E-LEARNING USE IN THE TERTIARY
EDUCATION IN CYPRUS
Vasso Stylianou and Angelika Kokkinaki
Intercollege
P.O. Box 24005, 1700 Nicosia, Cyprus
Keywords: E-Learning, E-Learning Cases, I.T. in Education.
Abstract: The aim of this study has been to investigate e-learning facilities provided in some of the main tertiary
education institutions in Cyprus, namely the Intercollege, the University of Cyprus and the Higher
Technical Institute. The findings of this investigation, formed as brief case studies, are presented herein and
certain conclusions are being made.
1 INTRODUCTION
The geographic position and size of Cyprus make it
ideal for businesses to grow by capitalizing on the
benefits of e-learning and e-training. Opportunities
exist in all areas of e-learning in academic education
and industrial training for expanding education in
Cyprus to other regions, creating regional hubs for
international students and industries on-line
worldwide. Any strategic move in this direction
would initially require an appreciation of the current
state of affairs in respect to e-learning availability in
Cyprus.
Our knowledge about the e-learning use in Cyprus
educational systems is incomplete mainly because
there is limited information on the key players
offering e-learning services in Cyprus. Following
that there is a need to systematically categorize the
e-learning services offered, evaluate the advantages
and limitations of Cyprus e-learning systems, and
identify what is missing and what can be improved.
Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate
e-learning facilities provided in some of the main
tertiary education institutions in the island. The
findings of this investigation, formed as brief case
studies, are presented in the next section.
2 E-LEARNING CASES
The three institutions investigated in our study were
the Intercollege, the Higher Technical Institute and
the University of Cyprus. Data regarding the e-
learning facilities available in the three institutions
was collected through interviews with the respective
Web Administrator and addressed many aspects for
evaluating an e-learning systems as outlined in
Rogers (2002); van Duyne et. al. (2003) and Zhang
and von Dran (2001).
2.1 Case 1: E-Learning at
Intercollege
Intercollege has been using its e-learning system for
5 years. The type of system that it runs is the
WebCT.
Main Features:
Searching Facilities:
Users can search the content by topic or keyword
and can have control over navigation. The speed of
navigation depends on the student’s internet
connection. Students are not allowed to search for
content in other e-learning systems since there is no
cooperation among the educational institutions. The
Site Map of the e-learning system is a hierarchical
menu which can easily be used to locate resources.
Content Management:
Introductory compulsory text to courses includes a
course outline stating the course name, description,
requirements etc. set up by the instructor/designer of
each course.
• Resource Management. The e-learning system
provides a library of pre-built templates and images
for use in custom content development. But it does
209
Stylianou V. and Kokkinaki A. (2006).
E-LEARNING USE IN THE TERTIARY EDUCATION IN CYPRUS.
In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - SAIC, pages 209-212
DOI: 10.5220/0002459702090212
Copyright
c
SciTePress
not monitor the availability of paper reference
materials.
• Personal Learning Records. The system has the
capability to be the e-learning system for all training
experiences including instructor-led, CBT, WBT,
outside seminars, video, professional conferences etc
• Reporting. Students can generate a training
transcript indicating course attendance, both upon
course and individual learning module completion,
scoring etc. There is no capability for reporting on
competency data but reports are easily generated
regarding all aspects of the training arena such are
reports of individuals who have completed training
and the name of the training requirements.
• Content Delivery. Intercollege e-learning
system is able to deliver on-line Instructor Led
Training (ILT) content, and on-line custom Web
Based Training (WBT) content but it is not able to
deliver an on-line Video Tele-training (VTT)
content. For backup and maintenance purposes the
system provides a version control scheme for on-line
courseware.
• Assessment. Assessment of all learning
activities is possible but there is no linking of
competencies with courses. There is a capability to
perform skill gap analysis tasks, including skills
defining, tracking and searching depends on how the
lecturer designs his/hers tests.
• Content Authoring Tools. The e-learning
system allows the development and delivery of
custom Web Based Training (WBT) content and it
provides both the capability for sharing custom
authored courses as well as converting existing
PowerPoint presentations to web based content.
• Layout and Design. There is a consistency
between pages.
• Error Tolerance. The e-learning system
provides for help when needed but this is not
implemented automatically. Also, the error pages
provide useful information.
Administration:
The system allows remote administration of courses
and classes and it’s able to collect, track and report
course delivery costs. Administration can not
maintain and manage organizationally-developed
competencies and skill-based job definitions,
management, monitoring and reporting.
Technical Requirements
• Security, Infrastructure & System Integration
Intercollege’s e-learning system includes security
authorization and authentication identification using
a student-ID password control. An auditing
mechanism that tracks security and system
administration actions of the system and maintains
current, past student data and their educational
history records is available.
The e-learning system follows all relevant
international standards, and gives access to users
with disabilities. However, it is not capable of
further customization which is handled using a direct
connection to other SQL, Oracle, and ODBC
compliant databases.
2.2 Case 2: E-Learning at HTI
The Higher Technical Institute (HTI) has developed
an E-Learning laboratory, named Solar Energy,
funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Program. The aim
of the “Marvel” project was the implementation and
evaluation of a learning environment for
Mechatronics in vocational and professional training
that allowed students to access physical workshops
and laboratory facilities from remote places.
Main Features
HTI uses an e-learning platform, which is called
Moodle since November 2004. HTI offers the
possibility to students to conduct live experiments in
the field of solar energy processes using the
installations of the laboratory that are located
geographically away from the student. The installed
hardware and software includes features for
controlling external devices, responding to events,
processing data, creating report files and exchanging
information with other applications. All operational
and output data of the system are registered during
an experimental session and can be stored on the
users PC for various calculations and
documentation.
A booking system is available for the experiment.
User enters a User ID and a password for security
purposes.
Searching Facilities:
Users are able to search the content by topic and
keyword. They can have control over the fast speed
of navigation. They can also search for content in
other e-learning systems, that is, within a network of
colleges and other institutions form Cyprus,
Germany, Greece, Portugal, UK and Switzerland.
Moodle includes course characteristics, such as
course length and prerequisites, a site map and also
an introductory text.
Content Management:
The layout is consistent between pages and error
pages provide useful information to users. Help is
available and task-oriented. The system also
provides step-by-step instructions.
Web-based learning materials in the form of ‘virtual
books’, including a Quick User Guide as well as an
ICEIS 2006 - SOFTWARE AGENTS AND INTERNET COMPUTING
210
illustrated User Guide, support all exercises and
learning tasks.
The e-learning system allows students to generate
training transcript indicating course attendance, both
course and individual learning module completion
and scoring. Moreover, it provides the capability for
assessment of all learning opportunities. The system
is able to check whether the user made an
experiment, what time and how many times he/she
tried to make the experiment. Also, the system
provides the ability to link competencies with
courses.
The system is able to deliver on-line Instructor Led
Training (ILT), on-line Video Tele-training (VTT)
and on-line custom Web Based Training (WBT)
content. It provides a library of pre-built templates
and images for use in custom content development
and thus allows for development and delivery of
custom Web Based Training (WBT) content. A
version of a course can be changed and be tailored to
the needs of the course. Existing Power Point
presentations can be converted to web based content.
Administration:
In the e-lab web page, apart from the possibility of
live access to the system, the user can find
documentation material, as well as a glossary of
technical terminology that is used in the system.
Technical Requirements
The system uses security authorization and
authentication identification. The e-learning system
is capable of future customization that results in a
direct connection to other SQL, Oracle and ODBC
complaint databases. The E-learning system
maintains current and past student data and their
educational history records.
2.3 Case 3: E-Learning at UCY
The University of Cyprs (UCY) uses since 2002 a
WebCT e-learning system but some particular
functionality options are not used due to internal
regulations.
Main Features:
Most of the features available and in use by the
UCY are the same as the ones reported in the
examined case 1 carried out at Intercollege. This is
because the two institutions use the same e-learning
system being WebCT. Different practices are only
exercised in the following areas:
Searching Facilities:
The system does not include course characteristics,
such as course length or prerequisites.
Content Management:
• Resource Management. The system monitors
the availability of paper reference materials for
courses but not for the users who have completed the
course since there is a licence that does not allow a
student to regain the course that he has already
completed.
• Personal Learning Records. The system
provides the capability to be the e-learning system
for training experiences of instructor led, and WBT.
• Content Delivery. The system allows only one
version for each course.
• Assessment. There is a capability for
assessment of all learning opportunities. Skill gap
analysis tasks, including skills defining, tracking and
searching and linking competencies with courses is
not possible.
Technical Requirements:
Security, Infrastructure & System Integration
The system offers security authorization and
authentication identification. An auditing
mechanism exists to track security and system
administration actions of the system but it is not
used. Furthermore the e-learning system is capable
of future customization that results in a direct
connection with Oracle. There is no interest in using
the system to maintain past student data and their
educational history records only history for courses.
3 CONCLUSIONS
This paper examined existing e-learning
infrastructure in three tertiary education institutions
in Cyprus. The study outlines how three of the major
institutions in Cyprus use e-learning systems to
facilitate delivery of content to their students and
manage a number of administrative tasks. The
services and support provided (summarized in Table
1) are guided primarily by existing policies and
regulations in the institutions. Further advancements
will align with EU policies (i.e. accessibility to all)
as well as a centralized repository for a national
network of e-learning service providers.
REFERENCES
Rogers, P. L. (ed), (2002). Designing Instruction for
Technology-Enhanced Learning. Idea Group
Publishing.
Van Duyne, D. K., Landay, J. A., Hong J. I. (2003). The
Design Of Sites, Addison Wesley.
Zhang, P., and von Dran, G.M. (2001). Expectations and
rankings of Website quality features: Results of two
E-LEARNING USE IN THE TERTIARY EDUCATION IN CYPRUS
211
studies on user perceptions. In Proceedings of the 34th
IEEE International Conference on System Sciences.
E-Learning Forum. Date Last Accessed Oct. 30
th
, 2005.
www.e-learningforum.com
CeE 2004, Cyprus in eEurope, Benchmarking Cyprus in
IT, a Readiness Assessment for Cyprus. Date Last
Accessed Oct. 30
th
, 2005.
http://www.kepa.gov.cy/eLearning
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of
Natalie Biberian, Marina Marinou and Maria Xenofontos
in the collection of the data for this study.
Table 1: A summary of the E-learning features.
E-Learning Features: Intercollege HTI UCY
System used WebCT Moodle WebCT
No. of years in use 5 1 3
Student self-registration
3 3 2
Registration
System:
Admin. registering students
3 3 3
By topic and keyword
3 3 3
User control over navigation
3 3 3
Speed of navigation
Depends on
connection
Fast Fast
Course characteristics included?
3 3 2
Search in other e-learning systems
2 3 2
Searching
Facilities:
Site Map
3 3 3
User feedback
3 3 3
Notification:
Changes notifications (e.g. cancellations)
3 3 3
Introductory text on pages
3 3 3
Library of pre-built templates and images
3 3 3
Monitoring of reference materials
2
3
Supports instructor-led, CBT, WBT, video,
etc.?
3 3 3
Performance, attendance, other reports
3 3 3
Competency reports
2 3 2
Easy generation of reports
3 3 3
Content
Management:
Training/Requirements completion lists
3 3 3
On-line Instructor-Led Training (ILT)
3 3 3
On-line Video Tele-Training (VTT)
2 3 2
On-line custom Web-Based Training (WBT)
3 3 3
Content
Delivery:
Version control for on-line courseware
3 3 2
Assessment of learning opportunities
3 3 3
Gap analysis, definition, tracking, searching
of skills
Depends on tests’
designs
3 2
Assessment:
Linking competencies with courses
2 3 2
Devel. of Web-Based Training content
3 3 3
Sharing custom authored courses
3
2
Content
Authoring
Tools:
PowerPoint files’ -> to Web-based content
3 3 3
Layout and
Design:
Consistent page layout
3 3 3
Error pages
3 3 3
Error
Tolerance:
Task-oriented help Not automatic
3 3
Remote admin. of courses and classes
3 3 3
Organization-wide admin. facilities
2
2
Administration:
Delivery costs calculations
3
2
Security Authorization & Authentication
3 3 3
Auditing security and admin. actions
3 3 3
Future connection to SQL, Oracle, ODBC
2 3
Oracle
Current, past student data, educational history
3 3 2
Technical
Requirements
Accessible to users with disabilities
3
3
ICEIS 2006 - SOFTWARE AGENTS AND INTERNET COMPUTING
212
