Papula, Ján (2013) “The Benefits of an Innovative Learning Management System, The Case From Higher Education in Slovak Republic“, Proceedings of ICERI 2013 Conference: International conferenceo of education, research and innovation, Seville: IATED, ISBN 978-84-616-3847-5. pp. 2671-2678 THE BENEFITS OF AN INNOVATIVE LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, THE CASE FROM HIGHER EDUCATION IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC Ján Papula Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Management (SLOVAKIA) Abstract The evolution of information and communication technologies is influenced by trends, which should be perceived and reflected. This also applies to e-learning in support of higher education. Web-based services, such as Software as a Service or Cloud Computing, and also the development of mobile devices and mobile internet, and the development of modern format for distributing web content, are some of the trends that affect our everyday lives. Change in the access to electronic content changes also the way it is consumed. A clear trend is showed by fast expanding of the Massive Open Online Courses. Compared with these simple and purposeful portals, the traditional e-learning portals for universities seem to be outdated and cluttered. This paper is devoted to reason and benefits obtained from the transition from the most widely used Open Source LMS Moodle to innovative new cloud solution iSmart. This paper also presents the perception of the change by the students of the Faculty of Management at Comenius University in Bratislava. Special view is also dedicated to the real benefits of e-learning, which is proven by a sample of students from compulsory subject "Controlling". Presented are the results of the review on how continuous learning in e-learning iSmart influenced the final grades. The purpose of the article is to point not only on the advanced technology in e-learning, but also on the need of a methodological framework for development and operation of e-learning courses. Keywords: e-learning, Learning Management System, iSmart, mobile learning. 1 INITIAL STATE AT FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT, COMENIUS UNIVERSITY AND THE REQUIREMENTS FOR INNOVATION OF E-LEARNING SYSTEM E-learning at the Faculty of Management at Comenius University in Bratislava has been built and upgraded gradually from LMS Moodle for quite some time. Own setting of innovative e-learning system at Faculty of Management has started during the academic 2007/2008. In 2007 we focused on innovation to create own extensions on LMS Moodle from student user perspective and on simplification and effectiveness of access and reduction of function for teachers access to LMS Moodle. The brand new user interface was created in Flash technology. Several forms, screens and reports known from Moodle were modified to achieve a better overview and easier orientation in the system, as well as in the course. The aim was to apply an effective form of distribution of knowledge and effective support for classical education and bringing together the quality of the information provided with the possibilities of modern information and communication technologies. Its ambitions was not only to make information accessible to students for self-study, but also to teach them how to learn.[2], [4] Already in that implementation, there were requirements for creating a modern and effective system of electronic support the teaching process. We followed trends not only in the field of e-learning, as well as other Web services and the major factors influencing the change of users' access to the use of ICT and electronic resources.[1], [5] Although through the testing of students satisfaction in 2008, 92% of students (out of 290 ) said that introduced e-learning is beneficial to supplement regular classes (34 % students said that e-learning is very beneficial). But LMS Moodle still after years of experiences had more shortcomings than benefits, especially in terms of ambition to provide students the quality and modern services. We were constantly monitoring and evaluating students’ satisfaction over the next years. In 2012 we started the major change. The main reasons for changing the e-learning system: Proceedings of ICERI2013 Conference 18th-20th November 2013, Seville, Spain 2671 ISBN: 978-84-616-3847-5 • the high demands on management and maintenance of open source LMS Moodle; • the need for greater speed and stability of the system; • the simplification and clarification of teacher approach to LMS; • the need for adaptation to mobile devices; • the complementation of the functions to improve services provided to students; • better alignment LMS structure with the structure and system of teaching process at our faculty. 1.1 Trends affecting the use of ICT When looking for solutions to ensure a modern and effective e-learning system, it is necessary to take into account the trends associated with the use of information and communication technologies and trends in higher education. In our view, crucial trends related to building or upgrading e-learning are: • supporting mobility in IT and mobile devices; • taking of advantage of cloud computing; • alignment of e-learning with the requirements of the internal system of quality assurance in higher education based on ESG. Internet has gradually changed almost all aspects of everyday life. The use of computer applications and internet services is not longer fixed to a location with desktop PC. Users have become accustomed to mobility and access to information and communication technologies anytime and anywhere.[7] Mobility is one of the key trends in the use and further development of e-learning, in the academic as well as commercial settings. Lower prices of laptops in the last decade, but also the advent of innovation in the form mobile netbooks or ultrabooks distract users from the desktop computer and allow them to pass a working or learning environment virtually anywhere. This interest in the work and study whenever and wherever necessary prove a significant shift in sale from traditional desktop computers to mobile devices, nowadays to tablet. Even in today's accelerated world of commercial work for many workers is rare to find time to study necessary on a desk during working hours. Employees at all levels therefore very welcome new technologies to help them anywhere at any time to develop their professional skills. [3] To use mobile devices in e-learning has been already emphasized in the past. Concept of mLearning is not new, but it was not developed as much as its proponents anticipated. One reason may be the fact that mobile devices were considered with other forms of content distribution (SMS, MMS , Voice mail) and with lower resolution. Mobile devices were perceived as a different type of device for the distribution of another, more personalized e-learning content. Ensure the implementation of parallel or complementary system to the already established e-learning is not often neither the capacitive nor economically manageable. The advent of new advanced mobile devices that started the introduction of 3G mobile phone version of the iPhone in June 2008 and in April 2010 introduction of the iPad tablet showed that users do not want to consume reduced and edited content of mobile devices. But on the contrary, they are interested in the full view of contents comparable visual quality and content as the desktop computer or laptop. Similarly, the development of mobile Internet provides new opportunities and removes the previous limits of these devices when consumed online content. Not only the development of wireless WiFi connection, but mainly increase the coverage of 3G mobile Internet enables users of modern mobile devices to browse and download electronic content in high quality with almost no restrictions. As reported by Bob Little [3], although the mLearning in the past only partial and complementary stream of e-learning, today mobile devices are becoming the primary means of distributing educational content. It is therefore interesting to note that even at a time when mobile devices usually have a screen resolution of at desktops and laptops (or often even more) and also have a fast connection to the Internet, the need to adapt content to mobile devices is still present in current research studies.[8] Another trend is seen in the practices of consumption of electronic content to mobile device users. Still less electronic content is downloaded and stored in these mobile devices, content is overlooked and consumed directly in Web services. There is a relatively low amount of memory for tablets and smartphones as a reflection of this trend. This is supported with still expanding cloud services. Users 2672 Papula, Ján (2013) “The Benefits of an Innovative Learning Management System, The Case From Higher Education in Slovak Republic“, Proceedings of ICERI 2013 Conference: International conferenceo of education, research and innovation, Seville: IATED, ISBN 978-84-616-3847-5. pp. 2671-2678 can approach applications and also the whole platforms via the Internet as a service, without need to install additional components. This also applies to viewing multimedia files, resulting in increased interest in HTML5 standard. In the area of Web services is a good example of routing to support mobility in information and communication technology use e - mail providers ( e.g. Gmail , Outlook ), video or audio portals (e.g. YouTube, SoundCloud ), web storage (e.g. Dropbox, SkyDrive) or entire applications (e.g. Office 365, Google Docs).[9] This trend is also evident in the field of education. Users are already accustomed to seeing a modern educational systems, or portals offering a simple user interface and support for HTML5. The proof is an extension of a high popularity of open online educational portals (MOOC - Massive Open Online Courses). Not all operators of e-learning portals, especially in the university environment reacted to that. Moving and storing bulky multimedia files, or ordinary documents (.doc /.ppt/.pdf) often unnecessarily flooding the storage space in mobile devices (especially when downloading repeatedly during repeated visits to the same course) should be replaced by modern HTML5 objects. Complex structured portals based on the principle of "more is better" should be replaced with a simple and intuitive environment. Great popularity of MOOC portals courser or Khan Academy creates a large qualitative gap towards the traditional LMS environment in universities. Nature of the needed innovation is not in the content, but in the form of distribution of educational content. 1.2 The main functions of cloud LMS iSmart and experience of transition from Moodle iSmart is an e-learning system based on the principle of managing the environment, that is fully under control and at the same time which is able to collect and present the necessary incentives for innovation. iSmart has its own e-learning SMART methodology, which is based on: • Specific - each object has its purpose and benefits (Concept of Mastery Learning); • Measurable - learning is continuously assessed and monitored; • Attainable - objects should be knotted (the concept of Bloom's Taxonomy); • Relevant - training course meets the objectives and increases personal development; • Timed - objects and time course are adjustable in accordance with the training plan. Fig. 1: 1: Simple environment adapted forfor touch devices Fig. Simple environment adapted touch devices. The internal logic of courses is based on conditional sequence in the studio to track progress and tempo of study, as well as the fulfilment of the obligations set for possible use for ongoing evaluation of study. Linking of course to the knowledge maps allows evaluating of learning profiles and also lead students to meet their educational goals. Evaluation of study is not only at the level of elementary 2673 Papula, Ján (2013) “The Benefits of an Innovative Learning Management System, The Case From Higher Education in Slovak Republic“, Proceedings of ICERI 2013 Conference: International conferenceo of education, research and innovation, Seville: IATED, ISBN 978-84-616-3847-5. pp. 2671-2678 statistical reports, but allows teachers to evaluate the state and behaviour of students for management of education process. There is a feedback from students in form of evaluation of electronic courses. This involves significant information-control tool for the process of continuous improvement (according to Deming PDCA cycle).In each course there can be “Student Assessment” (evaluation starts only in subjects where it is activated by teacher). It is a good feedback for the teacher to know in which area of course students asking for more. There is available automated ranking of courses that evaluates the degree of maturity of courses for baseline methodology SMART (if necessary with modified assessment criteria and scales according to the internal rules of e-learning faculty). Faculty can assess at what level are processed individual courses. Also, there is a possibility to do analysis (at the levels of study, as well as level of courses), about quality of electronic support of educational process. The main features of iSmart are: • iSmart is a cloud system (It can be used as a service, without need for installation and system administration). • iSmart can be integrated through a single login (single sign - on) with an intranet system , e.g. Microsoft Sharepoint; • XHTML/HTML5 full support for browsing via mobile devices (Smartphones, tablets); • SCORM compatibility allows you to insert objects created by modern authoring tools, respectively . learning objects from other e-learning systems (e.g. Moodle); • structure of courses and learning objects allows you to set the internal logic to support learning content links, as well as ensuring the desired response to the requirements of the educational plan of the organization; • outcomes of education in the form of reports, automated generation certificates (based on set of criteria of certified trainer) with the possibility of direct transmission to the appropriate contacts within the organization (e.g. the HR department ) , or in business workflow system. LMS iSmart has several support tools to ensure quality of teaching process: • It lets teachers to run entry and exit test with automatic evaluation of results, as well as evaluation of progress in the study separately for each study group; • It allows teachers to evaluate the performance of students that study in an environment of e learning, for each individual study groups; • It allows teachers to export statistics for further processing; • It allows teachers to evaluate the level of maturity of electronic courses, and thus in terms of faculty quickly assess the level of support for e learning; • It allows teacher on the start date for the examination period automatically trigger evaluation questionnaires (for expression of feedback students on the course). 2 RESEARCH AND RESULTS First test of new cloud-based e-learning system iSmart took place in 2012. As part of this testing there was simultaneously investigated the degree of fulfilment of the objectives and benefits of the new LMS. The faculty took place at the beginning of the use of teacher training, the time required to fully manage the work with e-learning iSmart was set for 2 hours. iSmart supports SCORM standard, transfer of course from LMS Moodle was simple and painless. When using the advanced authoring tools (especially from iSpringsolutions, Articulate, FlippingBook) the teacher's work focuses almost exclusively on working with MS Office tools, or with a simple linking to external sources (e.g. YouTube). Inserting objects into the course is as easy as connecting attachments to e-mail. There is an effort to load content compatible with HTML5. 2674 Papula, Ján (2013) “The Benefits of an Innovative Learning Management System, The Case From Higher Education in Slovak Republic“, Proceedings of ICERI 2013 Conference: International conferenceo of education, research and innovation, Seville: IATED, ISBN 978-84-616-3847-5. pp. 2671-2678 Fig. 2: Easy transfer of courses from Moodle into iSmart. There is a separate administrator account. The administrator takes care of management of courses and study groups and users. He transfers all important information from faculty Academic Information System (AIS2). Teachers don’t have to take care about administration of the whole system, they only pay attention to their courses and communication with their students. This system ensures that each user (student and teacher) after login will see only courses that belong to him. Students see courses that are active, but also can go to History, were they can find all passed courses. [9] Fig. 3: Main screen of teacher view. At the same time iSmart LMS also enables a targeted communication with students. There is a system of messages and message boards, where each group and each object has its own wall (that are aggregated into a single screen according study groups). Teacher chooses to which groups or courses wants to send a message with a possible attachment. The second visualizing tool is the calendar with an integrated task list. The calendar automatically downloads all the important events of active courses, as well as reports that teachers assigned to one date to each student. [9] 2675 Papula, Ján (2013) “The Benefits of an Innovative Learning Management System, The Case From Higher Education in Slovak Republic“, Proceedings of ICERI 2013 Conference: International conferenceo of education, research and innovation, Seville: IATED, ISBN 978-84-616-3847-5. pp. 2671-2678 To assess the quality of the decision we are mainly consider consequences of that decision. Good decisions should be accompanied by positive consequences.[6] After pilot test we got following immediate result: • Number of courses (originally 18 courses in 2011) was increased to 46 courses. It is an increase of 155 % • In the survey attended by 174 students we have received the following evaluation of e-learning innovation and transformation to cloud LMS iSmart (Fig. 4) 100,00% 90,00% 80,00% 70,00% 60,00% 50,00% 40,00% 30,00% 20,00% 10,00% 0,00% Page loading speed Clarity and Orienta2on Design Funkcionality Mul2‐ pla:orm (PC, iOS, Android) Overall evalua2on of innova2on Posi2ve 93,10% 95,40% 94,83% 86,78% 90,80% 95,40% thereof: good innova2on 67,24% 74,71% 78,89% 56,90% 64,94% 75,86% thereof: significant progress 31,61% 38,51% 46,55% 24,14% 25,29% 31,61% Fig. 4: Evaluation of e-learning innovation by students of Faculty of Management. Overall, the transition to a new LMS iSmart can be considered as a right direction for development of e-learning at the Faculty of Management. In the first year of its deployment there is domination of positive reviews both from students and teachers that encourage their items and electronic form. 2.1 The impact of e-learning on students evaluation and grades The present paper examines how learning in this new e-learning environment considered the results in final examination at the Controlling course. In this paper we employ Pearson correlation analysis to estimate the influence of e-learning activity on final grades. Data have been collected from two different sources. Students’ activity in e-learning was taken from course report. Students evaluation (score from 0 to 100 points) was taken from final evaluation report. Data in this paper are presented and analyzed through descriptive statistics using statistics summaries such as average, median, standard deviation and scatter plot. Main data from course Controlling: - Number of registered students: 190 - Number of students active in iSmart: 179 - Number of visits: 6305 - Average time per visit: 00:13:36 - Progress (initial vs. final testing): 58,56 % 2676 Papula, Ján (2013) “The Benefits of an Innovative Learning Management System, The Case From Higher Education in Slovak Republic“, Proceedings of ICERI 2013 Conference: International conferenceo of education, research and innovation, Seville: IATED, ISBN 978-84-616-3847-5. pp. 2671-2678 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 A B C D E FX Fig. 5: Distribution of grades. The grading corresponds to the following system: - “A” grade: 91-100 points - “B” grade: 81-90 points - “C” grade: 73-80 points - “D” grade: 66-72 points - “E” grade: 60-65 points - “F” grade: 0-59 points score in the evalua/on 120 100 80 y = 4,1016ln(x) + 60,469 60 40 20 0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 ac/vity in iSmart e‐learning Fig. 6: Relationship between activity in e-learning and evaluation score. Main data from descriptive statistics: - Activity in iSmart: o Mean: 100.842 o Standard deviation: 64.603 - Evaluation score: o Mean: 78.393 o Standard deviation: 9.607 - Pearson correlation coefficient: 0,358523513 - 95% confidence interval: 0,2228 to 0,4806 - R squared: 0,1285 2677 Papula, Ján (2013) “The Benefits of an Innovative Learning Management System, The Case From Higher Education in Slovak Republic“, Proceedings of ICERI 2013 Conference: International conferenceo of education, research and innovation, Seville: IATED, ISBN 978-84-616-3847-5. pp. 2671-2678 - p-value (2 sided): 9.586E-07 (< 0,001) - p-value (1 sided): 4.793E-07 (< 0,001) - T-Test: 5.0805 This analysis highlighted an interesting finding. Overall it can be concluded that the study in innovated e-learning environment is beneficial. It demonstrated a high proportion of good marks, as well as acquired a high average progress in study compared to the initial knowledge of students. From a deeper analysis we investigated the real relationship between learning in e-learning environments and outcome assessment. This means that students who have studied more in an elearning iSmart get a better grade. While P-value is less than 0.001, by conventional criteria, this relationship is considered to be extremely statistically significant. Also correlation coefficient at 0,3585 is relatively high, even more, when we take into consideration, that students can also study in conventional way, through textbooks and another study materials and also in class. These results thus may be an encouragement to work on e-learning courses and support the traditional forms of education. We also verified the accuracy of such innovations so technical and methodological. Technical innovations judged students in satisfaction survey, methodological innovation with technological innovation promote efficiency and effectiveness study in this environment. In the next period we are going to prepare further development of e-learning courses, as well as to add new services into LMS iSmart. We plan to implement mainly the functions of electronic virtual career centre and course market in which students will be able to access external e-learning courses and students will be able to share your knowledge through your own created courses. These additional services promise a further increase of usage and make e-learning system more attractive. REFERENCES [1] BEŇOVÁ, E. – HLIVÁROVÁ, N. – GREGUŠ. M. (2005). Distance Education as e-Service to Support Higher Quality of Education, In: Global Business and Economic Development. Montclair: Montclair State University, pp. 670-674, ISBN 978-0-9747415-4-3. [2] BEŇOVÁ, E. – HLIVÁROVÁ, N. – GREGUŠ. M. – PAPULA, J. (2008). 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E-Commerce in Slovakia : situation in recent years and future trends. International Journal of Business Research, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2011), pp. 203-207. [8] QUINN, C.N. (2011). Mobile Learning: Landscape and Trends, The eLearning Guild Research 2011. [9] REHÁK, J. (2013). Zmena k modernému cloudovému LMS. Dnešné trendy inovácií. DTI v Dubnici nad Váhom, pp. 190-199, ISBN 978-80-89400-60-7. 2678 Papula, Ján (2013) “The Benefits of an Innovative Learning Management System, The Case From Higher Education in Slovak Republic“, Proceedings of ICERI 2013 Conference: International conferenceo of education, research and innovation, Seville: IATED, ISBN 978-84-616-3847-5. pp. 2671-2678