bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
TRAINING OF THE ROMANIAN NAVY PERSONNEL FOR UNDERWAY REPLENISHMENT OPERATIONS
Authors: Lupu Sergiu , Pocora Andrei , Katona Cosmin , Toma Alecu
Published: February 2023

In order to accomplish missions, naval ships must be able to stay at sea for a prolonged period of time in specific areas without having the opportunity to reach the shore for replenishment. Thus navy ships are equipped to perform Underway replenishment (UNREP) (US Navy) or replenishment at sea (RAS) (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation / Commonwealth of Nations) with fuel, ammunition, provisions, and spare parts.
Replenishment at sea represents another potential collision situation at sea as a result of operating within short distances of the ships involved in this operations. Ongoing safely replenishment at sea operations involve highly skilled personnel on both ships such as: the very best of helmsmanship for keeping a steady course and the officer of the watch to bring the ship into position and match speed. As the two ships close each other, the hydrodynamic forces will both change and increase noticeably. Knowing the hydrodynamic interaction loads between the vessels engaged in RAS operations is highly advantageous.
,,Mircea cel B?tr?n" Naval Academy (MBNA) uses a top notch "Integrated simulator for driving of watercraft" that meets the Standard Certification No. 2.14 for Maritime Simulator Systems, adopted in January 2011 for training and development of practical skills of teams onboard naval ships in order to safely perform replenishment at sea operations.
Using "Integrated simulator for driving of watercraft" capabilities, underway replenishment operations can be performed with the use of two ship model types: delivery ships and receiving ships. The parameters of refuelling underway are: the admissible course and speed deviation of the receiving ship, the admissible deviation of the phone and distance (P&D) line angle from the normal to the plane parallel to the centreline plane of the receiving ship, the maximum length of the P&D line and the maximum break force of the span wire.
RAS module of the simulator is used for training of undergraduate students and also embarked personnel onboard Romanian Navy ships.
The aim of this paper is to present how practical skills and competences neccesary for military personnel onboard ships engaged in replenishment at sea operations can be achieved through simulated exercises in different hydrometeorological conditions.
MILITARY EDUCATION AND TRAINING ON INFORMATION AGE. THE SMARTBOOK'S TOOL
Authors: Paunescu Marius
Published: February 2023

The development of communications and especially the emergence of the internet have generated significant changes in terms of access and use of information. Since the unprecedented diversification and development of the information capabilities, the cyberspace has been accumulated a very high importance in the knowledge process of every domain. Due to these developments, nowadays the information doubles every five years and, in the future, the tempo is still increasing.
In this context, at the military organization level, these new developments stress the need to find different ways to put in practice the "need to know" and "information dominance" principles. The need for "the information dominance" requires reach and sound knowledge for a extensive number of people within an organization, while "the need to know" works in exactly the opposite way - restrict the number of people who have access to knowledge by classifying information.
Contemporary crisis responses and conflict prevention activities request to decision-makers to have the ability to find solutions in more responsive ways and with maximum flexibility and agility. All these qualities have to emerge from a comprehensive evaluation of information. In other words, today, there is less important for a military organization to concentrate effort to restrict access to information, but is decisive to ensure information availability for a better intelligence production which may create better premises for suitable results.
For the reason that in the era of knowledge, information sharing is more fruitfully for a military organization than information keeping, this study explores, in comparison, how USA and Romania have been adapting its information techniques to the contemporary era.
PRE-DEPLOYMENT ELEARNING FOR CSDP MISSIONS / OPERATIONS
Authors: Rehrl Jochen , Taitto Petteri
Published: February 2023

Since 2012, the European Security and Defence College is actively engaged in pre-deployment training for CSDP missions and operations. Although the main effort still relies on residential courses, the preparatory and supporting eLearning part receives more and more attention. eLearning is independent of time and location; hence, a perfect tool to training newly selected staff before their deployment to a mission area. Additionally, the running costs are lower compared to a residential course.

The main challenges include the content of the eLearning modules, the nomination of trainees as well as the co-ordination between Headquarters and Mission responsibilities. Financial implications of training and the time constraints play also an important role as well as the in-mission training. Additionally, the various legal states of the deployed personnel (contracted, seconded, locals), the different personal security clearances and the learning content (no classified information in eLearning modules, sensitive information accepted) raise concerns when it comes to eLearning.

The presentation will give an insight, how the ESDC provides eLearning modules for pre-deployment training taking EUNAVFOR SOMALIA as an example. The article will also tackle the challenges concerning selection/recruitment, nomination for training and in-mission training. It will give an overview about the state of affairs and the way ahead.

The presentation will give an insight, how the ESDC provides eLearning modules for pre-deployment training taking EUNAVFOR SOMALIA as an example. The article will also tackle the challenges concerning selection/recruitment, nomination for training and in-mission training. It will give an overview about the state of affairs and the way ahead.
THE ROLE OF PERCEPTUAL FEEDBACK TRAINING ON SOUND LOCALIZATION ACCURACY IN AUDIO EXPERIMENTS
Authors: Balan Oana , Moldoveanu Alin , Moldoveanu Florica , Negoi Ionut
Published: February 2023

The purpose of this paper is to present and compare the main techniques and methodological approaches aimed to improve audio discrimination in sound localization experiments.
As reviewed from the literature, perceptual feedback training procedures provide listeners with the proper auditory/visual feedback concerning the correct sound source location. This type of feedback training can significantly improve localization accuracy, as well as the listener's ability to discern between the sound sources situated in the front and rear hemifield, reducing the incidence of reversal errors (a very common situation in which the listener perceives a sound coming from the front as emerging from the back and vice versa).
For instance, in a training session, the listener indicates the perceived location of the sound source and receives immediate visual and audio feedback consisting in the presentation of the correct direction of the audio signal and instant playback of continuous streams of the corresponding sound source location. These results are long-term, suggesting that even short periods of training can enhance audio localization performance under 3D sound conditions, using non-individualized Head Related Transfer Functions (in the case of virtual auditory displays).
In this paper we focus on the examination and investigation of the role of perceptual feedback training under controlled conditions in both free-field (using loudspeakers as the main audio rendering channel) and in virtual auditory displays that employ headphone-presented sound. The results obtained from this study will build the basis of a methodology aimed to improve 3D sound localization in the case of the visually impaired people.
BUILDING E-PET - COULD EMOTIONS PERSONAL TRAINER BECOME A REALITY?
Authors: Schipor Ovidiuandrei , Schipor Maria doina
Published: February 2023

Nowadays, ubiquitous computing - devices all around us - create a new reality to cope with. This artificial environment is subtle added to the real world and feed us with huge quantities of information pushing to the limits our adapting capacity. We need a high speed information processing. For the human brain the fastest solution is offered by affective neural system. Emotions have an unconscious evaluative role, but the offered solutions are not always functional. It is the moment when personal emotional state could unconsciously migrate to a dysfunctional zone. Thus, the following question arise: "How can we handle an emotional state we are not conscious of?"
In this article we propose E-PET -Emotion PErsonal Trainer, a ubiquitous system for the detection and interpretation of emotions. It is a hardware free concept since it is projected to be incorporated in different types of already existing devices such as: smart phones, intelligent goggle and / or smart watches. Information about emotional state is taken from audio channel (words and paralanguage parameters) because this approach requires no additional equipment. The system provides warnings and recommendations in order to help the person to handle its emotional reactions. Moreover, we analyze the opportunity of the above mentioned system, from the potential users' point of view. An investigative research is conducted to find out the key factors for a successful implementation of E-PET. The results encourage us to continue our research in this field and to promote a new technological view on handling [self-] emotions.
USING MOODLE FOR TEACHING SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. TOWARDS HIGHER EDUCATION REENGINEERING
Authors: Albeanu Grigore
Published: February 2023

This paper describes results obtained by experiments on using Moodle for teaching Science and Information Technology.

Modern graphical and dedicated languages are used to create content and embed the artifacts in four Moodle courses: Programming Paradigms (PP), Internet Programming Techniques (IPT), Graphical User Interface Design (GuiD), and Multimedia Techniques (MT).

The following aspects are detailed and discussed: course format, HTML5 playing, SVG, CSS3, and JavaScript coding. The GuiD & MT courses, in old versions, will be reengineered to meet the new requirements imposed by web 2.0 e-learning technologies.

The following challenging topics highgliht the efficiency of Moodle: PP(Programming in Python, Programming in Common Lisp, Programming in Prolog), IPT (Client-Server applications, Developing HTML5 complient content, Quality improvement by CCS3, Dynamic behaviour improvement by JavaScript and PHP, Server side applications, distributed data base connections), Guid (Graphical Interfaces in C# and Java, Android applications), and MT (Image standards, Audio-Video standards, Multimedia databases, Multimedia Security). Due to such a large plethora of objects, the Moodle platform is full investigated related on the support offered to build high quality e-Learning content.

Interoperability assurance techniques are considered to import/export content. Not only standards on Multimedia artifacts, but the conformity with e-Learning standards are considered. Many types of resources are used to illustrate both the content of course's units, and the Moodle support.

Statistical results on usage Moodle for Teaching (blended learning classes) two courses (PP & ITP) are presented in order to compare different type of content used for the same class.

Preliminary references:
1. Ursache L., Vaju G., Donici G., and Herman C., Moodle: Administrare, Utilizare, Evaluare. Arad, 2011.
2. Retalis S., Dougiamas M. (eds), 1st Moodle Research Conference, Heraklion, Crete-Greece, September, 14-15, 2012.
3. de Raadt M., Ratalis S., 2nd Moodle Research Conference, Sousse, Tunisia, October, 4-6, 2013.
4. ***. Teaching with Moodle, https://moodle.org/
5. Syllabus: ITP, PP, GuiD, MT (Departement of Information Technology)
USING GRAPHIC LIBRARIES FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES EDUCATIONAL GAMES
Authors: Cirnu Carmen elena , Zamfiroiu Alin , Barbu Monica
Published: February 2023

The primary purpose of Serious Games (SG) is other than just entertainment. There are "games that do not have entertainment, enjoyment or fun as their primary purpose" (Michael & Chen, 2005). But the need to enable sustainable SG design and development (St?nescu, 2012) calls for new levels of resourcefulness that would address specific needs, would decrease fragmentation and would enable advanced opportunities by fostering transparency, dissemination, collaboration, reusability and interoperability.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if graphic libraries could be considered a cost reduction version based on reusability of components. The DESiG project will offer user-availability for two developed games for which the entire project source is included, so that they can be fully adapted, changed and used as a starting point for further developments by tutors.

In the design process of the SG there are two stakeholders involved: teachers and game-designers. (Marne, 2012) suggests to split the groups of the stakeholders of the SG into two categories: the pedagogical experts and the game experts. The game experts are often more centered on realistic modeling of the aspects of the virtual world. Since game experts like designers and programmers are experts in the application domain, the creation of new graphic effects is becoming increasingly complex (Garcia, 2014).
Based on these facts, the creation of libraries that benefit from graphic effects and techniques that can be used within the DESiG project as well as in other projects, by also specialists and non-specialists in the field of computer graphics can represent an asset for researchers and programmers of the SG community. A graphic library could be beneficial for both pedagogical experts and game experts.
SERIOUS GAME MECHANICS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR REUSE
Authors: Baalsrud hauge Jannicke , Stefan Ioana andreea , Carvalho Maira , Lim Theo , Louchart Sandy , Arnab Sylvester , Stefan Antoniu
Published: February 2023

The industry perspective to designing Serious Games (SG) for learning is largely a top-down approach, with the pedagogical design driven by two aspects - a client based or a flagship product. A client-based product has known learning objectives and outcomes. Flagship products or corporate brands have less defined learning objectives. Insofar, SG designers, mindful of the learning objectives, often follow a simple rule of thumb by asking where, on a scale of fun to simulation, fulfils the requirements of the game. This then determines the pedagogical approach implemented, implying a top-down approach to the game's design (e.g. affective learning might use role play, whereas procedural learning would tend towards repetitive game mechanics).
Consequently, there are no obvious direct links between the low-level game implementation aspects and high-level instructional design aspects of SGs. This suggests that pedagogical practices and game design aspects are two distinct elements of SG design. In fact, the transition between the instructional design and actual game design implementation represents the main gap in knowledge in SG design from both academic and industrial perspectives. Discussions with a number of Serious Game designers reveal that this transition lacks methodology and requires a leap of faith from a prospective customer in the ability of a SG developer to deliver a game that will achieve the desired learning outcomes. The notion of Serious Game Mechanics (SGM) is thus about conscious design decisions that holistically encapsulate the transitioning of learning practices into mechanical game-play elements for the sole purpose of play, fun and learning . In this context, defining SGMs as reusable assets supports reducing this gap and strengthens the game developer's arsenal.
EVERY DAY THE SAME DREAM? SOCIAL CRITIQUE THROUGH SERIOUS GAMEPLAY
Authors: Marinescu Alina petra , Rughinis Cosima
Published: February 2023

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the visibility of the so-called 'art games' both in the gaming community and in academic reflection. This label applies, as a rule, to relatively short indie games that appear to have a message about the human condition, life, psyche, society and, often, also about the game genre, in a self-referential loop. Depending on game topics and rhetorical approach, commentators have advanced a variety of tags to describe them, including 'experimental games', 'news games', 'grave games', 'existential games', or 'not games'. Scholarly literature has discussed their rhetorical specificity with a focus on procedurality and players' creativity. Games are seen essentially as an ensemble of rules and mechanics, working in conjunction with a narrative layer, inviting players to interact and thus to (re)create meaning. There are two dominant controversies that structure game studies: (1) whether and how games can be studied as narratives and (2) what is the relative importance of procedurality versus creative gameplay. These debates obscure another specific element of game rhetoric: the message of art games is substantially elaborated in the community of players, through comments, reviews, and comments to reviews - amounting to a large cloud of textual, interactive, online reflection. Players engage in the game but, often, also read and write comments and reviews, thus confronting their experience with others' and exploring a larger spectrum of interpretations. Games propose a time for gameplay and also a time for conversation. Therefore, we argue that the rhetoric of art games relies not only on procedurality and creative gameplay, but also on the distributed, multivocal reflection of an online community of players. Art games are embedded in a plurilogue through which they are interpreted and re-interpreted as art objects and social critique, and their message is formulated in text. In this article we explore 'Every Day the Same Dream', an art game that has elicited a variety of gameplay experiences, emotions and assessments. We examine player comments and reviews and we discuss their role in interpreting games and formulating their messages.
USING E-LEARNING TOOLS IN THE GROWTH OF STUDENTS' MOTIVATION REGARDING FORMAL EDUCATION
Authors: Chircu Sorina , Neacsu Ioan
Published: February 2023

The new technologies that have a facilitation role in learning, allow the dissemination of information with reduced time costs both for teachers and students.

This paper aims to emphasize the impact of several e-learning tools used by the students of Politehnica University of Bucharest to their motivation growth regarding formal education.
We are using 2 hypotheses:
1. We expect that these e-learning tools grow students' motivation in doing course homework throughout a university year
2. We expect the students who also have a job during their studies and therefore have a lower participation in courses and practical sessions are able to maintain their motivation in doing specific homework and to graduate the university year by participating in these e-learning communities.

In the first part, the present paper aims to analyse three e-learning tools very often used by students in Politehnica University of Bucharest: Moodle, Facebook Groups, Google/Yahoo Email Groups judging by their specifics and features. We are using as research method the case study.

In the second part we propose to approach a comparative analysis of the degree of efficiency of these virtual learning communities, from a few perspectives: the frequency of usage, their usability, the preferred community for disseminating information and the degree of interactivity of each of these e-learning tools, based on the students' opinions. We have used as a research method the survey, the lot of respondents being 350 students from Politehnica University of Bucharest.
The study aimed to verify the validity of the research hypotheses and after data processing the working hypotheses have been confirmed.
THE PRESENT-DAY TREND TOWARDS MASSIFICATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE MOOC MODEL
Authors: Dumitrescu Virginia mihaela
Published: February 2023

Born out of an altruistic desire to make quality higher education accessible to millions of learners around the world, massive open online education has lately come under increased scrutiny over its goals, uses and effects, while at the same time spurring academic debate on general educational issues such as curricular design, course delivery, the educator's role, student participation and retention, student engagement and motivation, student performance and evaluation. The present paper analyzes both the benefits and the disadvantages of massive open online courses (MOOCs): on the one hand, it looks at the MOOCs as salutary ways of democratizing higher education by providing free top quality courses delivered by personalities of today's academic world to interested learners in remote parts of the world, especially in developing countries, who may otherwise not have access to them. On the other hand, it considers the negative aspects of this new education model, with an emphasis on the implications of the "massive" element of MOOCs, the most significant of which is the frequently criticized "homogenizing" effect of massive open online education, its universalistic tendency to ignore students' diverse (academic, cultural, ethnic, social) backgrounds and proficiency levels that shape or determine their online engagement and performance. Given the characteristics of MOOCs, the paper also identifies the areas of study that are most suited to massive open online teaching and learning, and analyzes the applicability of massive online education to philological subjects. Finally, it considers the prospects of using massive open online education as an alternative to traditional higher education in Romania.
THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTION OF STUDENTS` CHARACTERISTICS AND DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS` CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY LEARNING
Authors: Ilie Mariana mirela , Logofatu Bogdan
Published: February 2023

Over the last decade, the practice of higher education in Romania has become more diverse and complex, being more and more present in virtual environments. We all know the diversity of MOOCs, the diversity of on-line courses for enrolled students in various academic programs, the existence of learning management systems (LMS) and platforms, but we do not have a clear image of how teaching in digital environments, using those methods and technologies, respond to students` needs. The field of teaching in digital environment is wide and diverse containing many studies and researches on methodologies, principles of learning, characteristics of digital environments, mostly based on personal experiences and students` feedback.
Due to the growing industry of learning technology, the opening of universities toward this technology and mostly the growing need of students for distance learning, e-learning, blended-learning, m-learning, game based learning etc. there is a need to have a framework of how to design courses in digital environments that conduct to qualitative learning. As is well known, the present teaching paradigm is centered on the students` characteristics, but can digital environment support and answer the needs of students? In order to design a course in digital environment knowing the characteristics of students and of the digital environment is important.
This is also, the idea behind the present research which is to investigate how the characteristics of students enrolled in bachelor and master programmes at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences interact with the characteristics of digital environment and the way the results of such interactions conduct to quality learning.
The overarching outcome will be a clearer image on designing classes for virtual environments in which the quality learning takes effect.
ONLINE EDUCATION AND VIDEO TRAINING IN THE TRAINING FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS
Authors: Jursova zacharova Zlatica , Sokolova Lenka , Lemesova Miroslava
Published: February 2023

Use of online forums and video in education training are currently in increase and in conjunction with the face-to-face teaching may represent an effective model of education. The paper compared education of two groups of teachers of foreign languages to young children through innovative method of narrative format The Magic Teacher (Taeschner, 2005). The first group (n=48) completed an 18-hour training without additional online support and without video training. The second group (n=24) completed the same training enriched with video analysis and long-term on-line support. Length of the course of the second group was extended to 26 hours and divided into two weekend meetings. 4 months delay between the meetings was introduced, during which the participants used for efficient training through professional video analysis and their own teaching performances. They recorded their teaching performances and subsequently brought the records to the second meeting for a peer analysis. The paper observed differences between subsequent successful application of knowledge from training in practice of working with children and the use of on-line forums to increase professional vision of lecturers. Direct relationship was found between the active use of online forums and identification with the method as well as its subsequent effective implementation in practice. The actual participants evaluated video recordings as very stimulating and necessary, but also added that it had been difficult to create a recording as it often had happened that parents had not agreed with recording, or they had had other technical issues. The on-line work is suitable only for a part of the lecturers and some prefer email communication. The study is a part of project VEGA 1/0562/13 Socio-psychological competences in pregradual teacher training and early teaching career.
TEACHING ESP IN THE DIGITAL ERA: THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN PROJECT-BASED LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT
Authors: Marculescu Corina
Published: February 2023

In today's technological age computers and related electronic resources have come to play a central role in education, in the teaching-learning process. Most students are fully immersed in the "digital revolution" and love web community. The present paper discusses project-based learning (PBL), a dynamic, essentially student-centered approach to teaching which motivates students to explore real-world problems and to learn by discovery (rather than through the textbook-centered learning or through information given directly by the teacher). PBL is a suitable approach for the Generation Y students, offering them the opportunity to work in collaborative teams and to use the digital technology now available. It is also a valuable tool for authentic assessment, reflecting as well the students' passion, creativity, and self-reliance - qualities that cannot be adequately assessed by multiple-choice tests. Conducted at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, my research focuses on the use of project work for the purpose of improving the students' knowledge of English, their written but especially their oral communication skills, through true-to-life activities and tasks (in particular, through performance of job interviews and oral presentations). The outcome of their projects was a role play, or a lively presentation, a poster, a case study, a video clip, a Web site. The study has shown that the incorporation of technology and art into projects and assignments is often the key that inspires and motivates a student to learn. Students respond to images/visuals and find technology engaging and challenging; they love to take the lead in situations (such as technology-supported learning) in which they are actually the experts; they are "born digital"; they use technologies in the most natural way to access information and to create new knowledge and art forms. At the same time in order to ensure a solid foundation, to keep the focus on the subject matter and not on the tools, especially in the case of second-language acquisition, it is recommendable to use a combination of technology-based learning and more traditional teaching styles and types of interaction. Technology properly embedded in a course or relevant to a project or seminar activity along with a well-conceived course material, clear objectives, well explained requirements, relevant tasks, detailed assignments, rigorous project planning - all this represent the key to successful teaching and learning. Students still value 'live' teaching highly; their most important need is actually represented by dedicated, inspiring teachers, by educators, ready to assist and guide them (and learn from them, adopt their digital language) throughout the learning process.
A NEW DIMENSION OF STUDENTS` COUNSELLING. VIRTUAL PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
Authors: Richiteanunastase Elenaramona , Staiculescu Camelia
Published: February 2023

The constant development of computer and communication technologies requires lately, the transfer from real/reality to virtual into new areas such as career counselling of students.
The views presented by various specialists reveals that the counselling activities have to improve its methods of investigation of personality as a basic element to stimulate self-knowledge and personal development of students.
The students are a special group of beneficiaries of counselling services that are concerned about their professional future, building a professional image and personal branding elements.
Using new technologies, the rapidity through wich students have access to virtual information, elements of social media, personal branding are factors to be considered in providing qualitative guidance and counseling services to students.
Trying to answer this need we have developed a set of activities of career counseling students that combines direct, face to face counseling, with the on-line counseling and which aims to build a professional image that includes the virtual image component.
This paper clarifies, in the first part the basic concepts such as career counseling, career counseling methods, real and virtual professional image, elements of social media in the construction of the virtual image.
In the second part of the paper there are analyzed face to face and online counseling activities carried out with a group of 30 students of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies.The results recorded can be considered a model of good practice in the field of career counseling.
The paper concludes by highlighting some possible future actions in the field of counseling that combines traditional counseling methods with modern methods (virtual counseling).
EARLY EDUCATION. PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS,
COMPETENCIES AND INDICATORS
Authors: Trif Letitia
Published: February 2023

Professional standards of teachers in early education had as main landmark learning and development standards for children from birth to 7 years old. They are formulated by UNICEF experts in international documents and disseminated in European countries. The main goal is to create a positive context for teacher professional growth and enhance the quality of educational practices. Therefore the teacher must have a whole range of skills that ranging from the way they think about the child, infancy and infant education, individualization of learning, an integrated approach to child development, the way they act and interact with both the child and the family, to teaching skills related to organizing the educational environment, learning and assessment strategies used. Also, learning assessment targets the teacher's skills of evaluation. These skills promote the principles of authentic assessment based on the use of alternative assessment strategies: child observation and recording of data on his progress, using the child's individual portfolio, positive feedback, using multiple sources of information and contexts for assessing the child's performance, self assessment. To cover the whole range of skills, some areas have been identified for which were developed standards and indicators that facilitate professional development, self-reflection skills, self-assessment and career management skills. In this approach, we propose to use a tool for assessing the professional skills of teachers in early education aiming to provide professional support to identify his professional goals, strong points and weak points those requiring improvement in practice and to develop a concrete action plan.
BLENDED LEARNING IMPLEMENTATION - A ROMANIAN HEI CASE
Authors: Dorobat Iuliana , Toma Andrei
Published: February 2023

Digital technologies are an enabler for the enhancement of the quality of learning and teaching. By incorporating ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in the learning process (and therefore achieving blended learning), HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) have the potential to complete the shift from the ,,old way" of teaching and learning (based on the mere transmission of information) to the development of a partnership between the student and teacher that can have a significant impact on the learning and teaching experience overall.
Therefore, in order to augment academic performance and to withstand the challenges of an increasingly competitive environment, the Romanian HEIs have concentrated their efforts to develop or configure e-learning platforms that enable the implementation of the blended learning concept.
In our previous research we identified that in the Romanian higher educational system, Moodle LMS (Learning Management System) or VLE (Virtual Learning environment) is frequently chosen as the solution for offering e-learning services (56,81% of the Romanian HEIs, both public and private, which have implemented an e-learning system have adopted Moodle LMS).
In this paper we will present the case of the University Of Economic Studies Of Bucharest that offers new and improved services for its students by implementing an e-learning platform available as online.ase.ro. The e-learning platform implemented by the University Of Economic Studies Of Bucharest is the Moodle LMS. We will present which were the challenges of this project (for example, the modality in which Moodle LMS was integrated with the university information system - SIMUR) and we will highlight the solutions that have been adopted to overcome them.
LEARNING MATHS ON THE INTERNET
Authors: Anghel Gheorghe , Anghel Iulia andreea
Published: February 2023

,,The average teacher speaks. The good teacher explains and demonstrates. The perfect teacher inspires" says William George Ward- English theologian and mathematician. Nowadays, however, it is becoming more and more difficult for a teacher to reach perfection, be it in the smallest amount. If we are wondering why is this happening, a quick glimpse at the surrounding reality will come with the answer. Computer, tablets, smart phones, all connected to the Internet, come in the aid of all those wanting to find certain information. In such a context, teachers only have two choices left: to give up or to upgrade their teaching methods so that they fit in this highly technological era. A dedicated teacher would always pick the second option. Having as a purpose to teach their students how to learn and communicate, today's teacher is supposed to prepare, organise and guide all learning activities in a proper environment, facilitating the usage and the access to the newest technologies. The traditional teaching methods can no longer cope with the present information avalanche, so teachers must have innovative approaches that allow students to use information and communication technologies. Computer usage in the process: teaching-learning-assessment is one skill that has to be present in each teacher's portfolio. For this main reason, the present article which comes as an extension to the other two:,,Visual solutions for learning in the virtual environment" and ,,Trends in developing visual educational content in mathemathics and physics" provides a creative solution for all those interested in understanding more than just written mathematic formulas, for those in the search of freely experimenting an interactive way of learning in the assitance of a virtual environment and educational softwares.
DIGITALIZATION OF BOOKS AND ITS IMPACT ON EDUCATIONAL PRAXIS AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL
Authors: Popovic Diana
Published: February 2023

Reading is an essential form of the learning process. The information revolution has changed the media, but the book is still the main tool in education, especially in the case of humanities. Digital collections of books, as well as reviews, newspapers, microfilms, audio-video recordings and other materials concerning cultural heritage provide easier access to information and a rapid transfer of knowledge. The constant progress in digitalization of books and other materials makes informing, learning or research more comfortable both for students and professors: it is enough just to click the mouse. Therefore, global information systems facilitate the circulation of cultural goods, and what is more important, reading and listening e-books or taking other digitalized data, whether issued by academic publishing or not, are available for free. Those advantages (quick access, sparing time and money) are so welcome in the field of higher education, especially in developing countries. This paper deals with the educational praxis in the Department of Romance Studies (courses of French and Francophone Literature and Culture) at the University of Novi Sad, where some of digitalized sources are an important part of the educational system, whose modernization has been accelerated in the last decade. Students use digitalized books and materials and are instructed by mentors through different types of learning in order to acquire knowledge and develop critical thinking skills. Their online support is based mostly by asynchronous tools. We noticed that students' motivation and enthusiasm rise during the completion of required activities. Once they complete the task, students share their experiences and show their satisfaction in social networks, which is the best proof that engaging students in this way makes digitalization a useful tool in the education system.
GOOGLE CLASSROOM - THE NEW EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE. PILOT TEST WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT FOR DISTANCE LEARNING
Authors: Logofatu Bogdan , Visan Andreea maria , Ungureanu Camelia
Published: February 2023

The landscape of the educational area has witnessed a continuous transformation in the past years due to new technologies. Higher educational institutes from all over the world are competing in all kinds of learning experience with the main objective of finding the best practices for their students. The main purpose of all this experiences is to enrich learning through a new generation of pedagogical methods. One of the highest demands for Romanian educational system is the transition between the traditional classroom, which is limited at one teacher and his students in one room at the same time, with limited learning resources, to an open learning process in which teachers and students are equals contributors and in which learning resources are always shaping.
This paper interests are centered on emerging educational technology through effective learning experiences in a cloud computing environment. Our main interest is to present a new way of doing things on campus by using Google classroom (first pilot test in Romania) within the Department for Distance Learning.
Over the years the Department for Distance Learning had students of different ages, from 18+ to 50+, students from all over the country and abroad and they all had the same purpose: to learn. By working with different people, with different ways of learning and also different attitudes, opinions, ideas, needs and stock of knowledge, our mission was and still is to provide opportunities to learn for everyone, to customize learning. And what better way of doing it if not by implementing the latest trends in teaching?
To achieve this mission our team started to use Google classroom, which is a great distance assessment tool that allows crowd participation and peer support. It is also promoting self assessment and reflection, it offers great help in managing class resources and a good guideline for e-feedback. It allows students and teachers to work quickly from anywhere and it uses the same web based tools that students and teachers among are using it at home.
The challenges for the Department for Distance Learning team that came with the launch of this new project test are multiple but there are also a lot of opportunities created for teaching and learning as it will be presented in the paper.
A CHECKLIST FOR A MOOC ACTIVIST
Authors: Grosseck Gabriela , Camacho Mar , Ivanova Malinka , Tiru Laurentiu , Holotescu Carmen , Bran Ramona
Published: February 2023

In spite of the fast development of eLearning and distance learning in our countries (Romania and Bulgaria), the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) phenomenon is not popular enough among educational actors: teachers, researchers, students, lifelong learners or policy makers. More specifically MOOCs are not integrated in the area of higher education at curriculum level. While in Bulgaria there is no research that can confirm or reject the important role of MOOCs for introduction of new reforms, for needs of scientific explorations and for implementation of innovative solutions in university settings, in Romania the situation is a bit different: there are some initiatives related to MOOCs like those developed by University Politehnica Timisoara in the last two years. But in both countries, at this moment there are no clear answers to questions like: Will universities accept the idea of a Massive Online OPEN Course? Who are the target groups? Should existing platforms be used or should a new one be created? How do government authorities see the role of MOOCs in support of university education? Will MOOC projects be started? In this context, the paper presents the authors' learning experience as MOOC activists. We have tried to map / identify which design approaches suit us both at individual and institutional level, by proposing a step-by-step approach that we called the ,,P-OOC (Personal Overview of Online Competencies) Checklist" of a MOOC activist.

Furthermore, we'll present an empirical analysis based on an online survey applied to university actors from Europe. Starting from the results, we'll propose a matrix/model of the possible digital perils for academia. Furthermore, we'll present an empirical analysis based on an online survey applied to university actors from Europe. Starting from the results, we'll propose a matrix/model of the possible digital perils for academia.
A SURVEY ON GENERATIVE LEARNING OBJECTS
Authors: Chirila Ciprianbogdan
Published: February 2023

Learning objects (LOs) is a field of e-learning which is open for research and has a lot of
potential in the creation, adaptation, testing, generation of learning content. There are standards
that describe LOs in a general manner like IEEE LOM, SCORM or Dublin Core.
Among these LOs there is a special kind of LOs named generative learning objects (GLOs) which
present a higher degree of reuse and are considered to be the second generation LOs.
The principles behind the GLO concept are taken from software engineering namely design for reuse
and design with reuse.
There are several approaches regarding GLOs.
The first approach belongs to the pioneers of the concept and is based on reusable pedagogical
patterns implemented in tools like GLOMaker.
A second approach belongs to a group of researchers from the University of Vilnius which rely their
implementation on parameter generated software inspired from software product lines and
metaprogramming. The approach is targeted towards learning computer science disciplines, namely
programming using robots.
In our approach, the third one, we use metaprogramming in the context of models which we consider
to be more expressive and flexible but demand a higher level of qualification for the GLO author.
GLOs are not heavily used in practice because of their complexity, lack of supporting tools, testing
difficulties.
In this paper we intend to identify the main issues with GLOs and to discuss the main challenges,
possible solutions and limitations.
Understanding better GLOs problems may help in ameliorating them using new tools, software wizards
and in increasing their use in practice in current learning management systems.
ADVANTAGES OF USING MODERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN LECTURES AND PRACTICAL CLASSES IN THE SUBJECT "WAR AND CRISIS REPORTING" AT THE DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA STUDIES, FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF NOVI SAD
Authors: Barovic Vladimir
Published: February 2023

The subject "War and Crisis Reporting" is very important for students of journalism because they are trained to professionally, objectively and ethically report from regions affected by war activities. In an academic year at the Department of Media Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, there are two hours of lectures and two hours of practical classes per semester in this subject. In the lectures, students gain theoretical knowledge of a war reporter's work in regions affected by war and crisis all over the world. In practical classes, students attend a first aid course realized in collaboration with the Red Cross. Additionally, there are visits to Serbian military units that regularly send their soldiers to peacekeeping missions around the world. In this way, students gain invaluable experience and knowledge of the work system of soldiers in peacekeeping missions and regions affected by war activities.
In this research that involved 40 students who attend the subject "War and Crisis Reporting", we have examined the possibility of using modern digital technologies in lectures and practical classes. We have analysed students' answers to the question related to the possibility of introducing internet simulations to the training process for war reporters at the faculty. Also, we have analysed students' answers to the question of whether they can use video games and online simulations in rescuing casualties in war conditions and professional i.e. psychological preparation of a reporter for war conditions. There has been investigated the extent to which students have used the digital library of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad so far for writing seminar papers or preparing for exams. We have considered the students' opinion on the use of modern digital technologies in the teaching process, the need for organising online lectures, as well as the cooperation with the teacher on the given internet platform.