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This program, developed by Riccardo Mazza at SUPSI, explores the integration of Java language learning via virtual classrooms supported by innovative information and communication technologies. With a national backing from the Swiss Confederation, the initiative aims to enhance collaboration among universities while developing multilingual educational materials. It focuses on continuous education, offers courses tailored for different levels, and emphasizes student engagement through varied learning activities, fostering community and improving the quality of educational outcomes.
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Formazione continua e classe virtuale l’apprendimento del linguaggio Java tramite tecnologie di formazione a distanza Riccardo Mazza SUPSI-Scuola universitaria professionale della svizzera italiana Galleria, 2 - 6928 Manno (Switzerland) mazza@die.supsi.ch http://www.supsi.ch - http://virtualcampus.supsi.ch
Swiss virtual campus • A national program founded by the Swiss Confederation (30 Million CHF) for years 2000-2003 • Universities participate with 50% of costs. • 50 ongoing projects, almost every Swiss university participate • Three main aims: • Take advantage of the opportunities now available through new information and communication technology • To strengthen collaboration between the universities, a system of credits should be set up • To develop high-quality, multilingual, teaching materials • To improve the quality of student learning processes • SUPSI participate in 7 projects as partner, heads of “MACS project”
Goals of the MACS project • Experiences with new learning technologies • Evaluation of the realised courses in order to improve their quality • Plan to introduce NLT in other post grade and basis courses • The realisation of continuous education courses in the Studio postdiploma in informatica avanzata (MACS) of theDipartimento di Informatica ed Elettronica (DIE) • C. E. courses are a simpler situation than basis education courses • Computer science courses have an experienced audience
Partners • Facoltà di scienze della comunicazione (USI) • ISPFP, Istituto svizzero di pedagogia per la formazione professionale • Eduswiss, partenariato universitario per la formazione continua • IDSIA, Istituto Dalle Molle di studi sull’intelligenza artificiale (USI-SUPSI) • CSCS, Centro svizzero di calcolo scientifico
Choice of two types of course • 2001: The Java programming language • wide interest ("beginner course") • in Italian • offered mainly in Ticino (near Italy and to italophones in Switzerland) • Started at March 20th 2001 (first F-T-F meeting), finished on May 29th 2001 (exams) • 24 students participated (3 from other regions, 2 from Italy) • 2002: Data Mining • advanced course • in English • open worldwide
The virtual class:how to create the learning community • Face-to-face or synchronous meetings: • introduction • mid-time meeting • weekly chat meetings • examination (in presence!) • Temporal structure • red thread/fil rouge
The virtual class (2) • Study materials online • reading materials (mostly text): theory, examples, etc. • links to other materials online • proposal of books to read during the study • Different kinds of learning activities: • automatic comprehension tests • open exercises • discussion forums • individual (closed) exercises • group assignments • …
The virtual class (3) • Collaborative learning: • especially in the situations student-to-student and one-to-many • not easily realised even in traditional approaches • new technologies can be helpful • important in order to create the virtual learning environment • … and to avoid dropouts • The role of the teacher become even more important and also more difficult and time-consuming
Evaluation • During the courses: • surveys (before, during, at the end and later) • monitoring of the online access • … and of the various collaborative activities • feedback through the solution of individual exercises • … and following the online discussions • After the course: • elaboration of strategies to improve the quality of learning
Some outcomes • A mixed approach (on-line and face-to-face) can be useful to avoid some typical problems in distance learning (students feels alone, lacks of interactions, …) • Is useful to create a red-thread of the course to help students to maintain a “pace” during the study • Teacher needs to spend more time in a on-line course rather than in ex-cathedra course (62h instead of 48h) • Students have more time to spend in solving exercises and to collaborate in discussions • Is fundamental the supervision of teacher in discussions and synchronous events