A Conceptual Framework for E-learning

A Conceptual Framework for E-learning Aman Rai1, Arun Yadav 2, Divakar Yadav3 and Rajesh Prasad4 1, 2, 4

Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College Ghaziabad, India

3

Jaypee Institute of Information Technology Noida, India

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract—Over past few years, there has been a huge advancement in terms of Learning Management System (LMS) and online education. Behind this growth, the major reasons are the availability of open source LMS and their ease of customization. This paper proposes some new features for these pre-existing LMS, especially Moodle, such that the same LMS could also function as College / University Management System. Concept of daily attendance, automatic evaluation of effort made by individual student, reports generation for individual student, report generation for faculty, report generation for Head of Department, integrated leave management system for students, faculties and Head & auto generation of report depicting what all things happened in the absence of the person, feedback system by students for evaluation of faculties at the end of semester, customizable registration page and concept of College/ University Moodle card. This paper also depicts the reviews from faculties from college where a couple of above plugins were custom made and implemented.

I.

INTRODUCTION

The term LMS [1] (Learning Management System) is a vast domain with so many things contained within it. A number of LMS are available out there in the market. Many of these are open-source, some free and some paid. What we need at present is one standard LMS [2] that can take care of all sorts of requirements. Moodle [3] till date have proved its dominance in the arena of LMS with a huge number of implementation. Also, the product is open-source, so a lot could be done to enhance the same to need the demands of majority of colleges/universities. Moodle as a lot of potential and could even be used as a college management tool too. Since data is fed into Moodle once, it would be an easy task for the administration of institution to implement the same software for the management of entire institute with same data of some more data. All these are possible through extensions and plugins in Moodle. Several such possibilities are covered in late part of this paper. II. RELATED WORK A number of plugins are already available for Moodle [4] which can perform a wide range of tasks in an easy and effective manner. Plugins have also been built to integrate Moodle with other pre-existing tools. Collaborative development is also promoted by many of these plugins which are freely available at the website of Moodle itself. All

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these plugins are made by a number of developers. Several more features are added in Moodle by the help of modules other than plugins, like activities and others [5]. This adds a lot of features to the standard Moodle package and has helped a lot to the Moodle users in easy customization of their Moodle packages. Apart from Moodle, several other LMS like, LRN [6], Sakai, Dokeos, eFront and many more exists with a large number of users. Apart from these, several custom made software and services are also deployed in various institutions. They do provide excellent customization and control over data but each of them lack in some or the other feature which is required in general, by the institutes. Usage of several LMS (standard or custom) in various institutions inhibits standardization of LMS at every institute. The standardization of LMS at every institute can open new doors for collaborative learning and interaction within the student community of the entire globe. III. PROPOSAL The present way of customization of Moodle is through plugins and activities and others [7]. The proposal is to ADD A NEW FEATURE to the standard Moodle package with name as MODULES. Α. Concept of MODULES

The basic concept of using MODULES is standardization of Moodle as a separate package where new features or packages could be easily added to Moodle changing even a single file in Moodle Standard Package [8]. Separate modules could then be made available which can work individually with their own separate database but using some data of Moodle only for reading from the database. Β. Benefits over present case

Presently, if we need to add a certain feature to the Moodle, we need to look for plugins. But what if the plugin is not available or the plugin does not fulfil our entire requirements [9]. The use of MODULES will empower us to custom build our own required software on any standard platform and easily integrate it with the MODULES section of Moodle. Only read permission would be granted to any module built or added to Moodle, so the data present in Moodle would act as source for multiple modules. Now the

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modules will have their own separate database too and a oneway-sync to synchronize the data of Moodle with the data in module database. This would ensure more functionality into the Moodle. Already several small projects built all over the globe could be converted to modules in an easy way. This way the same previously build package could be integrated in Moodle without any conflict. As long as the database structure of Moodle remains as it is, the modules will continue to work effectively irrespective of the version of Moodle that we are using. Even if we update the Standard Moodle package, it would work as it is if database structure is not disturbed much. Even if the database structure is changed, one make a few changes in a single file and can make the module run efficiently again. Even if some day, the Moodle catches a problem and the database is still working, the module will continue to run. Tasks which are sensitive enough could be performed using modules. C. Working of MODULES The MODULES would work in simple manner. A standard platform would be made to link up Moodle and the modules. That one platform would be common to all the modules and would serve the data to the modules. This would be done by using standard Moodle functions which are already defined in the documentation of Moodle at their website. After that, a standard sync module would be made for each module that is to be integrated. This sync module will fill the data from Moodle database to the module database and the remaining data, (if any) could be filled up manually or through the new module itself. Now when we have data with us, we can add a number of features to our Moodle. D. Uses of MODULES Plugins are good up to a certain level. If we have a big and complicated task, firstly it would be hard to find a plugin to do exactly what is required. Later, they are dependent on version of Moodle. Now with the use of MODULES we have a standard way of simplifying our task. We can build up the entire module as a separate project, add a sync panel to it and get the data from Moodle; our custom build module is ready to work with Moodle without much dependency on the version of Moodle. If a certain feature requires a huge database then also we can use modules as the data would be kept in a separate database and would be used as per requirement. The database would be less complex and an entire new feature or service could be added. Doing all this could help the institution to use standard software, Moodle and add custom modules to it to perform a wide range of tasks, which were not possible earlier. The same software, Moodle, could now be used as an institute management tool too. Maintenance of fee record, attendance record, marks record, leave record, performance record, time table generation, salary calculation and many more features could be added in an easy manner and could easily be made standard to be used in all institutes.

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This would make Moodle more standard as in later stages; we can integrate Moodle of various colleges to compare them on the basis of their own data or to organize events for multiple colleges on mass level. Data retrieved through Moodle could be considered authentic and would be mandatory for colleges to provide authentic data on Moodle. E. Some Possible MODULES 1) Attendance module:The module provides the feature of entry of attendance for student as well as faculty. The attendance of students is entered by faculty members and is authenticated by the students themselves. Also the attendance of any student is only visible to the corresponding faculty. The HoD is having the complete right to view and alter the data of his department. It could include features like report generation and automatic generation of letter to guardian, automatic mail if attendance is low and many more features. At student level, it is only allowed to view the attendance information of the very same student. At faculty level, it is allowed to view and alter the attendance information of the students under that faculty. At HoD level, it is allowed to view and alter the attendance information of all the students of all subjects under that department. The flow diagram for the attendance module is depicted in Fig. 1 below. 2) Marks module:The module provides the feature of entry of marks of student. The marks of students are entered by faculty members and are authenticated by the students themselves. Also the marks of any student are only visible to the corresponding faculty. The HOD is having the complete right to view and alter the data of his department. It could include features like report generation and automatic generation of letter to guardian, automatic mail if marks are low, self-generation of internal marks on the basis of general performance of student and many more features. At student level, it is only allowed to view the marks information of the very same student. At faculty level, it is allowed to view and alter the marks information of the students under that faculty. At HoD level, it is allowed to view and alter the marks information of all the students of all subjects under that department. Also, it is possible to generate internal marks automatically upon certain criteria. Extra-circular activities could also be accounted for the generation of internal marks. The flow diagram for the attendance module is depicted in Fig. 2 below. 3) Leave module:The module provides the feature to the student to request for leave to the teacher and the request could be sent to the HoD. Upon approval from faculty or HoD, the module grants leave for the student and mark its absence in the attendance module. Later at the end of semester, the report could be generated for each and every student counting its each leave and present in graphical form. All three, student, faculty and HoD could access their own leave

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history. Leave management for staff members is also possible with the same module by allowing the entry of temporary staff within the module database only.

The flow diagram for the attendance module is depicted in Fig. 3 below.

Figure 1 : Attendance Module

Figure 2 : Marks Module


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Figure 3 : Leave Management Module

Figure 4 : MOODLE Card Concept 212


IV. FUTURE WORKS The concept of Modules could lead to several new developments like a MOODLE CARD [10] which could serve as a multi-functional card, i.e. the same MOODLE CARD could be used as Library card to issue books in Library, and clear dues. The same card could even be used as college ID and could be used to manage the details of student through a separate module added in Moodle to calculate fee dues and other data related to college. Again the same card could be used as Universal Login card to login in all software at college level and also for taking the attendance. It could also be used as a Data Access Card to login in net labs of college. A number of things could be done to enhance Moodle apart from the things discussed above like online classes, webinars, online practical labs and exams on virtual labs, integration of

virtual labs with Moodle, datacentre for college where students are allowed to access a specific amount of data depending upon their ID and the data may include question papers, notes and reference materials. Apart from this, a number of collaborative researches could be conducted on the same platform of Moodle using modules. A social networking platform with custom features could also be built using the same Moodle and module concept. At a later stage, integration of Moodle of various colleges could be done. This would allow data transfer between various colleges, sharing of ideas within different colleges, enhance interaction of individual with the world community, promote collaborative work and developments and a lot more.

Table 1 : Result Comparison after Implementation of Concept

Accuracy Efforts made

With Attendance module Without Attendance module

Time taken 0

2

4

6

V. SOME RESULT ANALYSIS Almost all the above proposals are already made and implemented at department level in Computer Science & Engineering Department of Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Ghaziabad, India. Table 1 display the comparison which was observed in the college after implementation of Attendance module on a scale of 10. Faculties and HOD have reviewed the work and have given positive feedbacks for the project. It reduced the amount of effort, enhanced accuracy and reduced time delays. This ultimately led to more free time for faculty members which they utilized for the benefit of students by preparing digital notes for Noodle that could be used repeatedly by upcoming students. VI. CONCLUSION This paper brings forward various possibilities of using Moodle as a major College Management Tool without making and changes in the standard Moodle package. This would simplify many tasks in college level which generally takes a lot of time and effort. In modern era, where automation is a key to success, implementation of the ideas discussed in this paper would enhance the overall learning process at college level. Both students and faculties would be benefited by the implementation of these concepts. Automation of routine tasks

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would give more time to both, students and faculties and hence will lead to enhancement of all. REFERENCES [1]. Ellis, Ryann K. (2009), Field Guide to Learrning Management Systems, ASTD Learning Circuits : http://www.astd.org/~/media/Files/Publications/LMS_fieldguide_20091 [2]. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system [3]. Official Moodle website: http://www.moodle.org [4]. Moodle Developer documentation: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Developer_documentation [5]. Nag, Aditya, (May 24, 2005), Moodle:An open source learning managementsystem. [6]. .LRN : http://www.dotlrn.org/ [7]. Realising the full potential of e-learning for education and training, Recommendation 1836 (2008)1 : http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta08/ER EC1836.htm [8]. Strengths and Weakness of Online Education, Illinois University (May 2, 2008) : www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/overview [9]. Suman Ninoriya, P.M.Chawan, B.B.Meshram, CMS, LMS and LCMS for eLearning [10]. Moodle-metcard : http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/metcard


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