Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Mitchell Neilsen / The Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI) facility at Kansas State University is a huge biocontainment facility to conduct research on infectious diseases that pose a threat to plant, animal and human health. The BRI Training and Education Program is currently offline; i.e., classroom sessions are taken to provide this training and education. The objective behind taking up this project was to move the entire training and education module of Biosecurity Research Institute online, instead of having a classroom session for each training course, with an subject matter expert (SME) to come and take the training session. The aim is to develop an online training system which is synchronized with the information in the BRI Research Project Database. The employees will only have to login to the website, scroll through the list of courses they are enrolled in, take the courses, write the assignments/quizzes assigned to the course and then submit the quizzes. They can also self-enroll themselves into courses, if they are given the permission to do so. The SME’s of the courses can create new courses, upload the course materials, enroll users into the courses, and assign deadlines to course completion. Once the student submits the course quiz or assignments, the SME’s can grade the quiz, assign a final grade to the students, and give feedback on their performance. They can even reassign the course in case of poor performance by the student. The administrators of the website can assign roles to different personnel, give permissions according to need and requirement, add/delete courses, and change the appearance of the website. The project is to be done using a Learning Management System called Moodle. Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is an online learning management system designed to allow interaction between teachers and students. The back-end database used is SQL Server 2008 R2 and additional tools used are Adobe Presenter (with Microsoft Power Point 2010) to create the courses in SCORM format.

Thesis (MPhil (Modern Foreign Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The decline in the Grade 12 pass rate in South Africa has been a cause for widespread concern. While this decline in is the result of the interplay of many factors, one of them is undoubtedly that teachers and pupils often find themselves in situations where they do not have access to adequate resources. This study is a formative evaluation of material that was created with the Moodle learning management system, in order to provide teachers and learners with resources that can be made readily available online. These resources are accessible from computers and cellular phones with internet connectivity. The resources not only provide content, but also learning activities that can be used either by individual learners, or with a teacher in a classroom environment. In the absence of a teacher, the activities could also provide meaningful feedback to aid learners in the learning process. Two courses were created in the Moodle Learning Management System that cover work prescribed for Grade 12, English First Additional Language for the period 2009 to 2010; namely the prescribed short stories and the play, Nothing But The Truth by John Kani. A number of activities are evaluated according to usage and feedback that they provide. The outcome of the study is that it is possible to provide learners with online learning materials which will enable them to prepare thoroughly for the final examinations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die daling in die Graad 12 slaagsyfer veroorsaak kommer in baie geledere. Alhoewel hierdie daling die gevolg kan wees van baie faktore, is een van die redes dat onderwysers en leerlinge hulle dikwels in 'n situasie bevind waar hulle nie die nodige toegang tot die nodige leermateriaal het nie. Hierdie studie doen ‘n formatiewe evaluering van die leerprogram wat ontwerp is met behulp van Moodle, 'n leerbeheerstelsel, om onderwysers en leerders van die nodige leermateriaal te voorsien. Die leermateriaal is toeganklik vanaf beide ‘n rekenaar en 'n selfoon met internet toegang. Hierdie leermateriaal verskaf nie net statiese inligting nie, maar bevat leeraktiwiteite wat deur leerders op hulle eie gebruik kan word, of saam met 'n onderwyser in 'n klaskamer. In die afwesigheid van 'n onderwyser kan die leermateriaal ook die nodige terugvoering verskaf, sodat dit leerders kan help in die leerproses. Twee kursusse is ontwerp as deel van 'n Moodle stelsel wat van die voorgeskrewe werk dek vir Graad 12, Engels Eerste Addisionele Taal vir die tydperk 2009 tot 2010; naamlik die voorgeskrewe kortverhale en die verhoogstuk, Nothing But The Truth, deur John Kani. 'n Aantal aktwiteite word evalueer ten opsigte van die gebruik en ook die terugvoering wat dit voorsien. Die resultate van die studie is dat dit wel moontlik is om voldoende studie materiaal aan Graad 12’s besikbaar te stel wat hulle kan gebruik om voor te berei vir die eindeksamen.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of students in an implementation of &ldquo / Learning by Design&rdquo / method through a web based learning environment. The information gathered from the students enrolled in the undergraduate course / &ldquo / Foundations of Distance Education&rdquo / in 2009 Summer School and 2009-2010 Fall Semesters was evaluated. The course was given in blended form, i.e. face to face lessons and online instructional activities were performed together. In the web based part of the course, several educational modules of an open source learning management system (LMS), such as quizzes, forums, lesson pages, wiki pages, mail interface etc. were used. The students were responsible for implementing an educational course site on the LMS platform, using the course curriculum applications. Within the scope of this thesis, the perceptions of the students about course-related projects, and online and classroom activities were investigated through interviews and questionnaires. The academic development of students was also considered in the study. Additionally, several informal interviews were also done with the instructor of the course in order to investigate his perceptions about the conduct of the course. Questionnaire results have been analyzed quantitatively and face to face interview results have been analyzed qualitatively. Both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that the students&rsquo / perceptions about how the course was conducted and the learning by design activities were generally positive. Especially the project work, which was assigned as a requisite of the learning by design method, was pointed out as a positive factor in students&#039 / learning of the subject matter both in the questionnaires and in the face to face interviews. Another important finding of the interview and questionnaire results was that the communication between the instructor and the students contributed positively to not only learning the course content but the quality of the projects as well. As an outcome of this study, many important factors, which lead to successful results in implementation of learning by design method in a web based environment, have been identified. These results are presented in detail in the &#039 / Discussion and Recommendations&#039 / section.