Abstract:

In 2007 the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus (MοEC) has initiated an effort to create tailored made Digital Educational Content (DEC) for 17 different subjects of the Secondary (General and Technical & Vocational) Education. The project is being co-funded by the Government of Cyprus and the European Social Fund. The DEC will be available on the Ministry’s Learning Management System (LMS) that is currently on its pilot phase of implementation. Teachers and students can use the DEC in synchronous and asynchronous mode, both in the classroom and at home, in order to enhance the learning process.

Through a European Tender, the MοEC signed a two year contract with two consortiums from the private sector to develop 641 lesson units of DEC, which will comply with the SCORM standard. The MoEC thoroughly selected units from the curriculum, in a total of 25% of each subject. The educational objectives, derived from each of the above units, were defined by MoEC and published in the tender documents. Each DEC lesson unit should achieve the corresponding objectives and could consist of multiple types of Reusable Learning Objects (RLO): Text, pictures, maps, diagrams, audio, video, animations, simulations, interactive applets, problem solving, educational games and evaluation activities with structured feedback. The selection of RLO’s and their organization in sections and subsections in a DEC unit, follow the pedagogical and design principles which apply to each subject.

Based on the contract, the consortiums had to form a project team for each subject, which includes a project manager, subject matter experts, instructional designers, graphic designers and software developers. On behalf of the MοEC, an approval team for each subject was formed, consisting of teachers with working experience in their subject and good knowledge of the use of ICT in education. The project administration and the coordination of the approval teams are being managed by the MοEC eContent team.

The analytical storyboard for each unit, the DEC lesson units and the teachers’ manuals were developed during the three main phases of the project. Each set of the deliverables were thoroughly reviewed by the MoEC approval team members who provided detailed feedback to the consortiums’ project teams. Currently, the two consortiums are developing the second version of the DEC lesson units.

The project is considered, by all the key players involved, innovative and is aiming to contribute towards the reform of our educational system. The major issues that emerged so far relate to the synthesis and commitment of the project teams, the timeframe, the resource management, the production and approval processes and the effective communication between all the partners of the project.

The challenges and the lessons learned from this project, discussed in this paper, provide us valuable guidance for reengineering the processes and design of the upcoming eLearning projects of MoEC.

Keywords:

digital educational content, learning objects, learning management system.