Familiarity with Free Software through Online Services

Vladyslav Ye. Velychko

1 a

, Svitlana O. Omelchenko

1 b

, Elena G. Fedorenko

1 c

and

Hennadiy M. Kravtsov

2 d

Donbass State Pedagogical University, 19 Henerala Batiuka Str., Sloviansk, 84116, Ukraine

Kherson State University, 27 Universytetska Str., Kherson, 73003, Ukraine

Keywords:

Free Software, Online Service, Training of Information Technology Specialists, Online Resource.

Abstract:

The article considers the use of online services in the study of free software. Free software is based on the phi-

losophy of freedom and the right to intellectual creativity. To date, a signiﬁcant number of software products

have been created and distributed through the repository, but they are not used in educational activities. The

study allowed to clarify the factors that promote and hinder the use of free software in educational activities.

Based on questionnaires, analysis of open data, the work of researchers on the use of free software provided an

opportunity to draw conclusions about the feasibility of using free software in educational activities. The arti-

cle gives examples of the use of free software in educational activities. To get acquainted with free software,

it was useful to use online resources, which is the purpose of our study.

1 INTRODUCTION

Modern teaching methods involve the use of infor-

mation and communication technologies (ICT) in the

educational process. The use of ICT has not only

changed the methods of traditional learning, redis-

tributed priorities between forms of learning, but new

forms of learning have emerged. For any method or

form of training that uses high information technol-

ogy, software is required, without which the technolo-

gies lose their meaning. From the interactive white-

board controller application to multimedia application

creation and distribution programs on the World Wide

Web.

Free software is a signiﬁcant feature of the com-

puter industry. Launched as a philosophical concept,

free software has not only found its adherents, but also

has a large number of software tools used in various

directions in its arsenal. The pedagogical universi-

ties are use in educational activity: systems for the

organization of distance education Moodle, ILIAS,

ATutor, Sakai is not an exception; computer mathe-

matics systems Maxima, GNU Octave, GAP, Sage-

Math, Scilab, SPP; GIMP, Inkscape graphics pack-

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9752-0907

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7940-0853

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1897-874X

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3680-2286

ages; Apache OpenOfﬁce, LibreOfﬁce ofﬁce pack-

ages. The question remains about the full and system-

atic use of free software in the educational activities

of professionals.

Common problems of free software, legal and

philosophical aspects of its existence and use are cov-

ered in (Raymond, 1999; Stallman, 2015; Tanenbaum

and Bos, 2015). In Ukraine the problems of using free

software in the education system are highlighted in

(Fedorenko et al., 2019; Habrusiev, 2003; Horoshko

et al., 2010; Khakhanovskyi and Tonevytskyi, 2005;

Panchenko, 2010; Teplytskyi and Semerikov, 2003;

Velychko et al., 2018; Zlobin, 2011). The current state

of the issue of the use of cloud technologies in educa-

tional activities is shown in (Glazunova et al., 2020;

Kholoshyn et al., 2020; Kolgatin et al., 2019; Korotun

et al., 2020; Lytvynova, 2018; Merzlykin et al., 2017;

Nosenko et al., 2019; Oleksiuk and Oleksiuk, 2020;

Popel and Shyshkina, 2019; Shyshkina and Marienko,

2020; Symonenko et al., 2020; Valko et al., 2020).

However, the problem of in-depth exploration of free

software capabilities and widespread use in educa-

tional activities remains. One possible solution to this

problem is to study free software using online ser-

vices.

Velychko, V., Omelchenko, S., Fedorenko, E. and Kravtsov, H.

Familiarity with Free Software through Online Services.

DOI: 10.5220/0010926500003364

In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2020) - Volume 1, pages 605-615

ISBN: 978-989-758-558-6

605

2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND

METHODS

Free software developers have a passive marketing

policy regarding the distribution of their product.

High-quality and useful free software remains un-

known to a wide range of users. The purpose of

this article is to explore the factors by which free

software is chosen to train pre-service teachers and

the factors that do not. Moreover, we present the

possibilities of online acquaintance with free soft-

ware, which can be used by pre-service teachers to

include it in their own educational trajectory. This

module is offered as a section of the author’s course

“Application of information and communication tech-

nologies in educational institutions” at Donbas State

Pedagogical University (https://ddpu.edu.ua/) for ed-

ucational programs Secondary Education (Mathemat-

ics) and Secondary Education (Physics) of the second

master’s level of education at the Faculty of Physics

and Mathematics. The vision of Donbas State Ped-

agogical University is that the university is “an ed-

ucational, scientiﬁc and cultural leader of Eastern

Ukraine, which implements state innovation policy

in education in accordance with market demands and

trends in the digital society of the XXI century, guided

by universal and national values, principles of democ-

racy and European integration, and creates conditions

for the formation of highly educated, competitive pro-

fessionals with an active civil position, patriots of

Ukraine!”.

Research methods are: analysis of publications

on the use of free software in educational activities;

analysis of concepts of application of information

and communication technologies in education; anal-

ysis of free software related to the training of pre-

service teachers; systematization and generalization

of research information.

3 RESULTS OF THE STUDY

A characteristic feature of our time is the transition

from a traditional to an integrated approach to learn-

ing. However, this is not a complete rejection of the

acquired pedagogical experience, but only a harmo-

nious combination of approaches, forms and meth-

ods of scientiﬁc work, research and implementation

of sound ideas, methods and techniques of forming a

system of higher pedagogical education.

Consider the general directions of use of informa-

tion and communication technologies, adapting them

to the use of free software in the training of pre-

service teachers of mathematics, physics and com-

puter science. Such areas include:

• creation of new pedagogical technologies and

teaching aids. Information and communication

technologies based on the use of free software

are the technological basis for developing condi-

tions for effective use of ICT in the educational

process of pre-service teachers of mathematics,

physics and computer science, which will elimi-

nate a number of methodological difﬁculties at all

levels of education and training.

• increasing the democratization of education. The

process of modern times, covering all aspects of

the life of educational institutions. It is based

on self-organization, cooperation, openness, di-

versity and the principle of equal opportunities

through the use of free software. This is a long but

long-awaited process. The purpose of this process

is to normalize relations between society and edu-

cational institutions, covering all levels of the in-

ternal structure of education and streamlining re-

lations between all parts of the educational pro-

cess.

• self-education and lifelong learning. Informa-

tion and communication technologies of educa-

tion, built on free software, are one of the main

means of forming the ability to education and self-

education in the training of pre-service teachers of

mathematics, physics and computer science, es-

pecially given the rapid continuous process of in-

formatization of society. The use of ICT – di-

rect feedback, computer visualization of educa-

tional information, archival storage of educational

and scientiﬁc information with the possibility of

its transmission and use, automation of computa-

tional and information retrieval activities with the

possibility of multi-act repetition – creating a pre-

requisite for intensiﬁcation of the educational pro-

cess.

• individualization of training. Maximum consider-

ation of individual needs and capabilities of the

individual, ﬂexible adjustment to his needs and

interests. It is based on the use of speciﬁc ed-

ucational technologies, modern teaching meth-

ods, technical means and methods of information

transfer, information and communication tech-

nologies, electronic educational resources. In-

dividualization of training of pre-service teach-

ers of mathematics, physics and computer sci-

ence is achieved through such forms of e-learning

as distance learning, blended learning, mobile

learning, synchronous and asynchronous learning

tools, mass open online courses, use of free soft-

ware and more.

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

606

• increasing the level of electronic educational re-

sources. Due to the introduction of ICT in the

educational process it becomes possible to use ed-

ucational, scientiﬁc, informational, reference ma-

terials and tools developed in electronic form us-

ing free software, reproduced by electronic teach-

ing aids and necessary for effective organization

of the educational process of pre-service teachers

of mathematics, physics and computer science,

which contributes to the ﬁlling of the educational

process with quality teaching materials.

• the creation of a favorable psychological climate

is achieved by taking into account the psycholog-

ical and physical capabilities of pre-service teach-

ers of mathematics, physics and computer sci-

ence, direct communication with teachers, free

schedule, self-determination of workload, avail-

ability of licensed software. ICT such as chats,

mass open online courses, distance learning,

blended learning, mobile learning, webinars, web

conferencing etc. can be used in this direction.

• software and didactic support of self-educational

activities is to develop and implement in the edu-

cational process of pre-service teachers of math-

ematics, physics and computer science electronic

educational resources, the formation of skills in

using ICT in self-educational activities based on

free software, planning research, creating motiva-

tional basics, use of information and communica-

tion technologies for search, processing, storage,

transmission and processing of information.

• development of creative abilities of students.

Knowledge and skills stimulate those who want

to learn to search for creative activity. One of

the mechanisms to stimulate creative activity and

in accordance with the development of creative

abilities of pre-service teachers of mathematics,

physics and computer science is to provide a new,

more convenient and powerful tool in the form

of information and communication technologies

based on free software. Free software can not only

make it much easier to achieve a goal or solve a

problem, but also a powerful way to put forward,

validate, and refute new creative ideas.

• community expansion. Search for the necessary

educational information on the resources of the

Internet; communication with like-minded people

and professionals who study at their own request;

participation in communities of free software de-

velopers creates the preconditions for expanding

the community of like-minded people. The In-

ternet is the most powerful tool for “networking

between members of the open electronic commu-

nity, providing them with virtual cooperation, an

environment that provides information resources

and services to all users without exception for an

unlimited range of applications” (Bykov, 2011)

and is a powerful practical experience of commu-

nication, search , information exchange and appli-

cation of free software for pre-service teachers of

mathematics, physics and computer science.

• raising the cultural and educational level. The

cultural level of the individual is manifested only

in the activity, therefore, to consider informa-

tion culture as a quality is appropriate from the

standpoint of the ability to work with informa-

tion coming from different sources, has a different

meaning and different forms of presentation. In-

creasing the role of search, transmission, storage

and processing of information encourages the for-

mation of information competence in pre-service

teachers of mathematics, physics and computer

science through the widespread use of free soft-

ware.

• continuous professional development. Thanks

to such forms of learning as distance, blended

and mobile, mass open online courses, etc., pre-

service teachers of mathematics, physics and

computer science get the opportunity to contin-

uously improve their skills and level of self-

awareness in certain ﬁelds. The study of infor-

mation processing technologies based on the use

of free software stimulates both to maintain their

own knowledge and skills in use, and to the de-

velopment of free software. The basis of such

training is to adjust the learning process to the

needs and capabilities of those who are taught and

who do not have the opportunity to attend classes

organized in the traditional form (lectures, sem-

inars, laboratory and practical work, colloquia,

etc.), and study at a convenient time, a convenient

place, a convenient pace, which provides great ad-

vantages also for those wishing to continue their

education without separation from production, to

study in a certain educational institution, with a

certain teacher, etc.

• exchange of experience and creation of conditions

for creative activity. Virtual educational commu-

nities are a common and popular phenomenon

today. They are not limited to a single educa-

tional institution, but have a wider range of ac-

tivities, covering different levels, target groups

and structures of the educational system. Vir-

tual educational communities are aimed at gain-

ing new knowledge; training and improvement of

ICT skills; exchange of experience; discussion of

professional activity; joint development and im-

Familiarity with Free Software through Online Services

607

provement of teaching methods, teaching aids,

etc. and will become a powerful practical assistant

for pre-service teachers of mathematics, physics

and computer science in their professional activi-

ties.

It should be noted that the content of virtual space

in general, and educational in particular, is changing

very rapidly; exchange of creative ideas and their im-

plementation allow not only to widely reveal the di-

dactic potential of ICT in the training of pre-service

teachers of mathematics, physics and computer sci-

ence, but also stimulate creative action. Of particular

importance is the use of ICT in the educational pro-

cess of pre-service teachers of mathematics, physics

and computer science takes into account and the de-

velopment of informal, creative components of think-

ing: the implementation of problem situations or

problem setting; self-determination of criteria for se-

lection of the necessary operations that contribute to

the solution of situations or tasks; generation of as-

sumptions and hypotheses in the process of ﬁnding

the main idea of the solution; material interpretation

of a formal solution, etc.

Open Education Ideas provide free access to e-

learning resources for everyone to learn. Such access

is provided by ICT based on free software.

Our research has allowed us to identify the fac-

tors that hinder and facilitate the use of free soft-

ware. One of the stages of the study was to con-

duct an anonymous survey of higher education teach-

ers regarding the use of free software in their profes-

sional activities. The developed questionnaire as a

form was made freely available (https://goo.gl/forms/

F0BVkSnvwpHTo6H82) using Google Forms, a link

to which was circulated via the “Kryvyi Rih con-

ferences and workshops” (https://groups.google.com/

group/cc seminar) and “Scientiﬁc journal Physical

and Mathematical education” (https://groups.google.

com/group/fmo-journal).

The data collected to date have allowed us to de-

termine the following results. 93% of respondents

teach science and mathematics. Young teachers, who

already have experience in teaching, predominate by

age (ﬁgure 1). 92% use free software in their pro-

fessional activities. 95% recommend free software to

their students for extracurricular activities.

Considering the beneﬁts of using free software,

the following were highlighted for conducting the

questionnaire:

• legal (licensed purity, non-discrimination, etc.);

• technical (open standards, increased security, ven-

dor independence);

• training (providing the necessary functionality,

Figure 1: Distribution of respondents by age.

open source);

• social (trend, modern gadgets).

Respondents identiﬁed the following factors as fa-

cilitating the use of free software (ﬁgure 2): legal

preference was given the highest importance (82,4%).

This result is predictable. According to estimates

of the Software Alliance (bsa.org, BSA GLOBAL

SOFTWARE SURVEY 2018), 80% of the software

used in Ukraine is not licensed purity.

Figure 2: Factors promoting the use of free software.

78% of the respondents chose among the advan-

tages of free software its educational attractiveness.

This result indicates that sufﬁcient free software is

available for educational activities. Also important is

the availability and openness of software source code.

The analysis of the survey answers indicates that

there are technical advantages of using free software

in the process of training future professionals. This

is noted by 68% of respondents. Open storage stan-

dards are an important factor in the software selection

process. This gives you conﬁdence in the continued

use of your own work. User gains independence from

software developers.

The low percentage (33,5%) belongs to social

preferences. The reason is marketing policy. When

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

608

Figure 3: Factors interferenting the use of free software.

promoting new high-tech devices, it does not empha-

size that their work is based on free software because

of its low social popularity.

The survey revealed a number of shortcomings in

the use of free software in educational activities (ﬁg-

ure 3). We identiﬁed the shortcomings in the follow-

ing groups:

• ﬁnancial (funds for migration, training, etc.);

• technical (changing the format of existing data,

support for peripherals);

• software (lack of specialized software);

• methodical (lack of methodological support for

application).

The lowest percentage (21,5%) belongs to ﬁnan-

cial expenses. This low level of concern about ﬁnan-

cial issues is due to the lack of responsibility for the

use of unlicensed software.

40,6% of respondents are not aware of the ex-

istence and localization of specialized free soft-

ware. At the same time on the resources

GitHub.com (more than 100 million projects),

SourceForge.net (502,000 projects), openhub.net

(498,000 projects), bitbucket.org (170,000 projects),

launchpad.net (44,000 projects), Savannah.gnu.org

(4,000 projects) posted a large number of software

products under free licenses.

The downside of free software is technical issues.

These include the transition to new ﬁle formats (open

ﬁle formats) and software for working with peripher-

als. This concern was expressed by 52,3% of respon-

dents. Open ﬁle formats are currently well developed.

Proprietary and closed form owners are taking steps

to legalize their openness due to the development of

open ﬁle format standards. User-generated data can

be stored and used for a long time. Users need to

have conﬁdence that they can be used for a consider-

able period of time. Own data must be created using

open ﬁle formats.

Currently, free and open ﬁle formats are available

in proprietary software as both input and output data

streams. Moreover, standards for open ﬁle formats

are being actively developed by proprietary software

owners. This policy allows you to extend the life of

your own documents and not be tied to a particular

software developer.

A technical problem is the variety of peripherals

and the lack of peripheral software. Peripheral devel-

opers are trying to keep the technology developed se-

cret. The necessary technical information is not pro-

vided for public use. This fact makes it impossible to

create free software for peripherals.

The biggest drawback is the lack of methodologi-

cal support for the use of free software in educational

activities. It was identiﬁed by 60,3% of respondents.

The lack of free software at the beginning of the

informatization led to the installation of proprietary

system software as the base. Therefore, proprietary

application software has also become widespread.

Methodological support for the use of software ex-

ists in most proprietary software. Today, the situa-

tion with the use of free system software has not im-

proved. According to the StatCounter resource (http:

//gs.statcounter.com), only 1,84% of desktop comput-

ers in the world have the Linux operating system in-

stalled.

The situation is similar in Ukraine. Only 2,66% of

desktop systems are running Linux. However, the sit-

uation is beginning to change. The results of scientiﬁc

and methodological research on the use of free soft-

ware in education are presented at the annual FOSS

Lviv conference (http://conference.linux.lviv.ua/) and

more (Velychko, 2014, 2015). Thus, at the Luhansk

Taras Shevchenko National University, pre-service

teachers of Mathematics, Physics and Computer sci-

ence study the Linux operating system, the Max-

ima computer mathematics system and the Lazarus,

Geany programming environment. At Pavlo Ty-

chyna Uman State Pedagogical University, the course

“Computer Network Administration” is taught on the

Linux operating system. Nizhyn Mykola Gogol State

University uses the OpenOfﬁce.org software, Hot

Potatoes, to study the subject of Electronic Informa-

tion Processing. The basic discipline of “PC operat-

ing systems” is taught using the Linux operating sys-

tem as a complete alternative to the proprietary Win-

dows system. The courses “Using Information Tech-

nology in Education and Science”, “School Computer

Science and Teaching Methods” demonstrate the pos-

sibilities of using OpenOfﬁce.org and Scribus as an

alternative to Microsoft Ofﬁce, GIMP as an alterna-

tive to Adobe Photoshop, Inkscape as an alternative

to CorelDraw and more.

GeoGebra Institute operates at the Department of

Informatics at H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Ped-

Familiarity with Free Software through Online Services

609

agogical University. The National Technical Univer-

sity of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Uni-

versity” operates the “Linux Professional Institute”

(LPI). At the Bogdan Khmelnytsky Melitopol State

Pedagogical University, there are such disciplines as

“UNIX-like operating systems” and “Programming

for open systems” in the bachelor’s curriculum.

At the Poltava V. G. Korolenko National Pedagog-

ical University is widely used by GIMP when teach-

ing Computer Graphics and Design, and geometry is

supported by Maxima Computer Mathematics. The

Maxima computer mathematics system is also widely

used in the teaching of students of Physics and Math-

ematics at Ivan Franko Drohobych Ivan Franko State

Pedagogical University.

At Sumy State Pedagogical University named af-

ter A. S. Makarenko uses software products such as

GeoGebra, Dr Geo, C.A.R., Kig and KSEG to train

future math, physics and computer science teachers.

At the National Pedagogical Dragomanov Univer-

sity systems of computer mathematics Maxima, Sage,

Scilab, Scidavis and many others are used in the study

of the disciplines of mathematical and informative cy-

cles. Teachers of Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical Uni-

versity base their teaching on the Maxima computer

mathematics system for basic mathematical training

of pre-service teachers of mathematics, physics and

computer science. All of the above software products

are free software products.

The expediency of using free software in the edu-

cational process of future professionals is quite high.

Free software gives freedom to its users to choose to

use and study both the free software products them-

selves and their applications. It is a direct factor in

stimulating the desire for learning and self-education.

The use of free software in the training of future pro-

fessionals will increase the level of information cul-

ture, will teach themselves to choose forms and meth-

ods of education, will form skills for the use of free

software in further professional activity, will be able

to be competitive in the labor market and meet the re-

quirements of social ordering information society in

the modern specialist.

To get acquainted with the free software, it is not

necessary to download it to your own personal de-

vice. You do not have to visit the computer sys-

tems labs where the appropriate software is installed.

Cloud technologies make it possible to use the soft-

ware as a network service. OfﬁDocs Cloud (https:

//www.ofﬁdocs.com/) is a ﬂexible and powerful plat-

form. It allows you to browse the web with applica-

tions using only a web browser. OfﬁDocs provides

users with Internet applications for any device (desk-

top, tablet, mobile, etc.) such as LibreOfﬁce, GIMP,

Dia, AudaCity, OpenShot and many more through a

web browser.

A prerequisite for using a cloud service is logging

in with an ID. It is available from any cloud applica-

tion. Cloud applications are categorized as produc-

tivity, images & graphics, video & audio, messaging,

education, games, utilities, programming.

Each of these sections of the cloud application is

noteworthy. Just as interesting are mobile apps, ex-

tensions, resources and templates. Let’s take a closer

look at the cloud-based LibreOfﬁce suite of services

included with the ﬁle manager. It is worth noting that

there are two options – the ﬁrst (ﬁgure 4) is adapted

for use in browsers, and the second, launching ap-

plications with Gnome interface with image transla-

tion in the frame of a hypertext document. Cloud

service integration includes integration with Google

Drive and Dropbox cloud ﬁle repositories.

With the ability of a cloud-based environment

to study free software, it becomes available to per-

form standard operations to create electronic educa-

tional resources. There is a possibility to use var-

ious ways of registration of the textual information

(styles, fonts, font sizes, etc.). Text documents and

presentations can be supplemented with illustrations

(you can use the resource http://editor.pho.to/en/edit/

to process the illustrations). Once created, documents

can be downloaded to your own device in ODT, PDF,

and more. With http://odfviewer.nsspot.net/ you can

view downloaded documents in ODT format. Use

the https://smallpdf.com/edit-pdf service to view and

compare PDFs visually.

Image creation, video editing and audio editing

programs are just as functional. The typical task of

using this cloud application is to create an online ed-

ucational resource for one of the training topics using

the learned applications.

Another cloud service that allows you to get ac-

quainted with free software is the service https://

www.rollapp.com/ (ﬁgure 5). In this dream, ed-

ucational applications, utilities, ofﬁce applications,

games, graphics applications, development programs

are available to users. Free software is available for

use in this cloud after user registration. In addition,

there is a rating system for evaluating the available

software by users.

There are a sufﬁcient number of distance learning

support systems Moodle, ILIAS, aTutor, Claroline,

Dokeos, Fedena, Sakai and many others. Moodle is

created as a platform for technical support of distance

learning, respectively, it provides mechanisms to ad-

dress issues that traditionally arise before teachers and

students in a distance learning situation: communi-

cation between teacher and students, communication

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

610

Figure 4: An example of how a ﬁle manager works in LibreOfﬁce.

between students, access to teaching materials, im-

plementation tests, planning and organization of the

teacher and students.

Within the system, all learning materials and user

activities are grouped into so-called “courses” – basic

units that may or may not correspond to the concept of

“course” or “discipline” within the traditional learn-

ing process (for example, to teach students of differ-

ent specialties and the same discipline will most likely

need to create several courses). The course has the

following properties:

• information content, broken down by topic or

week,

• a set of participants, among whom one or more are

usually endowed with additional rights (teachers),

• statement of the results of control measures,

• calendar of events.

From a visual point of view, the course can have

its own style of page design (theme) and its own in-

terface language (among those languages installed on

the server).

The basic types of materials and activities that

may consist of the course include the following:

• static materials (text and web pages, documents of

various formats, audio and video materials, other

ﬁles);

• interactive elements (forums, chats, tests, tasks,

lectures, wiki, blogs, databases, polls, other com-

ponents).

The capabilities of the system can be expanded

and supplemented by installing additional modules.

Get acquainted with the capabilities of the Moodle

system using the test system http://qa.moodle.net as a

teacher. To do this, use the “teacher” login and “test”

password. In the Activity examples section, add a new

topic to the forum. See examples of objects such as

lessons, tests, tasks, and resources. Keep in mind that

your presence on the site is limited (ﬁgure 6).

ILIAS (short for Integriertes Lern-, Informations-

und Arbeitskooperations-System, www.ilias.de) is an

open source distance learning system distributed un-

der the GNU GPL license. The system appeared in

1998 and has been developing quite actively since

then.

ILIAS has a very wide range of functionality, has

a large number of tools for communication: forums,

chats, blogs, podcasts, as well as an internal messag-

ing system. In addition, ILIAS can be very success-

ful in collaborating with features such as grouping

users, sharing ﬁles, including sharing any ﬁles, and

wiki tools.

Of course, at a high level and the capabilities of

the system in terms of e-courses and tests. Courses

can be formed in the simplest form in html format

or taught in the form of speciﬁc ﬁles. But in addi-

tion, basic international standards such as SCORM

1.2, SCORM 2004, AICC are supported. The sys-

Familiarity with Free Software through Online Services

611

Figure 5: RollApp cloud service.

tem has a test designer that supports different types of

questions. It is also possible to import into the system

of external tests or export them in IMS QTI format.

Course and test management capabilities, including

course review and reports, are also quite extensive.

In addition, the system can use tools such as: Per-

sonal workspace, News, E-portfolio, Calendar, Per-

sonal notebook and more. To install ILIAS, you need

an Apache server with PHP support and a MySQL

database. ILIAS has been translated into many lan-

guages, including Ukrainian. Get acquainted with the

capabilities of the ILIAS system using the test system

http://demo.ilias.de using “gwyneth” login and “ilias-

demo” password (ﬁgure 7).

ATutor is a Web-based Learning Content Manage-

ment System (LCMS). Its use allows teachers to eas-

ily organize various training courses. Students receive

an adaptive and simple learning environment. The

new system will not give the administrator any special

worries either. Appearance can be changed in just a

couple of mouse clicks, the availability of source code

and open tools used to build a course server, allow you

to make more serious changes in case of emergency.

For everything you need to create and manage courses

and the learning process, it includes messaging tools.

Particular attention is paid to security. With the help

of additional modules you can increase the function-

ality. The choice of the latter is wide, from payment,

to work with photos, exchange of information with

other educational systems, conferences and others.

In addition, from the very beginning, the de-

velopers have taken a course to support the prod-

uct of various standards, which would allow in

the future to easily integrate third-party develop-

ments. So ATutor’s ﬁrst LCMS is fully com-

pliant with the W3CWCAG accessibility speciﬁca-

tion (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, http://

www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG1AA-Conformance) in ac-

cordance with these recommendations, the resource

should be available, including for users with vari-

ous disabilities health. Also, compliance with W3C

XHTML 1.0 speciﬁcations ensures that ATutor will

work or integrate with any other applications that sup-

port the standards as needed. Some such applications

are available on the project website and about them

below. To be able to use courses written for other

e-learning learning systems, the system supports

the IMS (InstructionalManagement Standards, www.

imsproject.org) and SCORM (SharableContentObject

ReferenceModel, www.adlnet.org) speciﬁcations.

Learn about the capabilities of the ATutor system

using the test system. In the ATutor Demo Course.

Use this course to review available materials, edit ex-

isting text ﬁles, and post on the forum. There is a

public demo installation of ATutor which is shared

with others and resets itself hourly. You can ac-

cess it by visiting the following link https://s1.demo.

opensourcecms.com/s/95 login “opensourcecms” and

password “opensourcecms” (ﬁgure 8).

Global biological threats pose to pre-service

teachers not only the need to have distance learning

systems but also the means to create e-learning re-

sources. Among the free software, there are vari-

ous tools for creating electronic educational resources

from programming languages to specialized software

for this activity. Such systems include Xerte Online

Toolkits and eLearning XHTML editor.

Xerte Online Toolkits or XOT (https://www.xerte.

org.uk/index.php/en/) is software developed in the

academic environment of the University of Notting-

ham and distributed under the Apache License. The

main purpose of a full-featured XOT development

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

612

Figure 6: Moodle QA Testing Site.

Figure 7: ILIAS Testing Site.

environment is to create interactive learning objects.

The current version of XOT 3.9 provides the oppor-

tunity to create modern training courses with a rather

complex structure and a variety of, including interac-

tive, learning objects, the development of which does

not require in-depth knowledge in the ﬁeld of pro-

gramming. To develop such a course, the author only

needs to use a browser, and all operations to create

training courses are performed using intuitive actions.

In addition, demonstration examples are offered to get

acquainted with the capabilities of the system and its

testing.

eLearning XHTML editor or eXe (https://

exelearning.net/en/) is a web-tool for designing, de-

veloping and publishing web-oriented teaching mate-

rials. The eXe system was developed in the academic

environment of the University of Auckland and the

Auckland University of Technology. Development is

now supported by government agencies and compa-

nies in Spain and other countries. It can generate

interactive learning material in XHTML or HTML5

format and provides the ability to create learning re-

sources that contain text, images, interactive compo-

nents, image galleries, or multimedia clips. Such ﬁles

can be exported to various digital formats to be used

independently on the instructor’s website. They can

also be integrated into a learning management sys-

tem (LMS). The current version of eXe 2.5.1 sup-

ports such formats as IMS Content Package, SCORM

1.2, SCORM 2004, IMS Common Cartridge formats,

Familiarity with Free Software through Online Services

613

Figure 8: ATutor Testing Site.

ePub3 or web-resource in HTML5 format.

Since the purpose of our study was to get ac-

quainted with free software, we provide at the end of

the resource, which contains links to available free re-

sources and free programs in the section “Best Free

Online Applications” – https://www.techsupportalert.

com/.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND

PROSPECTS OF FUTURE

RESEARCH

Research on the application of information and com-

munication technologies is always modern and multi-

faceted. Software developers create and upgrade ex-

isting computer programs on a daily basis. Forms and

methods of application of information and commu-

nication technologies in educational activity change.

The given directions of application of the free soft-

ware in educational activity and the carried-out re-

searches outline the directions of the further re-

searches on this question.

The results of many years of use of the OfﬁDocs

cloud service at the Faculty of Physics and Mathe-

matics of Donbas State Pedagogical University testify

to its wide opportunities to get acquainted with free

software and its application in the educational activ-

ities of pre-service teachers of mathematics, physics

and computer science. Having an alternative to cloud

applications from Google and Microsoft allows you

to study information processing technologies, rather

than certain software. You do not need to study

the software interfaces, because they are intuitive.

The latter provides an opportunity to fundamentalize

training in information and communication technolo-

gies and prepare future professionals for further pro-

fessional activity.

The opportunity to get acquainted with free soft-

ware with the help of online services not only expands

our understanding of existing applications, but also

provides an opportunity to initially evaluate its func-

tionality.

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