On a Virtual Learning Environment

Education in the Information Society is based on asynchronism in time and space, interactivity and virtual restructuring of the educational space. One way to implement such a model of training is web-based - use of the WWW as a virtual environment to access educational materials or to organize the learning process. This work presents a virtual learning environment (VLE) developed for students and made up of modules of dynamically changing content implemented by authorized users. The aim is, through advanced technology for e-learning, testing and self-testing to stimulate students’ activity to focus their potential on the acquisition of the necessary knowledge, skills and competences. The VLE was developed under the Human Resources Development Operational Programme.

Multimodal Man-machine Interface and Virtual Reality for Assistive Medical Systems

The results of research the intelligence multimodal man-machine interface and virtual reality means for assistive medical systems including computers and mechatronic systems (robots) are discussed. The gesture translation for disability peoples, the learning-by-showing technology and virtual operating room with 3D visualization are presented in this report and were announced at International exhibition "Intelligent and Adaptive Robots–2005".

Development of a Refactoring Learning Environment

This paper describes a Refactoring Learning Environment, which is intended to analyze and assess programming code, based on refactoring rules. The Refactoring Learning Environment architecture includes an intelligent assistant – Refactoring Agent, which is responsible for analysis and assessment of the code, written by students in real time by using a set of refactoring methods. According to the situation and based on the refactoring method, which should be applied, the agent could react in different ways. Its goal is to show the student, as much as possible, the weak places of his programming code and the possible ways to makes it better.

Use of Start Pages for Building a Mashup Personal Learning Environment to Support Self-Organized Learners

The paper explores the functionalities of eight start pages and considers their usefulness when used as a mashable platform for deployment of personal learning environments (PLE) for self-organized learners. The Web 2.0 effects and eLearning 2.0 strategies are examined from the point of view of how they influence the methods of gathering and capturing data, information and knowledge, and the learning process. Mashup technology is studied in order to see what kind of components can be used in PLE realization. A model of a PLE for self-organized learners is developed and it is used to prototype a personal learning and research environment in the start pages Netvibes, Pageflakes and iGoogle.

Virtual Reality and Legal Education

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2014

Towards e+Learning or How to Increase the Learning into e-Learning

It is discussed some changes in the traditional e-learning notion on the point of view of R. Koper’s question 'where is the learning in e-learning?’. We put a focus on the conception of learning as a management process and present the project Bulgarian Educational Site (BEST) – a possible answer to Koper’s question. The BEST is a virtual learning environment, based on the following principles: learning is a goal-directed and didactics-managed process; learners may define their own learning objectives, monitor and regulate the learning process; collaborative e-learning is more effective; etc. The BEST is based on two famous e-learning systems (Moodle, LAMS) and Plovdiv e-University (versions 1.0 and 2.0). The paper brings up a mater about the new ‘electronic’ pedagogy and proposes an approach for pedagogical modeling and interpretation of e-learning applied in the BEST.

Collaborative Learning and Authoring in the Frame of e-Projects

It is presented a research on the application of a collaborative learning and authoring during all delivery phases of e-learning programmes or e-courses offered by educational institutions. The possibilities for modelling of an e-project as a specific management process based on planned, dynamically changing or accidentally arising sequences of learning activities, is discussed. New approaches for project-based and collaborative learning and authoring are presented. Special types of test questions are introduced which allow test generation and authoring based on learners’ answers accumulated in the frame of given e-course. Experiments are carried out in an e-learning environment, named BEST.

Virtual Environments as an Education Tool for Digital Natives

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2013

3D Environment for Virtual Collections

This paper describes a framework for building virtual collections of several digital objects and presenting them in an interactive 3D environment, rendered in a web browser. Using that environment, the website visitor can examine a given collection from a first-person perspective by walking around and inspecting each object in detail by viewing it from any angle. The rendering and visualization of the models is done solely by the web browser with the use of HTML5 and the Three.js JavaScript library, without any additional requirements.