bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
INDIVIDUALIZED ASSIGNMENTS FOR IMPOSING BETTER LEARNING HABITS IN THE "SHARE EVERYTHING" GENERATION
Authors: Yadin Aharon
Published: February 2023

This paper describes a follow-on study related to the effects of personal and individual assignments on the students' learning habits. The current students' generation (Generation Y) is sometimes defined as "friends with everybody and share everything". This phenomenon, when applied to learning has a negative impact as was demonstrated by a large difference between the assignments grades and the exam grades. A possible explanation is that the assignments' grades do not provide a real representation of the students' knowledge. In trying to address this issue, a method of personal and individual assignments was used as part of a Software Project's Management course. By using this method each student receives a different assignment, so sharing the results is impossible. Furthermore, each assignment has two stages. The first is the assignment itself, and in the second the student has to assess an assignment submitted by another student. This dual stage learning has reduced the large gap between the assignments' grades and the exam grades. As part of the study, one of the assignments was a "standard" assignment in which all students received the same one. In this case, the average grade was very high and the abovementioned gap reappeared. Most of the modern research into effective learning is aimed at collaborative experiences in which the responsibility is transferred from the teacher to the student. Using personal and individual assignments enhances the students' accountability and does not undermine the collaboration importance. The paper describes the study and the results and concludes with a short discussion. The assumption that students who have a high degree of responsibility towards their learning will be better collaborators and will contribute to the team they are part of will be addressed in a follow-on study.
SELF-REGULATED LEARNING AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Authors: Cazan Anamaria
Published: February 2023

Online learning is student-centered. The online learning environment demands learner-centeredness and self-regulation. The ability of utilizing self-regulatory skills, to set up learning goals, to monitor their learning progress, to seek help when needed and to manage the time are important characteristics of online learners. Recent studies also revealed the effect of self-regulation on student achievement and performance, showing that self-regulated learning is positively related to achievement in online settings.
The present study aims to investigate the associations between self-regulated learning and academic achievement in online settings. Another aim was to examine the self-regulated learning skills profiles among learners enrolled in an online course.
The participants were undergraduate students at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, enrolled in online Moodle courses. For an entire semester, students completed their assignments for the statistics course in the Moodle format, including quizzes, formative and summative assessment, forums, and electronic resources.
The Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ; Barnard, Lan, & Paton, 2008) was administered. We also used a Computer Self Efficacy Scale. The OSLQ consists of six subscale constructs, including environment structuring, goal setting, time management, help seeking, task strategies, and self-evaluation in online learning. The scales were translated and adapted in Romanian.
The results showed that The Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire - the adapted Romanian version - has good psychometric properties. Results also revealed two groups of students: self-regulated learners and learners with a low level of self-regulation. Self-regulated learning is positively related to achievement for the online courses. The linear regression analysis showed that online self-regulation and computer self-efficacy predict efficiently the grades at the end of the semester, for the online courses.
Future research should also examine other factors, such as epistemological beliefs, computer anxiety, learning motivation which can explain the processes of self-regulated learning in online environments.
COMPUTER TRAINING OF APPROXIMATE NUMBER SYSTEM COULD IMPROVE MATH ABILITIES
Authors: Gliga Fotinica , Ivanescu Andrei
Published: February 2023

The number of students diagnosed with Specific Learning Disabilities with Math (SLDwM) has been estimated to be 6%. These students face daily challenges related to their disability and as a result have a reduced quality of life. The triple code theory developed by Dehaene (1992) explores the issue of number representation, which is split into three codes: verbal, visual and semantic. The semantic code belongs to the preverbal system in which the Approximate Number System (ANS) plays an important role. In a previous study we have shown that ANS and math disability are causally related. These findings, demonstrated with a short ANS test applied to 50 students (7-11 years old) from three schools in Bucharest, Romania, support the hypothesis of a correlation between low ANS performances and low math ability. However, according to Park & Brannon (2013,) training on approximate addition and subtraction of arrays of dots improves the appropriate symbolic skills.
This study describes a computer game with 62 arrays (ratios from 1:2 to 9:10) which can improve appropriate math abilities. Each array of the computer game (i.e., ANS - 62), consists of 4 to 30 images of identical familiar objects (e.g., apples, ice-creams, balloons) of varying sizes. Shrek and Puss in Boots (i.e., two characters well known to children in Romania) divide the objects in ratios from 1:2 to 9:10. Each of the numerosities comparison is presented for 2000 ms and the students indicate the character that has more objects by pressing the key associated with respective character. We hypothesize that the daily use of this game by children at risk for SLDwM, together with other types of interventions directed at memory or visual-spatial orientation, will help improve their ANS. Through this improvement, students can develop their Number Sense and the ability to manipulate symbolic and non-symbolic quantities.
NETWORKING - AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO DEVELOP ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS USED INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Authors: Oproiu Gabriela carmen
Published: February 2023

Developing entrepreneurial skills is a strategic objective that is found in all the national and European policies on education, training and labor market. The use the virtual environment in training, development and promotion of entrepreneurial culture becomes extremely important.
Networking is a key activity for development the entrepreneurial culture and esprit, ensuring by its specific the access to the business opportunities and new areas of employment in the labor market. That is why the establishment a professional's network in the entrepreneurship field is the starting point in getting access to high-quality business approaches and perspectives. On the other hand, social networks may play an important role, representing a valid and increasingly used tool to complement other ways of social interaction.

In this context, the paper describes the specific of networking activity worked out through the project "Development of entrepreneurial skills - an effective alternative to adapt to labor market information society "POSDRU/92/3.1/S/62353, underlying the impact of informatics tools in developing social networks between different institutions / organizations, representative for entrepreneurship area. This process requires the use of complex media and virtual instruments from electronic platforms, specialized websites and social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn).
In this paper, we intend to present the relevant results of two instruments (questionnaire and focus group) administrated to a target group, including employees, employers and students, as persons willing to start a business.
This impact's analysis was focused on identifying the motivation in participating in different types of events, the degree of participants' interest in terms of belonging to a network of people with interests in entrepreneurship. The key question we tried to answer was how the participants valued the interaction with others and the importance of using social media channels in order to create a database to promote culture and entrepreneurial opportunities.
A REGIONALIZED COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY BASED CLOUD COMPUTING AWARENESS EVANGELISM INITIATIVE
Authors: Pujari Nitin , Singhvi Arjun , Prabhakar Prashasthi , Harish kashyap Haresamudram , Manaswini B.swathi , Prasanna kumar Anushree
Published: February 2023

Knowledge acquisition often is considered as a prerequisite for enhancing human wisdom and to ensure proper amalgamation into the civilized society. This often is achieved through society approved legal frameworks leading to formal education. It is practically impossible for formal education to encompass new knowledge evolutions which usually have dynamic trending. This may be because of advances that the societal ecosystem creates for its survival. It is often proved and empirically observed that knowledge acquisition through an informal knowledge delivery framework results in filling up the fragments that exist in an entity due to knowledge evolution. Such frameworks are also called as "knowledge communities" who are driven by passion to dissipate the acquired knowledge back to the society. The very fact of the success of the open source communities across the world legitimates the above said claim. It is always a challenge to disseminate knowledge for large spectrum of learner communities due to the initial gaps that may exist about a specific concept. This may again be more challenging if it is a technology based topic and/or concept such as cloud computing. The interesting aspect of informal teaching learning process gives an opportunity to propose and experiment novel pedagogical approaches to address these challenges. These approaches can also enable us to generate statistics about the awareness of the entities in the society about a trending topic. This work carried out addresses a cloud evangelism framework to effectively inculcate the trending cloud computing ecosystem into the society. This work also proposes an efficient pedagogical approach to create cloud computing ecosystem awareness among the desirable community at large.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES - REAL OPPORTUNITIES OF FORMING AND INFORMING FOR STUDENTS
Authors: Stoican Oana , Stefanescu Cornelia , Stefanescu Valeriu
Published: February 2023

The new technologies offer a multitude of learning possibilities for both students and teachers. They bring changes into education, transforming it. Student's self formation by multimedia means is possible, being realized through educational CDs, software, sites, computer applications, online dictionnaires, learning platforms etc. The student accessed these efficient tools in order to form himself, to asses through exercises, and in this way, to progress in his own pace. By active involvement, he seeks the necessary information on the web, even in discussions forums, to debate a theme or to realize investigations, projects, essays. The informations accessed in virtual media come to complete the traditional sources of information but without replacing them. Online learning and new technologies increase flexibility and access to information, the continuous development of new knowledge making it difficult to compress them into the limited duration of a course.
The present study aims to reveal the opportunity of using new technologies both formative and information purpose among students. Thus, we will watch the frequency of accessing those resources, the identification of the main types of online resources that provide access to information, but also the type of such information in terms of their relevance to the training field. Moreover an important issue that we will discuss is the one related to communication and relationship opportunities offered by the Internet that can be successfully exploited for professional purposes. Recent developments in new technologies and mobile devices have provided individual using them more control over access to knowledgebut also on the generation and dissemination of information. The teacher's role in this context is to guide the student to organize knowledge, to help them select the most useful to analyze them because they are in a permanently changing, constantly multiplying.
THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PERSONALIZED INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEMS
Authors: Trif Letitia
Published: February 2023

The concept of education in behavioral orientation is to develop those learning environments that should lead to the desired behavior from students, for which they will be rewarded and therefore motivated to continue to learn. Meanwhile, the school environment must be well organized, the class space should represent the world of their problems, the curriculum should be based on behavioral objectives and obtaining knowledge should be based on the use of scientific methods. The teacher becomes the manager of the intellectual and social learning of the students. (Reed and Bergemann, 1992). .
Although mentioned in the behavioral paradigm , the personalized system of instruction is consistent with the principles of constructivism, being a student-centered. It was initially designed as a training method to improve student performance, replacing the traditional " punishment " in education with the use of positive consequences of learning to promote content mastery and increased interpersonal communication ( Grant and Spencer , 2003; Fox , 2004). In many respects , this personalized training system based on the learner's pace and focused on deepening content was consistent with well-established educational practices due to changes imposed on them . The teacher is no longer the main actor but he/she is transformed into a manager of learning, planning and organization become more important and the academic progress is determined by student performance and not by the result of a specific calendar ( Fox, 2004).
The learning material ought to be fragmented into units or modules, each of which having a set of specific behavioral objectives taught in that unit. The five features of the system are represented by (Driscoll, 1994; Grant and Spencer, 2003) emphasizing individual study, knowledge / mastery of the unit requirements, keeping pace individually, using supervisors / tutors to supplement training techniques.
Interest in models such as the personalized training system continues to increase in distance education which provides teaching and learning platforms that require such alternatives, and the development of educational technology is another factor that facilitates the implementation of those systems.
QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND STANDARDS FOR EDUCATION
Authors: Andronie Mihai , Andronie Maria
Published: February 2023

In education, as in most other areas of activity, there are standards that regulate the processes that are carried on by learning institutions like universities for example.
Some of these standards are in the form of governmental regulations that are mandatory for any institution that provides education services, while other standards are voluntary and are applicable to the education services that are carried on.
There are also standards for quality management systems that can be used in a large variety of domains, among them being also education.
There must not be confused the standards that are imposed by government regulations with the voluntary standards that are referring to the requirements applicable for products and with the voluntary standards for quality management systems.
The governmental imposed standards for education must be obeyed by any learning institution if it wants to offer its services in a country, while voluntary standards for educational standards may reflect in a better quality than the minimum imposed by the laws.
Voluntary standards for quality management systems used in education are situated on a different level than the standards mentioned above. The standards from this category are usually also used in other areas of activity, the quality management systems being similar in other domains.
In the current paper, there will be explored the relation between these standards with an emphasis on the way in which the standards for quality management systems can be used by an educational institution in order to respond to the requirements of the specific educational standards.
CASE STUDY REGARDING THE USABILITY OF THE ONLINE PLATFORMS BOTH AS A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND A COLLABORATIVE WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Authors: Beligan Daniel , Roceanu Ion , Barbieru Dragos
Published: February 2023

In the recent years, all modern armies use technology for improving the educational and training process. One of the latest aspects of involving technology are serious games. During their specific activities, military personnel have to accomplish tasks that are abstract, multidimensional, non-linear, dynamic and interdependent. These tasks can be managed to be fulfilled in an optimal manner if they are first solved in a virtual space and after that in a real world. In fact, there is nothing else than a new methods that is adequate for a specific purpose. In this sense, depending of the final aim, the serious games can be used in a proper manner for developing a specific set of skills.
So it is not surprising that, even serious games are a relatively new tool used in military education, due to the undeniable advantages of using them in a cost-efficient way, the process of training can be improved including situations that are very difficult to be realized otherwise for reasons of costs and sometimes safety.
Serious games' playing is a complex activity that involves the use of interaction with real and virtual tools and images. Such an activity develops skills in identifying relevant information, generating decision criteria and selecting alternatives. Can be used different scenarios according to various types of missions. A series of studies demonstrated that persons who completed serious games adapted for a specific area of operations were more familiar with the specificities and realities from that area than those who have not accessed it.
In this paper we will try to underline the particularities of serious games used for covering major area of military training domain taking in consideration that the final aim is to improve the military personnel behavior during their specific missions.
LOGICSIMMOODLE - SIMULATOR OF LOGIC CIRCUITS IN LMS MOODLE (EVALUATION RESULTS OF STUDENTS FROM THE VIEWPOINT THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EDUCATION)
Authors: Magdin Martin , Koprda Stefan , Munk Michal
Published: February 2023

Development of ICT in the educational process has brought a lot of positives. However, the negative financial situation in education brings with it the need to seek new learning opportunities, respectively need to seek to provide knowledge and skills by new form that would be relative inexpensive. In this paper, we focus on the possibility of using special modules LMS Moodle for support and development of intellectual abilities of students. Since the year 2009 the Department of Informatics (Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia) aims to develop modules of 3 sides to facilitate learners in the studio easier to absorb discussed topic (study material). One of the modules which has been conditioned and successfully implemented in the educational process is module LogicSimMoodle. The module was originally programmed (by A. Tetzle, original name LogicSim) as a Java applet, but due to its simplicity and mass spread, decided we to modify this module for the possibility of its implementation in virtual learning environment - LMS Moodle. In this paper we describe verification of this module by using implementation through evaluation of the results of students from the viewpoint of learning efficiency. This module students actively are using from the Academic Year 2010/2011. The aim of the experiment was to compare the effectiveness of teaching and assess the quality of teaching based on the use of that module through a questionnaire and subsequent analysis of variance. Students were divided into 2 groups: control and experimental. In the control group have all students studied classical way. In the experimental group of students was used new module LogocSimMoodle, to the need to develop their ability and skills.
MARKET RESEARCH ON E-LEARNING POTENTIALS IN THE FIELD OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE INDUSTRY
Authors: Mustata Ioan cristian
Published: February 2023

The paper is based on the 15 years of teaching experience of the author in the field of Engineering and Management with a special focus in business administration for the industry. The aim of the paper is to reveal the e-learning potentials in the field of business administration for the industry and to answer to questions about the effectiveness and efficiency of e-learning in the field, especially compared to classic approaches which do not use e-learning tools. Thus the paper analyses the e-learning potentials in the field of business administration for the industry based on a survey with graduates, students and potential candidates in the field. A special focus of the survey is the identification of those key competencies from the above mentioned field which can be accessed and developed through e-learning, as well as the role of the professors in the e-learning system. The research design is consistent with the requirements of qualitative research designs which fit excellent for exploratory research projects like this. The exploratory survey was programmed to take place in the period December 2013 - January 2014 to ensure that the information is up-to-date and uses classical survey instruments. Beyond univariate analysis of each surveyed element the research aims to identify correlations and differences between different variables corresponding to key elements of the research project. The data analysis uses the enhanced Analysis Toolpak from Microsoft Excel started with the 2010 version, including graphical formats for a better understanding of the results. The paper is concluded with the most important findings of the research.
DIGITAL LABORATORY APPLIED TO A SPECIALIZED TECHNICAL DISCIPLINE
Authors: Dan Dorin , Ursache Mariana
Published: February 2023

The aim of this paper is to show how to develop a computer assisted learning module entitled "Loop forming mechanism of electronic flat knitting machines". The purpose is to support and modernize the teaching-learning process in the knitting laboratory in case of the discipline "Knitting Technologies - Electronic flat knitting machines". There have been designed and realized interactive animation programs for teaching and learning flat knitting technology with flat knitting machines with the following contents: the description of the flat knitting machine construction, the description of the knitting elements, the explanation of the needle selection principle, the description of the knitting and transfer paths. The module also contains a series of electronic quizzes for self-assessment during the learning module and the final evaluation. The drawings were made using the Corel Draw program, the interactive animations using Corel Rave and the assembly of learning components, by means of ModuleEst program. Laboratory module was designed based on an XML file taken as a model, amended contents needs of the laboratory and then used for transformation in the HTML laboratory module using ModulEst application. Laboratory module has an interactive graphical structure and contains navigation icons for direct access to the bibliography, webography, glossary, summary help page and test for self-programming and verification. The e-learning interactive tools presented in this paper represents the outcome of the process of innovating the working methods applied in the knitting laboratory of the Faculty of Textiles, Leather and Industrial Management of Iasi, within "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi.
DEVELOPING LEARNING MODULES FOR LMS
Authors: Barbieru Dragos , Roceanu Ion , Beligan Daniel , Radu Catalin
Published: February 2023

The key to understanding the difference between LMS and other computer education terms is to understand the systemic nature of LMS. LMS is the framework that handles all aspects of the learning process. An LMS is the infrastructure that delivers and manages instructional content, identifies and assesses individual and organizational learning or training goals, tracks the progress towards meeting those goals, and collects and presents data for supervising the learning process of organization as a whole.[4] An LMS delivers content but also handles registering for courses, course administration, skills gap analysis, tracking, and reporting.[5]
Most LMSs are Web-based to facilitate access to learning content and administration. They are also used by educational institutions to enhance and support classroom teaching and offering courses to a larger population of learners. LMSs are used by regulated industries (e.g. financial services and biopharma) for compliance training. Student self-service (e.g., self-registration on instructor-led training), training workflow (e.g., user notification, manager approval, wait-list management), the provision of on-line learning (e.g., computer-based training, read & understand), on-line assessment, management of continuous professional education (CPE), collaborative learning (e.g., application sharing, discussion threads), and training resource management (e.g., instructors, facilities, equipment), are all important dimensions of Learning Management Systems.
Some LMS providers include "performance management systems", which encompass employee appraisals, competency management, skills-gap analysis, succession planning, and multi-rater assessments (i.e., 360 degree reviews). Modern techniques now employ competency-based learning to discover learning gaps and guide training material selection.
For the commercial market, some Learning and Performance Management Systems include recruitment and reward functionality.
A robust LMS should be able to do the following:[1]
centralize and automate administration
use self-service and self-guided services
assemble and deliver learning content rapidly
consolidate training initiatives on a scalable web-based platform support portability and standards
personalize content and enable knowledge reuse
PREPARING THE STUDENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES
Authors: Burianova Maria , Magdin Martin
Published: February 2023

The completion of study at the university is marked by passing the state exam, which needs to be defended as part of the final thesis. The state exam verifies the knowledge and skills that the student acquired during their studies and assesses their ability to use these skills in resolving the challenges presented by their field of study. The choice of thesis and their registration to the Academic Information System is ordinarily scheduled for the beginning of the third semester of study. This presents the key questions: Is the student mature enough at the time to be able to choose the right topic? Is he capable of evaluating/assessing the professional topics, which he has not fully studied yet? What was his decision based on?

What was he influenced by? Aside from these questions the key objective of this research has been to collate the views and attitudes of students prior to and post completion of their final thesis. In most cases, it is fair to say that the final thesis becomes the students' first professional publication. The student should go through the phase of research, selection and filtering of information and should - during the writing phase - understand the logical grouping and sequence of technical text. In practise, however, the majority of students find the writing part of the process extremely difficult. Adhering to the technical terminology, a typographical and spelling rule presents a similar issue. Still a greater problem is the actual speech - a communication style used to defend the final paper - where only a small percentage of students manage to meet the required level. To improve both the quality of final thesis as well as the quality of communication style was the key reason for an inclusion of the Seminar subject to the final thesis 1, 2, 3. The course is taught through presentations and is supported by e-learning, namely LMS Moodle. Within that environment, questionnaires were created and shared with the 2nd and 3rd year students of Bachelor studies at the Department of Computer Science. The paper presents the results obtained from two surveys in the academic year 2013/14, 2014/15. The first survey was conducted in the fourth semester, once the final paper topics were assigned and the questionnaire included topics such as the method used for identifying and forecasting around the successful processing of selected thesis, assessments of time used to complete the work, etc. The second survey was conducted in the sixth semester - using the same group of students - bollowing the final thesis submission deadline. The questionnaire titled 'Now I can say that ...' was designed to either confirm or contradict their original statements related to the challenges they had to overcome, further on the possibility of accepting the offer of having the work completed by a third party (by another person or company), etc. The survey presented interesting findings that are further discussed in this paper.
ADAPT2JOBS- A NEW LEARNING ECOSYSTEM
Authors: Epure Manuela , Ruxandra eleonora, Vasilescu , Mihaes Lorena clara
Published: February 2023

Adapt2jobs is a project financially supported by the Romanian Government and the European Social Cohesion Funds, with a view to investing in human resources. It simultaneously aims at developing a package of labour market-oriented courses, and at transferring them into the virtual space offered by e-learning technologies. To do that, brainstorming sessions with important recruitment representatives were organized, which resulted in a Mind Map describing the employers' requirements. The course package proposed by the experts is especially tailored to meet these requirements. It is structured on three domains: social sciences, economics, and art and architecture. Its digital form is meant to construct a new learning ecosystem, as the students who are part of it will not only improve their knowledge of the particular domain where they are enrolled, but their learning skills, creativity and effectiveness will be enhanced. The proposed courses are approached by the 'flipped classroom' method, thanks to the special e-learning portal developed during the project, a form of learning which focuses more on the students' better understanding and ability of application of the knowledge provided online. The students study the contents of the uploaded course and in class they ask questions and apply the acquired theoretical knowledge guided by the teacher. Thus, the teaching/learning process is a more personalized one, as each student benefits from the specific guidance relevant for him/her. It is a method that draws from and fosters the concept of 'active learning', reversing the traditional lecture-homework method to the best interest of the student. Both individual research and team effort of solving problems is encouraged, with a considerable contribution of student's creativity.
INNOVATIVE IT PROJECTS FOCUSED ON USER CENTRED DESIGN
Authors: Despa Mihai , Miu Laurentiu constantin
Published: February 2023

This paper is directed towards analysing the concept of innovation within software development projects by means of user-centered design. Innovation is defined in the context of software development projects. The article covers the field of web application development but also provides references and examples from other related IT areas like mobile application development and hardware development. Software development projects are depicted as an ideal environment for introducing innovative solutions. The user interface concept is defined. Its importance and value in the context of application quality and performance is highlighted. A brief history of user interface evolution is presented and disruptive innovations in the way users interact with software and hardware are emphasized. Opportunities to innovate in software development projects at user interface level are listed. The concept of usability is defined. The concept of user-centered design is defined. A clear distinction is made between user-centered design and usability. A theoretical background in the field of user-centered design is compiled. The circumstances that require implementing user-centered design are emphasized. The reasons for applying user centered design are depicted. The type of software development projects that accommodate effectively user centered design are presented. Advantages, costs, and risks are all put into balance and considered in order to provide a proper formalization of the user centered design concept. Indicators for assessing user-centerd design efficiency, efficacy are constructed, tested and refined. The concepts, data and theories enunciated throughout the article are summarised in order to aggregate a solid conclusion. Further research directions in terms of user-centered design, usability and innovative IT projects are outlined.
INFRASTRUCTURE FOR LEARNING THE BEHAVIOUR OF MALICIOUS AND ABNORMAL APPLICATIONS
Authors: Gheorghe Laura , Voiculescu Valentingabriel , Gibson Gary , Mogosanu Lucian , Carabas Mihai
Published: February 2023

Nowadays, Android is one of the most popular operating systems for mobile devices. Therefore, an increasing number of exploits and malicious applications for Android are developed by attackers. Many Android applications have malicious or abnormal behaviour: stealing private information, subscribing to unwanted paid services, consuming a large amount of resources on the device and displaying unwanted advertisements. Students learning security need to understand the behaviour of such applications. In this paper, we propose an infrastructure for collecting information pertaining to application behaviour at runtime and exposing the malicious and atypical actions performed by Android applications. The purpose of this infrastructure is to provide a meaningful learning experience to students, as they study malicious applications. The infrastructure includes collectors at every level of the operating system and the behaviour information includes: the consumed resources (CPU, memory), the exchanged messages (SMSs, phone calls, packets), the state changes of the communication channels (WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, NFC). Behaviour information is sent periodically from the collectors to a native application and can be visualised through a Graphical User Interface, directly on the mobile device. Students are allowed select any process in the system and investigate its behaviour in real time. They also can extract the behaviour information from the mobile device in order to perform statistical analysis on the data. Students are able compare the collected data for legitimate and malicious/abnormal applications and identify the malicious behaviour patterns. These patterns can be used to discover new malware, that is not yet detected by commercial antivirus solutions. The learning experience provided by our infrastructure is essential for developing practical security skills.
CONCEPTUAL DESIGN AND MODEL OF THE FEEDBACK SOLUTIONS IN THE ADAPTIVE INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
Authors: Gorbunovs Aleksandrs , Kapenieks Atis , Zuga Bruno , Gulbis Rudolfs , Kapenieks Kristaps , Kudina Ieva
Published: February 2023

Technology enhanced learning becomes the commonness in the nowadays educational process. Modern information systems open new departure in teaching and learning methods, enhance learners' critical thinking, reflection and competence development, broaden the ways in which the students are engaged in class activities, and as a result, lead up to the changes in existing educational paradigms. Latter findings acquired from the piloting of the experimental information system, based on multiscreen, so-called eBig3, approach, showed positive results in learners involvement into knowledge acquisition process by using of e-, t- and m- technology. This course demonstrated also another system's feature which has let its users had substantial benefit - the diminished dropout rate. It has spurred researchers on further development of the user-friendly adaptive system equipped with appropriate feedback generating tools. This paper observes possible solutions to improve the system's messaging tool and make it more intelligent. Conceptual design and algorithmic model of the proposed adaptive integrated technological system with the integrated feedback tool is introduced. The idea reposes on the observations that system user behaviours appeared in patterns and that these patterns reappeared with a number of learners; accordingly, they might be separated into a number of data sets and, based on that, several user groups depending on their behaviour patterns could be formed. Proposed system will have to generate appropriate messages from the message repository to corresponding user. This messaging system will be able to send both SMSs and emails to learners and course tutors. It will also support collaborative activities within e-learning environment.
THE STORY TELLING ENGINE FOR LEARNING AMBIENCE: HOW TO CREATE EFFECTIVE AND INVOLVING VIRTUAL LEARNING WORLDS?
Authors: Stoica Andreea , Neulinger Ursula
Published: February 2023

The Story Telling Engine for Learning Ambience of create21st century: How to create effective and involving Virtual Learning Worlds?

Authors:
Ursula Neulinger-Head of Marketing create21st century
Andreea R. Stoica-Business Development Manager create 21st century

Users of today want to be able to move intuitively and quickly in an online learning offer or e-learning course. The virtual learning world is a tool for making the navigation within a complex and ever-growing learning offer simple, clear and, above all, interesting! Just like IT professionals, newcomers to IT also find their way around these virtual worlds very successfully due to the kinaesthetic approach. This is a virtual place which begins to convey statements and content immediately upon entry and navigation, and the spatial design of the interface is designed accordingly. The learning environments allow the user to allocate the content offer correctly, and several "paths to knowledge" are enabled for different types of learners. Learning content is thus conveyed together with image, brand values, sales arguments and corporate culture.

In 2007, 2013 and 2014 create21st century received the e-Learning Award from the German e-learning Journal for the concept of the virtual world of learning and our "Storytelling Engine" technology for the Oxford School, Silhouette World of Learning and for the Bank Austria UniCredit Academy. The Story Telling Engine for Learning Ambience has been constructed based on didactical, dramaturgical and design technical criteria. Clients such as Nestl?, the AUDI Academy and many more are already using the create21st century learning worlds successfully in their commercial operations.

In this paper create 21st century will not only present the Storytelling Engine for Learning Ambience as a technical innovation, but also the principles our virtual learning worlds are based on through the homogenous mixture of the 3D's: Didactics, Dramaturgy and Design. The success recipe relies on a didactically target group optimal structuring of the learning content, a motivational dramaturgy curve achieved through storytelling and gamification elements and an intuitive design focused on achieving a perfect LEARNING & USER EXPERIENCE. Our technological and conceptual approach will be presented through concrete case studies such as the Virtual World of Audi and the Bank Austria UniCredit Academy.
CHALLENGES OF AN E-LEARNING PLATFORM FOR TEACHING CREATIVITY
Authors: Susnea Ioan , Pecheanu Emilia , Munteanu costache Sabina
Published: February 2023

As Ken Robinson noted, "children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065". How many of today's "professions for the future" will still exist in 2025? We don't know. We don't know how the future will look like, yet we claim to educate our children to face its challenges. Under these circumstances, an important ethical question raises: "to what extent the modern School really fulfills its mission to prepare the students for the future?"
In our opinion, the main risk of the modern education is to create people that are unable to keep pace with the fast changing world where they live in.
In this paper, we argue that a systematic education for creativity appears to be the only solution to provide our students with the minimal tools to cope with the uncertainties of the future. And we suggest that an open access e-learning platform dedicated to teaching creativity might be the most efficient way to solve this problem on a large scale.
However, this is not an easy task. In this paper, we describe some of the challenges we face in the implementation of the Leonardo da Vinci project "TECRINO - Teaching creativity in engineering", whose main objective is to develop the appropriate educational content and to setup a Moodle platform for teaching creativity.
Among these challenges, we count the fuzzyness of the definition of some essential concepts like "creative thinking skills" , and the lack of simple and easy to use creativity assessment tools.
We believe that the modest attainment reported here is the essential firt step on the long road of a systematic education for creativity.
KEY EPISTEMOLOGICAL METAPHORS: THE COMPUTER AS A METAPHOR
Authors: Trif Victorita
Published: February 2023

In this time of supercomplexity as a consequence of the technological development the computer is perceived as way, tool, and facilitator of diffusing knowledge. It is no doubt about the importance of the metaphor in contemporary fields: philosophy of language, philosophy of minds, philosophy of science, epistemology, learning, poetics, aesthetics, in psychology, in media, and so on. From rhetoric considerations we specify that this study does not intend to offer a semiotics of art because we use the metaphor as a vehicle of communication. Beyond its literal and aesthetic content the metaphor has a cognitive meaning and we substantiate this by claiming the metaphor's content from the vantage point of epistemology. It is most plausible that the symbolic interpretations reveals the connections between what is taught in Romanian schools and extending the use of the computers to teacher's or student's home day by day. The task formulated -identifying one metaphor for the computer functioning- refers to a problem solving because the problem here is to recognize, to define, and to represent the computer. Because of the perspectives irreconcilables between electronic pattern of the computer and its metaphoric thinking the target population was invited to clearly explain in words the meaning of their metaphor. In terms of research methodology these requirement is elicited for the argument that the comprehention of metaphor is not an universally generalizable process and the cognitive representations of the computer are variables by individual metaphoric thinking. This paper investigates the cognitive reorientation about the computer of teachers using key epistemological metaphors.The qualitative analysis shows that there clearly are differences between the functions of the computer from the vantage point of standardized view and the practical' interpretation of the target population. As result of analising the computers' functions relating day by day use the images of working the computer (computer as metaphor) delineated are following: the informational metaphor, the educational metaphor, the psychological metaphor, the effect metaphor, the visual metaphor.
ROMANIAN SIGN LANGUAGE E-HEALTH APPLICATION FOR DEAF PEOPLE WITH ANIMATED AVATAR TECHNOLOGY
Authors: Chiriac Ionut adrian , Stoicu tivadar Lacramioara , Podoleanu Elena
Published: February 2023

During the last years, the effort for better integration of persons with disabilities has become a European and global priority. Creating computer applications whose message to be naturally accessible to hearing impaired persons is part of this endeavour. The development of applications with avatars performing sign language becomes more and more extensive worldwide. In Romania, developing such an application is a national premiere. This type of applications can be accomplished through two main means, video technology and animation technology. The presented project is part of a wider research project that compares two technologies with respect to design, implementation and impact assessment. The article presents the steps that have been taken to realize with animated avatar technology an application for health education meant for people with hearing disabilities in Romanian sign language. The study shows step by step the stages that were followed in accomplishing this program. It presents the steps followed to build the collection of words and phrases edited with animated avatar technology. The design phase block diagram of the project is described in detail. It describes the software, the editing stages and the format of the data. It presents also the editing style of different parts of the application content. The last chapter concludes on particular items used in this approach, but also general considerations necessary to achieve similar kinds of projects. For future work it gives various data formats that can be used as alternatives. The final part of the article sketches the specific steps to be carried out in the research project in the future, and also the general trends that might represent new directions of research in the domain of e-health applications with animated avatar for deaf people in Romanian sign language.
GAMIFICATION AS MEANS OF GETTING FROM E-LEARNING TO EXPERIENCE LEARNING IN ARCHITECTURE
Authors: Niculae Raluca , Duda Maria
Published: February 2023

The main objective of Adapt2Jobs project consists in analyzing and adjusting the university curriculum, key competencies transmitted through teaching-learning experience, according to the needs of the labor market in constant motion. Targeting the field of architecture, the challenge is to determine how to translate employer's perspective on desirable qualified workforce in terms of student's abilities outlined by adapted or specifically tailored courses. Based on architecture curriculum analysis, in both national and international contexts and thorough interpretation of data gathered from student and employer-oriented questionnaires; some specific measures are being taken to improve the current learning experience for architecture students of "Spiru Haret" University's Faculty of Architecture.
As virtual (synchronous and asynchronous) learning environments are increasingly used in the field of architectural education, the success of the educational process resides in calibrating the teaching methods as to better engage and motivate students to make the most of their learning experience. A delicate issue is to design a digital framework, supporting course's topic that enhances student's direct engagement and, in the same time, amplifies the learning process by developing new skills.
Both courses developed by experts in the field of arts and architecture are benefiting from digital media for delivering theoretical content and tentatively explore the concept of gamification and rule-based design methodologies as means of improving the e-learning context.
This paper will discuss suitable game- thinking-mechanics and typologies translated into architectural parameters but following rule-based strategies, making use of rewards systems and experience levels and promoting healthy competition among students.