Smart Education and e-Learning 2016

Smart education creates unique and unprecedented opportunities for academic and training organizations in terms of higher standards and innovative approaches to (1) learning and teaching strategies—smart pedagogy, (2) unique highly technological services to local on-campus and remote/online students, (3) set-ups of innovative smart classrooms with easy local/remote student-to-faculty interaction and local/remote student-to-student collaboration, (4) design and development of Web-based rich multimedia learning content with interactive presentations, video lectures, Web-based interactive quizzes and tests, and instant knowledge assessment. This paper presents the outcomes of an ongoing research project aimed to create smart university taxonomy and identify main features, components, technologies and systems of smart universities that go well beyond those in a traditional university with predominantly face-to-face classes and learning activities.

To better educate in-classroom and remote students we will need to approach education and how we teach various types of students differently. In addition, students these days are more technological than ever and are demanding new and innovative ways to learn. One of the most promising approaches is based on design and development of smart universities and smart classrooms. This paper presents the up-to-date outcomes of research project that is aimed on analysis of students with disabilities and how they might benefit from smart software and hardware systems, and smart technology.

The current educational policy of Japan toward higher education institutions is to promote education using ICT-driven equipment. Japanese universities/colleges are promoting systematic curriculum that ensures their educational quality due to the Deregulation of University Act introduced by the former Education Ministry in 1991. As for National Institutes of Technology, our college, as a leading position among higher education institutions such as the other National Institutes of Technology, universities and colleges, is promoting the improvement of the educational environment using ICT-driven equipment as well as education based on unique curriculum called “Model Core Curriculum” that ensures our educational quality. We describe the present actual practice conducted at our college as a model for the other higher education institutions that will follow the same approach in future.

The paper deals with the activities of university guidance counsellors. The main aspects of their performance as well as the ways for creating a favorable environment for successful adaptation of first-year students are considered. Particular attention is devoted to the application of innovative and smart technologies in university guidance counselling such as training, group teaching methods, role-playing games, using of electronic educational resources, etc.

The present boom of emerging information and communication technologies (ICT) and their effect on all fields of human activities undoubtedly bring significant changes also into the educational system which puts an emphasis on an independent creative potential of a student, integration of different teaching plans, or diversity of teaching methods and strategies. Thus, the traditional role of the teacher is changing. Nevertheless, the teacher still plays a decisive role in setting the learning aims and objectives, exploiting different teaching approaches and strategies, and determining whether and how to apply technologies in his/her in a new, the so-called smart learning environment The purpose of this article is to explore the role of the teacher of English as a second language in the smart learning environment and discuss benefits and limitations of smart learning environment for the EFL teacher.

The current environmental context, highly competitive and turbulent, has shifted the focus of scholars and managers on forms of cooperation and participation able to ensure a timely and effective response to needs of who participate in value creation processes. The paper aims to open the way to new perspectives of analysis of educational context, enabling to understand how Value Co-creation is moving emergence of a new phenomenon, Smart Value Co-education, which integrates the main and distinctive towards a markedly smart education. This suggests the elements of three different but related approaches: Value Co-creation, Co-education and Smart Education. The work also offers some insights for future researches on Smart Value Co-education, suggesting to investigate, on one hand, users’ role and their active involvement for a better use of educational experience and, on the other, the factors unpredictably and rapidly influencing the emergence and development of new technologies for the dissemination of education.

The document describes state of art approaches, best practices and standards for the development of the Smart University Management System. It defines fundamental meaning of the Strategic Thinking, Risk Management and Knowledge Management in connection with the new version of the standard ISO 9001:2015. It presents a process model of the university system management that accounts for the specific features of the development of the system of electronic learning and forming of integrated Smart University environment based on fundamental IT standards and the set of standards (Information Technology for Learning, Education and Training). The implementation of the presented approach guarantees the development of the Smart University as an important component of the Smart Society.

The development of Smart University ideas and concepts started just several years ago. Despite obvious progress in this area, though, the concepts and principles of this new trend are not clarified in full yet due to obvious innovativeness of this concept, as well as numerous types of smart systems, smart technologies and smart devices available to academic institutions, students and learners. This paper presents the outcomes of a research project aimed at the development of formal methodology for a description and modeling of smart universities as a system based on an algebraic formalization of general systems’ theory, theory of algebraic systems, theory of groups, and generalizations of purities. The ultimate goal of this research project is to identify formal mathematical conditions for a system—smart university—to become an efficient and/or innovative system.

Although feedback is a very time-consuming task, it is crucial to improve learning and foster students’ development. For this reason, automating feedback has become one of the most pursued challenges within the field of smart learning environments -SLEs-. After performing a literature study about which dimensions of feedback are relevant to properly automate it, we present a novel conceptual framework that structures, explains, and analyses these dimensions. The framework can be key to appropriately contextualize future research about feedback, and can also be a guide for educators and developers in order to design and implement quality feedback in a more methodical way in SLEs.

The study describes the development of the combined model OWL (Web Ontology Language) to implement intelligent innovative technology and construction of Smart-system of distance learning visually impaired people. The proposed combination ontological model includes an ontological model of learner, learning and joint use laboratory. In the model the learner processing multidimensional data is based on neural networks, which allow the reduction of uninformative signs and selects the optimal tactics of learning. Creation model of learning adapted to the model of learner by using fuzzy logic, which defines the class as a learner vision and current knowledge. The ontological model of laboratory of joint use describes the remote access of learners to the laboratory of joint use and works on the newest expensive processing equipment for laboratory, practical works in real time. The ontological models are complementary, interconnected and allow us to determine the appropriate path learning with effective elements of the course. The combined OWL model allows for a systematic approach to construction Smart-systems based on methods of artificial intelligence and cognitive approach, facilitates writing Software, Hardware selection and helps to create effective individual process of learning visually impaired people.

Programming exercises are time-consuming activities for many students. Therefore, most classes provide meticulous supports for students by employing teaching assistants (TAs). However, the programming behaviors of a particular student are quite different from other students’ behavior, even though they are solving the same problem. It is hard for TAs to understand the detailed features of each student’s programming behavior. We have performed data mining over the records of students’ programming behaviors in order to elicit the detailed features of each student’s programming behavior. The purpose of this study is to present the elicited such features for TAs so that they can provide effective assistances. We have performed data mining over the chronological records of the compilation and execution of individual students. As a result, we have found that there is a correlation between the programming activities and the duration time for problem solving. Based on the data mining, we have provided TAs some guidelines for each particular group of students. We have confirmed that our classifications and guidelines are reasonable through experiments over programming exercises. We have observed students who received appropriate guidance based on our data mining improved their programming performances.

Social network sites (SNSs) are nowadays used in all spheres of human activities, including education, thanks to their significant abilities to assist in engaging students to create, collaborate and share their learning content and outcomes. The aim of this study is to explore attitude of university students towards the SNSs with respect to their positive and negative experience, as well as their willingness to exploit SNSs as a support in their university studies and communication. Furthermore, the authors of this study summarize the main advantages and disadvantages of the use of SNSs for study purposes.

The paper describes results of development and practical application of MOOC “Methods and algorithms of graph theory” in 2015 on National Platform of Open Education of the Russian Federation https://openedu.ru. The structure and content of the course are presented, as well as evaluation tools for monitoring learning outcomes. The paper describes features of the implementation of interactive practical exercises in the course by means of RLCP-compatible virtual laboratories which are SMART objects of the course. An example of a virtual stand of such laboratory and an example of criteria used in checking of solutions of the students are given. Analysis of the practical application of the course showed its effectiveness. Although only 9.2 % of 2605 registered students of the course went for certification, nearly 40 % of them gained a certificate of successful completion of the course, every fourth gained certificate with honors and 4.2 % of active students achieved the maximum score.

In ageing society, it is not only that we need better care and treatment to maintain the quality of life of elderly population but also need better ways to strengthen the development of our children so that we could live in a healthy ageing society. This study proposed a framework for human learning ability study by using multimodal neuroimaging through simultaneous EEG/fNIRS measurement and neuroinformatics to understand target learning ability in laboratory and using portable EEG device to monitor real-time brain state for evaluating the learning/teaching methods introduced for improving the target learning ability in learning environment. By incorporating neuroscience approach in both laboratory and learning environment, not only scientific findings from neuroscience studies could give implications to educators to improve students’ learning, but also the developed learning/teaching methods could be assessed their effectiveness in classroom practice. This framework may help contribute in bridging the gap between neuroscience and education, which is the aim of educational neuroscience. Toward smart education, the proposed conceptual framework deploys truly brain-based learning/teaching approach to enhance students’ learning to better acquire the knowledge and cognitive skills.

Constructivism is a learning philosophy and an educational theory of learning. In the framework of constructivism, a human being with insights based on her/his pre-structured knowledge and on background knowings could actively participate in an interaction with another human being. The central focus of this article is on construction of conceptual knowledge and its development. This research localises the constructivist learning in the context of mentor-learner interactions. It will analyse meaning construction relying on my own conceptual framework that represents a semantic loop. The learner and the mentor as intentional participants move through this semantic loop and organise their personal constructed conceptions in order to construct meanings and produce their meaningful comprehensions. This research is concerned with definitions, linguistic expressions and meanings within the developmental processes of personal world constructions. It proposes a scheme for interpretation based on semantics and in conversations. I shall conclude that the outcomes of this research could be able to support smart education and smart learning environments.

Professional training in engineering is traditionally deductive. Under this approach, curriculum and its development are designed to start with a first stage of theoretical foundation, then, and progressively interact with the application of that theory. However, given the high labor requirements in terms of specific knowledge and skills, and the diversity of students and learning styles, a training with inductive approach may allow a more autonomous growth of the student and greater proximity to solving real problems. In the inductive approach, the contents are introduced by presenting study cases or problems whose solution involves the analysis and discovery of the theories involved. This paper presents an evaluation in a comparative way, in terms of meaningful learning, for electronics courses, on a technique of inductive learning (the problem-based learning (PBL)), compared to previous experiences in traditional training for students of Technology and Electrical Engineering at the District University of Colombia. This strategy of problem-based learning is complemented by the use of technology tools to structure a system of smart pedagogy. In this sense, the use of smart robotic systems becomes a key element in the smart learning, given the development of skills involving intelligence and adaptability. In the end, an analysis of the effectiveness of these two approaches is made from the perspective of learning outcomes.

This study focuses on establishing communication via virtual newspaper in institutions where pedagogical education is provided. By considering the traditional newspapers, the role of virtual newspapers, published in the internet, in the improvement of teacher candidates, its significance on his/her interaction with the institution and the usage of this communication channel are dealt with in this study. In 2015−2016 academic year, 35 teacher candidates took part in the study. In this study qualitative research methods were used both in collecting and evaluating data. The virtual newspapers created by teacher candidates were analyzed by content analysis method and the viewpoints of the teachers to the study were researched. Obtained results of the study were as follows: Teacher candidates performed meaningful learning on educational subjects, established a link between their fields of training and areas of expertise and had the advantage of using various techniques and methods, However, teacher candidates, who were below the average in using information technologies, had some difficulties in preparing a virtual newspaper and they indicated that working on a virtual newspaper had a disadvantage as it consumed too much of their time.

The paper describes an impact of participation in state R&D projects jointed with industrial companies on quality increasing of educational process. The potential impact of such R&D projects is based on the experience of state project between ITMO University and AlkorBio Group biotechnological company. The results of the project can be used as a basis for development of educational programs, which have a direct interaction with real sector of economy and industry. The development of such R&D projects and educational programs can contribute to a sharp increase of employability of students after graduation.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a website devoted to automatic assessment of programming in Python. This server uses many technologies (Linux, Nginx, PostgreSQL, Django, PySandBox). We report a 3-month experimentation of this site within the learning process of computing as set in France in the syllabus for the first and second years of studies after the “Baccalauréat”. This kind of formative assessment enables the students to be active and to create emulation among them.

Peer-Led Team Learning model has been introduced into several undergraduate courses and it showed improvement in students’ learning performance. Despite its success, little attention has been given to further enhance the model for academic benefits particularly in terms of suitable peer leaders selection, homogenous groups forming and the process of disseminating the educational knowledge. In this paper, we utilized PageRank Algorithm to improve the PLTL pedagogical approach. Unlike the traditional way, we introduced social interaction analysis as a way to create natural groups of students, and select the best peer leaders in classrooms who can disseminate the educational knowledge in an efficient and smooth fashion. The new proposed approach was tested on a dataset of 16 students in an Operating System course offered at the College of Information Technology (CIT), United Arab Emirates University. The improvement in students’ performance achieved is encouraging evidence in favor of the proposed method.

Core subjects by field of knowledge for official University studies have been established in Annex II of the RD 1393/2007. Computer Science appears only in Engineering and Architecture Degrees. It is therefore necessary that the training received by high school students in the Computer field is not limited only to the intrinsic knowledge of current digital technologies and their immediate practical uses. It is crucial that the training also focuses on the development of skills that enable students to adapt to new technologies that might emerge in the future, especially, in the field of smart education and next generation smart classrooms. Whereas computational thinking may be the most appropriate for developing such skills, in this work, a particular proposal for measuring the development of computational thinking abilities in students is described, together with the results obtained in an experiment carried out during the practicum of the Master’s Degree in Secondary School Teaching from the Universidad de La Laguna.

Reflecting the call for new knowledge and skills required from the graduates of the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, the topic of smart and knowledge technology was implemented in the curriculum. To ensure the quality of highly professional training programme, the faculty started cooperation with companies. The aim of the relationship is to provide students with theoretical and practical professional skills and prepare them for new positions that have recently been created on the labour market. Since smart phones were launched, the mobile market has rapidly changed from feature phones to smart phones. As a result, the field of education is concerned with delivery of knowledge through smart devices.

SMART technology and the use of other advanced technologies are becoming increasingly important. Ten years ago universities dominated in using technology to support teaching/learning process but in recent years advanced technologies have been intentionally and intensely included also into pre-primary, primary and secondary education and even have become a part of educational program framework. While some students and teachers and a part of the professional public can see great potential in them, there are a lot of opponents on the Czech scene, as well. Even so, it seems that the trend in the implementation of smart technologies will indisputably follow and that individual schools will try or even will be made to introduce interactive whiteboards and tablets into their education. Economic aspect is an integral part of each project. The paper focuses on one fragment of the economic issue, on mapping the costs on purchase of SMART technology equipment per one class.

This article analyses the challenges of the e-learning platform Tesys for both students and teachers in a Smart environment. In our research, two theoretical approaches are used to develop the hypotheses related to the relationships between user and technology: the relationship user-prosumer and the relationship principal-agent. Therefore, our quantitative and qualitative research put into value a strong relationship between user and technology. We arrived at the conclusion that the entrepreneurial behaviour of the agent is positively related to the Tesys features and also that the agent’s satisfaction is positively related to the principal feedback. We find that the principal-agent theory offers an integrated approach of the e-learning system in a Smart environment, and that a lack of agents control coupled with the lack of the principal’s motivation generated artificial barriers difficult to overcome even with Smart technology.

The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) allows their use in all areas of human activity. An increasing number of university students is also reflected in the conditions of the universities in the Czech Republic. However, current financial possibilities of the educational and research capacities of departments do not suffice to a rapid increase in the number of students. A solution can be the introduction of ICT into a teaching process; computers save time for both the teachers and students while enabling intensive use of space and simplifying the administration of tests. The paper aims to express the impact of using ICT on level of knowledge, respectively classification of university students enrolled in course Economics on the example of e-learning system Moodle. A partial aim of the study is the generalization of experience with learning management systems and the expression of their positives and negatives. As shown by our research the introduction of smart education from 2006 to 2015 first led to a drop and subsequently to an improvement in the quality of the students’ performance.

The active use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) caused the creation of new ICT application models in various sectors. Due to that, education is getting more and more interactive as more concepts of smart education are implementing into learning process. The new smart ways of learning bring new challenges to manage the learning processes and make them as much evolving as possible at the same time opening new self-learning opportunities through gamification as an effective engaging learning method. The aim of this article is to present the gamification model for e-learning participants’ engagement. The objectives of the paper: (1) Overview the existing approaches and models of gamification; (2) Present the design of gamification model for participants’ engagement; (3) Present the results of implementation of the gamification model.

Education, and especially e-Learning, is rapidly changing and more electronic instruments are becoming available. One of the most frequently applied electronic environments is virtual laboratory. Virtual laboratories provide many benefits as one of their main aims is developing practical skills. This paper presents three virtual laboratories that are applied in the online course of Computer Science and describes RLCP protocol, developed in ITMO University, that supports interaction between virtual stand and a server.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the US despite wide use of colonoscopy to prevent CRC and CRC-related mortality. Colonoscopy is used to identify and remove lesions that will lead to cancer, however, most deaths occur because lesions are not detected or completely removed during the procedure. Patients play a crucial role in the detection component of colonoscopy: the better the colon is prepared, the higher the chance of detection of all polyps and cancers. In general, patients are instructed to clean the colon by way of a paper or web-based form that lists the objective (scientific) steps involved; unfortunately this too often does not result in a well-prepared colon. Behavior is known to be heavily influenced by emotion. As the first phase of a smart education research project we created an artistic and instructional documentary in which patients engage with the educational content through emotional responses; i.e., we motivate patients to follow instructions by combining scientific with emotional aspects of CRC prevention including preparation of the colon prior to colonoscopy. In the second research phase we will test whether use of the documentary results in improved colon preparation.

This paper describes how to use tangible interfaces for cognitive assessment and training. Assessment and training are two fundamental phases in the learning process: assessment allows to gather information in order to identify the learner starting level and monitor progresses that training can lead to. Assessment uses tests, some of which are addressed to cognitive abilities. Many tests for cognitive abilities are based on verbal materials that are not suitable for population such as young children or people with special needs, and people with hard cognitive disabilities or sensory impairment. In these cases it would be more fruitable to use physical objects. This paper illustrates a hardware-software system, LogicART, that can be used in assessment and training of cognitive abilities, such as reasoning, memory, categorization, etc. exploiting physical materials augmented by RFID/NFC Technology. These materials, employed to study cognitive abilities, offer the advantage to stimulate multisensoriality and manipulation.

The purpose of this article is to introduce results of monitoring and analysis the process of mobile devices exploitation in the process of instruction at the Faculty of Informatics and Management (FIM), University of Hradec Kralove (UHK), Czech Republic. After a two-decade long experience in using the LMS WebCT (Blackboard), the Blackboard Mobile application has been exploited since 2013/14 academic year. Reflecting the users’ feedback each online course was tested separately. The results show some problems which could limit the efficient exploitation of LMS on mobile devices. Finally, some recommendations against them are provided.

In this paper the problem of assessment of interdisciplinary and social and personal learning outcomes is covered. The teaching and assessment tools are reviewed. The self, peer and expert assessment methods are described. The approach of assessment learning outcomes in collaborative project-based learning is proposed. This approach uses students’ behavior analysis to increase grade reliability and validity. The method allows determine irresponsible students and assign low final grade to them. The tool for carrying out collaborative project-based learning is developed. It is based on the XBlock SDK of Open edX platform.

In many MOOCs hands-on exercises are a key component. Their format must be deliberately planned to satisfy the needs of a more and more heterogeneous student body. At the same time, costs have to be kept low for maintenance and support on the course provider’s side. The paper at hand reports about our experiments with a tool called Vagrant in this context. It has been successfully employed for use cases similar to ours and thus promises to be an option for achieving our goals.

This work presents a model to optimize the presentation order of educational contents in the Moodle e-Learning platform. The objective here is to infer those learning paths for which it is expected the students may achieve the best performance. The foundations of the proposed model are (i) a clustering of similar students according to a student model, and (ii) a metaheuristic to obtain an improved educational content sequence for each group. The clustering of similar students is achieved by a modified k-prototypes algorithm. Then, for each group of students, an Ant Colony Optimization algorithm is used for self-organize the sequencing of the educational content that better adapts to its learning characteristics. Finally, to evaluate the proposal, synthetic and real data were used for testing purposes. Experimental results show the viability of the proposed approach.

The paper deals with the assessment of learners’ knowledge, particularly how the learners can show the teacher what they know. The main objective of this article is to detect and analyze students’ assessment preferences when exploiting the smart learning environment where an individualized offer is provided to them. The sample group consisted of 203 students of the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. The method of questionnaire was applied, when students evaluated various assessment methods on the five-level scale. Then, the method of multiple regression was exploited to prove whether there exists any correlation between learners’ assessment preferences and assessment formats. The results show the most preferred way of assessment is the semester project work. Unfortunately, no statistically significant preference was discovered between the assessment preferences in the sample group and those reflecting individual learning styles. Finally, a didactic recommendations defined by Comenius centuries ago were emphasized.

This document is a survey of research on user modeling for Adaptive Learning. We suggest a model for automated detection of deviations or statistically stable behavior using smart technologies. Proposed model allows to explain test results using documented deviations. We have analyzed the main psychophysiological parameters which can be used in presented model for student’s behavioral analysis. The proposed research can help to improve the adaptivity of computer-based education systems.

Currently, there is a rising number of elderly people worldwide. By 2020 the percentage of elderly people aged 60+ years should reach 30 % out of the total number of population living in the developed European countries This aging process, however, results in new economic and social issues Therefore there is constant effort to prolong and maintain the active age of these elderly people, who want to lead active, fulfilling and quality life in terms of inclusion, socialization and independence. This can be achieved not only by a continuous support from their family members, but also with the help of modern information and communication technologies (ICT), which can assist elderly people in this process. The purpose of this article is to explore benefits and limitations of using ICT, particularly the smart ones, by the elderly people. In addition, the author of this study emphasizes the importance of appropriate training about the benefits of smart technologies.

This paper sets out the methods and the technologies used to design a captive portal to redirect users to the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a course taking place in a given room. The captive portal is designed on a Raspberry Pi 2 carrying an Apache HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) server and using iptables for redirections. It has a web configuration interface, developed with AngularJS, which communicates through HTTP request to the server side, developed in PHP, following the principle of a REST (REpresentational State Transfer) architecture. In addition to redirect users to the URL of a course, the interface is configurable in two modes: (1) fixed URL that sets an URL to which the user is redirected automatically, (2) hosting a local website which is used to load a web site in zip format on the device and then redirect users to this web site even when the device is not connected to any Ethernet network.

Virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly applied in a training context, including sports. VR provides an opportunity to train in an immersive, safe and controlled environment, with support for accurate performance measurement and user feedback. In this paper we present a prototype of a smart VR simulator for ski jumping training. It is modelled after the ski jumping hill of Granåsen in Trondheim, Norway that has been venue for several international skiing competitions and is now competing for hosting World Ski Championship in 2021. The prototype supports Oculus Rift and has been evaluated with both athletes and representatives for the general public. The paper presents the results of the implementation and evaluation, outlining directions for future work.

This paper shows the use of an embedded robotic platform of low cost and high performance, hand in hand with problem-based learning strategies, to professional training in Electrical Engineering at the District University Francisco José de Caldas (Colombia). These technical training and research tools involves several innovations, among which stand out the robot itself, which is inexpensive, robust and with high performance (suitable for both training and research), the study of real problems and the support with software tools that complement a smart learning environment. The robot has a mechanical differential platform that is easy to build and modify, a processing hardware supported in a 900 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU able to run a graphical OS, and ROS as communication and control software. As advantages of its implementation has documented a better appropriation of theoretical concepts, increased student enthusiasm, improved ease of communication and teamwork, and greater interest in participation in research activities.

The goal of this paper is to develop a system, referred to as the Management System for Merging Learning Objects (msMLO), which offers an approach that retrieves learning objects (LOs) based on students’ learning styles and term-based queries and produces a new outcome. The first step ranks LOs using a unified learning style model and creates better LOs by merging the top-ranked LOs. The second step maps LOs onto a hierarchy of concepts to avoid including duplicated topics in the merged LO. Fifty-six students were randomly split into experimental and control groups. The experimental group browsed the LOs retrieved by the msMLO based on the students’ learning styles, term-based queries and merge functionality, whereas the control group browsed the LOs retrieved based on the students’ learning styles and term-based queries. The results demonstrated that the experimental group improves their learning performance, thus msMLO is a promising approach.

This paper proposes the use of transmedia storytelling techniques to stimulate the day living of children with cognitive disabilities in the context of their social integration on future Smart Cities. By using virtual immersive world we focus on authoring stories and contents by these children to stimulate their abilities, and therefore, the exploration of their skills on a transmedia environment for therapeutically and employment purposes.

Evaluation of mobile learning components is an important and popular research topic in the field of education. We have developed the modern e-learning system, named Protus 2.1. In order to personalize the learning process and adapt content to each learner, this system uses strategies that have the ability to meet the needs of learners and perform the adaptation of teaching materials. This paper presents the design and implementation of mobile version of Protus 2.1 which will allow its comfortable use for adapting the learning contents to the learners competences, to the learners context and to his/her mobile device.

The paper describes the learning course “The integrated design and control systems” of “System analysis and control” master program at ITMO University with using of active learning methods. The key feature of the course is application of active learning methods on lectures and seminars, namely “Problem-based lectures”, “Lectures with planned errors” and “Press conference lectures”. In order to implement a practical knowledge background of students the laboratory bench ASUD-2 was developed. Results of the course implementation have shown a high level of students training and improvement of their professional skills.

In the technological formation of students, specially for Technology and Electronic Engineering at the District University Francisco José de Caldas of Colombia, South America, it is required that students in addition of the theorical bases and the use of tools possess skills in implementation of real applications, where the use of mathematics in daily problems of engineering is necessary. Therefore, it is sought to do academic exercises to have theorical components along with a strong practical component, in this case, a secure information application, specifically a lightweight block cipher type, designed in embedded systems and made in both hardware and software. With this exercise, it is want to apply the knowledge acquired in the area of embedded digital devices, whether using digital devices configurable FPGA type or microcontroller devices. In this paper, an exercise of application using the smart pedagogy of lightweight cypher that is used as a tool for teaching the use of embedded hardware and software platforms.

The authors discuss methods and techniques of introducing gaming technologies to the process of education, as well as a merge of intellectual (smart) technologies and serious games (gamification) in the field of education. The main aim and objective of the gamification is seen as the process of motivation allowing disclosing students’ creative abilities and stimulating their learning activity. The article presents best practices of implementation of innovative educational approaches, including gamification of educational process, based on the example of a system of elite technical education executed in National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU).

Knowledge Management (KM) Education is supposed to provide the key opportunities for the 21st century knowledge societies, but Bedford’s recent survey results highlight the immaturity in this endeavor. In order to rectify the situation current top-down centralized approaches ought to be substituted by bottom-up concepts focusing on the self-sufficiency and mobility of today’s knowledge workers. These efforts need to be supported by smart personal knowledge management devices able to connect with each other as well as to integrate with organizational systems. What is being taught and technologically supplied, thus, creates sustainable impacts on individuals’ academic and professional growth and their roles as contributors and beneficiaries of institutional and societal performance. The article introduces a novel Personal KM (PKM) prototype system and educational concept to fill these needs in anticipation of Levy’s imagined KM revolution that gives more power and autonomy to individuals and self-organized groups.

In this paper we consider the problem of training tasks organization, delivery and support for courses that involve mathematics. Nowadays, the level of development of IT allows to offer qualitatively new approach to solving this problem, but most of the e-Learning systems do not cover this area well. Several important steps had been made in this direction, but still some problems remain unsolved. In this paper, we introduce our interactive educational system, in which we address those problem. Among others, there is a problem of automatic answer checking. This problem, in fact, refers to the problem of establishing identities in formal mathematical system. And hence it is formally unsolvable. In order to improve the situation, we suggest to reinforce function comparison algorithm with an additional pointwise checking procedure. This, of course, leads to a possible error. In this article, we provide an analysis of the probability of such an error, which appears to be quite low in most cases. In a word, this means that the suggested pointwise checking procedure can be quite successfully used in a case where there is no way to establish equality/inequality for sure.

The article deals with the issues of FL students’ autonomous learning organized with the help of Smart technologies. The authors suggest methodological approaches to implementation of computer-based technologies in FL higher education and pre-requisites for integration of computer and communicative competences. Interaction is viewed as a key factor of enhancing motivation, intensification of the teaching and learning process and improving the results of autonomous work. As an example of Moodle-based instruction the authors give a chain of tasks aimed at developing the skill of using the Sequence of Tenses, which is a specific feature of the English language. The article also contains the results of a pedagogical experiment aimed at evaluating the efficiency of Smart technologies for grammar competence development.

The article shows that if an individual path in the process of teaching high school students an academic subject, firstly, will be formed from the teaching modules focused on an individual content on a subject matter in accordance with the student-significant learning objectives, Second, teaching modules will be presented as a set of recommended electronic educational resources (EER), the mastering of which is carried out after hours on the basis of Smart-technologies, and thirdly, the basis for the development of content for the EER will be based on academic discipline: the principle of correspondence between the content of student-significant learning objectives, correction of dynamic random content and teaching methods principle, the principle of adaptability and customization, it provides in-depth knowledge achievements of students on the subject, high level of motivation to succeed, high level of readiness to use information and educational environment for self-learning.

The main tendency of development of a course of informatics within thirty last years can be expressed as follows: from computer literacy to a subject of natural sciences and then “meta-a course”. Computer literacy (1985). It is, above all, the learning of algorithms and programming. However, as the practice revealed, work with algorithms and modern software largely contributes to the development stereotype pattern of thinking. Of course, the development of operational skills is essential for the modern man. However, to reduce the informatics as educational subject to programming skill so—is to deprive students of the future, since any truly human activity does not fit the templates. Natural science course. The transition rate of computer science in a qualitatively new state in the mid-1990s was due to two reasons: (1) further development of science itself, which was the main vector of its fundamentalization; (2) the need to implement a system of didactic, according to which the content is determined by the aggregate structure of the information reality. For these computer components disclosed as follows: information processes (phenomenon), information model (tool), management, technology, society (the application). Meta-course. The current stage of development of computer science course, determined by the global shift from information society to the knowledge society. The basis of the course is to build a full cycle of transformation of the information: “Data”-“Information”-“Knowledge”. These tendencies, on the one hand, followed for the friend the friend (from the point of view of domination), on the other hand, today they develop in parallel.

The article discusses the possibility of using the Internet for educational purposes. The features provide access to information resources of the Internet and the feasibility of their use for educational purposes. Considered information interaction of the educational purpose in the conditions of realization of the Internet. We describe the power of the Internet for educational services for the certification of specialists for the organization distributed educational projects. It is shown as distributed learning projects are used to organize and conduct educational institutions (geographically distributed) joint educational activities related to collection, processing and analysis of information with the scientific-practical and educational purposes.

The integration of the educational environment of the educational institution and modern information and communication technology (ICT) changes the traditional environment of education via use of technical means and technologies with poorly studied or unstudied effects on health of a user. It is necessary to speak not so much about the direct negative impacts of ICT on the health of the user, as about those that only come into effect after years or even decades. ICT removes the pre-existing restrictions on education of persons with special educational needs. This requires adaptation of the learning space to the health indicators of the students (visually impaired, etc.), and to technical training facilities used outside of an educational institution. All of the above inevitably affects the health status of graduates of educational institutions and, therefore, the quality of labor resources of the country.

Modern information technology and the rapid expansion of the diversity of the network of educational services has caused a stream of innovations on the reorganization of existing educational systems at all levels of education. There are many approaches of improving the educational systems of the destination, one of which is the use of intelligent methods and models for knowledge representation. The paper describes the system we have developed intellectual training and control of knowledge, based on adaptive semantic models.

The article considers the possibility of using smart and e-learning technologies to create flexible educational information environments. A way to combine the modular instruction technology and the technology of building and application of mind maps (mind mapping) is offered. Mind mapping is considered as an instrumental basis for creation of multidimensional information environments. Mind mapping is regarded as instrumental basis of the modular instruction. Mind maps are used for systematic organization of training material and management of the students’ activities. The peculiarity of the proposed format is the navigation system that allows, using cross hyperlinks, to direct students to diverse information both within the blocks and modules, and between them, to use sources of information presented on the Internet and in the personal computers of students, to develop common and personal information environments based on the underlying environment created by the teacher. This paper was written as a part of work on Governmental Order 2014/392, Project 1942 of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

The faculty evaluation forms can be considered as valuable data source to exploit knowledge which helps to improve the quality of teaching and learning in universities. In this paper, we analyze previous studies on exploiting faculty evaluation forms according to major problems and their solutions. On that basis, we propose and solve the problem of mining useful knowledge about human resource of Ton Duc Thang University. The experimental data are collected from the online faculty evaluation system of our university, with more than 140,000 evaluation forms. We apply the solution to analyze the data set and draw meaningful comments for the exploitation and construction of human resource appropriately and efficiently. The results obtained are compared to the previous study on clustering lecturers based on performance and statistical method.

Adoption of the balanced and optimal decisions in business is based on the real time analysis of large volumes of the unstructured or semi-structured information. According to analytical researches, the problem of shortage of the experts capable to deal with big data accrues. The purpose of this work is development of a cloud environment to give students opportunity to get practical access to the Big Data technology using lab works that has been developed earlier [1]. As technologies are new, there are just a few educational programs in the field of Big Data in Russia. The practical use of technology is the focus of the proposed approach. Students improve skills working with practice sets, which are called “lab works”. Moreover, access is provided to servers with data for term projects on educational and business problems.