Educational Software Design

 

 

 The software includes the creation of a synchronous and an asynchronous educational model through the web. Our basic belief in this project was to that the two educational models can be combined complementing each other. As a result in our application the education software is united, including both synchronous and asynchronous model in one education software. Through this application the necessity of an instructor in charge of both models is more than ever obvious. The basic questions that need to be answered at this first level of the project are:

 

1.      What is the prime as well the by parts goal of the education software?

2.      To what part of the population should the software be addressed?

 

As far as the first question is concerned, our primary goal and our intentions in this project is “For the student to learn how to apply Management and Control of total quality as well as establishing the quality of his/her working area. The partial goals of the software should specialize the prime goal of the education software into three different levels. The first level is about knowledge (understanding, analyzing, and composing) that the students are going to acquire. The second level is about what the students will be able to do at the end of the training program and the third level is about the attitude of the students that should be enhanced or changed through the education software. As a result a possible statement of the partial goals of our software is:

After the completion of the program the students should be able to

·        Determine the reasons that demanded the turning of their synchronous businesses towards quality. (Knowledge)

·        Identify the factors that determine quality. (Knowledge)

·        Describe the primary methods of quality control. (Knowledge)

·        Choose the proper method of controlling quality. (Skillfulness)

·        Organize the proper method of controlling quality. (Skillfulness)

·        Prefer the new management of total quality. (Attitude)

 

Determining all the above will not by any chance by the final goal of our project since the special needs of the students should be taken under consideration and should be covered especially in the synchronous educational model.

 

Also determining the part of the population that should be targeted is a very important factor that determines the targets of the project.

 

Having determined the educational targets of our software as well as the targeted population we can proceed to the second level of the education software design. The problems at this phase are the design and development of the educational material as well as the design of the synchronous education. The important factors that determine those two fields are the tools that we are given by the software of synchronous and asynchronous education.

 

As far as the design of the educational material is concerned, in which both the expert of distant learning and the instructor are involved, we should be careful so that:

 

 

1.      It is divided into small subject chapters

2.      It contains clearly determined goals in every unit

3.      It contains advice about how it should be studied

4.      It contains examples and studies

5.      It contains self-tests as well as the correct answers and discussion about possible mistakes

6.      It contains activities with the correct answers and discussions about possible mistakes

7.      It contains explanatory titles and subtitles

8.       It contains an overview

9.      It contains references

10.  It is polymorphic

 

The design of the material is closely related with the software of the asynchronous education, which is the WebCT software. This is the interface that allows the design of a course. The tools that we use are:

 

Welcome Page:

In this page we stated the learning contract. This includes:

·        The purpose of the software

·        The subject

·        The covered material and the level at which it is being covered

·        The structure of the software

·        How long it will last

·        To whom it is addressed

·        The time-schedule 

·        The prerequisites

·        The achievements of the students at the end of the course

·        The participation procedure

·        The verification of a successful attendance

·        The Instructor

·        The organizations involved

 

Contents

It contains the subject units

 

Home Page

This is the central page of every subject unit. This page includes

            Goals: The educational goals of the chapter as far as knowledge, skill and attitude.

            Course Content: It is about the course material and its format

Studying Guide:

Glossary:

Index:

Self-Test: It is about small questions and their answers for the student to determine his progress in every chapter

 

 

Exams:

This contains multiple choice, matching, and free questions. After the completion of the asynchronous education the students should take a first test and submit a paper. This will be accounted to certify a successful attendance of the course.