DISTANCE LEARNING

NEWSLETTER FALL 2013

a message from the dean At the University of Nicosia, we recognise that technology has a crucial part to play in higher education, and that enhancing learning, teaching and assessment through the use of technology is one way we can address our strategic vision and mission in higher education. Some of the key benefits of using technology include improving the efficiency of existing processes carried out in a more cost-effective, time-effective, sustainable or scalable manner. As there is growing evidence that appropriate use of technology may improve learning, we use the most up-to-date technologies and state-of-the-art learning design theory. An integral part of our approach to the learning design of our e-learning courses is the institutional commitment to help our students develop higher-order skills of critical analysis, reflection, and problem-solving. Our Distance Learning Newsletter aims to inform all relevant stakeholders on important issues, news and developments that are related to our online efforts. We do hope that readers will find this both informative and useful. Prof. Demetris Vrontis Dean, Distance Learning

a message from the heads Online learning at UNIC started on a very small scale about five years ago; it has grown significantly since then, now providing considerable extra income at a time of economic crisis. However, for our technological innovation to be even more successful, it must be disseminated throughout our organization allowing more faculty and departments to take ownership of it. At a time of great change and struggle in society, we also have huge changes in online technologies. This provides an opportunity for us as an institution to offer our educational services to a wider world market; therefore, taking a more global approach to education will surely put our institution in a stronger position in the future. Also, updating one’s skills’ set by investing in online education skills seems a logical move considering worldwide online trends. The DL IT Unit thus aims to fully support the dissemination of technological innovation throughout UNIC and fully support all users of such technology. Dr Chris Alexander, Head of the DL IT Unit

The Distance Learning Administrative Unit (DLA Unit), previously operating as the Centre for Life Long Learning, had established various collaborative agreements with universities abroad for the offering and support of Distance Learning programmes. In 2009 e-learning courses were introduced at the University of Nicosia; since then, we had the opportunity to gain extensive expertise and knowledge in various aspects of online education. the distance learning administrative unit, is now responsible for the following activities: • overall administration of E-learning students: administrative assistance and guidance • overall administration of Distance Learning students: admissions processes, student academic advising, general academic affairs, finances etc. • overall administration and support of Distance Learning faculty • organization of events and seminars for Distance Learning students and faculty • general operational activities of all Distance Learning programmes • all related activities to ensure the smooth operation of University of Nicosia Distance Learning programmes. The DLA Unit aims to offer quality services through good customer care practices provided to its Distance Learning students. Eleni Neocleous Head of the Distance Learning Administrative Unit

from small beginnings... Online learning started with seven courses in LAMS during the Fall 2009 semester. Four years later, the original team of four has since become a department of over 15, offering courses to both local and international markets in Moodle. The Distance Learning Unit is divided into two subunits under the Dean: the Distance Learning Administrative Unit and the Distance Learning IT Unit. Each Unit is responsible for performing their specific duties to ensure the successful operation and delivery of E-Learning and Distance Learning courses. LAMS (Learning Activity Management System) was the primary system for delivering online courses to students from Fall 2009-Fall 2012. Since then the Distance Learning Unit has utilised Moodle as a Learning Management System (LMS). As of Fall 2013 over 40 different e-learning courses have been developed for our local students and eight distance learning programmes have been developed for the international market, three of which have been offered for the first time in Fall 2013. Student numbers continue to grow in addition to each programme’s popularity. the eight fully-online programmes developed are: 1. PhD in Business Studies 2. PhD in Educational Studies 3. Master in Educational Studies (MEd) 4. Master in Business Administration (MBA) 5. Master in Educational Psychology 6. Master in Public Administration (MPA) 7. Master in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MA TESOL) 8. Bachelors in English Language and Literature The Distance Learning Unit has also taken on other side projects such as app development, web development and promotional material design.

7

138

2009

2013

courses

courses

DL accreditations • Evaluation Committee of Private Universities, Cyprus (ECPU) Επιτροπή Αξιολόγησης Ιδιωτικών Πανεπιστημίων, Κύπρος (ΕΑΙΠ) • National Academic Recognition Information Center, Greece (NARIC) Διεπιστημονικός Οργανισμός Αναγνώρισης Τίτλων Ακαδημαϊκών, Ελλάδα (ΔΟΑΤΑΠ) DL quality assurance Internal Quality Assurance • An Internal Quality Assurance exercise has already been completed for the MEd DL and MBA DL. Through the Assessment Exercise a Report was developed which was used for the meetings conducted with the Department of Education as well as the one-to-one meetings with the MEd DL and MBA DL Faculty members. • An Internal Quality Assurance exercise is currently being conducted for the MA TESOL DL, MPA DL, MSc Educ/School Psychology DL. The same Assessment Exercise will be completed; a Report will be developed which will then be used for the corresponding meetings. EFQUEL Quality Assessment (European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning) • The EFQUEL Quality Assessment for the MBA DL was completed in August 2012. Minor Recommendations deriving from the relevant Report have already been incorporated on the programme. • The EFQUEL Quality Assessment from the MEd DL was completed in December 2012. Minor Recommendations have already been incorporated on the programme. • UNIC is now in the process of completing the UNIQUe accreditation of EFQUEL (institutional accreditation). The final assessment visit will take place in December 2013. UNIQUe is a high quality institutional certification for outstanding use of ICT in learning and teaching.

more on moodle Moodle is a LMS that is used to create online dynamic websites to deliver courses to students. The university has implemented multiple instances of Moodle that are used for different purposes. The Distance Learning Unit has continued to provide all necessary support for faculty members wishing to utilise the various Moodle instances. moodle gives lecturers access to a wide range of moodle activities and resource tools such as: • Assignment submission with plagiarism detection • Practice quizzes • Forum and Q&A activities • File sharing (text, audio, video, etc.) • Chat activities the different moodle instances are described below: Moodle LLL (http://moodle.lll.unic.ac.cy/) Moodle LLL hosts all the E-Learning and Distance Learning courses developed by the university. These courses are fully-online, meaning that the students’ presence is not required on the University campus (or testing centres),with the exception of taking their final exams. Moodle Intranet (http://moodle.intranet.unic.ac.cy/) Moodle Intranet houses the material students will need to help them successfully complete face-to-face or blended learning courses at the University. An ever-increasing number of lecturers have realized the benefits of using Moodle, instead of the UNIC Student Intranet, to disseminate material to their students. examples of moodle intranet advantages are, but not limited to: • Centralized announcement board for each course • Easy to access and user friendly • More resources and activities available to deliver content • Easier adoption of E-Learning and Distance Learning courses by students and faculty as it uses the same platform • Compatible with more file formats • Fast upload rate and general access • Helps promote a paperless environment Globaltraining Moodle (http://moodle.globaltraining.org/) This Moodle instance, similar to Moodle Intranet, was developed for Globaltraining to help them distribute course content for their various certificates to their students while maintaining their corporate image.

get trained! To encourage faculty to utilise the services provided by the DLIT and DLA Units, a training course will be offered to faculty to help familiarise themselves with Moodle, realise its advantages and learn its functionality. The course will take 2.5 hours to complete and is structured to be self-contained and comprehensive, so you will only be required to attend once to earn a certificate of attendance. the course will include: • A presentation outlining the major requirements of a DL/e-learning course • A presentation outlining the technical aspects of developing a Moodle course (as an DL/e-learning course or for Moodle Intranet) including plagiarism prevention (Ephorus) • A workshop – Learning to use Moodle and Ephorus the training course will continue at the beginning of the spring 2014 semester on these dates: session no.

day

date

time

1 2 3 4

thursday wednesday tuesday monday

06 february 2014 12 february 2014 18 february 2014 24 february 2014

10:00-12:30 15:00-17:30 10:00-12:30 15:00-17:30

The above dates and times are preliminary and may change.

For additional information regarding the training course, please contact Mr Gregoris Vishnumolakala ([email protected], ext. 1566) or Ms Elena Theodorou ([email protected], ext. 1720). In addition to faculty training, brief training sessions have been provided to students during the UNISKO Orientation Session. The element of online learning has recently been incorporated into a new course, UNIC-100: University Experience, where detailed information and training regarding E-Learning and Distance Learning courses are provided to all students registered. The Distance Learning Unit also provides training on all aspects of E-Learning and Distance Learning to faculty and students on an individual basis.

plagiarism prevention with ephorus Ephorus, a plagiarism prevention system similar to Turnitin, has recently been integrated into Moodle at the University. Through the Moodle integration, Ephorus can be used to check documents for similarities against other documents in their Internet Database – which contains papers in multiple languages – and past papers submitted by our students. The Ephorus Internet Database contains over 35 billion webpages. The process of having student assignments checked with Ephorus is automated in Moodle with no input required from lecturers. Having Ephorus enabled in your Assignment activities will send a copy of each document to Ephorus, where a plagiarism check is performed and an Ephorus Report is sent back to the activity with an indication of the percentage of plagiarism. The Ephorus Report shows which parts of the uploaded document have similarities with sources found. Lecturers will then have the ability to make side-by-side comparisons between the students' work and the sources found. Lecturers will not require an individual account to use Ephorus in Moodle. Lecturers will have access to all the Ephorus tools straight from the Assignment activities in their courses and will never be redirected to another site to use the reports. From the students’ perspective, they will use Assignment activities in the same way as usual; they will not see any difference.

webex expansion WebEx is a video conferencing system developed by Cisco that is used at the University to deliver live lectures and tutorial sessions to our Distance Learning students. Through WebEx, lecturers can share their computer screen so that students can see the presentation material as the lecturer moves through it. With the expansion of our online programmes, we have also seen an increased need to offer more synchronous WebEx sessions per semester to our students. In Spring 2013 just under 60 sessions were scheduled, whereas for the Fall 2013 semester over 220 WebEx sessions have been scheduled. We expect this number to increase significantly in the coming semesters. To handle the increased demand we are expecting to take advantage of the new WebEx cubicles that are being built for Globaltraining and are expected to be available by January 2014. By making use of Globaltraining’s cubicles, more sessions will be able to take place simultaneously.

boosting unic mobile presence Earlier in 2013 the UNIC app was released. This mobile app was the first in-house mobile application for the University, which aimed to disseminate useful University-related information to students and faculty alike. The app was made available through Google Play, Windows Store and Apple App Store. The initial idea of the app was to bring basic features that are used every day to the palm of your hand. This then expanded to the idea of how those features might be improved to increase interaction with University systems. The app development team is working continuously to ensure that the UNIC app is the best Cyprus-related university app available. In light of this, the version two of the app is set to be released soon. version two boasts features such as: • Better presentation of features and functionality • Dynamic information. The app receives the newest information as it is sent out by the University • Faculty login. Class information is available to faculty after logging in • Advanced student login. More University-related information is accessible through the app • Integration with University calendar and Student Affairs’ events A similar mobile app was developed specifically for Globaltraining to help them push notifications, exam tips and news, among other things to their students.

WHO IS WHO NAME

TELEPHONE

EMAIL [email protected] [email protected]

ROLE

Prof. Demetris Vrontis Yiola Michael

22841615 22841628

Dean, Distance Learning Personal Assistant to the Dean

Eleni Neocleous

22841722

[email protected]

Elena Theodorou

22841720

[email protected]

Mikaela Coumoundourou

22841703

Anthi Tziakoura

22841774

coumoundourou.m@unic. ac.cy [email protected]

Georgia Mara

22841716

[email protected]

Vasia Kontou

22841744

[email protected]

Administrative Assistant

Marina Kiti

22841702

[email protected]

Student Assistant

Irene Theodoulou

22841728

[email protected]

Student Assistant

Andri Kiourti

22841728

[email protected]

Student Assistant

DISTANCE LEARNING ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT Head, Distance Learning, Administrative Unit

DISTANCE LEARNING IT UNIT Dr. Chris Alexander

22841635

[email protected]

Head, Distance Learning, IT Unit

Christos Savva

22841636

[email protected]

Marios Theodoulou

22841636

[email protected]

IT Assistant

Gregoris Vishnumolakala

22841566

IT Assistant

Dr. Stella Kythreoti-Grimm

22841642

Pooya Charmarai Tohidi

22841642

vishnumolakala.g@unic. ac.cy [email protected]; [email protected] [email protected]

Daryna Dombik

22841566

[email protected]

Graphic Designer

Ali Tayari

22841642

[email protected]

Mobile App Developer

Seyed Hessan Adnani Hosseini

22841642

Doctoral Student Assistant

Programmer

Kostas Papatzimopoulos

[email protected]

Student Assistant

Eleni Pissaridou

[email protected]

Student Assistant

Maria Demetriou

[email protected]

Student Assistant

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Distance Learning

Everyone at Distance Learning joins in sending season’s greetings and best wishes for a Happy New Year 2014. We look forward to continuing the support & development of Distance Learning in the coming year.