DEPLOYING NEW SERVICES IN THE

OPEN UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS

ELEARNING PLATFORM – OUR

EXPERIENCES

P. Christoforou, C. Rodosthenous, M. Epiphaniou, S. Mavrotheris,

C. Christodoulides

Open University of Cyprus

The OUC at a glance

5000 students

• Europe/Africa

• Study from distance

• Average age 35+

340 faculty members

• Work from their premises

• 18 Resident

24 programmes of study

• Undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD

• Greek and English language

Educational Model

Study

• Distance learning methodology

• Face-to-face meetings OR Virtual meetings

Exams and Assessment

• Mandatory assignments

• Physical presence at exams

Educational Material

• Textbooks, articles, videos, etc.

eClass eLearning Platform

Asynchronous Learning

Synchronous

Learning

Assignment

submission

&

Plagiarism

detection

Video

Streaming

Introducing a new service

• 4 Phases

InitiationRequirements

Analysis

Service deployment

& integrationEvaluation

Initiation

Stakeholders

• Best practices

• Trends

• OUC Strategic plan

• Educational Model

Feasibility

Study

• Human Resource

• Economic Resource

• Technology

• Educational Methodology Relevance

• Integration eClass

Decision

Making

• Service Initiation Report

Requirements Analysis

Project Team

• Prepare detailed specifications

• investigate possible solutions and products

• Deploy the new service

Market research

• Technologies

• Cost

• Methods of Integration with eClass

• Company background

• Supported languages (Greek)

• RFI

Requirement Analysis Document

• Integration with eClass

• Documentation

• Training

• Supporting material

Deployment and integration

In-house

• Open Source Software

Outsource

• Public tender

Mixed

• Better option in-house

• Lack of resources

Deployment of a solution integrated with eClass

Evaluation

Usage

User satisfaction

Usability

Pedagogy model

User satisfaction survey

Method: Questionnaire

Service: Synchronous Learning

Questions

core requirements

sound quality,

graphics and presentation,

ability of the service to be used as a supplement of the face-to-face meetings,

ease of usage

Number of participants: 66 usersFaculty members from all programmes of study

Users of the service

User satisfaction survey

Service meets expectations

Users had difficulties setting up their computer

Future Projects

Introducing new services

Lecture capture

Enterprise Content Management

Mobile Learning and Collaboration

Virtual Labs

More information….

• Christos T. Rodosthenous

• Email: christos.rodosthenous@ouc.ac.cy

• WWW: http://www.ouc.ac.cy