Master’s Degree Program for Applied Informatics in Education
Majoring in Instructional Design and Distance Learning
Maria Tatarinova
Institute of Computer Technologies, Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI),
Nezhinskaya St. 7, Moscow, Russian Federation
Keywords: Elearning, Distance Learning, Instructional Design, Educational Programmes, Applied Informatics,
Pedagogy.
Abstract: The presentation will cover the context and development of higher education professional educational
programme for Applied Informatics in Education which was created to answer the challengers of new ICTs
rich educational environment. The program was initiated to train the specialists for emerging eLearning
sphere having integrated competences in Technology, Pedagogy and Organization. The paper outlines the
process of setting the educational programme goals, building the specialists professional portrait, target
audience, learning content selection and structuring, used educational technologies for training and future
development perspectives.
1 INTRODUCTION
It is a well-known fact that modern information and
education environment is characterized by new type
of resources, new groups of users and new types of
interaction.
But as any other educational system (traditional
incl.) at any level of education and in any subject
area, any information and education environment of
concrete learning process requires first of all
projection of its model, expertize of its components,
analysis, software choice or\and development for,
secondly, further realization in learning and
teaching.
Moreover both stages require work of certain
groups of experts. The project stage: course
developer, instructional (learning) designer, and
realization stage: teacher, tutor and system
administrator.
So, for the effective functioning of this new
environment we need to rely on new professionals
who have integrated professional competences in
both stages of educational system building and who
can assist teachers who are rather strange with the
new environment and technicians who are rather far
from pedagogical process.
The objects of professional activities of such
specialists in modern ICTs-rich educational
environment are all components of learning process
as a system realized by specific means of ICTs.
They are learner and groups of learners, teacher,
learning content, and learning activities (processes)
based on new pedagogical and information
technologies used for learning.
2 BACKGROUND
Training and professional development of teachers
for ICTs in education is carried out in Russia by
several institutions in the frameworks of several
programmes of all Russia informatization, education
including:
Programmes of life long education (MSU,
Yakutsk State University, University of People’s
Friendship, Moscow Pedagogical State University,
and many others);
Programmes of in-service training (Institutes and
Centers of In-service Training of Teachers);
Professional net communities (Russian
Educational Portal, Russian Internet Pedagogical
Council, Creative Teachers’ Network, Omsk
Educational Portal, Perm City Portal,
NetCommunity of EFL teachers and others).
If the requirements for professional competence
of modern teachers and system administrator as a
272
Tatarinova M..
Master’s Degree Program for Applied Informatics in Education Majoring in Instructional Design and Distance Learning.
DOI: 10.5220/0004412302720276
In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2013), pages 272-276
ISBN: 978-989-8565-53-2
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
supporter of ICTs learning process are rather
developed in Russian education, and profession of
tutor (coordinator) is realized in the system of post
diploma courses and in-service training, the
profession of instructional designer is hardly
understood in Russian professional education in its
triad: whome, what and how to teach.
The practice shows that usually its the teachers
who do all the job for eLearning – develop and
design courses, support and facilitate learning. But
the practice shows as as well that its impossible to
impose all the competences and responsibilities for
the innovative learning process on them due to the
age and lack of time. They need professional support
for that. And this job can be realized by Instructional
designers or so called specialists in ICTs in
education.
Nowadays the Instructional design profession is
critical for the growing e-learning and labour
market. Instructional designers require deep
understanding of educational processes and
knowledge of change agentry to help transform the
current academic systems into effective e-learning
approaches. They should have not only
organizational skills but also an ability to quickly
integrate different knowledge from a wide range of
fields including Pedagogy, Law, Computer Science
and ICTs, Psychophysiology, Ergonomics,
Marketing, Sociology, Cross-cultural
Communication, Information Security, and Quality
Assessment.
Moreover, training of IT-competent specialists in
ICTs in education is more efficient and realized by
some educational institutions not only in contact but
at a distance. In this respect some best examples
were studied and are mentioned here:
• Post-Bachelor, Master and Doctorate Degree
in Distance Education, Post Bachelor on
Educational Technologies, Instructional
Design – (e.g. Athabasca University, Canada)
• Master Degree in Innovation, Doctorate
Degree in E-Learning - (e.g. Leicester
University, UK)
• Distant Courses for Teachers and Instructors
Professional Development – (e.g. Universitat
Oberta Catalunya, Spain).
The mostly needed specialists for modern
information and education environment are the
specialists of 2 levels. Russia currently needs two
types of eLearning professionals. The first group are
teachers, tutors and academic coordinators that can
be trained for using ICTs as a part of current training
programs in Education by introducing various
elective courses. But to train professionals of the
second group, instructional designers and media
specialists for distant education, special
undergraduate and postgraduate programs should be
developed and deployed. This would include
programs in ICTs in Education, Instructional
Design, Distance Education, and Multimedia
Production.
3 DISCUSSION
The first attempt to respond to this pressing need in
Russia was made 2 years ago (2009) at MESI
(www.mesi.ru) when the Chair of Applied
Informatics in Education developed and introduced a
new Master’s Degree Program in Distance
Education. Thus, students of Applied Informatics
can choose a set of profile and elective courses to
major in Instructional Design and Distance
Learning.
As Applied Informatics today is used in different
spheres and there is a need for ICTs advanced
professionals in education, economics, management
and other spheres, the decision was taken to
construct the program on the basis of “Applied
Informatics”. But the applicants can be any Bachelor
or Specialist Degree fellows, majoring in
Management, Law, Education and ICTs. So, thought
being not limited the applicants should have the
basic professional ICTs skills and understand the
process of creating information systems, to be able
to construct private and corporate networks of
integrated knowledge.
All these taken into consideration, the
competence portrait of a specialist was formed by
extracting certain sets of knowledge from necessary
subject areas that are needed to work with
professional objects: learning content, teacher,
student and activities.
Thus, for example, Master on the profile of
"Applied informatics in Education" (Distance
Education) is a specialist in the field of design,
development and organization of systems of distance
learning at various levels of education and fields of
knowledge.
Learning at the Master's degree program
presupposes an in-depth study of the disciplines in
the following areas:
modern pedagogical technologies of distance
learning;
• psychology of the net pedagogical
communication;
• design of educational systems and resources;
Master'sDegreeProgramforAppliedInformaticsinEducationMajoringinInstructionalDesignandDistanceLearning
273
• instructional design technologies in distance
learning;
• legal issues of distance learning;
• distance learning quality ensuring,
monitoring and evaluation;
• information security of distance learning;
• fundamentals of scientific and research
activity;
• basics of adult learning.
Master's degree student in the educational profile
will obtain the following competencies:
• analysis, evaluation and forecast of the main
trends of ICTs’ application in education;
• analysis, assessment, design, development,
implementation, evaluation of the
effectiveness of the systems of distance
learning in terms of pedagogy, technology
and organization;
• study, analysis, classification and selection of
information technologies and tendencies of
their development for the solution of applied
problems of distance learning;
• analysis, systematization, the selection and
design of electronic educational resources for
distance learning and many others.
Training at specialization "Applied Informatics in
Education"(Bachelor of ICTs in Education) implies
in-depth study of disciplines in the following areas:
• Modern educational and pedagogical systems
in the information society
• Theory and techniques of training and
education on the basis of information
technologies
• Information technologies and systems in
education
• Basics of pedagogical communication
• The creation, management and quality
assessment of educational systems and
environments
• Educational and copyright law in Internet.
Spheres of professional activities:
• Design and project
• Industry and technology;
• Organization and administration;
• Analysis and Research.
Bachelor of profile "Applied Informatics in
Education" is a specialist in the field of eLearning,
competent in the integrated use of pedagogical and
information technologies in the educational process
at different levels of education and for different
subject areas, which obtains the abilities and skills
in:
• Educational technologies
• Instructional design
• Analysis, development and organization of
educational systems.
Methods and technologies of management and
evaluation of information and educational
technologies, learning resources and environments.
The perspectives of development of competent
model at each programme level are seen in the
introducing the greater range of profiles for different
specialist in eLearning (e.g. majoring in Educational
Law or Educational Technologies or Educational
Project Management). Besides working with main
vendors in the field of eLearning in assessment
profile textbooks and in teaching specific elective
courses are very crucial for the success of the
educational programme in the market. Of course,
one of the main goals of upgrading course content is
to provide environment to build and assess it in
professional networks (incl. international) by using
open resources and inviting famous specialists in the
field of eLearning.
So, all these authentic courses are aimed at
training specialists competent in classifying,
analysis, evaluation, development of e-learning
recourses and adapting systems for different
knowledge areas and education levels. As this urgent
demand for skilled professionals is met, we
anticipate an on-going need to update skills and
pedagogies as technology platforms change, as e-
learning evolves to mobile learning, and as the
impact of learning analytics is felt on distance
learning approaches for the future. Thus, new
approaches to education require re-thinking the
systems and skills for creating and sustaining
change. And that can be done on net community
based approach.
Training of such kind of specialists requires
maximum realization of “learning by doing"
approach. Both modern ICTs used in the University
(eCampus, Adobe Connect Pro) and open
educational resources and services (Google Docs,
Wiki, Moodle) that are professional tools for the
future graduates of the programme, provide
opportunity for that.
Thus, a networked curriculum is built and
implemented by the international team for MESI
Master’s Degree educational programme in
question.
As it was already mentioned, this educational
programme is very specific as, primarily, it is new to
Russian educational context in the times of e-
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learning economic sector being formed and demand
for this kind of specialists being stronger felt that
ever before, and, secondly, because the educational
aims are at the same time the learning content and
methods used by professors for postgraduate
students as they should learn the profession by
doing.
That is why the concept of student centered
approach and constructivism, problem-based,
project–based approaches and activity methods were
chosen to both build integrated course curriculum
and activities, and to teach and learn the course
content.
As stated above the programme is a blend of core
Computer Science courses and 10 specialized
courses in modern educational technologies
covering: the basics of distance learning, computer
learning systems, legal issues of e-learning,
pedagogy, basics of distance learning course
creation, psychology of Internet communications,
security of e-learning systems, and some others.
Being lacked in specialists in this unique sphere the
university was and is strongly interested in sharing
this knowledge with those who are involved in
similar projects and discuss the basic competences
for instructional designers and the ways of selecting
and training professionals for this role. In our case
the course developers were the leading specialists in
the field both from Russia (e.g. Kazan Federal
University Professor in Legal Issues of Distance
Learning and Information Security, Moscow
specialists) and abroad (e.g. leading Canadian
specialist in Instructional Design from Athabasca
University).
Following the main educational tendencies and
demands of the course curriculum not only the
content is developed in cooperation with leading
specialists of the subject area, but the students are
involved in online seminars and lectures delivered
by foreign professors (from Finland, UK, the
Netherlands, Canada) thanks to MESI technical
facilities (e-Campus, Adobe Connect Pro and so on),
joint time and territory spread small group work,
individual practical work with instruments and tools
for development electronic educational resources.
Master’s Degree Programme for Applied
Informatics in Education majoring in Instructional
Design was developed in 2009 and 11 students
defended their Master’s dissertation since that time
carrying out projects for the real educational
institutions and companies which undertake e-
learning initiatives. All these final projects are
coordinated by their employers’ representatives and
developed and assessed in the professional nets.
They touched upon distance education systems
development for educational institutions and
corporations, content development for distance
education (e.g. Google in teaching and learning, a
DL Course on the Russian Language), research of
ICT potential in education (Google, MindMaps, E-
portfolios, Screencasts, etc.), systems of assessing
quality in eLearning, etc.
This academic year students present, discuss and
carry out their final papers in cooperation with other
students of the same programme from Athabasca
University (Canada) with the consultancy of Russian
and Canadian specialists. ICT instruments (e.g.
MESI Information Center of Disciplines and e-
Campus) allow building small net communities of
students around each course in cooperation with a
teacher, foreign expert and a vendor representative.
Thus, for example the professor of the chair and
scientific consultant of the department is Doctor
Griff Richards, professor of University of Athabasca
(Canada). Professor Richards carries both lectures
for the students of the department (Basics of
Instructional Design) and research seminar
“Research Seminar in ICTs in Education” on the
basics of research and development and project work
for the staff and students of the department in
English (See Fig.1).
Figure 1: Online lecture of Prof. Richards from Canadian
Athabasca University for the Master Degree students
majoring in Applied Informatics in Education, delivered in
Adobe Connect Pro.
Professor Zuev V.I., being a vice rector for
information and distance learning technologies, is a
unique specialist in Kazan Unstitute of Social and
Humanitarian Sciences in Legal Issues of eLearning,
Information Security of eLearning. Last two years
Prof Zuev. teaches at the department of Applied
Informatics in Education lecturing three core courses
on the basis of modular system and blended
learning, i.e. a week face-to face course is supported
by students’ project team work (see Fig. 2), as well
as by his webinars (See Fig.3). Prof. Zuev is a
scientific supervisor for a joint master’s degree
Master'sDegreeProgramforAppliedInformaticsinEducationMajoringinInstructionalDesignandDistanceLearning
275
dissertation carried by a student from MESI and a
student from Kazan. This year the successful joint
dissertation defence was carried.
Figure 2: Google Docs used by Prof. Zuev (Kazan) for
team work of students of MESI department (Moscow) in
Information Security of eLearning.
Figure 3: Webinar of Prof. Zuev carried for Master’s
Degree students majoring in Applied Informatics in
Education in Adobe Connect Pro.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The initiative was welcomed by Russian educators
and it stimulated introduction of this program in
other Russian universities. New program profiles
started to be developed. The program was quick
scanned by E-xcellence, Quality Assurance in
eLearning (EADTU) and achieved the label of
Associates in Quality.
Priority perspectives of the department lie in
both academic staff and students mobility, and
educational programme mobility in Instructional
(learning) design based in ICTs what is connected
with attracting leading specialists of the field and
eLearning vendor’s representatives for teaching at
the programme profile courses, providing
opportunities for joint degree programmes
realization in Russian and abroad in the field,
international joint research and thesis defence.
Besides one if the leading priorities are focussed
on programme content development for distance
training and quality assessment (Virtual Chair on
ICTs in Education), customized learning paths
design, on-demand corporate training and
partnership of business and education that can
upgrade trained competences and provide
professional growth for the students.
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