Migrating existing multimedia courseware to Moodle

Open source course management systems offer increased flexibility for instructors and instructional designers. Communities can influence the development of these systems and on an individual basis, the possibility to modify the system software exists. Migrating existing courseware to these systems can therefore be beneficial, sometimes even required. We report here about our experience in migrating an existing courseware system consisting of multimedia content and interactive, integrated infrastructure functionality to an open source course management system called Moodle. We will assess the difficulties that we have encountered during this process and, discuss the importance of standards in this context, and we aim to provide other instructors or instructional designers with guidelines and assessment support for other migration projects

Developing Electronic Student English Workbook for Senior High School in Indonesia

This Research and Development (R&D) study has a purpose of developing E-UKBM (Unit Kegiatan Belajar Mandiri Elektronik) for senior high school in Indonesia. The product developed in this study was in the form of English courseware intended for both independent study and classroom use based on the 2013 curriculum. This study adapted the research and development model developed by Borg and Gall. It involves of 7 stages, namely: (1) need analysis, (2) product development, (3) product validation, (4) product revision, (5) product try-out, (6) final revision, and (7) final product. The instruments used are questionnaires for students and teacher, notes on document study, validation checklist for media and curriculum expert and also a checklist for students in the product try-out stage. The result of the product validation showed that the product was considered valid with the score 98% from the media expert and 100% from curriculum expert. The revision of layout and screen resolution was made based on the validators' feedback. Moreover, the results of the try-out showed that the product was considered acceptable, with a score of 94%. The final product of the study is in the form of English learning courseware. The courseware consists of three chapters, and each chapter was classified into three sections, namely pre-activity, whilst-activity, and post-activity. Keywords: E-UKBM, English, Courseware, Senior High School

Self-Paced Interactive Multimedia Courseware: A Learning Support Resource for Enhancing Electronic Theses and Dissertations Development

Submission of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by postgraduate students has become a common phenomenon in learning environments globally. The purpose of ETDs is to train postgraduate students as knowledge workers in online publishing and also extend their skills beyond word processing. The challenge however, is that many postgraduate students are not adequately equipped to design, develop and submit their theses and dissertations electronically. This article reports on a project based on the design and development of a self-paced Interactive Multimedia Application (IMA). The courseware is based on the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) instructional system design model to guide postgraduate students to learn to publish their theses and dissertations electronically. Qualitative research design with descriptive approach was employed for the study. Testing of this self-paced computer-based learning material revealed that postgraduate students could work through the IMA with minimal assistance, to become proficient in electronic publishing. The IMA revealed that the Application could be learned with little or no assistance from a facilitator or instructor; it also supports direct transfer and retention of knowledge and skills in ETDs preparation and submission. Keywords: Self-paced courseware; Interactive Multimedia Application; ADDIE model; Online publishing; Postgraduate these

Fundamental of collective bargaining in industrial relation

Bargaining plays a vital role in the economic process and it has received large attention in the economic literature. Industrial relation is a field that studies about the employment relationship which it’s an interrelation between the employer and employee or the organization and the trade union. Collective bargaining is defined as the dispute between the employer and employee where this dispute can be settled through discussion and negotiation where both parties can come to a mutual agreement and also as one decision (Edmund Heery, Nicholas Bacon, Paul Blyton & Jack Fiorito, 2010). Usually the trade union represent the employee’s interests towards the employer which the employee belongs to the trade union as well. The collective bargaining is usually about the wages scales, working hours, healthcare and safety and also training. Collective bargaining is adapt more easily when the employees demand meets the employers flexibility and easier when the firms boundary is changed accordingly. In collective bargaining wages is a topic that’s regularly being discussed or negotiated between the employer and employee (Arun, 2000; Sinha, 2000)

An Evaluation in China and the UK of a Virtual Laboratory in Materials Science

This thesis describes the design, development and evaluation of virtual technology-based courseware—Virtual Laboratory in Materials Science used in a tension test that forms part of the course of “Properties of Materials” taught to most first year engineering undergraduates. The effectiveness of this specially developed courseware for virtual laboratory work was evaluated in a pretest—posttest comparative study of the performance of designated subjects between two treatment groups that worked with the courseware and two control groups that worked with a real testing machine. All participants were engineering students studying either with the United Kingdom Open University (UKOU) or with the China Radio & TV University system (CRTVUs). The findings showed that most students enjoyed using the courseware because the simulated real experiment environment can make them feel personally on the scene. Among all the media used in the courseware, 3D and images were more favoured and more helpful to the students in terms of the usability of the courseware. Sounds were not seen as particularly helpful although some participants agreed sounds made the courseware more interesting. The result of the research indicated that using the Virtual Laboratory in Materials Science could make a contribution to students’ understanding of the tensile testing. This evaluation clearly revealed that virtual reality (VR) and virtual environments (VE) technology can facilitate and support engineering course learning or even make learning fun. But when used at times when there were steps that need lots of manipulation, the virtual experiment still had some difficulties that need to be resolved. The research showed that the potential of the virtual testing courseware in promoting concept teaching needs to be tapped further