Blended Learning in Cloud Computing

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Blended Learning in Cloud Computing

S. Subha

¹

, D. Karthika

²

1Assistant Professor, ²PG Student, Department of Computer Application, Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu

1[email protected], ²[email protected]

Abstract: “Blended learning” is used interchangeably in research literature as personalized learning, differentiated instruction, hybrid learning, technology-mediated instruction, web-enhanced instruction, and mixed-mode instruction.

Blended learning is an increasingly popular systematic philosophy on instruction that adds in technology components to support the daily instruction in the classroom. This is a different learning philosophy than what conservative educational institutions see on a day-to-day basis. While many other classrooms at the secondary level have attempted blended learning, it has never been attempted in a higher educational institution. This paper introduces the characteristics of the current E-Learning and then analyses the concept of cloud computing and describes the architecture of cloud computing platform by combining the features of E- Learning with concerted focus on the new paradigms of technology enabled learning methods such as Blended Learning.

Keywords: E-Learning, Blended, Cloud Computing.

I.

I

NTRODUCTION

To complete this study, it’s important to know if blended learning will absolutely or undesirably impact student achievement in the fundamental classroom. This is a different learning attitude than what traditional school districts see on a day-to-day foundation. While many other seminars at the Secondary level have attempted blended learning in this specific citizenry, it has never been struggled in fundamental teaching space. One of the teaching policies that have been a major growth point in the English Language Teaching (ELT) industry over the last ten years is blended learning. It combines face-to- face teaching with distance education, either computer- based or web-based. Blended learning is an education program that combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods. It involves the physical presence of both teacher and student, with some element of student control over time, place, path, or pace. While students still attend “brick-and-mortar” schools with a teacher present, in-person classroom performs are combined with computer-mediated activities concerning content and delivery. Blended learning is also used in professional development and training settings. A lack of compromise on a definition of blended learning has led to complications in research on its effectiveness in the classroom. Blended learning is also highly context- dependent and therefore a universal beginning of it is hard to come by. All students would be a part of one class with three teachers, but the focus would be teaching

“whole-group” lessons in smaller groups. This was also a worry for parents and teachers.

II.

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ODULES

Rotational: The model that classroom teachers in specific gravitate toward first is the rotation model. Student rotates among online learning, small-group instruction, and pencil-and-paper assignments at their disks. Students rotate resolved different modes of learning. At least one of them is online or digital in nature.

Flex: The Flex model lets students move on fluid plans among learning activities according to their needs. Online learning is the backbone of student learning in a Flex classical. Teachers support and training on a flexible, as- needed basis while student work both program and content.

A La Carte: Students do their learning totally online with an online instructor. It is a one of the more popular models in blended high schools.

Enriched Virtual: Students receive one session with their instructor. They are then free to complete the rest of the course work online self-sufficiently.

Here’s an example using the rotational model we discussed earlier:

Phase 1: View a short and strong-minded video about a problem plasters our civilization. Give students time to have a round-table conversation and share their thoughts.

Phase 2: Publicize the challenge for them. “Your job is to come up with a resolution for this issue.” Break them off into groups to do initial research using changed digital and non-digital media.

Phase 3: A computer game gets spread out through the classroom at different terminals. Take each group through a series of tests that deepens their thoughtful of the issue.

Phase 4: Set up a design/construction area where students work on actions for developing a solution. Set criteria and a reward system for certain indicators being met. Add some friendly opposition into the mix.

Phase 5: Presentation day and display of projects. The Interrogate, an important part of the process of Solution Fluency, happens now. Students debate the projects, the helpfulness of the solutions, and what could have been done better.

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This is a rough example of how this might look and it’s open to different options. Movement and stimulation are sure to keep your students engaged and bring blended learning success. Change things up and explore different ways to learn in the classroom, or even outside it. The class landscape you set up is only limited to your imagination and budget.

III.

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LENDED

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EARNING

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MPLEMENTATION Blended learning, the combination of independent online learning with supervised element and mortar programs, is on the rise. While there were 2.94 million students participating in a hybrid learning program in 2010, it is expected that the number will be 10.07 million by 2015.

This growth pattern surpasses home schooling, virtual schools and online charter schools. Schools employing these methods believe that students are more engaged with a 24/7 access model and have seen improvement in both district achievement and advancement rates.

Fig. 1. Blended Learning Models

It does require a culture shift that includes a strong emphasis on trust, but there are many benefits. Through a blended learning program, educators can move beyond the “one teacher, one textbook model” of education in a host of ways, including: Students to move at their own pace and excel, Providing “just-in-time” intervention, Grouping students more effectively, Providing real world experiences , Helping students construct meaning rather than just memorizing (and forgetting) facts, Creating learning opportunities across grade levels, subjects, departments and between teachers and students, Teaching problem-solving in multidisciplinary units, Encouraging 21stcentury collaboration through video conferencing with authors, speakers and other students from around the

world, Increasing productivity – both for themselves and students and more the trend toward blended learning within a district often begins in a specific school or grade level. For example, some districts start using blended learning strategies with their alternative education program, as the students are monitored by teachers at the alternative school but are supported by their general education teacher’s instruction, which can be delivered virtually. Others have found it makes sense to prepare students taking AP classes by providing virtual summer reading groups that include discussions and self- assessments in pre-class learning.

IV.

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L

EARNING

E-learning is an Internet-based learning method, using Internet technology to enterprise, implement, handpicked, manage, support and spread learning, which will not change old-fashioned education systems, but will greatly increase the productivity of education. As e-learning have lot of benefits like flexibility, multiplicity, measurement, opening and so on. E-learning systems usually require many hardware and software assets. Cloud computing skills have transformed the way application and developed and retrieved. They are designed at running application facilities over the internet on a scalable infrastructure. Now, cloud computing that presents productivity scale mechanism can let construction of E- learning system be trusted to suppliers and provide a new mode of E-learning. This system based on cloud computing infrastructure is possible and it can greatly improve the proficiency of investment and the power of management, it can make E-learning system advance into honest circle and achieve a win condition for suppliers and customers

V.

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FFECTIVE

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LENDED

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EARNING

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TRATEGY

There are three important components of successful e- learning policies, like as, high quality content, polished plan, and easy navigability.

a. High Quality and Meaningful Content:

High quality content will keep learners fully involved and inspired to learn. On the other hand, including material that is general and not specific won’t bring any added value to the learning development, and may even make the learner interrogation the value of the e-learning course as a whole. So, stay on-topic and always confirm that you offer material that will help them to improve their knowledge base and learn. The key fact of what’s appropriate for your communicating online courses, but include what you believe the learner may find the treasured. If you rare able to find a middle group, it can

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be able to develop on e-learning policy and provides the more assistance for everyone.

b. Exploration Key to Learner Engagement:

It’s necessary that learners are given the chance to travel the e-learning course if you want it to be fully communicating. Include links that learners can just click on in order to learn more about the topic, create layers that they need to relate with, integrate visual components that make the topic more eye-catching, and encourage them to explore the module by hyper-linking to other pages that may be interest. All of these key elements will enable you to create interactive e-learning courses that enhance learners’ engagement and keep them coming back for more knowledge and information.

c. Determine the Blended Learning Course's Level of Interactivity:

The wonderful thing about implementing a blended learning strategy is that you can determine exactly how interactive your blended learning courses and the overall eLearning experience will be. How much of your learning will take place via live online training and how much will be based upon self-paced learning activities? You will want to determine this aspect of your blended learning strategy in advance, as it will dictate your blended learning course plan. Opting for a blended learning strategy gives you the opportunity to choose among a plethora of online learning tools and delivery methods.

Fig. 2. E-Learning Strategies

d. Including Interactive, Reality-Based Scenarios, Emotions Interactive, Reality Scenarios:

It is a powerful tool for disposal when developing an interactive e-learning strategy is reality-based e-learning scenarios. Real life examples and problems to learning course will give the chance to draw in the learners and show, first hand, how knowledge acquired can be applied for outside the environment. Example, design a scenario that allows the skills they have learn during the e-learning

course, such as solve the technical problem or customer service, they gain invaluable experience that can be used on-the-job later on. These scenarios interactive by include as video, graphics, animations, images, and audio, enables you to create an immersive and effective learning environment that motivates and engages the learners.

Emotional responses can help to learners to better acquire and retain new information or skills. Emotions don’t just play a role in making your content more memorable, they can help to more interesting and engaging. Isn’t that at least partly through films for two hours at a time, or read three hundreds of pages of novels in a single sitting?

They have appealed to our emotions as well as our intellect. They find the human interesting pieces that relate to topic and integrate into e-learning courses.

e. Motivation and Encourage Group Collaboration Encourage:

Learners communicating with one to another, if e- learning course is centered around asynchronous learning.

In fact, you can utilize a number of different online tools and applications when creating your blended learning strategy. For instance, you can ask the group to log on to a chat room, where they will discuss a particular problem or question that you pose, or they can share their opinions and thoughts via a social media platform

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EARNING

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YSTEMS

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ND

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HEIR

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NTEGRATION

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ITH

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OS

Growth in the field of e-learning has been very slow due to the problems that are mostly associated with the poor interface design of e-learning systems. On the other hand, research confirms the high importance of design and employment of methodologies, tools, and learning environments for stakeholders, as well as usability evaluation of e-learning applications. A significant and important part of an e-learning system is the learning management system. LMS is the “front face” of the entire system and what users are able to see and interact with.

An LMS is designed to organize and regulate the administrative tasks of schools and other educational organizations. According to Watson and Watson (2007), an LMS provides functionalities beyond instructional content such as integration across the system. However, the LMS does not constitute the entire e-learning platform, especially when considering e-learning systems that use LOs. In addition to an LMS, an e-learning platform that can work with LOs has a system for creation and editing of LO content; it allows retrieval and reuse of LO, and delivery of appropriate LO to the LMS.

There are many authoring tools that allow for the creation and reusability of learning design. Authoring tools can incorporate just structural, or a combination of both structural and pedagogical design principles. There are

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some authoring tools that should be mentioned such as Articulate Presenter, Snap, Raptivity, Xerte, Course Lab, Atutor, GLO Maker, and Microsoft content developer (LCDS). Generally, authoring tools should fulfill all features including pedagogy, reusability, and technology (Diwakar, 2013; Dag, 2014). For the purpose of this study, the DITA authoring tool was used.

VII.

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EARNING

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VALUATION

E-learning evaluation is not a one-time activity but rather a complex process parallel to e-learning development as well as its implementation. A large number of e-learning evaluation models exist. One of the most cited and implemented is the DeLone and McLean model. The evaluation of an LMS must consider its usability and accessibility, as well as its didactic effectiveness in order to achieve educational goals. If an e-learning system is not usable enough, it obstructs students' learning and the learners would spend more time learning how to use the software rather than learning the contents. The usability of the system is of great importance for e-learning implementation, and therefore, it is also important for the transition from one system to another. It is imperative to research and implement an appropriate methodology for the system usability.

Fig 3. E-Learning Evolution

VIII.

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ETHODOLOGY

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RANSITIONING

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EWE-

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EARNING

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YSTEM

When transitioning from one e-learning system to another, one should contemplate an appropriate transition model that will allow learners who are used to using a Type A system to preserve and/or increase effective learning. In our case, the goal was to transition from the system that views learning materials as a whole, to a system that allows sequencing of different learning objects (LO), along with different learning activities. As formerly mentioned, in this paper the system that can work with LOs is referred to as an LO-oriented e-learning system (Type B), and those that cannot as non-LO oriented (Type A). Implementation of the new system and the changeover from Type A in to Type B system can be done in different ways. Since implementing a new e- learning system using the Waterfall method can be time consuming and costly, in our approach we combined Waterfall and agile methods resulting into a mixture model. The goal is to allow for the employment of the new system to be structured, adaptable, and flexible.

The calculation of the Type B system and its enactment was done continuously during the semester with traditional and online students. Outmoded students used learning materials on the e-learning system in addition to traditional lectures and labs in the classroom in blended- style learning, while the online students used the same materials without attending the lectures. Each lesson on the e-learning system consisted of a sequence of different topics (LOs), interactive questions in test format, discussion forums, assessment tests, homework assignments, exercises, projects, and summarized learning materials in a written lecture form in PDF format. At the end of the semester, students were asked to give their opinion on their learning experience via a survey. Each survey question offered scaled marks from 1 to 5 (1- unsatisfactory, 2- sufficient, 3- average, 4- very good, 5- excellent ). 184 students participated in this evaluation; 93 were traditional, 91 were online students, while 108 were men and 78 women.

IX.

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LOUD

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ASED

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EARNING

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RCHITECTURE

The e-learning cannot completely replace teachers; it is one of updating technology, concepts and tools, giving new content, concepts and methods for education, so this roles cannot replaced by teachers. The teachers will still play leading roles and participate in developing and making use e-learning cloud. The blended learning policy should improve by educational system. Moreover, the interactive content and virtual collaboration guarantee a high retention factor. On the other hand, E-learning cloud

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is a migration of cloud computing technology in the field of e-learning, which is a future e-learning infrastructure, including all the necessary hardware and software computing resources engaging in e-learning. After these computing resources are virtualized, they can be afforded in the form of services for educational institutions, students and businesses to rent computing resources.

X.

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ONCLUSION

Cloud computing has recently developed as a compelling paradigm for managing and handover services over the Internet. Cloud-based learning systems are emerging as an attractive method for providing e-learning services.

They can reduce costs due to lower requirements of hardware and software, and less need for onsite conservation. They are also relaxed to deploy across multiple locations as they are centrally managed. They also offer benefits to end users in terms of accessibility, security, and compatibility. However, the restrictions of cloud-based learning systems are that an Internet connection is mandatory, low speed connections reduce the efficiency of the provision of e-learning services, and issues immediate the security of a cloud remain unclear.

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