eLearning at the Comenius University in Bratislava,

Slovakia -- and my own experience

Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Renáta Adamcová, PhD.Faculty of Natural Sciences

Department of Engineering Geologyadamcova@fns.uniba.sk

...very briefly described at:http://www.minedu.sk/7411-en/system-of-schools-and-school-facilities/

Slovak education system

http://www.slovakia.org/http://www.slovakia-slovakia.com/http://www.slovakia.com/

http://www.bratislavaguide.com/http://visit.bratislava.sk/en/

About Slovakia

About Bratislava – the capitol

(http://www.chcitam.cz/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/tatry.jpg)

(http://blog.danubiagate.sk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Bratislava_Hotel_Danubia_Gate.png)

http://www.lawconference.sk/sprava/files/img/uk_2.jpg

http://lawconference.sk/sprava/files/img/aula.jpg

Rectorate of CU with Aula

Comenius University in Bratislava

Aula

...the largest and oldest university in Slovakia...

...more at www.uniba.sk

Bratislava

Slovakia

www.uniba.sk

http://www.fns.uniba.sk/uploads/pics/fns_photo2.jpg

http://www.signos.sk/images/referencie/prirodovedecka-fakulta-uk-bratislava.jpg

Geology

Faculty of Natural Sciences...one of 13 faculties of CU...

...more at www.fns.uniba.sk

Department of Engineering Geology http://kig.fns.uniba.sk ....there about me http://kig.fns.uniba.sk/adamcova.php in Slovak

... some of my scientific papers and publications at the ResearchGatehttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/R_Adamcova/info/?ev=prf_info

...information on the eLearning at the Comenius University (CU) can be found only in Slovak language......e.g. this page explains what is eLeraning and why eLearning, or...

...or how to start preparing eLearning courses, what is Moodle, how to register etc.

Moodle at UC

...but

(Katarína Pišútová, 2012)

http //ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase/

My own initiative – eLearning course in Malta

http //ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase/

Applying successfully for a Grundtvig grant, I came to Acrosslimits in 2012

...within „my“ course„Introducing eLearning and Creation of Educational Content“ 1-year access to the education platform of Acrosslimits was enabled

www.acrosslimitstraining.com

What I learned: Examples for Educational Resources

...what I learned: Creating an e-Book

...what I learned: Tools to use for Digital Story Telling

...what I learned:• Introduction to Videos in Education• Creating & Running Lessons using

Virtual Classrooms• Creating Tests with Testing Tools• Creating e-Games • Creating Online Courses & Tutorials• Collaborative Learning:

Creating Collaborative Learning Spaces, Creating Discussion Forums , Creating a Wiki , Creating a Blog

...what I learned:Using Moodle

My first attempts at the Teachers' Playground

...with the Final test

...however, I am quite sceptic about the practical application of collected knowledge, because of the eLearning situation at CU, very well described by

Mrs. Katarína Pišútová, 2012:

Further ICT skills of mine:- ICDL and some special software for soils and rocks (GeoLab, GeoFil, Tecnotest)(- I do not know how to create web pages)

Why am I here? Starting from September the 1st I will be the Department head and would like to implement eLearning into our teaching...

(Katarína Pišútová, 2012)

(Katarína Pišútová, 2012)

one of the CU Bratislava!

(Katarína Pišútová, 2012)

(Katarína Pišútová, 2012)

(Katarína Pišútová, 2012)

However, I saw/see other important barriers:- regulatory: in the daily study, obligatory physical presence of

the student in the classroom for every lesson and exercise- economic: preparation to this new teaching form needs a lot of

time – unfortunately, we are not paid for teaching (marginal incomes), but for our scientific outcomes – papers in journals abstracted by Current Contents! So, time spent with any attempts to change something in the “used-to” teaching is a “lost” time for the relevant department looking at the money for salaries

- individual: even at the university, ICT skills of some students are still quite absent!

- technical: insufficient equipment of classrooms with ICT for collaborative teaching/learning

An overview of one part of the existing eLearning courses can be found at the portal of the Slovak higher education/universities:

PortalVS.sk – section eEducationThe e-Education module originated for the purpose of recording university e-courses and e-objects. It will provide an overview of what actually exists in the field of e-Education in Slovakia.

The module is aimed in particular at university teachers, so that they can have an overview of courses and to what extent e-Education is already developed in Slovak universities, so that they can arrange cooperation with the authors of courses and prevent any unnecessary work—the creation of duplicate courses—if a course with a particular subject has already been developed, if it can be used in the study programme or as another form of classroom support. The module may serve also for possible selection of sponsors for subjects with already prepared teaching support. The module is also aimed at students of all levels of university study who will be able to find additional resources for study, because many courses or subjects are freely available or can be studied from a distance.

Number of records: 30 eLearning courses at this module

This is also the web-page of the KEGA granting agency (Cultural and Educational Granting Agency)

A visit at this page will show you that the number of already granted eLearning projects is quite hughe!

My grant application for the project „Landslide hazard! - eLearning-course support of the lifelong learning of

teachers and public to the prevention and landslide risk mitigation”(2014-2016)

However, all what I have done in the ICT implementation yet, in other way than my colleges do, were:- some tutorials from YouTube used in the lessons for the explanation of

laboratory or field tests for that we do not have the necessary equipment;- a very simple “homework” for the students within an exercise on geological

hazards; they should find videos about two different geological hazards on YouTube and e-mail them with short comments to me. For me, it was very time-consuming to check and answer, sometimes also to correct and re-check all the e-mails, but in this way I collected a lot of material that I can use in the future teaching and students were quite excited what they learned...

But most of the students are skilled to use web individually for resource studies, translator and grammar check, help via FAQ, maps, free software, social networking etc. Their bachelor and diploma theses are the highest kind of individual project work that should lead to that “profound” knowledge and they give their presentation in PowerPoint, some of them already applied even more sophisticated presentation software from internet

Thank you for your attention!