(957) WEB BASED SIMULATIONS AS ALTERNATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF COMPLEX CONTENTS IN E-LEARNING SYSTEMS FOR COMPUTER ENGINEERING

摘要

Today's higher education in science and engineering is often affected by e-learning. In addition to theadvantages of e-learning, e.g. learning independently of time and place, there are somedisadvantages of pure online learning - learners (students) are alone in front of their computers. As apossible result, learners are generally less motivated, quit courses more often and have problems inunderstanding the teaching content which usually is a result in the lack of communication with otherlearners and/or teachers, inappropriate learning materials as well as the absence of questioning.These problems occur especially in sciences because the learning content is dominated by abstract,theoretic, complex contexts and mathematical theories which in general are more difficult tounderstand than normal texts. These challenges can be solved by several solution approaches:Blended learning (BL, a combination of face-to-face (F2F) classes and online learning through theinternet), social software (“web 2.0”) to increase communication and the extension of learning materialby alternative representations of the content. For example, learning material in computer engineeringconsisting of many mathematical models and algorithms can be supplemented by animations andespecially simulations that visualize the abstract meaning of formulas which help to understand them.Thus, this paper presents the development of web based simulation in computer engineeringeducation for the subject ?embedded systems“. The following software simulator has been developedto support e-learning (as a part of the education program “computer engineering online”):- VHDL Validator: Programming editor to model hardware modules using the hardwaredescription language VHDL and to validate the source code by simulation- AutoSim: Visual editor to create finite state automatons and simulate them by different tasks- Simulator for “tank control systems”: 1 to 3 tank control systems can be simulated by solvingtasks. Changing of input data can be retraced by animation of the tanks, a value table andhighlighted formula terms- PID-UFO: A Learning game in which learners can “fly” a space ship manually and adjust anautopilot through PID controls.The simulation is part of a web based learning platform and has been realized as web applicationsbased on JAVA, JSP, PHP, Python, MySQL, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript/Ajax/jQuery on anApache/Tomcat web server. In terms of new approaches in e-learning, the software tools also supportmobile learning (single-source-publishing with optimized layout templates for heterogeneous devices),platform independence through usage of standard web browsers and multilingualism by default.