14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

E-LEARNING APPLICATIONS IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

By Teacher Carmen EPURE, Colegiul Tehnic Petru Poni

By Teacher Dnu OPREA, Colegiul Tehnic Petru Poni

Abstract
ELEVATION - E-Learning Applications In Vocational Education is a Leonardo da Vinci partnership project funded by the
European Commission. The project is implemented by the "Friends of the <<Petru Poni>> Technical College" Association
from Oneti, ROMANIA, in partnership with institutions from UK, BULGARIA, GERMANY and TURKEY. There has
been a Moodle platform implemented within the project, platform which allows the combination between the classical
education and E-learning. By using this platform, the teachers will improve competencies and skills to use the computer, to
collaborate on the net, to plan, organize and evaluate the didactic activities.
Key words
E-learning, Moodle

Through the Leonardo da Vinci partnership "E-Learning Applications in Vocational

Education" the "Friends of the Petru Poni Technical College " Association brings real support
for teachers and students.
The project is financed by the European Commission with a grant of 25,000 and runs from
August 2012 to July 2014 in partnership with technical schools from Germany, Bulgaria and
Turkey plus Language Link from England, an organization which provides E-learning courses
for learning English.
The project aims to offer Petru Poni Technical Colleges teachers the possibility to acquire
new competencies and to use new didactic methods by transferring the lessons into a new
educational environment, by using IT based E-learning. The use of this new way of
presenting the information will contribute to combating failure in education of the VET
students. As a result of certain statistical data and questionnaires passed to students and
teachers, the less accessible lessons must be realized on the E-learning platform. The use of
this learning system provides students the opportunity to study on the Internet whenever and
wherever they want, a serial of electronic learning service being presented through an
E-learning Portal.
But the use of E-learning requires the emergence of new pedagogical approaches. Due to
changes in the educational environment and taking into account the development of the
information technology and the pedagogical use of the computers, it is necessary to train
teachers to become "e-trainers" with superior skills in computer use, net-collaboration, eLearning design, use and evaluation. The E-learning platform used for this purpose is a
Moodle platform.
Moodle is an open source program, so there is no licensing fee for use of the platform.
Anyone is free to use, distribute and adapt the platform according to preferences or needs. The
main goal of the platform is to provide a framework of interaction for teachers and their
students.

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

Moodle offers the next facilities for the high school environment:
Possibility to post lessons, bibliographies and home works;
Evaluation and self-assessment of the knowledge;
Creation of virtual classrooms enhancing thus the collaboration between schools;
Organization of contests;
Common courses in virtual classroom;
Preparation for the baccalaureate exam;
Competitions between high schools;
Communication and socialization;
Development of schools projects.
Moodle platform must be installed on a server in order to be accessed from any computer
connected to the Internet.
In the project ELEVATION we created the platform www.moodle.ro/elevation, containing
several sections (Fig. 1):
- Project description (purpose, objectives, partners, project meetings).
- Project management (contains documents produced by the partners, the project meeting
agenda, minutes, assessment results)
- Courses for each project partner. In the section dedicated to our association, the teachers of
the "Petru Poni" Technical College achieved electronic lessons on several technical topics
(electrical, electronic, mechanical), economics, natural resources and environmental
protection.

Fig.1
A course conducted on a Moodle platform contains resources and activities.
The first step in creating a course after the teacher has created an account consists in adding
the new course. This is done by pressing the button "Add a new course" Fig.2.

Fig.2
After pressing this button the courses settings (Figure 3) as name, short description, format
and start date can be achieved:

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

Fig.3
A course can contain various resources (Fig.4):

Fig.4
Book - allows to add resources in book format, containing chapters and subchapters;
File - allows to add files;
Folder - allows to add a folder;
IMS content package - allows storage of data in a standard format that allows reuse of
materials in different systems without the need to convert the new formats;
Label - allows to add text or images that are intended to describe the activities;
Page - add a new page - allows to add text, images, special characters, equations;
Standard slide show allows to create a presentation in one of the sections of the
course;
URL allows to create links to web pages.
By using these resources teachers can create attractive courses, combining text with images,
suggestive movies downloaded from you-tube or other sites, insert links to other resources.
The course structure is up to "editing teacher" (the teacher who has been assigned the role of
editing course) and can be constantly adapted to the needs of the classroom. An important
advantage of the e-learning is the possibility of using a course by more teachers. "Non-editing
teacher" has the possibility to use the course, but not to make changes. Besides resources,
various activities can be added (Figure 5): students can receive homework and teachers can
provide feedback (Assignment); tests on knowledge (Questionnaire) can be applied, having
the advantages that students receive marks instantly and consequently can make a new
attempt to increase the grade; the teacher can create a lesson (Lesson) in a flexible manner; a
glossary of terms (Glossary) can be created that will underpin the achievement of games
(crosswords, hangman), very attractive to students; a forum for communicating with students
and a chat for simultaneous discussions between students or between students and teachers
can also be created; conferences using BigBlueButtonBN can be achieved; links can be
created to allow students to interact with resources on other sites (External tool).

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

Fig.5
Teachers who have integrated E-learning in their teaching activities testimony about a great
number of advantages:
Can help a larger number of students (there is limited like in a normal class);
Increase the effectiveness of teaching through the use of various media (audio, video,
drawings, etc.);
Materials can be accessed by students anytime and anywhere;
Reduced Costs;
Ability to accelerate learning;
Development of the course contents can be done whenever the teacher wants;
Standardization (different teachers teach slightly different materials on the same topic);
Flexibility.
As main disadvantages teachers mentioned:
Too much work for teachers;
Lack of computer skills can be an obstacle;
Students without motivation and the undisciplined ones may lag behind;
Some laboratory activities are difficult to simulate in a virtual classroom.
In conclusion, combining traditional education with E-learning can increase the quality of
teaching. Especially in technical education, where teachers feel keenly the lack of textbooks
and supporting materials, the creation of courses that can be accessed online can help
streamline of teaching and bring academic success to students.
References
www.moodle.ro/elevation - the educational platform of the Leonardo da Vinci partnership Elearning Applications in Vocational education
Liliana Ursache, George Vju, Ctlin Donici, Cosmin Herman Moodle. Administration, use,
evaluation; Arad, 2011
www.dict.uvt.ro/iac/2012/Moodle.pdf - Online Educational platforms Moodle ( part I)