Systematic development of courseware systems

Various difficulties have been reported in relation to the development of courseware systems. A central problem is to address the needs of not only the learner, but also instructor, developer, and other stakeholders, and to integrate these different needs. Another problem area is courseware architectures, to which much work has been dedicated recently. We present a systematic approach to courseware development – a methodology for courseware engineering – that addresses these problems. This methodology is rooted in the educational domain and is based on methods for software development in this context. We illustrate how this methodology can improve the quality of courseware systems and the development process

Learning chemistry using 3D approach : 3D atomic cubic

This research is about the development of the 3D courseware named as 3D-Atomic Cubic as a tool for teaching and learning Chemistry subject. This 3D-Atomic Cubic courseware contains all multimedia elements used to attract students’ attention for learning the contents. This courseware is specifically developed for a topic in Chemistry subject for student of Mechanical Engineering in Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). The questionnaire is the instrument used in this research to determine the problem statement. Based on the questionnaires, Properties of Matter topic is identify as the most difficult topic, because students need to understand and visualize the arrangement of the atom in Cubic Cell. One of their problems faced when learning this topic is student enable to imagine the arrangement of the atom easily. By using traditional approach, the visualization of the model is using two dimensional (2D) models, as a result student hard to imagine the real scenario. This research is focusing on delivery approach of learning by using three dimensional (3D) approaches in studying Chemistry subject. The advantages gained from this research can benefit the students, lecturers, education industry, high institution and also the public. The development methodology of 3D Atomic Cubic courseware was developed using life cycle of 3D Atomic Cubic that based on the ADDIE model. This methodology consist five phase represents a series of task that help to ensure the development efforts stay on tract, on time and on target. Completing each phase is an important element for the instructional design process. For the preliminary analysis, 52 students from the whole Mechanical Engineering students who already took Chemistry subject are involved in determining the difficult topic in Chemistry subject. For evaluation on the effectiveness of 3D-Atomic Cubic Courseware, 52 of Mechanical Engineering students from UTeM is involved and they are divided by two which are Conventional and Experimental Group. From the analysis of the result, both of conventional and experiment group showed an improvement but the student who use 3D-Atomic Cubic courseware get higher mark. This shows that 3D-Atomic Cubic courseware can be used as teaching aid material in classroom since it shows those students who use the courseware get better result. This research found that a 3D element is very useful in helping students to understand chemistry subject especially in visualizing the arrangement of the atom

PROFIL: a method for the development of multimedia courseware

Refer to: Koper, E.J.R. (1995). PROFIL: a method for the development of multimedia courseware. British Journal of Educational Technology, 26 (2), 94-108This article from 1995 describes a dedicated method for the design of multimedia courseware, called PROFIL. The method integrates instructional design methods and techniques with software engineering methods and techniques. Furthermore it integrates media selection methods in the design methodology and it takes account of the design of courses of which courseware is a only a part. In six phases (preliminary investigation, definition, script, technical realisation, implementation and exploitation) a program is designed and produced. The essence of the method is that a distinction is made between functional objects and the implementation of the functional objects in the available media and that the same design process is repeated a few times at different aggregation levels

FORGE: An eLearning Framework for Remote Laboratory Experimentation on FIRE Testbed Infrastructure

The Forging Online Education through FIRE (FORGE) initiative provides educators and learners in higher education with access to world-class FIRE testbed infrastructure. FORGE supports experimentally driven research in an eLearning environment by complementing traditional classroom and online courses with interactive remote laboratory experiments. The project has achieved its objectives by defining and implementing a framework called FORGEBox. This framework offers the methodology, environment, tools and resources to support the creation of HTML-based online educational material capable accessing virtualized and physical FIRE testbed infrastruc- ture easily. FORGEBox also captures valuable quantitative and qualitative learning analytic information using questionnaires and Learning Analytics that can help optimise and support student learning. To date, FORGE has produced courses covering a wide range of networking and communication domains. These are freely available from FORGEBox.eu and have resulted in over 24,000 experiments undertaken by more than 1,800 students across 10 countries worldwide. This work has shown that the use of remote high- performance testbed facilities for hands-on remote experimentation can have a valuable impact on the learning experience for both educators and learners. Additionally, certain challenges in developing FIRE-based courseware have been identified, which has led to a set of recommendations in order to support the use of FIRE facilities for teaching and learning purposes

Model-driven transformation and validation of adaptive educational hypermedia using CAVIAr

Authoring of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia is a complex activity requiring the combination of a range of design and validation techniques.We demonstrate how Adaptive Educational Hypermedia can be transformed into CAVIAr courseware validation models allowing for its validation. The model-based representation and analysis of different concerns and model-based mappings and transformations are key contributors to this integrated solution. We illustrate the benefits of Model Driven Engineering methodologies that allow for interoperability between CAVIAr and a well known Adaptive Educational Hypermedia framework. By allowing for the validation of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia, the course creator limits the risk of pedagogical problems in migrating to Adaptive Educational Hypermedia from static courseware

An information architecture for courseware validation

A lack of pedagogy in courseware can lead to learner rejec- tion. It is therefore vital that pedagogy is a central concern of courseware construction. Courseware validation allows the course creator to specify pedagogical rules and principles which courseware must conform to. In this paper we investigate the information needed for courseware valida- tion and propose an information architecture to be used as a basis for validation