Complex eLearning solution for Cyprus schools

The Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) in Cyprus is focusing on moving towards transferable competencies and computer based learning environments as well as innovative models necessary for the new millennium challenges. The decision makers recognize that significant changes need to occur in several areas, but most of all concerning the use of information technology.

The main objective of the project is to contribute to the development and modernization of the Cypriot educational system, by introducing and enhancing the use of information technology in the process of teaching/learning in the pre-university education.

The Ministry of Education and Culture aims at encouraging innovative teaching and learning techniques and stimulating creativity among teachers and students, while offering a general framework for development of collaborative projects, allowing the actors enrolled in the educational system to participate in the information society development and the creation of the knowledge economy.

Key components

1. Implementation of national eLearning platform – the DIAS Project

The project provided the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus with an integrated learning and collaboration platform, which consists of a Learning Management System and a Collaboration Suite, built on, and fully integrated with the Microsoft Learning Gateway technology.

The centralized eLearning platform for the Middle General and Middle Technical & Vocational Education in Cyprus addresses:

• 700 schools
• 130,000 students
• 150,000 parents
• 20,000 teachers
• 20 administrators

The solution includes:

• AeL Learning Management System (LMS)

  AeL LMS offers support for training and learning, testing and evaluation, content administration, and for monitoring the training and evaluation process. It can be used to conduct trainer lead training or self-training. AeL provides a single point of training for all course participants.

• AeL Collaboration Suite
  

  AeL Collaboration Suite helps students communicate faster and better. It is a solution designed for virtual meetings and collaboration, providing also a native bandwidth management mechanism. AeL Collaboration suite is closely integrated with AeL LMS and with Microsoft Learning Gateway.

• SharePoint Portal component

  The Learning Gateway Solution utilises SharePoint technology to provide the portal framework and team collaboration web sites throughout the solution.

  The turnkey solution is a secure, highly available framework that integrates several Microsoft and third party server products to deliver a scalable, web-based Portal Solution that supports eLearning.

  The solution is a central hosting scenario for all schools of the country and it utilizes the latest technology for clustering and load balancing in order to increase scalability (through Web Farms) and provide redundancy in the event of a failure, through Microsoft Clustering.

2. eContent implementation for Cyprus schools

The project is customized specifically to fully meet the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus. The solution is based on the award winning AeL eContent, and covers 13 subjects: Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, French, Technology, Basic notions of Mechanical Engineering, Applied Electrology, Building Materials and Constructions, Applied Arts, Decorative Arts, Technology of Hotel and Food Supplies, Technology of Woodcraft. All the teachers involved in the project benefited of training sessions.

The solution provided for the MoEC in Cyprus includes a total of 512 DEC (Digital Educational Content) units, totalling 21,000 Learning objects. The Learning objects were designed to cover all the specific teaching goals for all the 13 subjects. High levels of interactivity, simulation and experimenting define the content.

The content is suitable not only for off-line, asynchronous study, but can also be viewed as a tool to be used in the classroom, by the teacher in front of his/her students, supporting and enriching the learning environment. The content also pays attention to the differences between the pedagogical methodology applied when using books and the pedagogical approach applied when using computers.

• Simulations
• Animations
• Testing/evaluation activities
• Educational games
• Additional sources of information
• Diagrams
• Photos
• Audio materials
• Video materials
• Applets
• Reference text
• Interactive maps
• Problem solving

The main objective of introducing eLearning in the Cypriot national education system is to support education professionals, the pupils, parents and community in the achievement of their short, medium and long term objectives within an educational context. The AeL eLearning solution offers for the Cypriot educational system, by its functions and uses, direct benefits (in immediate relation with the user) and indirect benefits (contributing to the production of other educational instruments) during the learning activity. In all cases, the educational process, as a subject of learning and ideal of education, represents the central reference element in the concept, design and creation of an IT based educational system.

• All teachers are empowered to use specifically designed software tools as an additional resource in the classroom. The most innovative teachers can customise or create new educational resources.
• A wider range of resources will be available for both teachers and pupils, including digital materials as well as subscriptions to on-line libraries of curriculum content.
• Collaboration through e-mail, discussion forums and chat, audio and video conferencing, sharing of applications and presentations, shared web browsing and whiteboard. Educators will be able to share best practices and monitor the students' progress more easily, while students will be able to work on joint projects across schools and education authorities.
• Easier access for children to learning resources inside and outside the school environment. The solution also enables parents to support and become more involved in their children's learning experience.
• The support of an educational technology provider will free teachers to spend time on actual teaching rather than IT work.