their level of English. 2. The duration of EACH online sub-module was two learning hours.
3. The “gateway” to the “ET-LearnTrain” learning platform was a vocational predisposition test that gave the “ET-LearnTrain” client, based on psychological testing, feedback about her/his vocational predisposition.
This test was in English.
4. The main module in the Transnational Core was Entrepreneurship in Booming Sectors in CENTRAL EUROPE.
5. It consisted of 9 online sub-modules (each online sub-module consisted of a minimum of 2 hours online learning time). The online sub-modules were written in English and were pitched at a language comprehension of the age group 15-20 (in particular 18 year-olds). The level of content understanding was: “comprehension”.
6. There were five online sub-modules, which dealt with various aspects of entrepreneurship and four online sub-modules, which dealt with booming sectors in the ET-struct environment.
7. Each ET-struct partner region was asked to develop one of the online sub-modules as well as their own blended learning Regional Module(s) according to a corporate template design in the authoring tool “eXeLearning” and according to an agreed methodology, didactical approach, and roadmap.
The suggestions taken at the Work Package Leaders’ Meeting were sent to the ET-struct partnership. In a final decision-making phase the partnership decided on the content of “ET-LearnTrain”.
Figure 4: The framework for Transnational and Regional modules.
a. The Transnational Core was written in English and was only available online. (Partner regions of course could decide to offer supporting on-site learning). In the Development Phase the length of a sub-module was 2 online learning hours.
b. The Regional Modules were written in the national language (with a summary in English). These modules were available in “blended learning” i.e. online and on-site.
In the Development Phase of “ET-LearnTrain” the length of a Regional Module was 2 blended learning hours
Again, based on the regional survey and an analysis the “ET-Inventory”, each ET-struct partner region decided on a Regional Module or Regional Modules that would prepare and train the regional workforce based on the motto: new-skills-for-new-jobs.
The ET-struct partner regions decided on the following Regional Modules:
ET-LearnTrain Regional Modules Content
ET-struct Region Language
Sector Regional Module Target Group Vienna (AT)
German
Social, health and care Kultursensible Kommunikation im Sozial- und Gesundheitsbereich
(Cultural sensitive communication in the social and health/care sector)
Students, trainees, and trainers
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (DE) German
Education & Training Berufsorientierung in der Schule
(Vocational orientation)
Pupils (secondary education teachers)
Stredni-Morava (CZ) Czech
Education & Training Technical training Pupils (secondary education teachers)
Moravskoslezsko (CZ) Czech
Labour market Volba právní formy podnikání
(Legal forms of business)
Job-seekers, employees Kujowsko-Pomorskie (PL)
Polish
Labour market Wiedza o integracji europejskiej
(Introduction to knowledge about European integration)
Job-seekers, employees
Dolnoslaskie (PL) Polish
Labour market Umiejętności społeczne przydatne na rynku pracy
(Social skills)
Pupils age group 15-10 (secondary education teachers)
ZahodnaSlovenija (SI) Slovenian
General - companies and public bodies
Podpora skupinskega dela z IKT
(Group support with ICT)
Employees VzhodnaSlovenija (SI)
Slovenian
Labour market Medkulturna komunikacija
(Intercultural communication)
Socialno podjetništvo
(Social entrepreneurship)
Emilia-Romagna (IT) Italian
Business start-ups Il Business Plan
(Business planning: from theory to praxis)
Entrepreneurs Veneto (IT)
Italian
Catering (agro-foods) and tourism
Valorizzazione delle produzioni agroalimentari tipiche in Veneto
(Valorisation of the Veneto typical products) Job-seekers, employees Zakarpatska (UA) Ukrainian Business start-ups Tourism Організація бізнесу
(My business plan)
Зростаючий сектор: Туризм
(Booming sector: Tourism – Ukraine)
Entrepreneurs, job-seekers, employees
4.2. The process of training project staff to develop “ET-LearnTrain”
As the next stage in the preparation process, the ET-struct project staff was trained in the development of eLearning and blended-learning learning modules.
A conscious decision was taken by the partnership that it should be trained to use the authoring tool, in this case, eXeLearning (freeware), and that the partnership would develop its own modules. This was the added value of ET-struct that the project partners could continue to develop, improve, and increase the products/outcomes after project lifetime because of the “know-how” gained during project lifetime. This is also the basis for the sustainability of the project after project lifetime.
Based on this partnership decision, Work Package 4 Leader; BSC Business support centre ltd, Kranj (SI) entered into a public procurement process to tender for external experts, who would offer the partnership the necessary training and support.
After the successful completion of the tendering process two project staff training workshops were held.
The 1st Project staff training workshop dealt with the methodology and development of eLearning modules using the authoring tool
eXeLearning (1,5 days).
The 2nd Project staff training workshop was devoted to the development of blended-learning modules (0,5 days). Workshop 1: The methodology and development of eLearning modules
A 1,5-day partnership workshop was organized by Work Package 4 Leader BSC, Krajn and led by the external experts with the following agenda:
Meeting ET-struct WP 4: ET-LearnTrain Workshop Date, Time Thursday, 17.2.2011 9.00 – 17.00 Venue Hotel AustriaTrend, Ljubljana, Slovenia 9.00 Welcome – PP10 & LP
9.00 – 10.45 ET-LearnTrain STRATEGY – PP10 & LP
• Current status of Work Package 4
• Introduction to the development process of ET-LearnTrain • Roadmap of ET-LearnTrain
• Discussion of the above points
10.45 – 11.00 Coffee Break
11.00 – 12.30 ET-LearnTrain CONTENTS – PP10, LP, PP9 & all Project Partners
• Vocational Disposition Test (PP9)
• Project Partner presentations (max. 3 minutes) of contents of suggested Transnational Core Sub-modules • Project Partner presentation (max. 3 minutes) of Regional Modules
ET-LearnTrain EVALUATION – PP9
Very first draft of Evaluation Process
12.30 – 13.30 Working lunch
13.30 – 17.00 Methodology and didactics of eLearning for ET-LearnTrain – External Experts from PP10
• Instructional Design
• Content development, styles, layout
Introduction to the authoring tool eXeLearning - External Experts from PP10
• Introduction to the authoring tool eXeLearning (Functions)
20:00 – 22:00 Working Dinner
Meeting ET-struct WP 4: ET-LearnTrain Workshop Date, Time Friday, 18.2.2011 9.00 – 14.30
Venue Hotel AustriaTrend, Ljubljana, Slovenia
9.00– 10.45 DEVELOPMENT of ET-LearnTrain Transnational Core Sub-modules – all Project Partners with help External Experts from PP10
• Development of the Transnational Core Sub-modules with the help from the External Experts using eXeLearning
10.45 – 11.00 Coffee Break
11.00 – 13.30 DEVELOPMENT of ET-LearnTrain Transnational Core Sub-modules – all Project Partners with help External Experts from PP10
• Development of the Transnational Core Sub-modules with the help from the External Experts using eXeLearning
• Max. 5 minute Project Partner presentations of Transnational Core Sub-modules developed so far at the Workshop
• Conclusions and next steps
13.30 – 14.30 Working lunch
The workshop was complimented by the documentation that was given to the project staff: 1. eLearning Strategy
2. eLearning Implementation Process
3. Using eXeLearning for eLearning Content Production 4. Information Package eLearning Content Development (Documents in Appendixes 1, 2, 3 and 4)
Workshop 2: Methodology and development of Blended Learning modules
A 0,5-day partnership workshop was organized by Work Package 4 Leader BSC, Krajn in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (DE) and led by the external experts with the following agenda:
Friday 13 May 9:00 – 13:30
(Coffee break included)
• WP4 – ET-LearnTrain: Update - Transnational Core Sub-modules (PP10 External Experts) • WP4 – ET-LearnTrain: Introduction – Regional Modules (blended learning) (PP10 External
Experts)
• WP4 – ET-Academy: Update – Management Handbook (PP10 External Experts) • Final discussions – next steps
Evaluation of the Steering Committee Meeting (Day 2) Working lunch and departure
The workshop was complimented by the documentation that was given to the project staff. 1. eLearning Strategy
2. eLearning Implementation Process
3. Using eXeLearning for eLearning Content Production 4. Information Package eLearning Content Development 5. Blended learning
(Documents in Appendixes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)
Part 2: Implementation, Evaluation and
Improvement
5. The process of implementing “ET-LearnTrain” in the ET-
struct
partner regions
The purposes of this chapter are:
• To describe the different types of users • To describe the learning platform
• To present the set-up procedure for the learning platform • To test and verify the learning platform
5.1 The users
The purpose of this subchapter is to provide definitions of the different types of users involved in the ET-struct project. The stakeholders are generally the same as in any other learning process.
The learning platform enables the inclusion of different types of users:
• Students or pupils or participants in general were the consumers of the transnational and regional modules developed within the ET-struct project. Their role was to use learning material and contribute the user’s view to the developed learning material. The learning platform had to enable the registration of the participants as well as provide access to the learning material. The activities of the participants needed to be traced twofold: a) at the level of access to different contents and b) at the level of the performance of the individual participant. For specific needs (for example language) teachers needed to be offered the possibility to create groups of participants.
• Module creators were responsible for the content of the transnational and regional modules. Their role was to develop, compile, gather, select, design, adapt learning material, and to supply the content to the learning platform. The learning platform had to enable instant deployment of the learning material and the possibility for deployment by the teacher or site administrator.
• Teachers were responsible for the learning process by providing the right content to the right consumers. Most often, the role of the teacher was also content development. In on-line courses, the teacher monitored the performance of the participants of the module. Sometimes in blended learning, interaction between the participants and the teacher was planned. In this case, the teacher had to be trained to use the tools of the learning platform.
• Administrators were responsible for the support of all of the above types of users and ensured the operation of the learning platform. Sometimes, the administrators were involved in the planning process to determine the requirements of the learning platform (selection of the learning platform, CPU performance, disk quotas, backup plans etc.)
5.2 The learning platform
The purpose of this subchapter is to provide insight into the structure of the learning platform and the operation mode. There were several layers of the learning platform:
• Hardware • Software
The table below depicts the structure and the interaction between layers: Layer Characteristics
Hardware Low performance hardware is usually sufficient. High hardware performance is required when there is: a large number of concurrent users, the delivered learning contents require CPU/graphic intensive processing or cause high network traffic.
Software The choice of the operating system is non-significant. Generally, all major operating systems are sufficient to support the learning environment.
The core learning platform uses the resources of the operating system. The most important parts of the core learning platform are:
• Web server • Database server
• LMS (Learning Management System)
Besides these parts, the authoring tools are a special and usually independent part. Authoring tools are used to develop learning content. However, often a LMS itself contains pre-built blocks for learning content development. The web server functions: a) accept the requests from clients (browsers on pc’s, laptops, tablets, phones), b) process these requests by accessing the files/programmes and c) deliver the results of processing in html form to the clients. The LMS consists of executable programmes which perform tasks such as reading the files, sending requests to the databases (reading, writing, deleting) and capturing the results of file/database operations. The database server functions a) listen to the requests sent by LMS and b) return the results of database requests to the LMS.
Communication layer The platform must be connected to the internet. Wired connections (copper, optic fibre) are preferred since the offered bandwidth is much higher than in wireless environment.
Possible operation modes:
• The project partners own the hardware, software and communication layers.
Pro’s: autonomy to dedicate the resources, most flexible way of testing and managing.
Con’s: costs of ownership, requires own or hired personnel which could not be utilised in the ET-struct project. • The project partners host on ISP (internet service provider) hardware, software and communication.
Pro’s: no cost of ownership only a fee, often backup and security measures are included in ISP package.
Con’s: less flexibility in configuration and testing, some adjustments are prohibited by ISP, some significant limitations can be imposed by ISP (i.e. disk space, CPU, bandwidth).
• The project partners rent a virtual host.
Pro’s: no cost of ownership only a fee, often backup and security measures are included in ISP package, more flexibility than in hosting mode.
Con’s: higher costs of renting than in hosting mode, some adjustments are prohibited by ISP, some significant limitations can be imposed by ISP (i.e. disk CPU, bandwidth).
• The project partners buy a service in the cloud.
Pro’s: no cost of ownership only a fee, often backup and security measures are included in package, administration of the learning platform is minimised, flexible way of resource change.
Con’s: higher costs of renting that in hosting/virtual host mode, sometimes the legal issues regarding to the protection of personal data is involved.
6.3 The set-up procedure for the learning platform
The purpose of this subchapter is:
• To demonstrate an example of the set-up procedure of the learning platform • To show an example of the creation of users and their privileges
• To show an example of the content creation within the LMS and in the authoring tool The selected mode of the operation for these examples is web hosting.
The operating system is Debian, LMS is Moodle 1.9 and the database server is MySQL. The selected authoring tool is eXe 1.04.
5.3.1 An example of the set-up procedure for the learning platform
1. Register the domain 2. Buy a hosting package 3. Install Moodle and configure it
There are several domain registrars. Select a reliable and trustworthy one. The characteristics of the selected hosting are:
• Disk storage: 15 GB
• Monthly network traffic: 300 GB • Number of MySQL databases: 40 • Sub-domains: 15
The moodle installation is described in details on http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Installing_Moodle.
After the configuration, the web site is operational but without any content and users (except one administrator). However, before managing users, some initial design was performed.
The free moodle theme “burntaardvarkbar” was selected as a basis for adapted theme named “FAburntaardvarkbar”. The directory contained several files and subdirectories (images, moodlebar and pix) as depicted on Figure 5.
Figure 5: Files and directories for adapted moodle theme.
IT experts prepared the starting page on http://et-learntrain.eu with the following layout (Figure 6). The page was multilingual, giving the user the opportunity to select the preferred language (Čeština, Deutsch, English, Italiano, Polski, Slovenščina). The default language was the same as the local settings on user computer so it usually matched the correct language.
5.3.2 An example of the creation of users and their privileges
In the ET-struct project, the course developers and teachers are initially created in bulk. The required form of input data was CSV format with the following columns:
Initially 70 users were created. The users were the project members. Moodle also provides other ways of user creation:
• By users themselves in the process of registration. This option was not used at the beginning of ET-struct in order to help the staff members to easily start content development.
• The site administrator manually creates users. In the case of ET-struct, several new team members joined later and their accounts were created manually.
Users were assigned privileges on site and on module basis. The screenshots depict the initial roles in moodle (Figure 7 - site basis) and roles within the module (Figure 8 - module basis).
Figure 7: The initial roles in moodle (site basis).
Figure 8: The initial roles within the module (module basis).
5.3.3 An example of content creation in the LMS and in the authoring tool
Moodle has several building blocks for content development. These blocks are generally resources and activities.
Authoring tool eXe (http://wikieducator.org/Online_manual or http://exelearning.org/wiki) uses the concept of iDevices, which are again resources and activities. The list of preinstalled iDevices in eXe is depicted (Figure 9).
Figure 9: The list of preinstalled iDevices in eXe.
The screenshot below depicts an example of the page where LMS content capabilities and eXe SCORM are combined (see Figure 10).
Figure 10: An example of the page with SCORM module.
All section were designed with moodle. When the user clicked “Health and Care SCORM” the following content appeared (Figure 11).
Figure 11: An example of the SCORM module.
5.3.4 Testing and verifying the learning platform
An important part of the learning platform was the common repository of all the modules developed by the partners. The platform administrator had the overall insight into what the project members uploaded and each project member had the privilege to re-submit source modules. The moodle upload function was configured in such a manner that re-submission deleted the older file.
When a partner developed a new or improved module the following steps were taken: 1. Logon (click login button in upper right side of public entry page)
2. Enter username and password (if the user forgot the password then he/she clicked the “Yes, I need help for logon” button and followed the on-line instructions. A new password was generated and sent to the e-mail address)
3. After the successful logon, the user clicked “ET-struct modules” under “Common repository of sources” 4. The following page appeared
5. The user clicked on the appropriate UPLOAD (Transnational, Regional or Description)
6. The user selected a file on the local computer and clicked “Upload this file” button. It was agreed that files have the standard eXeLearning extension (elp). Depending on the size of the module and the speed of the internet connection, uploading was finished within a few seconds. The user could see the name of uploaded file if the transfer was successful. During the project, the maximum size of an uploaded file was increased and was finally set to 1GB.
5.3.5 An example of processing an elp file and preparing a module available for learners
It was agreed that the partners upload developed modules in exeLearning format. The next steps in the procedure were only available to users with administrative privileges:
1. Logon
2. Navigate to “ET-struct modules” under “Common repository of sources”
3. Click on appropriate UPLOAD (Transnational, Regional or Description) and view assignments. Details such as user, name of the file and submission date were shown. The administrator could sort submission by user and submission date.
5. Open downloaded file in eXe Learning. Formally check the content (links, structure, elements, navigation, style, language settings etc.) 6. Save the module as a web page (one zip file)
7. Upload zipped web page to the public page (transnational or regional modules). To enable editing of the page (click “turn editing on”). Click “Files” button under “Administration” block. Navigate into the module directory. Create new directory – standard practice is that the name of new directory is “vYYYYMMDD”. Navigate to newly created directory, upload zipped file and unzip it in the same directory. 8. Update the link to the new version of the module. The link is usually in this form: name_of_the_module/vYYYYMMDD/index.html. Save
changes and check the link.
5.4 The testing and verification of the learning platform
As of January 2012, there were 169 users, 2 with administrator privileges and 77 with student privileges at site level. For specific courses, teacher privileges were assigned to the user based on a request from the project partner.
A partial list is depicted in Figure 12.
Figure 12: List of users (partial) as seen from moodle administrator perspective.
The content of ET-LearnTrain was divided into transnational and regional modules both deployed as simple HTML pages from eXelearning. Figures from 13 to 16 present parts of the web page dealing with the Transnational Core modules.
Figure 14: Introduction part of the page for the “Predisposition test”, “Starting up my own business”, “My business idea”, and “My business organization”.
Figure 16: Introduction part of the page for “Health and Care”, “Agro-foods”, “Tourism”, and “Questionnaire”.
Figures from 17 to 20 present parts of the web page dealing with the Regional Modules.
Figure 18: Introduction part of the page for “Cultural Sensitive Communication in the Social- and Health Sector (Kultursensible Kommunikation im Sozial- und Gesundheitsbereich)”, “Group support with ICT (Podpora skupinskega dela z IKT)”, “Business Planning: from theory to praxis (Business Plan)” and “Valorisation of the Veneto typical local products (Valorizzazione delle produzioni agroalimentari tipiche in Veneto)”
Figure 19: Introduction part of the page for “Social skills (Umiejętności społeczne przydatne na rynku pracy)”, “Intercultural communication (Medkulturna komunikacija)”, “Introduction to knowledge about European integration (Wiedza o integracji europejskiej)”, and “Social Entrepreneurship (Socialno podjetništvo)”.
Figure 20: Introduction part of the page for “Technical training (Technical training)”, “Vocational Orientation (Berufsorientierung in der Schule)”, and “Legal forms of business (Volba právní formy podnikání)”
Statistics of user access is depicted in Figure 21 (27 November 2011 to 18 April 2012). This graph is the evidence that the learning platform actually operates and that the majority of accesses were guests – actual users of the learning platform. During the observed period, two peaks occurred due to the testing and evaluation periods. The peak usage was at the end of February with 2436 users in one week. Other visitors to the page were administrators, teachers, and students for testing purposes. Google web crawler with one visit per day was also in the guests category.
Figure 21: Number of users in the period from 27 November 2011 to 18 April 2012.
Acknowledgement
This handbook was implemented by BSC Business support centre ltd, Kranj (SI) in the framework of the ET-struct project with the direct inputs of all project partners.
It is intended to serve as a basic knowledge management tool for the implementation of a learning platform similar to the ET-struct
learning platform ET-LearnTrain in other European regions.
Contact Information
Lead partner
Stuart Simpson
Vienna Board of Education - Presidential Department - European Office Auerspergstr. 15/32
A - 1080 Wien
Tel.: (+43 1) 52525 77084 Fax: (+43 1) 4034427
eMail: [email protected]
Responsible for Communication, Knowledge Management and
Dissemination
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin (DE) - ET-struct Partner 3
Impressum
Concept, text and content: BSC Business support centre ltd, Kranj (SI) Design and layout: Frank Ackermann
