**6.1 DL courses for CIS countries**

The liberalization of telecommunications field has resulted in strengthening the competition among alternative telecommunications operators. The development of infocommunication technologies has stimulated internal competition amongst interchangeable services. These changes have brought new approaches, models and instruments of business management into force, required new decision making in the field of policies and regulatory issues, technology and ICT awareness, corporate management and expected professional development of decision-makers as well as senior level officials in the Telecommunications Sector of CIS countries. International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has set up the network of world Centers of Excellence (CoE) with the aim to promote the knowledge accumulated by the international community in the telecommunication sphere among ITU country-participants. Taking into account the successful implementation of Centers of Excellence in five ITU regions (Africa, Asia & Pacific, Americas and Arab region), the decision to implement a sixth Centre of Excellence has been taken for CIS and EUR regions.

This Centre of Excellence plays a unique role in developing telecommunications in the CIS region, by making contributions in keeping the sector at the cutting-edge and giving opportunity to the countries to offer services best-suited for the development of the information society. Accordingly, the CoE strengthens and improves the facilities needed to develop and consolidate high-level competencies related to telecommunications policy development, regulatory issues, telecommunication management, new technologies and services in accordance with requirements and expectations of the region. The CoE must focus on the organization and presentation of excellent training programs designed for government authorities, senior managers, operators and service providers, to facilitate the development of telecommunications in the region. The CoE seeks to bring into operation a network of excellence among potential content providers (e.g. universities, training centers, etc.) and to service providers and technology providers already established in the region to give practical advice and render assistance for program. Within the framework of the Centre of Excellence project for the CIS countries it has been decided to bring into operation a network of excellence amongst potential content providers, like universities and training centers, which could provide on-line solutions The following telecommunications institutions famous in the CIS countries have been selected as the potential content providers: Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics in Moscow (MTUCI, Russia), Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information Sciences in Novosibirsk (SibSUTIS, Russia), Alma-Ata Energy Institute (AEI, Kazakhstan), Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT, Uzbekistan), Kiev Institute of Communications (KIC, Ukraine), Higher State College of Communications in Minsk (HSCC, Belarus).

One of content providers in "Corporate management" for the CIS countries is the CoE on the basis of the Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information Sciences, SibSUTIS (Krouk & Sitnikov 2002; Krouk&Zhuravleva,2003). The service of organizing a learning process in this CoE has the following functions: planning the learning process (drawing up a schedule of electronic consultations, examinations, tests and tutorials) and implying functions of an Access Administrator, a Dispatcher of learning process and a

The liberalization of telecommunications field has resulted in strengthening the competition among alternative telecommunications operators. The development of infocommunication technologies has stimulated internal competition amongst interchangeable services. These changes have brought new approaches, models and instruments of business management into force, required new decision making in the field of policies and regulatory issues, technology and ICT awareness, corporate management and expected professional development of decision-makers as well as senior level officials in the Telecommunications Sector of CIS countries. International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has set up the network of world Centers of Excellence (CoE) with the aim to promote the knowledge accumulated by the international community in the telecommunication sphere among ITU country-participants. Taking into account the successful implementation of Centers of Excellence in five ITU regions (Africa, Asia & Pacific, Americas and Arab region), the decision to implement a sixth Centre of Excellence has been taken for CIS and EUR regions. This Centre of Excellence plays a unique role in developing telecommunications in the CIS region, by making contributions in keeping the sector at the cutting-edge and giving opportunity to the countries to offer services best-suited for the development of the information society. Accordingly, the CoE strengthens and improves the facilities needed to develop and consolidate high-level competencies related to telecommunications policy development, regulatory issues, telecommunication management, new technologies and services in accordance with requirements and expectations of the region. The CoE must focus on the organization and presentation of excellent training programs designed for government authorities, senior managers, operators and service providers, to facilitate the development of telecommunications in the region. The CoE seeks to bring into operation a network of excellence among potential content providers (e.g. universities, training centers, etc.) and to service providers and technology providers already established in the region to give practical advice and render assistance for program. Within the framework of the Centre of Excellence project for the CIS countries it has been decided to bring into operation a network of excellence amongst potential content providers, like universities and training centers, which could provide on-line solutions The following telecommunications institutions famous in the CIS countries have been selected as the potential content providers: Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics in Moscow (MTUCI, Russia), Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information Sciences in Novosibirsk (SibSUTIS, Russia), Alma-Ata Energy Institute (AEI, Kazakhstan), Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT, Uzbekistan), Kiev Institute of Communications (KIC, Ukraine), Higher State College of

One of content providers in "Corporate management" for the CIS countries is the CoE on the basis of the Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information Sciences, SibSUTIS (Krouk & Sitnikov 2002; Krouk&Zhuravleva,2003). The service of organizing a learning process in this CoE has the following functions: planning the learning process (drawing up a schedule of electronic consultations, examinations, tests and tutorials) and implying functions of an Access Administrator, a Dispatcher of learning process and a

**6. Appendix – The best practice of application of modern approaches to** 

**engineering education** 

**6.1 DL courses for CIS countries** 

Communications in Minsk (HSCC, Belarus).

Database Administrator. Most often these functions are performed by the same person. The technical support service in the DL system is the most expensive one because it consists of skillful personnel and exploits expensive equipment. This service consists of: programmers, who provide interactive communication, develop software for DL and elaborate databases; specialists in multimedia; network and web-server specialists whose aim is to provide a regular work of all servers, access to Web-servers over the Internet, video conferences, operation of a local network, protection of information against any fatal errors, and introduce new DL technologies.

The learning material of the course is divided into self-instructional units. This structure allows step-by-step learning, each step pays attention to a particular unit. The learning objectives of the course and each unit are clearly determined. The learning material is selfsufficient and trainees can do all types of training work and achieve stated learning objectives. The material is self-study oriented. Trainees have an opportunity to make calculations, solve different problems, and do practical exercises. The structure of the learning material contributes to the interaction of a trainee, and allows him/her communicate with trainers, tutors, specialists, and other course participants. Every unit has self-assessment questions and tasks, which would make it possible for a trainee to check his/her progress and mastery of the learning material. The learning program provides trainees with tests, which are checked and evaluated by trainers. The learning material is also provided with access devices such as course guides, course curriculum, trainers' email addresses and reference materials. A number of case studies, which require analysis and decisions making by trainees, are included in the learning program. To discuss those problems with other participants, trainees have access to a Web conferencing system offline taking into account different time zones. To manage trainees' study there is a billboard, on which one may put all general information. All materials are issued in HTML, with all necessary hyper references for convenient navigation through a course material. Trainees may see learning materials both online and in an autonomous regime.

The main objective of distance learning is to provide interactive training. For this purpose, dynamic Web pages are elaborated on the Active Server Pages platform. Integrated application of ASP and databases provides trainees with an access to resources of the Web site as well as gives information about grades received in the learning process, possible failures, and current assignments. On the basis of ASP, VBScript, and JavaScript, programs for distance testing of trainees have been developed. The software for group work in virtual class and case study, which help to hold discussions on learning issues with forum and chat technologies, is elaborated in the DL CoE. Communication activity provides such support for trainees who are far from the institution and cannot attend classes as communication with administrative staff, trainers, tutors, and other course participants. It makes possible for trainers to answer trainees' questions quickly, reveal their difficulties as well as render immediate assistance, form a sense of constant community among a dispersed group of trainees, compare their own study progress with that of other course participants, and give mutual assistance. On the developed site one of the main means of communication is the email. By email trainees send their papers to the DL CoE. By email they send questions and receive answers and reviews of accomplished assignments. For the convenience of trainees the email is mounted in a learning module, thereby making it possible to send messages (a question, an accomplished assignment, a draft, a project, etc.) without interrupting the work

Distance Learning: Modern Approaches to Engineering Education 179

and control of knowledge, questioning of trainees. As the program is oriented on adult people, it is provided with group discussion of studied problems and tasks performed in

To evaluate the training quality and efficiency of educational activity at corporate university the system of an integrated monitoring of an educational process has been implemented. After the students complete studying the material of each distance module they are asked to express their opinion about distance educational process. The questionnaire contains three kinds of questions: evaluation of distance learning organization, evaluation of electronic teaching materials quality and evaluation of trainees' survey. Each trainee should evaluate convenience of work with an educational site, the quality and completeness of communication with colleagues and an administrator of an educational process by fivepoint scale; to draw the conclusion about completeness and quality of electronic teaching

The analysis of the results has shown that almost all participants expressed satisfaction with web-site, access to it, service information on the web-site and cooperation with the manager of an training process. Trainees practically had no claims to the quality of teaching material on a distance learning web-site. Gradually in the process of training students completely adapt to a distance learning form, therefore they evaluate efficiency and quality of thee-learning course at the end of training higher than at the beginning. During the e-learning course collective discussion of a particular practical problem with a teacher on a forum is repeatedly organized. It is worth mentioning that students get more satisfied with some problem discussion at a forum by the end of studying (4, 82 points at the end of studying contrary to 3, 29 points at the beginning). Similarly, satisfaction from the dialogue with the colleagues at the end of studying was estimated higher than at the beginning (4, 86 points contrary to 3, 9 points). In process of studying trainees realize that the given training improve their professional work (4, 45 points contrary to 3, 71 points at the beginning). It is obvious that students have coped with electronic discussions and have been able to comprehend better the teaching material and their studying became more effective. On the average, managers have evaluated the e-learning distance course to the 4,86 points and are assured that it would be useful for their colleagues to take a

The expert evaluation of the quality and learning efficiency that was given at each grade level by the teachers participating in educational process was the third element of complex monitoring of the educational process system. In their conclusions it is underlined that training materials given in educational modules have caused genuine interest of the learners. It proves that the course is actual and of practical importance for listeners. At the lessons practical estimations have been conducted, special situations (cases) have been studied and investigated, business games have been played. Making task solutions trainees used the data of the "Sibirtelecom" and other enterprises. Students took the most active part in trainings,

The fourth and one of the most fundamental monitoring elements has been the score rating evaluation of the student's educational activity results. Not only managers' evaluation of this program is an evidence of the successful work of the network corporate university, but also positive comments by corporate publications. The majority of these managers had

demonstrated high level of analysis of problems offered to discussion competence.

modules. At internal sessions methods of work in small groups are used.

materials, and also to state the degree of distance learning.

similar e-learning course (4,86 points).

career development.

in the learning module. The other channels of communication are a debating forum and a billboard.

In 2009 about 250 participants from 10 countries took part in the courses held in DL Centre of Excellence on the basis of SibSUTIS. The quality of training was evaluated by questioning trainees. All course participants were provided with questionnaires to evaluate the quality of training in accordance with ITU requirements. Processing of questionnaire results allowed us to draw the following conclusions: almost all course participants were of a very high opinion of the quality of training; they pointed out that the course was up-to-date and expressed their interest in it; and the course turned out to be very useful for enterprise employees' practical work.

#### **6.2 The corporate DL course for telecom company managers**

Another example of modern approaches to engineering education, namely, the corporate elearning course for top and middle managers of the telecommunication company will be described. The management of "Sibirtelecom" Public Corporation of the Russian Holding Company "Svyazinvest" took a decision to hold retraining of top and middle managers of the company. This large company has its departments in 11 areas of the Siberian federal district and numbers more than 40 000 employees. Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information sciences (SibSUTIS) - the large branch-wise university located in territory of the Siberian federal district - became an educational institution capable of offering effective programs and methods of training (Krouk & Zhuravleva, 2004).

First of all the e-learning course content has solved corporate queries and has been adapted to the market. Besides, it also focused on the future interests of the corporation and the development of this market. In whole e-learning course consists of 5 modules and is meant for training within 6 months period (600 hours). The teaching time of each module makes 120 hours. Of them 96 hours are set aside on network training which takes about one month (with 4 hours per day), and 24 hours a short internal session. Such a learning containing both distance components and full-time tuition examinations is called blended learning. The e-learning course is based on modular concept on the basis of interdisciplinary approach. The course program is an integral program in which various teachers' activity is completely coordinated. The electronic-educational environment of this e-learning course aims students at self-managing personality-oriented learning, provides an informational interaction between students.

In the e-learning course nonconventional methods of training based on partnership represented by the process of an interactive dialogue in the conversional form, collective discussion of various situations (case-study), team work at joint projects and etc. have been used . The entire teaching material of the e-learning course is mostly connected with direct professional activity of employees. The practical e-learning course component contains special tasks which must be performed during the course by company employees. During the e-learning course the trainees communicate with teachers, the colleagues, the company experts by means of built-in in the module e-mail. Trainees and teachers get acquainted using the "visiting" cards system with photos. Acquaintance between students and formation of virtual class begins with a forum of acquaintance. Each module is provided with a feedback in the form of consultations, checks of practical tasks performance, testing

in the learning module. The other channels of communication are a debating forum and a

In 2009 about 250 participants from 10 countries took part in the courses held in DL Centre of Excellence on the basis of SibSUTIS. The quality of training was evaluated by questioning trainees. All course participants were provided with questionnaires to evaluate the quality of training in accordance with ITU requirements. Processing of questionnaire results allowed us to draw the following conclusions: almost all course participants were of a very high opinion of the quality of training; they pointed out that the course was up-to-date and expressed their interest in it; and the course turned out to be very useful for enterprise

Another example of modern approaches to engineering education, namely, the corporate elearning course for top and middle managers of the telecommunication company will be described. The management of "Sibirtelecom" Public Corporation of the Russian Holding Company "Svyazinvest" took a decision to hold retraining of top and middle managers of the company. This large company has its departments in 11 areas of the Siberian federal district and numbers more than 40 000 employees. Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information sciences (SibSUTIS) - the large branch-wise university located in territory of the Siberian federal district - became an educational institution capable of offering effective programs and methods of training (Krouk & Zhuravleva, 2004). First of all the e-learning course content has solved corporate queries and has been adapted to the market. Besides, it also focused on the future interests of the corporation and the development of this market. In whole e-learning course consists of 5 modules and is meant for training within 6 months period (600 hours). The teaching time of each module makes 120 hours. Of them 96 hours are set aside on network training which takes about one month (with 4 hours per day), and 24 hours a short internal session. Such a learning containing both distance components and full-time tuition examinations is called blended learning. The e-learning course is based on modular concept on the basis of interdisciplinary approach. The course program is an integral program in which various teachers' activity is completely coordinated. The electronic-educational environment of this e-learning course aims students at self-managing personality-oriented learning, provides an informational interaction

In the e-learning course nonconventional methods of training based on partnership represented by the process of an interactive dialogue in the conversional form, collective discussion of various situations (case-study), team work at joint projects and etc. have been used . The entire teaching material of the e-learning course is mostly connected with direct professional activity of employees. The practical e-learning course component contains special tasks which must be performed during the course by company employees. During the e-learning course the trainees communicate with teachers, the colleagues, the company experts by means of built-in in the module e-mail. Trainees and teachers get acquainted using the "visiting" cards system with photos. Acquaintance between students and formation of virtual class begins with a forum of acquaintance. Each module is provided with a feedback in the form of consultations, checks of practical tasks performance, testing

**6.2 The corporate DL course for telecom company managers** 

billboard.

employees' practical work.

between students.

and control of knowledge, questioning of trainees. As the program is oriented on adult people, it is provided with group discussion of studied problems and tasks performed in modules. At internal sessions methods of work in small groups are used.

To evaluate the training quality and efficiency of educational activity at corporate university the system of an integrated monitoring of an educational process has been implemented. After the students complete studying the material of each distance module they are asked to express their opinion about distance educational process. The questionnaire contains three kinds of questions: evaluation of distance learning organization, evaluation of electronic teaching materials quality and evaluation of trainees' survey. Each trainee should evaluate convenience of work with an educational site, the quality and completeness of communication with colleagues and an administrator of an educational process by fivepoint scale; to draw the conclusion about completeness and quality of electronic teaching materials, and also to state the degree of distance learning.

The analysis of the results has shown that almost all participants expressed satisfaction with web-site, access to it, service information on the web-site and cooperation with the manager of an training process. Trainees practically had no claims to the quality of teaching material on a distance learning web-site. Gradually in the process of training students completely adapt to a distance learning form, therefore they evaluate efficiency and quality of thee-learning course at the end of training higher than at the beginning. During the e-learning course collective discussion of a particular practical problem with a teacher on a forum is repeatedly organized. It is worth mentioning that students get more satisfied with some problem discussion at a forum by the end of studying (4, 82 points at the end of studying contrary to 3, 29 points at the beginning). Similarly, satisfaction from the dialogue with the colleagues at the end of studying was estimated higher than at the beginning (4, 86 points contrary to 3, 9 points). In process of studying trainees realize that the given training improve their professional work (4, 45 points contrary to 3, 71 points at the beginning). It is obvious that students have coped with electronic discussions and have been able to comprehend better the teaching material and their studying became more effective. On the average, managers have evaluated the e-learning distance course to the 4,86 points and are assured that it would be useful for their colleagues to take a similar e-learning course (4,86 points).

The expert evaluation of the quality and learning efficiency that was given at each grade level by the teachers participating in educational process was the third element of complex monitoring of the educational process system. In their conclusions it is underlined that training materials given in educational modules have caused genuine interest of the learners. It proves that the course is actual and of practical importance for listeners. At the lessons practical estimations have been conducted, special situations (cases) have been studied and investigated, business games have been played. Making task solutions trainees used the data of the "Sibirtelecom" and other enterprises. Students took the most active part in trainings, demonstrated high level of analysis of problems offered to discussion competence.

The fourth and one of the most fundamental monitoring elements has been the score rating evaluation of the student's educational activity results. Not only managers' evaluation of this program is an evidence of the successful work of the network corporate university, but also positive comments by corporate publications. The majority of these managers had career development.

Distance Learning: Modern Approaches to Engineering Education 181

learning administrators are workstations where browsers provide the access to the elearning recourses. The support system for the e-learning at the workplace, which ensures students' training process, starts with a student identification, which is made by entering a login and a password. If identification is done successfully, the student gets authorization to

The support system for the e-learning at the workplace provides students with administrators' and teachers' contact information; allows to send emails; gives recommendations how to work with Microsoft Office and archiving programs, which are used in the e-learning; provides students with the access to the e-learning curricula, tutorials and e-learning forum. The function "copy the learning courses" makes it possible for students to download an archived file with the learning materials of the selected subject into their own PC. Once the file is dear hived, students get a local mini-website, which contains all necessary materials for successful learning. The function "sending the performed tasks" makes it possible for students to send files with the performed learning tasks to the e-learning server in order to get registered in the database and to place their learning tasks into the storage of student's tasks. The student's tasks stored on the server become available to a teacher for checking and to an administrator to control training process. As it is very important for the students to be aware of their learning progress, the system includes "monitoring of student's progress". Functions of the support system for the e-learning at the workplace for teachers are the following: once being identified, the teacher gets the access to the e-dean's office, where the teacher may get the list of student's works assigned for a particular subject. The e-dean's office's page contains filters, which allow a quick search for a certain student's task using such search criteria as student's name, surname, code of his/her group, subject name, category of a student's task (all, checked, unchecked). Every line of the list contains data of one student's tasks including links to a student's email, a file with performed tasks and a student's personal information. The function "check" is used to open the page to make a revision and send

On the ground of the above described structure and functions of the support system for the e-learning at the workplace, one may arrive at a conclusion that application of the e-learning based on the Internet technologies makes it possible to organize a training process within

Businesses want employees to have international experience, administrations want their civil servants to communicate in a European context and institutions of higher learning encourage their students to study abroad. Yes, we live on a multicultural continent and Europeans have recognized the importance of other cultures. They are no longer a source of conflict but a cornucopia of knowledge and wisdom. Recognizing and accepting this fact is the first and important step on the way to greater European cohesion, but it is not sufficient. Our multicultural world requires extensive intercultural communication. We need more than a side-by-side existence of different cultures. What we want is a fruitful exchange

the university education, as well as to administer it thoroughly. E-learning via the Internet becomes more and more appealing.

**6.4 An international project promoting language learning and intercultural** 

information and learning materials of the current semester.

the task to a student.

**communication** 

#### **6.3 DL education on communication engineering and computer science**

Over the last ten years, perhaps, no sector of Russian national economy has undergone such a revolutionary shock as telecommunications one. In the technical development of this sector there have been five qualitative leaps: the element base of the equipment was replaced (instead of lamps and transistors there were digital very large integrated circuits); principles of the equipment operation have changed (the outmoded analog principle has been replaced by modern digital one) ; principles of communication networking have changed (instead of slow switching of channels superfast switching of packages with speech and video information have come into operation); the transmission medium has changed (instead of electric signals transmitting by metal conductors light beams on optical fibers have been transmitted); automated control systems of networks have been introduced. In this connection ten years ago the problem of mass retraining of the technical and administrative personnel of telecommunications sector came to the fore. There might have been a threat of "a personnel collapse" without solving this problem.

In 2000 the Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information sciences has launched the corporate distance university. The employees of the telecommunication companies and corporations can graduate in telecommunication, information and economics from the corporate distance university. It aims its educational services at the telecommunication sector of the Russian economy, and also of the CIS countries. The basic consumers of services are such large stock companies, as "Sibirtelekom" and "Uralsvyazinform" (60 %). As for other companies: "Dalsvyaz", "The Northwest Telecom", "Volgatelekom", "Centrtelekom", "Kazakhtelecom" its a share is about 40% of all consumed educational services.

The main participants of an educational process in a corporate distance university are students, teachers-tutors and managers of educational process. A necessary condition for the Internet-learning organization is availability of a Web-server, database and management system of training process at the university. Introduction of e-learning technology into educational process has demanded introduction of Learning Process Maintenance procedure shown in fig. 2. Support system for e-learning at the workplace fulfills functions which include design of learning courses, teaching of students using the Internet, management of training process, support of e-library. In the process of e-learning organization three categories of users take part. They are students, teachers and administrators of training process. The support system for the e-learning at the workplace provides communication between the users and the administrators of a training process.

Content of e-learning courses developed by teachers get archived and are stored on the server. The database server is used to manage the e-learning database which contains data about students, teachers, managers, curricula, learning specialties, subject, learning progress and teachers' reviews. The Web-server provides access to the e-learning recourses for all categories of users. The Web-server's functions include publishing of information, reference and learning materials; access to the database and storage of learning materials. The server of a remote laboratory allows students to work with devices and equipment in the remote access mode. The storage of a student's works includes all works performed by students and sent by email as archived files. In order to send student works and information teachers and managers use a special mail service. Automated workplaces for students, teachers and e-

Over the last ten years, perhaps, no sector of Russian national economy has undergone such a revolutionary shock as telecommunications one. In the technical development of this sector there have been five qualitative leaps: the element base of the equipment was replaced (instead of lamps and transistors there were digital very large integrated circuits); principles of the equipment operation have changed (the outmoded analog principle has been replaced by modern digital one) ; principles of communication networking have changed (instead of slow switching of channels superfast switching of packages with speech and video information have come into operation); the transmission medium has changed (instead of electric signals transmitting by metal conductors light beams on optical fibers have been transmitted); automated control systems of networks have been introduced. In this connection ten years ago the problem of mass retraining of the technical and administrative personnel of telecommunications sector came to the fore. There might have

In 2000 the Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information sciences has launched the corporate distance university. The employees of the telecommunication companies and corporations can graduate in telecommunication, information and economics from the corporate distance university. It aims its educational services at the telecommunication sector of the Russian economy, and also of the CIS countries. The basic consumers of services are such large stock companies, as "Sibirtelekom" and "Uralsvyazinform" (60 %). As for other companies: "Dalsvyaz", "The Northwest Telecom", "Volgatelekom", "Centrtelekom", "Kazakhtelecom" its a share is about 40% of all consumed

The main participants of an educational process in a corporate distance university are students, teachers-tutors and managers of educational process. A necessary condition for the Internet-learning organization is availability of a Web-server, database and management system of training process at the university. Introduction of e-learning technology into educational process has demanded introduction of Learning Process Maintenance procedure shown in fig. 2. Support system for e-learning at the workplace fulfills functions which include design of learning courses, teaching of students using the Internet, management of training process, support of e-library. In the process of e-learning organization three categories of users take part. They are students, teachers and administrators of training process. The support system for the e-learning at the workplace provides communication between the users and the administrators of a training process.

Content of e-learning courses developed by teachers get archived and are stored on the server. The database server is used to manage the e-learning database which contains data about students, teachers, managers, curricula, learning specialties, subject, learning progress and teachers' reviews. The Web-server provides access to the e-learning recourses for all categories of users. The Web-server's functions include publishing of information, reference and learning materials; access to the database and storage of learning materials. The server of a remote laboratory allows students to work with devices and equipment in the remote access mode. The storage of a student's works includes all works performed by students and sent by email as archived files. In order to send student works and information teachers and managers use a special mail service. Automated workplaces for students, teachers and e-

**6.3 DL education on communication engineering and computer science** 

been a threat of "a personnel collapse" without solving this problem.

educational services.

learning administrators are workstations where browsers provide the access to the elearning recourses. The support system for the e-learning at the workplace, which ensures students' training process, starts with a student identification, which is made by entering a login and a password. If identification is done successfully, the student gets authorization to information and learning materials of the current semester.

The support system for the e-learning at the workplace provides students with administrators' and teachers' contact information; allows to send emails; gives recommendations how to work with Microsoft Office and archiving programs, which are used in the e-learning; provides students with the access to the e-learning curricula, tutorials and e-learning forum. The function "copy the learning courses" makes it possible for students to download an archived file with the learning materials of the selected subject into their own PC. Once the file is dear hived, students get a local mini-website, which contains all necessary materials for successful learning. The function "sending the performed tasks" makes it possible for students to send files with the performed learning tasks to the e-learning server in order to get registered in the database and to place their learning tasks into the storage of student's tasks. The student's tasks stored on the server become available to a teacher for checking and to an administrator to control training process. As it is very important for the students to be aware of their learning progress, the system includes "monitoring of student's progress". Functions of the support system for the e-learning at the workplace for teachers are the following: once being identified, the teacher gets the access to the e-dean's office, where the teacher may get the list of student's works assigned for a particular subject. The e-dean's office's page contains filters, which allow a quick search for a certain student's task using such search criteria as student's name, surname, code of his/her group, subject name, category of a student's task (all, checked, unchecked). Every line of the list contains data of one student's tasks including links to a student's email, a file with performed tasks and a student's personal information. The function "check" is used to open the page to make a revision and send the task to a student.

On the ground of the above described structure and functions of the support system for the e-learning at the workplace, one may arrive at a conclusion that application of the e-learning based on the Internet technologies makes it possible to organize a training process within the university education, as well as to administer it thoroughly.

E-learning via the Internet becomes more and more appealing.

#### **6.4 An international project promoting language learning and intercultural communication**

Businesses want employees to have international experience, administrations want their civil servants to communicate in a European context and institutions of higher learning encourage their students to study abroad. Yes, we live on a multicultural continent and Europeans have recognized the importance of other cultures. They are no longer a source of conflict but a cornucopia of knowledge and wisdom. Recognizing and accepting this fact is the first and important step on the way to greater European cohesion, but it is not sufficient. Our multicultural world requires extensive intercultural communication. We need more than a side-by-side existence of different cultures. What we want is a fruitful exchange

Distance Learning: Modern Approaches to Engineering Education 183

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#### **7. References**


between cultures and nations. It is the aim of EMA-4-MOODLE, an Erasmus Mundus

The aim of this project was to facilitate international mobility for European and non-European students by offering them tools that will help them overcome these difficulties. These tools are specifically adapted on-line language courses and intercultural documents. Project partners are developing four language courses: in French, German, Russian and Slovak. The courses are being implemented on the LMS Moodle (Hörbarth, 2007). The language courses are based on an original film made in each partner country. The film is broken into stages a foreign student at a particular institution has to go through in order to succeed his integration into the new educational system. The film consists of 10 parts lasting for about 10 minutes each and is provided with the subtitles in the original and English languages. The most common situations that foreign students may face when they come to study abroad are shown in the films. The students can see the buildings of the university, accommodation conditions, people actually working and students actually studying there so when they come they would not feel as total strangers; they would have an idea of where to

go and what to do. This project has been supported by the European Commission.

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**9**

*USA* 

Jon R. Hufford *Texas Tech University* 

**Assessment Methods of Student Learning in Web-Based Distance Courses: A Case Study** 

Higher education has been challenged for several years now to show with empirical evidence that it is committed to improving student learning. The United States Department of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education issued a report in 2006 titled *A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of United States Higher Education*. The report makes recommendations for educational reform. A portion of a summary in the report states that "improved accountability is vital to ensuring the success of all the other reforms we propose. Colleges and universities must become more transparent about cost, price, and student [learning] success outcomes, and must willingly share this information with students and families" (U.S. Dept. of Education, 2006, pp. 4, 14-15). The Commission's

All of the regional higher education accreditation organizations made changes in their standards in response to the Commission's report, and these changes are chiefly responsible for the trend toward student learning-outcomes assessment in the United States.1 Some of the standards of these regional organizations relate to distance courses and, among other things, have influenced the way they are assessed. Distance learning faculty are now using student learning-outcomes assessment methods in their courses because of this new emphasis on assessment and the inclusion of distance courses in the efforts of many colleges and universities to assess their programs and courses.2 The data collected from these assessment efforts is being used to improve student learning, the content of the courses, and the teaching skills of the instructors. Unfortunately the experiences of instructors in assessing what distance students are learning in their courses are not well documented in the professional literature. Distance learning faculty with this experience should share their assessment findings with colleagues who need to know which methods are working successfully and which are not, and how the assessment process can be used to improve

1 Student learning-outcomes assessment focuses on empirically measuring student performance, which is called outcomes. It requires that students demonstrate that they have learned the required skills and

2 Distance learning (also called distance education) is a method of studying in which lectures are broadcast or classes are conducted by correspondence or over the Internet, without the students

report has had a significant impact on campuses across the United States.

**1. Introduction** 

learning and teaching.

content taught in the course.

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