CLASSIFICATION OF STUDY SUPPORTS AND THEIR APPLICATION IN UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Information and communication technologies (ICT) influence all of the spheres of human life. The changes are beginning to appear also in the education where the ICTs are viewed as a key tool which positively influences a large variety of educational processes. One of the areas where their application is especially notable, is the acquisition and distribution of educational materials. In case of self-studying, such materials are possible to be called study supports. Study supports are classified among the division of didactic means under teaching aids because they are applied during the teaching and they primarily serve to achieving given educational.

One may view the study supports as didactically and methodologically well-processed texts, audio-visual materials and other multimedia or interactive study aids intended for controlled self-studying. The requirement on specific didactic and methodologic processing distinguishes study supports from commonly used study materials which are represented by professional literature and textbooks used in the university environment regardless the different needs of the students in combined or distance forms of studying.

Their primal aim is not only to transfer the educational material towards the students but also the substitution of direct contact with the teachers, provision of feedback and so on. Thanks to massive development of the information and communication technologies, electronic versions of study supports are being more and more preferred to the printed ones. The electronic versions are available for the students though the network technologies – the Internet or intranet.

This paper aims to analyse them and to classify commonly used study supports used in university environment in the Czech Republic. The paper includes a research focused on the application of the individual types of the study supports in relationship to their contents and given educational aims. The objective of the research is also to compare the outcomes of theoretic analysis with the common practice of the chosen facilities in the Czech Republic.