METHODICAL MAINTENANCE
Modern trends in the world electronic educational system development determine the necessity of adaptive learning intellectual environments and resources’ development and implementation. An upcoming trend in improvement the quality of studying mathematical disciplines is the development and application of adaptive electronic educational resources. However, the development and application experience of adaptive technologies in higher education is currently extremely limited and does not imply the usage flexibility. Adaptive educational resources in the electronic environment are electronic educational resources that provide the student with a personal educational space, filled with educational content that “adapts” to the individual characteristics of the students and provides them with the necessary information.
This article focuses on the mathematical educational content adaptation algorithms development and their implementation in the e-learning system. The peculiarity of the proposed algorithms is the possibility of their application and distribution for adaptive e-learning resources construction. The novelty of the proposed approach is the three-step content organization of the adaptive algorithms for the educational content: “introductory adaptation of content”, “the current adaptation of content”, “estimative and a corrective adaptation”. For each stage of the proposed system, mathematical algorithms for educational content adaptation in adaptive e-learning resources are presented.
Due to the high level of abstraction and complexity perception of mathematical disciplines, educational content is represented in the various editions of presentation that correspond to the levels of assimilation of the course material. Adaptation consists in the selection of the optimal edition of the material that best matches the individual characteristics of the student. The introduction of a three-step content organization of the adaptive algorithms for the educational content in the adaptive e-learning resource made it possible to implement individual educational paths in the electronic environment. For each student it was formed a personal space of mathematical educational content that “adapts” to its level of mastering the material, which contributed to improving the quality of the educational process in mathematical disciplines.
In this paper, the methods of mathematical modeling and logicalgnosiological analysis, the theory of graphs and hypergraphs, system analysis, dynamic processes and systems control theory, complex systems design and imitation modelling methods were used.
Approbation of the proposed algorithms for the educational content organization of adaptation in the adaptive electronic learning resource for the discipline “Discrete mathematics” showed the productivity of the proposed approach in the teaching process. The obtained results could be used for adaptive electronic educational resources construction in other educational institutions of higher education.
Further development of the proposed approach involves the development of a formal model of the educational content adaptation, including control rules, based on the expert evaluation methods and the fuzzy-set theory.
In recent years, e-learning technologies are rapidly gaining momentum in their evolution. In this regard, issues related to improving the quality of software for virtual educational systems are becoming topical: increasing the period of exploitation of programs, increasing their reliability and flexibility. The above characteristics directly depend on the ability of the software system to adapt to changes in the domain, environment and user characteristics. In some cases, this ability is reduced to the timely optimization of the program’s own interfaces and data structure. At present, several approaches to creating mechanisms for self-optimization of software systems are known, but all of them have an insufficient degree of formalization and, as a consequence, weak universality. The purpose of this work is to develop the basics of the technology of self-optimization of software systems in the structure of e-learning. The proposed technology is based on the formulated and formalized principle of reflexive adaptation of software, applicable to a wide class of software systems and based on the discovery of new knowledge in the behavioral products of the system.
To solve this problem, methods of data mining were applied. Data mining allows finding regularities in the functioning of software systems, which may not be obvious at the stage of their development. Finding such regularities and their subsequent analysis will make it possible to reorganize the structure of the system in a more optimal way and without human intervention, which will prolong the life cycle of the software and reduce the costs of its maintenance. Achieving this effect is important for e-learning systems, since they are quite expensive.
The main results of the work include: the proposed classification of software adaptation mechanisms, taking into account the latest trends in the IT field in general and in the field of e-learning in particular; Formulation and formalization of the principle of reflexive adaptation in software systems applicable to a wide class of applied programs;
The development of a universal architectural template of the software system, oriented to restructuring in the process of operation; Algorithm for self-optimization of the user interface of the software system based on methods of data mining.
The development of the theoretical basis for the automatic reorganization of e-learning software will increase the flexibility of the virtual educational environment and increase the period of its exploitation. Unlike existing analogues, the methods proposed in the article are universal and applicable to a wide class of applied programs. This is relevant for e-learning systems, because their may have a different types and purposes (for example, virtual simulators and information library software may be components of one system).
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The presence of large number of models and methods for structural modeling of business processes and systems has made urgent the development of standardized language for structural analysis and design, suitable for modeling as organizational management, and software systems (similar to UML for the object-oriented systems’ design).
The paper proposes a draft of such a language based on data flow diagrams (DFD diagrams) as the most frequently used in functional structural modeling.
As part of the work in this direction a conceptual model language is proposed, named DFD-technology, integrating structural models for different purposes based on DFD-diagrams, and reflecting functional, informational and behavioral aspects of the modeled object.
The article also analyzes the syntax, semantic and pragmatic aspects of the introduced unified modeling language.
For a formal description of the syntax, it is proposed to use the apparatus of the mixed grammars, a combination of graph and regular grammars. The article gives a grammar description to generate a simple dialect of DFD technology, informally described semantic aspects of language, particularly the semantics of relations between objects of the language.
Thus, the paper proposed a solution of unification and standardization problem of structural modeling languages, based on the integrated DFD-technology. The conceptual model of the technology is prepared, the syntax of the standardized language, using the technique of the mixed grammar and the semantic aspects of the language are described in detail.
It should be noted that the proposed methods in the article and models occupy the central place in modern business processes theory.
Purpose. A phenomenon called MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) plays a special, “revolutionary” role, introducing of online learning for all stages of the educational process. Today there are a lot of MOOCs, the largest of them: Coursera, edX, Udacity. In connection with the large amount of resources for additional education, a number of questions arise: “How to choose the suitable course as an additional education, how to use the capabilities of MOOCs to improve the quality of the educational process at the university, how to minimize the time for finding the desired course on different platforms?”
The purpose of the work is to create a unified information resource that allows you to integrate relevant information from various MOOCs, to reduce the time for finding an appropriate online course for the user, and to raise awareness about new courses and popular specializations, related to information technology.
Materials and methods. Web-service is designed as one of the components of the information-educational environment of the Institute of System Analysis and Management. It is aimed at different groups of users: “motivated” students, “unmotivated” students, and lecturers.
The initial data for the service is open information about the current online courses on the MOOCs Coursera, edX and Udacity.
Each project has its own API, which allows you to get information about online courses. Since MOOCs do not have a common vocabulary in order to use it for searching, there is the problem of creating such a dictionary. To do this we use the Stack Exchange resource (stackexchange.com). The list of keywords is formed through the Stack Exchange API – we select the most popular tags on sites softwareengineering.stackexchange.com and cs.stackexchange.com.
Results. As the first stage of implementation, a web application was developed that allows you to view and filter the lists of courses and to see detailed information about the courses.
Conclusion. Today there are alpha-versions of two web-services within the information-educational environment of the Dubna State University. The first one is the web-service for collecting and analyzing data on the vacancies of specialists in the field of information technologies from the most popular Internet resources and the webservice that allows integrating information about online courses from the leading MOOC-sites.
EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
As an objective of the research, the author set the task of identifying students’ opinion and opinion of lecturers about the purpose of the lectures at the university, about the role of the lecturer and preferred form of lectures. As a result of the research, it was necessary to answer the following important questions: What are the objectives of the lecture and the role of the lecturer? Which lectures are more preferable: traditional or interactive? What do lecturers expect from the lecture, do they consider it an advantage or an unnecessary educational activity?
The materials were developed for the survey (questionnaire) to conduct the research and analyze the results obtained. The students were surveyed before training and after completion of the semester. The study involved 200 students of all areas of Mechanics and Technology Faculty of Novosibirsk State Technical University. Statistical analysis was used for the analysis of the results.
As a result, the experiment revealed nonconformity of opinions of students about the purpose of the lecture and the role of a lecturer before the training and after the end of the semester. Lectures, according to students, should help to implement all kinds of practical and independent assignments.
Educational standards imply a reduction in the hours of classroom training and an increase in independent work, and the majority of students are not ready (do not want to) to study the materials on the topics of discipline completely independently or partially.
It revealed a contradiction in opinion, what form of organization of the lecture classes is more interesting to students, which can increase the motivation of the visit and work on the lectures.
The technology of designing the educational process in the conditions of the mixed training is proposed, applying the technological map.
The technological map is presented in the form of stages of designing the educational process, including recommendations on the use of the online component of training. The main stages are – analysis of external requirements for the academic discipline, definition of organizational requirements and limitations, analysis of the target audience, goals and outcomes of the training, didactic analysis of the discipline, planning analysis of the effectiveness of the learning process.
An analysis of lecturers’ opinions and analysis of the study results of students’ opinions can be concluded about the need to help lectures in the design, using the appropriate methodology, developed in the form of a technological card. The proposed methodology for designing the learning process with the mixed training in conditions of binding to the activity into the audience, implemented in the form of a technological card can be an effective tool for teaching, allowing not only effectively designing the training process and to evaluate the quality, but also provide for measures to improve it.
The main aim of this paper is to acquaint readers of the journal “Open Education” with the accumulated experience of construction and practical use in the educational process of Cybernetics Department of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI of a special class of intelligent tutoring systems, based on the architectures of tutoring integrated expert systems. The development is carried out on the problem-oriented methodology basis and intelligent software environment of AT-TECHNOLOGY workbench. They provide automation of support of all the stages of construction and maintenance of the life cycle of such systems.
In the context of basic models, methods, algorithms and tools that implement the conceptual foundations of a problem-oriented methodology, and which are evolutionarily developed and experimentally investigated in the process of constructing various architectures of training integrated expert systems, including webbased ones, some features of the generalized model of intellectual learning and its components are considered (in particular, the competence-based model of the trainee, the adaptive tutoring model, the ontology model of the course /discipline et al.) as well as methods and means of their realization in the current versions of tutoring integrated expert systems.
In current versions of tutoring integrated expert systems examples of implementation of typical intelligent tutoring problems are described for the generalized ontology “Intelligent systems and technologies” (individual planning of the method of studying the training course, intelligent analysis of training tasks, intelligent support for decision making).
A brief description of the conceptual foundations of the model of the intelligent software environment of the AT-TECHNOLOGY workbench is given and a description of some components of the model is presented with a focus on the basic components – intelligent planner, standard design procedures and reusable components, which provide automated support for the prototyping processes of tutoring integrated expert systems. A brief description of the models and approaches, used in the formalization of the planning and management processes of prototyping is presented.
Schemes for the implementation of the standard design procedure “Construction of training IES and web-IES” in different modes of operation are described, as well as the technology of using reusable components for the development of tutoring integrated expert systems. Quantitative estimations of various components/ parameters of tutoring integrated expert systems are given and further prospects for their application are analyzed.
QUALITY OF KNOWLEDGE
The effect, received by a person and society from mastering the basic professional educational programs is problematic to quantify, which leads to the emergence of a risk that characterizes the quality of management decision-making procedures for implementing the educational process in higher education institutions in terms of the level of achievement of the set criteria and indicators.
The aim of the work is the development of technology for monitoring of the educational risk based on the geoinformation approach and methods of data mining. Assessment of the educational risk can be implemented through monitoring the quality of the implementation of the main professional educational programs of the institution.
Monitoring of the educational risk in the implementation of the educational process in institutions of higher education means the collection, cataloging, pre-processing, analysis and visualization of the data, aimed at improving the efficiency and quality of providing educational services. To accomplish this goal, the following methods and approaches are used: geoinformation approach, cluster analysis, probability theory, data classification methods, forecasting methods, forecasting, and data visualization technologies.
The scientific and methodological aspects of the development of the methodical, informational and instrumental support of the educational risk management system in educational institutions of higher education are examined. According to the results of the work, it is revealed that the use of geoinformation technologies increases the efficiency of management by the collection automation, processing and analysis of data on the implementation of educational programs.
Modern geoinformation technologies provide the opportunity to create and integrate a system that has innovative analytical functionality, and implements new effective technologies, methods and algorithms in the tasks of monitoring the educational programs. The use of geoinformation technologies will ensure the integration of attributive and space-time data, taking into account geographical reference to the cartographic basis from the divisions of educational institutions, will allow quickly modeling the processes and evaluating the implementation of the educational programs.
A mathematical model, a method and an algorithm for assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of educational programs in educational institutions have been developed. Evaluation of the characteristics of training directions is carried out through the application of the classification method, the decision tree is used, which allows to order many specialties and training directions in a hierarchical, consistent structure according to the established rules. The proposed model for assessing the educational risk in educational institutions will make a comprehensive evaluation of the processes, taking place in the divisions, since it takes into account pedagogical, economic and social aspects.
The analysis of the components and functions of the educational risk was carried out. The program implementation of the proposed approaches in the database management system has been implemented. To implement the application, the following development tools are used: PostgreSQL database management system; integrated development environment Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015; technology for creating ASP.NET 5 web applications; programming languages SQL, C #, JavaScript. The results of approbation of the proposed technology on the basis of the data of the admission committee of the educational institution are presented.
In conclusion, we can note that the scientific approach to the assessment of educational risk leads to significant generalizations in the field of the outcome of the implementation of educational programs in higher education institutions.
This article is devoted to the study and modeling of the process of acquiring knowledge by students at the University. The main task of the work is the construction process of acquiring knowledge by a student and its analysis to determine an individual approach to the student. This paper considers the simplest case of the construction of the process of knowledge acquisition by students, which leads to the initial description of the process of knowledge acquisition. The description of the process of acquiring knowledge and the control scheme of its variables are considered.
The initial data for the task will be the results of student surveys, conducted throughout the semester in some groups. The training sample was obtained as a result of such surveys for each student.
This sample was used to construct a model for obtaining knowledge by the student. From a mathematical point of view, such a problem is close to the task of reconstructing a function from observations.
Two approaches exist for solving this problem: parametric and nonparametric. The parametric approach consists in choosing the form of the function up to a vector of parameters and the subsequent evaluation of these coefficients by a training sample. Thus, a certain equation will correspond to each student of the group and equation will differ from others by its coefficients. A nonparametric approach does not require preliminary parametrization of the model, and needs only some qualitative properties of the latter. This follows from the fact that nonparametric approximations belong to the class of local.
Therefore, each student at the end of the experiment will have his curve of the process of acquiring knowledge, and accordingly his own equation of the educational process (a kind of a “visiting card” at the moment). Of course, the learning process for each student will be different, despite the fact that studying a new discipline starts at the same time. So, more diligent and interested in teaching students start studying the material as it is received, while others stretch the process until the end of the semester. The paper compares and analyzes of the process of acquiring knowledge for students of different levels (successful, intermediate and unsuccessful level of students’ knowledge).
Thus, in the analysis process of the student “visiting card” we can see as students acquire the knowledge. In this article the modeling of the process of knowledge acquisition among students at the University is considered from a general point of view. Of course, it is important to develop education indicators, their analysis and evaluation. These sets of indicators help us to see how students study at Universities, and possibly find weaknesses, gaps in knowledge that need to be corrected.
Also analyzing the similar “visiting card” of a student, the lecturer can correct your individual approach to his learning.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Modern processes of globalization and informatization of human activity cause the necessity of change of the educational paradigm in the field of information training of a person, focused on the formation of the strong fundamental knowledge and abilities, which are necessary for person’s information activities and self-education during all life.
In connection with these requirements, it is necessary to pay attention to new approaches in education, based on achievements of cognitive science and modern pedagogic. One of such approaches is embodied and mental approach. The paper is devoted to the description of a way of realization of embodied and mental approach in training of informatics through application of the natural tools, providing the fullest and deep understanding of the educational material, and development of cognitive abilities of students.
In the paper the theoretical analysis of psychology-pedagogical and methodical literature on a research subject is carried out, results are generalized, natural tools are modeled and results of their partial approbation are described. Achievement of necessary quality of education is offered due to the use of modern techniques, focused on the development of cognitive abilities and improvement of quality of the knowledge. In the conditions of information education, the combination of embodied and mental approaches will allow to acquaint students with the essence of the studied subject due to activation of motor area of the memory and the kinesthetic and visual perception channels. The instrument of realization of this idea is offered to use natural tools in informatics, what is actualized by age features of cognitive abilities of students and individual requirements to ways of perception and mastering of the material, matched according to the level of their knowledge.
The research results describe the models of natural tools, developed by students and lecturers of the basic Department of Informatics and Information Technologies in Education of Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V. Astafyev. Partial approbation of natural tools has shown the increase of respondents’ interest in the studied subjects, activation of mental actions, and time reduction for the development of the studied informatics methods.
In the conditions of realization of embodied and mental approach, natural tools will help to correct the critical deficiency in the mechanism of training of informatics, having eliminated the reason of emergence of this deficiency, ordered the received system of knowledge and restored didactically true structure of transition from touch operating to abstract. Performance of certain methods with use of these tools will allow developing students’ thinking, thereby having provided conscious understanding of a training material.
The created system of students involvement to design and development of natural and didactic tools on the basis of the latest technologies and also their approbation and creation of innovative techniques of training with their use will significantly enrich the theory and practice of training of future lecturers to informatics in the field of technical education.
Further work in the project and possible spheres of use of the received results are provided in the paper conclusion.
Enterprise architecture is considered as a certain object of management, providing in business a general view of the enterprise and the mutual alignment of parts of this enterprise into a single whole, and as the discipline that arose based on this object. The architectural approach to the modeling and design of the enterprise originally arose in the field of information technology and was used to design information systems and technical infrastructure, as well as formalize business requirements. Since the early 2000’s enterprise architecture is increasingly used in organizational development and business transformation projects, especially if information technologies are involved. Enterprise architecture allows describing, analyzing and designing the company from the point of view of its structure, functioning and goal setting (motivation).
In the context of this approach, the enterprise is viewed as a system of services, processes, goals and performance indicators, organizational units, information systems, data, technical facilities, etc. Enterprise architecture implements the idea of a systematic approach to managing and changing organizations in the digital economy where business is strongly dependent on information technologies.
This increases the relevance of the suggested approach at the present time, when companies need to create and successfully implement a digital business strategy.
Teaching enterprise architecture in higher educational institutions is a difficult task due to the interdisciplinary of this subject, its generalized nature and close connection with practical experience. In addition, modern enterprise architecture management methodologies are complex for students and contain many details that are relevant for individual situations.
The paper proposes a simplified methodology for enterprise architecture management, which on the one hand will be comprehensible to students, and on the other hand, it will allow students to apply the main methods and technologies of the enterprise architecture in practice.
The requirements for the simplified methodology were defined.
These requirements were taken into account during methodology development and can be used when applying the methodology – it will be possible to understand the goals that can be achieved with its help, the assumptions made and the existing limitations. The proposed methodology defines the layers, aspects and objects of the enterprise architecture, describes the tasks of managing enterprise architecture and the artifacts created (lists, matrices, diagrams).
The proposed methodology can be used to conduct training projects in which methods and tools of enterprise architecture management are used to optimize the company’s work based on the capabilities of information technology. Such projects will help not only to develop students’ skills, but also to establish a dialogue between universities and industry – the provider of problems and tasks for solving within students’ projects.
The proposed simplified methodology for managing the architecture of the enterprise is tested and used by the authors when conducting courses in the leading universities of the Russian Federation: Graduate School of Management (St. Petersburg State University), St. Petersburg State University, Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Higher School of Economics and BonchBruevich Saint-Petersburg State University of Telecommunications.
ISSN 2079-5939 (Online)