eCampus – The Learning Platform of the St. Pölten UAS

A Manual for Academic Directors, Lecturers and All Interested Persons  

Contact

eCampus Administrator – General Technical Support
Service Unit IT and Infrastructure
T: +43 2742 313 228 111
E: support@fhstp.ac.at

Introduction

This document is addressed to Academic Directors, lecturers and interested administrative staff members.

Its objective is

• to serve as the basic document for recording the requirements for the creation of courses on the eCampus at the interface between the Academic Director and the eCampus administration,
• to provide the Academic Directors with a basic document as an introduction to the eCampus for new lecturers,
• and to give lecturers and interested administrative staff members a document as an introduction to working with the eCampus.

This document does not aim at answering questions pertaining to the content-related and technical creation of courses on the eCampus, as a manual would.

1. What you always wanted to know about the eCampus

1.1 General information

The eCampus, the learning platform of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, is available at https://ecampus.fhstp.ac.at/ and is based on Moodle version 3.1.
The eCampus is operated and maintained by the eCampus administrator who is part of the service unit IT and Infrastructure of the St. Pölten UAS.
Moodle is a learning platform, also referred to as Learning Management System (LMS). It is a free, open-source software package based on pedagogical principles in order to support teachers in initiating effective online learning groups. Moodle has a big community with more than 100,000 registered users on the website moodle.org alone who speak over 70 languages and come from more than 150 countries. The software is promoted by a large group of developers, with Martin Dougiamas from Australia being in charge of the development.
Moodle is distributed free of charge as an open-source software under a GNU Public License, which means that it is protected by copyright but equipped with additional freedoms for the users. These are free to copy, use and modify the software as long as they declare themselves willing to making the source code available to others, to refrain from changing or removing the original licenses and copyrights, and to apply the same licenses to derivative works.
Moodle runs on every computer which is also compatible with the programming language PHP and it supports many different types of databases, especially MySQL.
The term “Moodle” was originally an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment which is helpful mainly for programmers and educational theorists. It is also a verb describing the process of slowly wiggling one’s way through something; of doing things as they come; of enjoyably working on something that frequently leads to insight and creativity. When it is used in this way, the term symbolises both aspects: the way in which Moodle was developed, and how students and teachers can use Moodle as an approach to learning and teaching.
There are currently 14,183 registered Moodle installations in 160 countries. In Austria, you can find 243 registered Moodle installations on moodle.org. [1]
In order to support online learning, Moodle offers a range of tools and modules for organisation, distribution, communication and collaboration in e-learning and blended learning scenarios. This includes everything from attendance lists to scheduling and data distribution to forums, chats and wikis.

[1] Summarised from http://moodle.org/en/About_Moodle; accessed 15/08/2006

1.2 What the eCampus is!

Students of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences are the primary target group of the eCampus, a Learning Management System (LMS) with the possibility of supporting course in terms of

• organisation
• distribution of materials
• communication
• collaboration
• implementation of innovative teaching and learning scenarios.

The eCampus provides students with information pertaining to courses. In addition, the homepage of the eCampus offers students information beyond the scope of courses. The information on the homepage of the eCampus is not meant for the group of teaching and administrative staff of the St. Pölten UAS.

1.3 What the eCampus is not!

The eCampus is neither the information system for the topic of “studying at the St. Pölten UAS” nor the system for information on the individual study programmes. The UAS website (https://www.fhstp.ac.at) is available for this purpose. Furthermore, the eCampus is not the information system for teaching and administrative staff who can use the Campus Information System (https://cis.fhstp.ac.at) or the Intranet (https://teamwork.fhstp.ac.at) instead.

1.4 What the eCampus can be!

Certain individual functions of the eCampus such as the “Befragung” (survey) tool can also be used, e.g. for administrative purposes. However, information on these special offers and direct links to these objects is exchanged via the Intranet and e-mail. Project rooms can be installed on the eCampus for student projects as well as research projects. If you have any questions, please contact the eCampus administrator or the general technical support.

2. How to gain access to the eCampus?

All members of the St. Pölten UAS – that is, administrative staff, lecturers and students – can access the eCampus with their UAS account at https://ecampus.fhstp.ac.at. There is only one account with user name and password that is used to access all in-house UAS services.

In case of problems or further questions, please contact the eCampus administrator or the general technical support via telephone or e-mail. The necessary contact data can be found at the beginning of this document.

3. How courses end up on the eCampus?

3.1 General information

Every regular course which is listed in the study guide is automatically created on the eCampus by the eCampus administrator. Optional subjects are not automatically created but can be included in the eCampus at any time if the lecturer requests it. Please contact the eCampus administrator.

The courses are created with their respective designation, name of the lecturer, the students and the corresponding category (the study programme that the course belongs to). The eCampus administrator obtains this information from the UAS database (course administration).

For every newly created course on the eCampus, the first simple communication options are available by default: “course messages” and “questions to lecturers”. For more information on these forums, please refer to the communication scenario in item 5.2.

3.2 Process

For a regular course to be created on the eCampus, the following steps have to be taken:

• The course exists in the study guide.
• Within the framework of course planning, lecturers and student groups are allocated to the courses in the UAS database.
• The eCampus administrator automatically creates the courses in the central data management system (LDAP) using the data from the current UAS database.
• The eCampus administrator synchronises the UAS database and the LDAP with the eCampus.
• The lecturers are informed about the existence of the course on the eCampus via e-mail.
• The lecturers have access to the courses on the eCampus.
• The allocation of course participants (students) is continuously synchronised by the UAS database.

At the beginning of every semester, all regular course are listed on the eCampus including the responsible lecturer and the students allocated to the respective course.

3.3 Responsibility

The Academic Directors are responsible for providing the valid data for the courses. The eCampus administrator ensures the availability of the courses on the eCampus.

3.4 Course changes

Every lecturer has the possibility to request changes regarding her/his own courses. Please contact the eCampus administrator for this purpose. The following information can be changed:

• Category
• Lecturers
• Extraordinary course participants
• Other

3.5 How to create additional courses

Generally, all staff members of the St. Pölten UAS may request a new course on the eCampus. Please address your request directly to the eCampus administrator who will then decide on the final implementation and inform you once the course has been successfully created.
The request has to contain the following information:

• Desired name of the requested course
• Category (leisure, sports, R&D, lecturers, students, etc.)
• Lecturer (name of the UAS staff member or UAS account details)
• Participants (existing IT and Infrastructure service LDAP group or list with first and last names or UAS account details)
• Purpose of the course

Attention: eCampus courses for regular courses do not have to be specifically requested as they are automatically created.

4. How to use the eCampus of the St. Pölten UAS?

4.1 Fields of application

The eCampus is the learning platform of the St. Pölten UAS and is used mainly to support and assist teaching and learning. For this reason, students of the St. Pölten UAS are the primary target group for the eCampus. On behalf of this target group, there are the following fields of application for the eCampus: support of regular courses, optional subjects, language classes, student projects, etc.

Moreover, the eCampus can be used to carry out registrations, for example for groups related to the above-mentioned possibilities. Usually, however, the students are automatically allocated to the regular courses.
All staff members of the UAS can use the eCampus to post information beyond the scope of courses on the homepage of the eCampus as news for the students, or to announce dates.

Furthermore, it is possible to use the eCampus as a project platform for research projects or student projects. All UAS staff member can use individual modules of the eCampus – such as the tool for drawing up a questionnaire – for non-student target groups as well.

For all above-mentioned options that are not aimed at a regular course, please contact the eCampus administrator.

4.2 Optional subjects, language courses, etc.

eCampus courses can be created for all non-regular courses. When it comes to the requirements of such courses, the eCampus administrator can provided detailed information.

4.3 Signing up for non-regular events, groups or course projects

It is possible to carry out registrations for optional subjects, language courses, etc. via the eCampus. In this case, the eCampus administrator is responsible only for implementing the necessary steps on the eCampus. The required information, on the other hand, has to be provided by the person requesting the implementation. The coordination with other units/persons involved is to be handled by the ordering party/parties as well.

For registrations within the framework of regular courses – e.g. for group work, projects, etc. – the eCampus offers the modules “Befragung” (survey) and “Abstimmung” (coordination).

4.4 Project platform

Operators of research projects or student projects can request that a project platform be created on the eCampus. Please contact the eCampus administrator directly for this purpose.

4.5 News

All staff members of the St. Pölten UAS can write their own contributions to the news area on the homepage of the eCampus. To do this, please send your contributions to the eCampus administrator who can, however, accept them only if they are interesting for the students of the St. Pölten UAS. In case of doubt, the final decision lies with the administrator.

5. Possible course scenarios

You can use the eCampus for very diverse applications in connection with your course. For example, it is conceivable to use the eCampus to

• support and carry out the organisation of your course
• support and carry out the communication pertaining to your course
• make material available to the students
• accompany and supervise virtual group work
• promote, accompany and supervise self-organised learning (SOL), etc.

In this context, it is also possible to combine the above-mentioned possibilities to form a more complex scenario. Please talk to your Academic Director about whether and to what extent students can replace attendance times in your course with online presence times. The persons in charge of e-learning are happy to assist you in the conception and implementation of online learning units.

In the following section, we describe the individual scenarios in more depth to give you an idea of the various possible applications. However, this document does not claim to offer a detailed instruction for setting up the required modules on the eCampus or implementing the didactic scenarios.

5.1 Organisation scenario

One of the simplest ways of using the eCampus in a course is to carry out the course organisation via the eCampus. The organisation includes the lists of participants, the schedule management and the division of the entire group into subgroups.

To access the list of participants of your course on the eCampus, go to the course itself and click on “TeilnehmerInnen” (participants) on the left of the block “Personen” (persons). In this module, you can access the profile and activities of the students.

By clicking on the block “Kalender” (calendar) on the right, you can open the schedule management module, either for a course or a subgroup within a course. For the students, current dates are displayed across courses in the block “Aktuelle Termine” (current dates) on the right of the eCampus screen.

You can divide the overall participant group of a course into small subgroups by accessing the grouping function via the “Gruppen” (groups) button in the block “Administration” in the respective course on the eCampus. This function is particularly interesting if you, for example, assign group work and every group is allowed and supposed to use certain functions of the eCampus (such as forums, wikis, etc.).

5.2 Communication scenario

When a course is automatically created on the eCampus, the first simple communication options for a course are already set up as well. These include:

• the forum “Kursnachrichten” (course messages)
• the forum “Fragen an die LektorInnen” (questions for the lecturers)

The forum “Kursnachrichten” is configured in such a way that it serves as an e-mail distribution list for the respective course – but only one way, from the lecturer to the students. Every participant of the course is automatically subscribed to this forum and cannot delete this subscription, either. In this way, the lecturer can be sure that all contributions distributed via this forum reach all participants of the corresponding course. The contributions in the forum are sent to the e-mail addresses of the students and documented in the course at the same time.

Tip: Use the function “Kursnachrichten” as the easiest and most uncomplicated way of supporting your course offered by the eCampus.

The forum “Fragen an die LektorInnen” is a “traditional” forum which every participant of the corresponding course can use to post questions and answers. Contrary to the forum “Kursnachrichten”, only one subscription with the option “zunächst” (initially) has been set for the participants. This means that after their first course login, the students are free to decide whether they want to continue to subscribe to the posts of this forum or not.

Tip: Nutzen Sie die Fragen an die LektorInnen als einfache und unkomplizierte Möglichkeit des eCampus, Ihre Lehrveranstaltung zu unterstützen, indem Sie Ihre Studierenden dazu auffordern, Fragen zu Organisation und Inhalt Ihrer Lehrveranstaltung in diesem Forum zu stellen. Weisen Sie gleichzeitig darauf hin, dass Sie Fragen, die nicht persönlicher Natur sind, nicht mehr über E-Mail beantworten. Zusätzlich können Sie Ihre Studierenden auffordern, die von den KommilitonInnen gestellten Fragen zu beantworten. Als Lehrbeauftragte/r springen Sie für eine Antwort erst ein, wenn niemand aus der Gruppe eine Antwort geben kann. Bonuspunkte für das Engagement in den Foren können die Motivation der Studierenden, sich in den Foren zu engagieren, steigern.

5.3 Material distribution scenario

In the room of your course on the eCampus, you can share various kinds of data in a number of ways. It does not matter which data format you use. As a rule of thumb, try to use data formats that can either be displayed in the browser, or for which the students have the corresponding software at their disposal. You can share data as individual files or as folders (file collections) within the course room. Apart from files, links to external resources such as Internet sites can be integrated into the course room as well.

Attention: Course materials are no longer centrally printed but have to be made available to the students on the eCampus in electronic form.

Tip: Arrange your course room neatly by using descriptive headlines, subheadings, meaningful file names, indentations, colour coding, etc. File names such as, for example, “1. meeting” or “presentation 1” are not very meaningful for the students.

5.4 (Virtual) group work scenario

Support the group work of your students by providing them with adequate infrastructure on the eCampus. To support group work, you can e.g. use the modules “Forum” and “Wiki”. Both can be configured in such a way that one group does not see what progress the other group has made so far, or what results they have already submitted. You can do this only if you have created groups within your course on the eCampus beforehand (see also item 5.1).

Tip: For group work to be successfully assisted through the eCampus, we recommend the following points:

• Describe the task definition and framework conditions for the assignment in a separate document which the students can identify by the file name “task formulation” (or similar) in the course room.
• Explicitly state the deadline for the submission of the task.
• Provide the students with a forum or wiki to work on the task. A forum is recommended especially if the students are supposed to compile material. A wiki, on the other hand, is particularly suitable if the students are to work on a document together.
• For the submission of the results, make either the module “Aufgabe” (task) or the module “Forum” available. “Aufgabe” is particularly well suited if only the lecturer and the respective group are supposed to see the result, the feedback and, if applicable, the assessment – but not the other students. “Forum” is the module of choice if the entire group is supposed to see the result as well as the feedback. Regardless of which module you choose, make sure to choose a name that lets the students know that this module is intended for the submission of results. Names such as “Abgabe für die Gruppenarbeit“ (submission of group work) have proven successful. It makes sense to add the submission date to the name, e.g. “Abgabe für die Gruppenarbeit: spätestens 30.05.2006” (submission of group work: 30 May 2006, at the latest).

5.5 Self-organised learning scenario

Some experts consider e-learning and blended learning to be forms of self-organised learning (SOL). We agree and believe that e-learning and blended learning scenarios are particularly suitable for self-organised learning, or that SOL can be implemented particularly well in e-learning and blended learning scenarios.

To support SOL, the eCampus offers a number of modules and possibilities which have already been mentioned: for the organisation, material distribution, communication and collaboration.

When implementing a course unit in SOL, the realisation on the eCampus takes relatively little time. More time has to be invested in conceiving the scenario and finding or creating the necessary materials.

The scenarios described above have given you a first impression of how you can use the eCampus fast and easily for your courses. The e-learning representatives offer advice and support for all scenarios. Do not hesitate to make use of this offer!

6. Types of support you can make use of in working with the eCampus

6.1 eCampus administrator – general technical support

If you have any questions regarding technical aspects of the eCampus, please contact the eCampus administrator or the general technical support:

• via e-mail at support@fhstp.ac.at,
• via telephone by calling +43 2742 313 228 111
• personally at the service unit IT and Infrastructure, Matthias Corvinus-Straße 15 / office 1.23.

6.2 Portal e-teaching.org

In the summer of 2006, the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences became the first non-German university partner of the portal e-teaching.org which considers itself as “an information offer and counselling tool for (tele-)media university teaching”. The portal serves as a self-learning offer for interested lecturers and a building block for university-specific qualification and media development strategies [2] and offers substantiated and well-founded contributions related to the topics of e-learning and innovative teaching and learning.

[2]  https://e-teaching.org/

6.3 Student trainings

In a one-hour introduction, the students get to know the eCampus, the learning platform of the St. Pölten UAS. The most important functions necessary for using the eCampus are explained and partly complemented by independent exercises. Prerequisites are basic computing and Internet skills. In this way, Academic Director and lecturers can be sure that they do not have to start from scratch in working on the eCampus with their students.

7. Glossar

Source: e-teaching.org, wikipedia.de, neue-lernkultur.de (access on 15 August 2006)

Blended Learning

Blended learning is a teaching/learning concept which aims at the didactically reasonable combination of in-class lectures and virtual learning on the basis of new information and communication media.

Community

(also: online community, virtual community); a community which interacts online either primarily or exclusively. Groups are formed according to a joint work or research target or another common interest, for instance the cultivation and further development of freeware.

E-Learning

E-learning refers to learning via electronic media. It is a form of learning that makes use of digital media (computer and Internet).

Forum

A forum is a news and discussion area for asynchronous communication which allows the users to engage in discussion. The students can use a forum to debate topics either chosen independently or specified by the lecturers. The use of a web-based discussion forum offers additional flexibility with regard to the discussion’s temporal coordination.

GNU General Public Licence

The GNU General Public Licence (GPL) is a licence issued by the Free Software Foundation for licencing free software.

Learning management system

A learning management system (LMS), also referred to as learning platform, is usually the technical core of a complex web-based e-learning infrastructure. It is a software installed on the web server which supports the sharing and use of learning contents and offers instruments for cooperative working as well as a user administration tool.

Moodle

Moodle is a learning management system (LMS) on an open-source basis. The software is available free of charge and offers many possibilities to support cooperative teaching and learning methods. The name Moodle is an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. Prerequisites for its installation are PHP and MySQL.

Open source

Open source refers to software whose source code, that is, whose internal functional description, is available for everyone to download, change and share free of charge. The development and management of the software are usually promoted by a community of developers and users whose interests are not primarily commercial in nature. Examples: the operating system Linux, the office package OpenOffice.

Self-organised learning

As a first approximation, the term “self-organised learning” can be used to describe learning forms that give the learners a higher degree of self-determination than traditional teaching methods do. The term is not used in a consistent, generally accepted manner – instead, there is a variety of terms (self-directed learning, self-organised learning, autodidactic learning, autonomous learning, etc.).

Wiki

“Wiki“ means “fast“ in Hawaiian and is also used to refer to special content management systems which allows users of a website not only read but also to edit its content. One example is Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia.