Includes bibliographical references / Although learning management systems (LMSs) have been widely adopted by universities in developing countries, their potential to support students' learning has not been fully exploited due to several factors. Some of the factors limiting the more successful implementation of LMSs in developing country universities have been identified and reported in this study. Most importantly, LMS implementation in developing country universities is constrained by limited institutional ICT infrastructures, Internet bandwidth and electricity outages that affect the accessibility of LMS services by the students. The main research question addressed in this study is: How can we better use the available ICTs and ICT infrastructure in developing country universities to enhance the accessibility of the LMS services by students to better support the implementation of LMSs? The research question was addressed through surveys and experimentation. Two surveys were carried out, and the findings of these surveys were useful in: understanding the current state of practice in LMS implementation in developing country universities; defining the problem; understanding the students' LMS expectations and needs; and deciding the nature of the intervention to be implemented. Through the surveys, it was established that the majority of students in the surveyed universities possessed mobile phones, most of which being internet enabled phones. The study therefore explored the possibility of enabling and enhancing mobile access for LMS services so as to enhance students' LMS accessibility through their mobile phones. The design, development, implementation and evaluation of the intervention (the mobile LMS) were achieved through a user-centred development approach that included participatory design, prototyping and user experience evaluation. An impact evaluation of the mobile LMS intervention indicated that: mobile LMS interfaces can lead to students' increased access and use of the LMS through mobile phones; students prefer streamlined mobile LMS interfaces with fewer and block-based services; with streamlined mobile LMS interfaces, students are able to get the LMS services they need on their mobile phones without the need for desktop and laptop computers and without the need for the full desktop LMS interfaces. While the streamlined mobile LMS allows the students an opportunity to more satisfactorily access the LMS services through their mobile phones, it also takes away the pressure from the constrained institutional ICT infrastructure and facilities such as computer laboratories. The design and development process of the mobile LMS intervention highlighted that students' involvement leads to creation of more usable and useful mobile LMS interfaces and that most of the students' mobile LMS needs can be achieved through a cross-platform mobile Web application.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Research has shown that collaborative eLearning can provide educational opportunities to groups of learners; both distance learners as well as traditional campus-based learners. It provides innovative educational methods in which learning can be constructed. The way collaborative eLearning is administered, managed, used and adopted can assist in providing information for future design and improvement of collaborative software. The objective of this research is to provide an insight into adoption and use of collaborative eLearning environments and to discover new determinants of usage. To examine the usage of an eLearning environment at the University of the Western Cape, a cross-sectional survey was conducted with Computer Science students. While this study is specific to this university, the underlying principles can be generalised to other organisational types. This study is quantitative and qualitative in nature as well as deductive and inductive. Three hundred and six valid questionnaires were analysed using quantitative methods. Soft Systems Methodology was used to manage the research process and to create conceptual models to explain the research problem and identify solutions. It was a cyclical process. Findings show that although the university’s eLearning platform is utilised, students seem to prefer free and open source platforms. They use social and collaborative applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Docs as well as email messages. Four types of technology affordances: communicative-affordance, document share-affordance, course resource-affordance, and integrity-affordance were identified as being relevant in their choice of application. Furthermore, culture—masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Power Distance—also have an effect on the adoption of collaborative eLearning applications and software the students used for learning. Chi-Square analysis found that individualism/collectivism and Power Distance were both significant and related to the adoption and usage of collaborative eLearning. Gender was found not to be a determinant of how students view the use of collaborative eLearning software applications. Finally, it was also found that understanding use and user behaviour, could provide the theoretical guidance to inform collaborative eLearning design. The analysis and findings show that culture influences the adoption of collaborative eLearning while technology affordance plays a major role in the use of collaborative eLearning.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Over the past decade, universities had a significant improvement in using online learning tools. A standard learning management system provides fundamental functionalities to satisfy the basic needs of its users. The new generation of learning management systems have introduced a novel system that provides social networking features. An unprecedented number of users use the social aspects of such platforms to create their profile, collaborate with other users, and find their desired career path. Nowadays there are many learning systems which provide learning materials, certificates, and course management systems. This allows us to utilize such information to help the students and the instructors in their academic life. The presented research work's primary goal is to focus on creating an intelligent personal assistant within the social learning systems. The proposed personal assistant has a human-like persona, learns about the users, and recommends useful and meaningful materials for them. The designed system offers a set of features for both institutions and members to achieve their goal within the learning system. It recommends jobs and friends for the users based on their profile. The proposed agent also prioritizes the messages and shows the most important message to the user. The developed software supports model-controller-view architecture and provides a set of RESTful APIs which allows the institutions to integrate the proposed intelligent agent with their learning system.

No description available.

Digital libraries are fast expanding into the role of independent educational entities that aspire not only to complementing traditional classroom teaching, but also allow open electronic learning for distance and continued education. These multifaceted roles can be realized only if the course content and the related content management system are versatile enough to be captured into any individual's learning needs. Many studies have defined a concept of "learning object" to address the issues and needs. But in attempting to solve the problem, the definitions have emphasized some aspects of the digital library while leaving the other issues to be solved later. Thus, the whole system dynamics is either weak or too cumbersome to navigate. As a part of this masters work, firstly the current model of pedagogical endowment was investigated. In order to accommodate the digital nature of education, a new modern profile of learning is proposed that allows modular yet efficient transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the pupil. The thesis then proposes a comprehensive learning object (LO) model, along with the associated system model, that will allow complete and flexible integration of content into the modern digital library profile. The process will be user-centric (both for knowledge developers and learners) as well as metadata-centric. It is scalable and interoperable with legacy and existing content databases and display systems. This thesis covers how the LO model is integrated into the core of the library's content development, discovery, and delivery process. The results of the experiment in terms of ease-of-use, flow-control, and feasibility of the model are documented. A beta-version of these concepts has been successfully tested with volunteers and implemented as a part of the Digital Library Network for Engineering and Technology (DLNET) project. / Master of Science

Många lärosäten använder idag fler än en lärplattform, ibland inom en och samma institution, program eller kurs. Uppsatsens syfte var därför att ta fram riktlinjer för vad som bör beaktas vid val av lärplattform för att fylla organisationens behov och passa dess förutsättningar. Undersökningen genomfördes med en kvalitativ datainsamlingsmetod där vi genom intervjuer med fem lärare vid Linnéuniversitetet samlade in deras krav. Resultatet blev en checklista som listar lärarnas krav och genom att kritiskt granskat litteratur kan vi rekommendera organisationer vad de bör överväga inför implementationen av en lärplattform. / Today, many institutions use more than one learning management system, sometimes within the same department, education program or course. The purpose of the essay was therefore to create guidelines for what should be considered when selecting a learning management system to meet the organizations needs and best suit their circumstances. The survey was conducted by a qualitative data collection method in which we collected the requirements of five teachers at Linnaeus University through interviews. The result was a checklist that lists teachers’ demands. By critical reviews of the literature we can recommend to organizations what they should consider before implementation of a learning management system.

Learning-Management-Systeme (LMS) bilden einen festen Bestandteil schulischer, universitärer und betrieblicher Technologiearrangements in der Aus- und Weiterbildungslandschaft (Meyer, 2016). Sie verstehen sich als webbasierte „Softwaresysteme zur Organisation, Steuerung und Kommunikation zum Lernen und Lehren“ (Kultusministerkonferenz, 2016, S. 42) und ermöglichen die Erstellung, Modifizierung und Veröffentlichung von Lerncontent. LMS finden vor allem dort ihren Einsatz, „wo große Nutzerzahlen auf einen nachhaltigen Lernbedarf stoßen“ (Müller, 2018). Sie adressieren als webbasierte Plattformen ein breites Spektrum bildungsbezogener Aufgaben angefangen bei der Verwaltung von Benutzern und Kursen über die Rollen- und Rechtevergabe bis hin zu verschieden Möglichkeiten der Kommunikation und Kollaboration von Lehrenden und Lernenden. Zudem gelten LMS im Kontext der Digitalisierung in Schulen, Hochschulen und Betrieben als entscheidende Marker für die Veränderung und Neuausrichtung von Lehre (Borchert, Fritzenberg, & Schlöffel, 2014). Für den Paradigmenwechsel ‚from teaching to learning’ und eine stärkere Lernerzentrierung sollen LMS eine wesentliche Rolle spielen (Barr & Tagg, 1995). [Aus der Einleitung.]

Είναι ευρέως γνωστό ότι, τα τελευταία χρόνια, οι ΤΠΕ (Τεχνολογίες Πληροφορίας και Επικοινωνίας) ενσωματώνονται σε όλα τα σύγχρονα εκπαιδευτικά συστήματα διότι με τη χρήση τους παρέχονται ποικίλες διευκολύνσεις – πλεονεκτήματα κατά τη μαθησιακή διαδικασία. Σκοπός της συγκεκριμένης διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η σχεδίαση και η παράδοση του μαθήματος "Ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών σε προγραμματιστικό περιβάλλον" με χρήση της πλατφόρμας ανοικτής εκπαίδευσης DIPLEK που χρησιμοποιεί τις ΤΠΕ για την ανάπτυξη και οργάνωση του εκπαιδευτικού υλικού από τους εκπαιδευτικούς. Το μάθημα «Ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών σε προγραμματιστικό περιβάλλον» απευθύνεται στους μαθητές της Γ’ Τάξης Τεχνολογικής Κατεύθυνσης Ενιαίου Λυκείου, του Κύκλου Πληροφορικής και Υπηρεσιών. Στόχος του μαθήματος είναι η εισαγωγή του μαθητή στη λογική του προγραμματισμού και η ανάπτυξη του κατάλληλου τρόπου σκέψης για την αλγοριθμική επίλυση προβλημάτων. Σκοπός της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η δημιουργία μιας υποδειγματικής διδασκαλίας του πανελληνίου αυτού εξεταζόμενου μαθήματος που θα αποτελέσει ένα χρήσιμο βοήθημα για τους μαθητές και εργαλείο αναφοράς για τους εκπαιδευτικούς. Για την υλοποίηση του μαθήματος θα χρησιμοποιηθεί η πλατφόρμα ανοικτής εκπαίδευσης DIPLEK. Η πλατφόρμα αυτή έχει σχεδιαστεί και υλοποιηθεί με βάση τις σύγχρονες ανάγκες του μαθητή και καθηγητή για εύκολη πρόσβαση σε εκπαιδευτικό υλικό και μπορεί και προσαρμόζεται στις ανάγκες του. Ακόμα η χρήση της δεν απαιτεί ιδιαίτερες γνώσεις ηλεκτρονικού υπολογιστή αφού παρέχει ένα φιλικό γραφικό περιβάλλον εργασίας στο χρήστη. Η ύλη που θα καλύπτει το μάθημα είναι η ύλη που καλούνται οι μαθητές της Γ Λυκείου να εξεταστούν στις πανελλήνιες εξετάσεις (ανάλυση προβλήματος, βασικές έννοιες αλγορίθμων, δομές δεδομένων και αλγόριθμοι, η γλώσσα προγραμματισμού «Γλώσσα» και το κεφάλαιο υποπρογράμματα). Για την επίτευξη του στόχου αυτού θα χρησιμοποιηθούν μια σειρά από δραστηριότητες που θα καλύπτουν το εύρος των δυνατοτήτων της πλατφόρμας. Δραστηριότητες που θα στοχεύουν στην ανάλυση των δυσνόητων σημείων θεωρίας, ασκήσεις λυμένες και ασκήσεις για λύση με σκοπό την εμπλοκή των μαθητών σε προσωπική πειραματική διαδικασία, τεστ πολλαπλής επιλογής, διαγωνίσματα. Περαιτέρω μελέτη αποτελεί η αξιολόγηση των σεναρίων στη σχολική τάξη και εφαρμογή παρόμοιων σεναρίων για περισσότερα γνωστικά αντικείμενα. / It is widely believed that in recent years, ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) have been incorporated into all modern educational systems since their use provides a variety of facilities - the advantages in the learning process. The purpose of this particular thesis, is the design and teaching of the " Application Development in a programming environment " course, by using the open education platform DIPLEK, which utilizes the ICT for the development and organization of educational material by teachers. The course mentioned before, is addressed to those students of the Third Grade of High School, who are orientated to the Technological field of computer Science and Services Cycle. The course aims at introducing to student the sense of planning and developing the appropriate way of thinking about algorithmic problem solving. The goal of this thesis is to create an exemplary instructive method of this Pan-Hellenic subject that will be a useful tool for students and a reference tool for teachers. For the realization of the course, the platform of open education DIPLEK will be used. It has been designed and implemented based on the current needs of both student and teacher, for easy access to educational material and can be adapted to their needs as well. Furthermore, its use requires no special computer knowledge due to the fact that it offers a friendly graphical user interface. The material covered by the course, is the one the third Grade candidates are invited to know well, since they enter for it during National exams (problem analysis, basic concepts of algorithms, data structures and algorithms, the programming language "Language" and sub programmes charter). To achieve this goal a range of activities covering the breadth of capabilities of the platform will be used. Activities which aim at analyzing the obscure points of theory, already answered drills and exercises or others which demand a solution with the view to student’s involvement in a personal experiment process and a variety of tests such as multiple choices ones.

As a result of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease the Swedish colleges, adult schools and high schools closed and switched to distance education. Beside the pandemic a report from the Teachers' Union was published in which it was found that many teachers are dissatisfied with the learning management systems used. The digitization of the school thus became a highly relevant area during this time. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the municipal adult education teacher's experience and use of learning management systems and thereby highlight what they see for challenges and opportunities with the learning management systems and if it has an impact on the actual usage. This paper is expected to respond to how teachers in Swedish municipal adult education feel that it is to work with learning management systems. To answer the question, a qualitative starting point is used, where semi-structured interviews have been used. In this study, the theoretical model UTAUT is used to analyze the result. The four constructs from UTAUT are used to categorize and identify the teachers' experiences, to better answer our research question. Ten municipal adult education teachers from four different schools in Västra Götaland, Sweden participated in the study. In the study, we could see that the most common area of use for the learning management system seems to be to communicate and to make materials accessible to students between classes. In addition, we could see that the teachers felt that their level of technical experience were somewhere between medium and high, all had some type of education and training in how to use learning platforms, however, more teachers described that there was a need for more education among colleagues. Advantages of learning management systems that most teachers described were increased efficiency, communication and accessibility, disadvantages that teachers described were legal security, integration, compliance with law and feedback. In general, the teachers seem more positively attuned to the platforms than negative. From the UTAUT model, we could see that all factors affect the teacher's intention and the actual use of the platform positively, however, some parts of the effort expectancy can negatively affect the teacher's intention to use. / I takt med coronautbrottet som startade i Kina och spred sig till stora delar av världen blev resultatet att svenska högskolor, vuxenskolor och gymnasium stängdes ner och gick över till ren distansutbildning. Parallellt med coronautbrottet publicerades en rapport från Lärarförbundet där det hade visat sig att många lärare är missnöjda med de digitala lärplattformar som används. Digitaliseringen av skolan blev därmed ett högt aktuellt område under denna tid. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka komvuxlärarens upplevelse av digitala lärplattformar och därmed lyfta fram vad de tycker finns för olika för- och nackdelar samt vad som påverkar den faktiska användningen. Denna studie förväntas svara på hur lärare i svensk kommunal vuxenutbildning upplever att det är att arbeta med digitala lärplattformar. För att besvara frågeställning används en kvalitativ utgångspunkt, där semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes. I studien används den teoretiska modellen UTAUT för att analysera resultatet. Kärnfaktorerna från UTAUT används för att kategorisera och identifiera lärarnas upplevelser, för att bättre besvara frågeställningen. I studien deltog tio komvuxlärare från fyra olika skolor i Västra Götaland. I studien kunde vi se att det vanligaste användningsområdet för en digital lärplattform verkar vara att kommunicera och för att göra material tillgängligt för eleverna mellan lektionstillfällen. Utöver detta kunde vi se att lärarna ansåg att de befann sig någonstans mellan medel och hög nivå gällande teknisk kunskap, samtliga hade haft någon typ av utbildning och fortbildning i hur de kan använda digitala lärplattformar, dock beskrev flera lärare att det fanns ett behov av mer utbildning bland kollegorna. Fördelar med digitala lärplattformar som de flesta lärare beskrev var ökad effektivitet, kommunikation och tillgänglighet, nackdelar som lärarna beskrev var rättssäkerhet, integration, förenlighet med lag, och feedback. Överlag verkar lärarna mer positivt inställda till plattformarna än negativt. Utifrån UTAUT-modellen kunde vi se att samtliga faktorer påverkar lärarens intention till och den faktiska användningen av plattformen positivt, dock kan vissa delar i förväntad ansträngning kan påverka lärarens intention till användning negativt.

Digital undervisning blev under covid-19 pandemin en viktig metod för att kunna upprätthålla lärande för utbildningsinstitutioner. Genom att använda sig av digitala plattformar och verktyg som exempelvis Learning Management Systems (LMS) och Videokonferens verktyg (VKV) kan studenter lära sig utan att fysiskt vara närvarande.  Den tidigare forskningen har tagit upp de sociala och fysiska problemen som kan uppstå vid ett oönskat miljöombyte. Vidare har det lyfts fram att individer har olika förutsättningar vid distansutbildning vilket kan påverka lärandet under hela utbildningen. Det lyfts även fram styrkor och svagheter med distansundervisning men inget som specifikt berör hur de digitala plattformarna har påverkat studenters motivation, koncentration och studieteknik under covid-19. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur studenter vid Linneuniversitetet upplever att de har påverkats av den ofrivilliga distansundervisningen covid-19 medför och de digitala lärplattformar och verktyg som används. En kvalitativ ansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer har varit studiens metod vid datainsamling. Studien har förhållit sig till fem informanter som studerat på olika program inom Linneuniversitetet. För att analysera data följdes Creswells sex steg för dataanalys vilket resulterade i två huvudområden som inkluderade fyra teman och tre subteman. Studien kom fram till att studenter upplever att det finns möjligheter till sociala interaktioner med VKV. Flexibiliteten och möjligheten att vara platsoberoende är väldigt positivt för studenter. Studien har konstaterat att studenters koncentration, motivation och studieteknik har påverkats negativt sedan införandet av VKV föreläsningar. Vid användning av LMS så har upplevelsen varit att det finns en minimal påverkan på centrala faktorerna för lärande. / During the covid-19 pandemic, digital education became an important method for maintaining learning for educational institutions. By using digital platforms and tools such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Video Conferencing tools (VKV), students can learn without being physically present.  Previous research has addressed the social and physical problems that can arise in the event of an unwanted environmental change. Furthermore, it has been emphasized that individuals have different conditions for distance education, which can affect learning throughout the education. It also highlights the strengths and weaknesses of distance education, but nothing that specifically affects how the digital platforms have affected students' motivation, concentration and study techniques during covid-19.  The purpose of this study was to investigate how students at Linnaeus University feel that they have been affected by the involuntary distance education that covid-19 entails and the digital learning platforms and tools used. A qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews has been the study's method of data collection. The study involved five informants who studied in various programs within Linnaeus University. Creswell’s six steps for data analysis was chosen to analyze the data which resulted in two main areas that included four themes and three subthemes.   The study concluded that students feel that there are opportunities for social interactions with VKV. The flexibility and the opportunity to be site-independent is very positive for students. The study has found that students' concentration, motivation and study techniques have been negatively affected since the introduction of VKV lectures. When using LMS, the experience has been that there is a minimal impact on the key factors for learning.