Search

This paper investigates the impact of designing and implementing a Flipped Classroom (FC) learning design at primary and secondary education schools as part of teachers’ professional development. During a bottom-up procedure, 376 teachers who participated in a middle-scale seminar for this model were trained in “flipped classroom strategy” with the same blended learning model. In the first phase, they proposed their flipped classroom lesson plans and in the second phase they analyzed them in a peer-review processing. As a result, we have created and propose a learning design template in LAMS available for teachers to author and implement a flipped classroom lesson with the aim of active participation instead of a passive experience.

The development of nonalcoholic functional beverages enriched with herbal bioactive compounds has great nutritional and economical interest. The aim of the study was to prepare a functional instant herbal powder (IHP) from dehydrated herbal cold infused blends, easily dissolved in cold water, providing a beverage with enhanced health benefits to consumers. Several aromatic plants’ cold infusions were evaluated, and a sideritis (Sideritis scardica), clove (Syzygium aromaticum) and roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) blend was selected for IHP preparation, due to the high phenolic content and sensory superiority. Infrared spectroscopy revealed the presence of phenolic compounds, carbohydrates and carotenoids while spectrophotometric assays confirmed antioxidant activity of the IHP. Shelf life testing was also performed on the IHP with storage at 25, 40 and 70 °C for five weeks, assessing total phenolic content, antioxidant and antiradical activity, color and microbiological status of samples. The IHP maintained consistently its antioxidant and antiradical activity, as well as its color and microbiological stability at 25 °C for the whole storage period. The degradation of IHP phenolics and its color attributes were significantly affected by temperature during storage. The potential of IHP to contribute to oral hygiene was evaluated through antimicrobial testing against oral microbiota.

The development of networks and web based environments combined with modern learning theories compose the new area of Learning Spaces aiming at enhancing interactive processes between educators, the Net generation's learners and the educational content. Collaboration at a distance (e-collaboration) supported by advanced learning technologies is today feasible and effective at a large scale opening up new perspectives in higher education. The paper presents a case study at the Hellenic Open University regarding the development of a learning sequence aimed at achieving high degrees of interactions among students, students and educators, and also at guiding them between face-to-face meetings when they prepare an essay. The Learning Space of the case study is realized by authoring sequences of learning activities using an LMS LAMS. Extending the case study, a methodology is illustrated to author collaborative sequences using LMS addressing to Open Universities in particular and also to conventional Universities in general.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of the model of the “flipped classroom” as a complementary method to school distance education in junior high school Biology. The “flipped classroom” model attempts a different way of organizing the educational process according to which the traditional methods of learning at school and studying at home are interchanged, the learners’ active involvement is supported, their autonomy is reinforced, ICT is utilized and learning occurs partially by distance (blended learning). We performed an action research implementing flipped classroom in Biology teaching in a class of 17 students attending the1st year of junior high school. The educational platform used was the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS). The findings were evaluated qualitative rather than quantitative, and can provide evidence about the prevailing situation. During the action research, it became evident that time management in the classroom was improved. Furthermore, it was observed that students’ involvement in the educational process was also improved. Students had already familiarized themselves with the cognitive aspect of the lesson before entering the class and they considered the learning process as an individual affair which does not only depend on the teacher. The implementation of digital activities accomplished by distance led to taking action and initiative and finally to active learning. School distance education combined with the radical development of ICT can be complementary with the use of various methods, like the “flipped learning”, and give a new perspective and potential to the limited choices of conventional education in the Greek educational system which is worth further investigation.

The majority of existing Learning Management Systems (LMS) support collaborative learning through unstructured, general purpose collaboration workspaces that provide educators with semantically poor low-level data about learners’ interactions. Educators in turn, labour to process and interpret this kind of data, and consequently, are not able to intervene effectively in the collaboration process. To overcome this limitation, we used Learning Activity Management System (LAMS), an activity-based LMS, integrating in it some activities to be implemented with Synergo, a collaborative concept mapping specific tool with a structured interface. A case study of using this compound learning environment is presented in this paper. This case study is used to investigate what will be the benefit for educators and learners from such an approach. In this context we designed a particular collaboration script to also test the hypothesis that scripts support the acquisition of cognitive skills. A pre-test for validity and reliability of the script has been performed in order to understand and experiment with the technical’s aspects of the integration of the two e-learning collaborative systems and to investigate the students’ opinions.

Creating a course is a demanding process that presupposes the scientific knowledge and various technical skills on effectively delivering content. Contemporary Learning Management Systems (LMSs) do not adequately support the structural appropriateness of content, despite being able to provide the lesson. Moreover, they are not readily capable of determining learning outcomes – the essential factor against which the effectiveness of a lesson is validated. The authors propose and describe the Learning Outcomes Design Authoring Tool (as of now LeODAT), which is a web-based tool conceived and constructed to support correct coding and authoring of a course by additionally creating descriptors for its learning outcomes. Furthermore, LeODAT comes along with a number of pedagogical theories, organized as Taxonomies of Learning Domains. LeODAT is designed to be used as a standalone application or as a service into worldwide popular LMSs, such as Moodle, LAMS etc.

E-learning with the use of Learning Management Systems, has been increasingly adopted in Primary, Secondary and Higher Education with the expectation to increase students’ motivation and infuse activity-centred learning strategies with various educational benefits. This study has investigated the initial perceptions of Greek teachers about the integration of LAMS, a Learning Activity Management System, in the educational praxis. Through a multifaceted research method, involving a small scale participatory action research, the research team attempted to investigate the preconditions required to integrate LAMS in the everyday lesson. Two tutorial workshops were organized with the participation of 46 educators from geographically diverse urban areas, from K-12 to Tertiary Education. Results indicated that teachers have developed a positive attitude towards LAMS and the use of collaborative online tools during the educational process. Although teachers have certain objections on integrating LMSs, which stem mainly from the current status of the Greek educational system, they accept relative advantages of integrating online collaborative approaches over the traditional face-to-face approach. Well-organized and carefully implemented tutorial workshops can spark teachers’ interest and bring about change in the educational process. Small scale interventions such as these can prove to foster dialogue among teachers of various backgrounds and set the foundations to create online communities of practice for innovative teachers.

This paper reports on work undertaken within a pilot study concerned with the design, development, and evaluation of online computer science training courses. Drawing on recent developments in e-learning technology, these courses were structured around the principles of a learner-oriented approach for use with adult learners. The paper describes a methodological framework for the evaluation of three main educational issues involved in the learning process of Web-based computer science training courses, and analyzes the results of this study with the aim of providing an improved learning design, and environment, for these courses. The findings highlight a number of potential barriers to learning and indicate the failed indicators that need to be improved in order to enhance effective performance. The authors give their views both on ways to improve the proposed learning environment and on the need for an optimal balance between asynchronous and synchronous activities, enhanced collaboration, and interactions among adult learners and e-tutors.