This thesis has conducted interpretive qualitative research to investigate the impacts and limitations of LMS Moodle in distance students’ learning process from distance students’ perspectives. The qualitative data was collected from mediated semi-structured interviews with distance students participating in a Master program at Linnaeus University. Through empirical findings and analysis, the positive experiences and limitations of using Moodle in facilitating distance learning process have been revealed from distance students’ perspectives. The positive experiences include that LMS Moodle was used by distance students for interacting with other students, teachers and accessing study contents during their distance learning process. Moodle was used to know new classmates, teachers and the new learning system, recruit group members for the collaborative works, communicate with teachers and other classmates, and obtain significant information about courses. Especially, accessing study contents in Moodle easily was critical for distance students' learning. However, there were still some limitations. Distance students preferred Facebook to Moodle for student-student interaction during the process of collaborative works. The interaction with teachers was not adequate and timely for distance students. The limitations also include unsatisfactory Moodle interface design and poor usability of Moodle.   Some suggestions about improving LMS Moodle in different ways had also been acquired from the research. The suggestions from distance students mainly focus on integrating Moodle with other web conferencing platforms for improving the quality of student-student, student-teacher interaction in Moodle, ameliorating the interface design of Moodle, and adding Moodle tutorials. The result will help the development of LMS based on distance students' needs and finally benefit distance students' learning process.

The aim of the thesis is the design and development of a simple information system to support teaching. The first part of the thesis explains the basic concepts of e learning, the selection of systems for analysis and evaluation. The beginning of the second part aims to define the general and functional requirements necessary for a simple portal to support teaching. This system should be an alternative to selected robust systems. The work also deals with the description of technology and system architecture developed. The final section of the thesis regards the installation instructions and user manuals which contain screen shots of the system in addition to the system's features. The practical output of the thesis is a modular web application which is available to users through a web browser. The developed system can be extended with new modules. The system architecture allows for future development to be distributed between developers devoted to creating the user environment and developers involved in the application logic

TITLE: Videoconference at school AUTHOR: Petr Karadžos DEPARTMENT: Department of technical and informatics education SUPERVISOR: doc. RNDr. František Lustig, CSc. ABSTRACT: The theoretical goal is based on overview of videoconferencing solutions regarding to usage in educational process and overview of application videoconferencing solutions. Moreover, theory part is also focused on how videoconferences are working according to technical background. The descriptions of signaling process between two or more ending points and how are multimedia data transmitted during videoconference calls. The topic of practical part is to analyze how videoconferences can be used as technical educational tools in learning environment based on videoconferencing pilot project. KEYWORDS: Videoconferencing, H.323, SIP, webinar, multimedia, ICT, Multicast, Moodle, GoToWebinar

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:22:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Marcos Ficiano.pdf: 5036119 bytes, checksum: cb709e617e65237763b790ae354cf962 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-25 / The research work - which is characterized by the intervention - aims to understand and analyze the overall process of building an interface to the Moodle Learning Management System, assuming the combination of three elements: navigability, usability and architecture information seeking to encourage learning, which demonstrates the process of building the interface to highlight the importance of multidisciplinary work. The project addresses the Distance Education and the concept, characteristics and possibilities of interactivity of AVAs, with a brief mention of multimedia, the Internet and its history. Speaks of computer languages, programming techniques, classification of languages, types of software, models of virtual environments and web-based methodologies to software development, based on the approach to systems design. This is the Moodle platform, with its technological potential, examining the process of customizing the platform with an corporate course, in which greater navigability and usability have been taken as the base. And finish the job search when he observes the product built under the light of the concepts and theories studied, and how to apply these principles could be confirmed in promoting effective learning. Research has shown that both teachers and students are benefited by participating in classes to distance learning in virtual environments, while it is well structured, in that they enable the development of critical thinking, practical reasoning, ease of interaction, collaboration and socializing / O trabalho de pesquisa realizado - que tem por característica a intervenção -, tem como objetivo geral conhecer e analisar o processo de construção de uma interface para o Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem Moodle, partindo do pressuposto da articulação de três elementos: navegabilidade, usabilidade e arquitetura da informação em busca de favorecer a aprendizagem, que demonstra o processo de construção da interface com o destaque da importância do trabalho multidisciplinar. O projeto aborda a Educação a Distância e o conceito, características e possibilidades de interatividade dos AVAs, com uma breve referência da multimídia, da Internet e sua história. Fala das linguagens de computação, técnicas de programação, classificações das linguagens, tipos de softwares, modelos de ambientes virtuais baseados na web e metodologias utilizadas para o desenvolvimento de softwares, com base na abordagem de concepção de sistemas. Trata da plataforma Moodle, com suas potencialidades tecnológicas, com a análise do processo de customização da plataforma com um curso corporativo, em que uma maior navegabilidade e usabilidade foram tidas como base. E termina o trabalho de pesquisa quando observa o produto construído sob a luz dos conceitos e teorias estudados, e de que maneira a aplicação desses princípios puderam ser confirmados na promoção efetiva da aprendizagem. A pesquisa mostrou que tanto os professores como os alunos são beneficiados ao participarem de aulas a distância em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem, quando este se encontra bem estruturado, na medida em que estes possibilitam o desenvolvimento de espírito crítico, a prática de raciocínio, facilidade de interação, colaboração e socialização

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Cantarim D Oliveira.pdf: 1083223 bytes, checksum: 085279ca3e4e61cf364eb9c2e77a4c32 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-10 / This study aims to investigate how the collection of information resources available through the Moodle, such as logs, activity reports, user profile and evaluation questionnaires, can become an instrument for the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by Benjamin Bloom as described evaluation method, it being one of the references to the analysis of learning gains of participants in distance courses conducted via the web. Moodle describes the navigation data of the users into four categories, View, Add, Update and Cancel. We will understand only some factors here's Taxonomy, studies concerning the functions of evaluation, said as diagnostic, control and classification. In the work taken as diagnostic, formative and summative. Conceptually this study will focus on summative evaluation, made possible by the facilities found in the Moodle web systems that allow full control of user navigation. Constantly used tool in the evaluation in virtual environments are questionnaires that make direct reference to the contents worked. But still emerging studies that discuss the range of evaluation in virtual environments, considering all its stages. The case study research are the courses conducted by the project Itaú-Unicef Award, 2149 professionals attended these courses non-governmental organizations that make some kind of working with children and adolescents 0-18 years. We offered 10 courses distributed in 56 classes. The data obtained in these courses were analyzed using the method of Bloom and its aftermath served as input for management intervention courses at the moment that a certain behavior is identified. At the end we hope to obtain an analytical panel where you can view the successful and critical points of each course, assisting in the decision making of managers in the course changes and changes necessary to further serve the public project / O trabalho se propõe a investigar de que forma os recursos de recolhimento de informações disponibilizados pelo sistema Moodle, como logs, relatório de atividades, perfil de usuário e questionários de avaliação, podem se tornar instrumento da avaliação de aprendizagem à luz da Taxonomia dos Objetivos Educacionais descrita por Benjamin Bloom como referencia para análise dos ganhos de aprendizagem dos alunos de cursos à distância. Serão analisados os dados de navegação dos alunos que são registrados pelo sistema Moodle em quatro categorias, Ver, Acrescentar, Atualizar e Cancelar. O trabalho tratará apenas alguns fatores da Taxonomia, os estudos do autor que dizem respeito às funções da avaliação, ditas como: diagnóstica, controle e classificação, entendidas no estudo como diagnóstica, formativa e somativa. Será destacada a avaliação somativa, possível por meio das ferramentas de controle dos dados de navegação dos usuários do Moodle durante a realização das atividades do curso. Essas ferramentas são constantemente utilizadas na avaliação em ambientes virtuais e fazem referência direta aos conteúdos trabalhados. Nesse estudo apresenta-se uma opção de analise, relacionando os dados aos objetivos educacionais do curso e estruturados a partir da taxonomia desses fatores. O estudo de caso do trabalho são os cursos realizados pelo projeto Prêmio Itaú-Unicef, na formação de dirigentes de organizações não governamentais de todo o Brasil, participaram desses cursos 2149 profissionais que realizam projetos com crianças e adolescentes de 0 a 18 anos. Foram oferecidos 10 cursos distribuídos em 56 turmas. Os dados obtidos nesses cursos serão apresentados e analisados utilizando a metodologia de Bloom e seu resultado servirá como alternativa para a intervenção de moderadores de cursos à distância no processo de ensino e aprendizagem do aluno. No trabalho é proposto um painel analítico exibindo os pontos exitosos e críticos de cada curso, que busca auxiliar na tomada de decisão dos gestores dos cursos nas mudanças e alterações necessárias para qualificar interação do aluno com o curso

Tese de Mestrado. Multimédia. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Tese de mestrado. Tecnologia Multimédia - Perfil Educação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto, Universidade do Porto. faculdade de Ciências, Universidade Federal da Bahia. Faculdade de Educação. 2008

Ce mémoire est une évaluation de la qualité de Moodle, une plateforme de téléapprentissage (PTA) basée sur du logiciel libre et récemment implantée à l'UQAM pour remplacer la plateforme propriétaire WebCT. Cette évaluation a été entreprise selon une approche du génie logiciel, en l'occurrence une analyse de conformité de Moodle aux exigences de la norme de qualité ISO 9126, un référentiel normatif international qui décrit 6 caractéristiques de qualité et leurs sous caractéristiques. Ce choix méthodologique a semblé moins subjectif et plus rigoureux que celui des méthodes courantes d'évaluation de la qualité des PTA (ex: méthode de la grille des critères ou les questionnaires) car cette norme repose sur un modèle très structuré et un ensemble de métriques pour évaluer la qualité du logiciel. En outre l'approche est fiable si l'on considère que cette norme a fait l'objet d'applications multiples en génie logiciel et possède une reconnaissance internationale. Les résultats obtenus montrent un haut niveau de conformité de Moodle1.6.5 aux exigences de qualité technique d'ISO 9126, à raison de 91% pour la fonctionnalité et un indice de conformité de 87,5% aux exigences de qualité ergonomique pour les facteurs d'utilisabilité. L'évaluation montre aussi que l'interopérabilité, qui est un facteur technique critique dans un environnement Open Source comme Moodle, a connu une amélioration importante avec un indice de conformité de 86 % à la norme alors que cet indice n'est que de 37 % pour l'interopérabilité technique et 57 % pour l'interopérabilité pédagogique pour la PTA propriétaire WebCT. Au terme de ce processus d'évaluation, cette méthode du génie logiciel nous est apparue aussi comme étant plus efficace et plus efficiente que les méthodes traditionnelles d'évaluation car elle exige moins de temps, moins d'argent et ne nécessite pas le recours à des évaluateurs experts. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : e-Learning, Moodle, ISO 9126, Évaluation, Exigence, Génie logiciel, Interopérabilité, Fonctionnalité, Ergonomie, Conformité.

De 2006 à 2010, nous avons étudié le cas d'une université québécoise ayant implanté Moodle, une plateforme en ligne d'apprentissage. Celle-ci permet aux enseignants de créer un espace personnalisé sur Internet destiné à diffuser des ressources numériques à leurs étudiants, à interagir avec ceux-ci et à les faire participer à des activités d'apprentissage. Alors que plusieurs études se sont déjà penchées sur le potentiel pédagogique de ce type de technologie, nous l'avons plutôt abordé en tant qu'outil de travail des enseignants, en nous intéressant à l'émergence d'un processus de co-configuration dans un contexte où l'organisation implante et supporte à l'interne une technologie open source. Contrairement aux méthodologies de design participatif ou de développement logiciel itératif qui se préoccupent de l'implication des usagers dans les phases antérieures de la conception, les pratiques de co-configuration que nous décrivons concernent un produit existant qu'on adapte localement après son implantation. L'accessibilité au code source de Moodle ainsi que les échanges mutuels entre les développeurs et les usagers permettent à l'organisation utilisatrice de personnaliser l'outil tout au long de sa durée de vie, et non seulement lors de périodes circonscrites de design et de conception. Les problèmes rencontrés par les enseignants constituent donc le point de départ temporel de leurs interactions avec les développeurs à l'interne. Les usages en contexte réel de travail révèlent à la fois certaines structures organisationnelles difficilement perceptibles aux développeurs avant l'implantation et rendent plus visibles les pratiques hétérogènes des enseignants. En accroissant la capacité d'action des développeurs, l'accès au code source du logiciel crée un contexte plus favorable à la prise en compte des demandes des usagers, puisque les développeurs peuvent « localiser » plus facilement les problèmes rencontrés en allant regarder comment le logiciel a été programmé et comment il pourrait être modifié pour mieux répondre à leurs besoins. Le caractère incrémental des modifications apportées localement à Moodle fait en sorte que les développeurs puissent accommoder certains besoins très spécifiques - voire uniques - tout en s'assurant de répondre aux besoins de la majorité, en plus d'assurer la compatibilité entre la version locale et la version officielle du logiciel. D'un point de vue conceptuel, nous avons mobilisé la théorie de l'activité en tant que cadre d'analyse (Engestrom, 1987). La théorie de l'activité considère le changement comme un processus de résolution de contradictions, c'est-à-dire une séquence d'événements autour desquels s'articule la transformation des pratiques. Les différents niveaux de contradiction permettent de mieux saisir les liens entre les nouveaux patterns d'interaction et les pratiques institutionnalisées, de même que les implications des changements pour les systèmes d'activité voisins. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : co-configuration, open source, organisation, usages des technologies

According to research by Tennessen, PonTell, Romine and Motheral (1997), the Extension System has been educating the nation for over 96 years, and the idea of using technology as a medium for education has been in the minds of Extension educators for over 40 years. The National E-Extension (eXtension) Initiative is being adopted at a rapid pace, and the history of this impact requires documentation in order to assist others in similar adoption and diffusion processes. The purpose of this historical study was to describe how and why eXtension was established and the implementation of Moodle as a Course Management System (CMS) within eXtension. The researcher was able to determine that the eXtension system is becoming an accepted form of education for Extension. However, barriers to adoption do exist. The study revealed that online education is becoming part of Extension through eXtension, but as awareness grows and develops the eXtension system must do the same. Technology is offering new ways to reach clientele, and as such, Extension continues to strive to take advantage of these technologies. This study consisted of two parts. The first part sought to document the history of eXtension and the implementation of Moodle as a Course Management System (CMS) in Extension. The second part sought to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) related to the use of Moodle as a Course Management System within eXtension. Interviews were conducted with five individuals knowledgeable of the history of eXtension and the implementation of Moodle concerning their experience. For the second part, interviews were conducted with nine individuals currently serving as instructors within one or both eXtension Moodle websites. The researcher was able to document the history of eXtension and Moodle and determine 11 emerging themes within the predetermined areas of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Findings revealed that those involved in using Moodle within Extension have knowledge of the innovation, have formed an attitude toward the innovation, and have decided to adopt or reject the innovation based on the stages of Rogers' innovation-decision process. Completion of the implementation of the innovation and confirmation of the decision stage of the process will be most effectively completed through the work of eXtension at the national level.