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language, the environment can be easily subjected to
modifications with the potential to add more
languages. The user can also choose the “login” link
in order to enter the system after typing his
username and password. After entering the system,
the menu of the web page appears which depending
on the user’s rights it differentiates. Specifically,
there are four types of users: administrator, teacher,
student and guest. At first the lesson “Computing
applications” was created as well as accounts for
students and teachers. This particular lesson is
taught in the fourth year of all the high schools in
Greece. Twelve thematic units have been created
that match the chapters of lesson’s book. The teacher
can add material to the lesson such as text files,
presentations, questionnaires, wiki pages, exercises,
assignments, voting, forums, chats and others.
Specifically, text files are added to the lesson as
well as presentation files, relevant to the material of
the book chapters. Questions were created and used
in an exercise, the types of which were multiple
choices and can vary. “Exercise 1” is displayed as an
activity in the lesson. Student has the ability to
project and solve the exercise. The teacher can check
which students worked on the exercise and at
what point did they find the answers. Furthermore an
assignment was put together for file uploading
which was displayed in the first chapter of the lesson
as well as in the list of assignments. Students can
read the subject of the assignment and can send their
file electronically after its completion. Grades can be
displayed for each assignment.
Beside the assignments and exercises the teacher
has the ability to display news and announcements
to the lesson and also add facts to the calendar. The
students can also take part in electronic voting and
watch the results at the end. The teachers can create
a forum by entering a discussion topic. The user can
create wiki pages that can be displayed in a list and
also individually. For every thematic unit of the
lesson there is also chat tool. The tool displays
which users are connected through a list from which
a user can choose someone for conversation, a
virtual user seems to be constantly connected in
order to be used for further studies in the future.
At the same time, the Eschool wiki was created,
which is a public wiki where articles and material
concerning lessons of high school education can be
published. At the main page of the application some
categories are created for a possible future
attachments of articles related to them.
The main page of the environment involves the
navigation menu, the search tool and the tool menu
that are projected at the left. At the center of the
page, the index of the article/page is projected and at
the upper section, the option of “Discussion”, “Edit”
and “History” are given, which concern the current
article of the page. To the upper right, the choice
“Create Account/Login” transfers the user to the
login page where, in case of a registered user, can
register username and password. Otherwise, just
choosing “Create an account” and typing his
personal data on the appearing page can register
him.
4 TESTING AND RESULTS
The Eschool distance learning program was applied
in real conditions, in order to gain information
regarding its efficiency and functionality.
Specifically, the application took place at a high
school of Greece (Lyceum of Iasmos). The dynamic
environment of distance learning was implemented
during the lesson in terms of asynchronous distance
learning in order to enhance the teaching process,
students were gradually familiarised with the
application so that in the future this application will
be incorporated in their school.
In this application two questionnaires were
created, in order to be answered by students. The
application was complete in three stages. In the first
stage, a visit took place at the computer laboratory
of the school, and lasted for two hours. During the
first hour, there was a briefing about the program
and the students experimented with the application
so that they would be familiarized with it. After that,
they worked on some of the tools this program has
to offer, such as: reading wiki articles from the
incorporated Eschool wiki library, reading lesson
material, participation in voting and finally
completing a questionnaire concerning the Eschool
environment. During the second hour, the students
used the chat tool of the application. The chat had
the form of question-answer. Every student had the
ability to exchange knowledge with one or many
students. The purpose of this chat was to record data
to the database, which will be used for future
studies. At the end of the school hour, filled a
questionnaire regarding the subject of the chat.
During the second and third stage, there were
two more visits to the school in different time of
period. The students that took part, were asked to
use, exclusively, the conversation tool, because the
purpose was the enrichment of the database. It
should be pointed out, that the students that were
chosen for this part were the students from the
previous session, since they were already
familiarized with the application.
The students used all the tools of the application
with success and without facing any difficulties. The
chat tool draws their attention and expressed their
enthusiasm during its use.
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