DEVELOPMENT AND DESCRIPTION OF AN INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA APPLICATION APPLIED IN THE COURSE "CODING IN TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS"

Abstract

Nowadays, the advances of information and communication technologies (ICT) have stimulated the development of more effective and interesting approaches for teaching and learning at universities around the world. The educational innovations have stimulated the creative development for interactive technologies in various forms, for example, integrated learning systems, intelligent tutoring systems, computer-based instruction, computer aided assessment and computer mediated communication. These new concepts show that the advance in the digital era has expanded the learning process and has enabled higher levels of learner interactions in order to make learning more meaningful for overcoming the shortages in traditional learning. With reference to the advances in ICT and information growth, the delivery of knowledge needs to be more flexible in connecting the learners with the learning resources to support the independent and self-managed learning. Educators are trained to transform from the conventional teacher-centred approach to student-centred learning approach with technology-based learning environment which can better motivate students to participate and interact with others in the learning process for enhancing the quality of learning and encouraging students to demonstrate their understanding in the learning activities. ICT in education are applied in the form of interactive multimedia, which provides facilities to students to learn the material. The use of interactive multimedia applications in learning will improve the efficiency, motivation, thinking and logic abilities and facilitate the active learning, experimental, consistent learning, with student-centred learning. The benefits are as follows: the learning process is more interesting, more interactive, the amount of teaching time can be reduced, the quality of student learning can be improved and the learning process can be done anywhere and anytime. Although interactivity is a widely used term in discussions of multimedia learning, a preliminary look at the literature proves that the definition and the benefits of interactivity are not clear. Some authors have tried to clarify the concept of interactivity and what factors need to be taken into account in the design of interactive systems and to present a unifying model including the user, the learning environment, and a system of connections and concepts that together make up interactivity. Such a model can help inform research, discussion, and design decisions on interactive multimedia instruction. Some tools for designing interactive and multimedia training systems are considered in the paper. Their advantages in teaching students at universities are described. The paper presents the development and description of an interactive multimedia application applied in the course "Coding in Telecommunication Systems". The application, developed in English, allows students at the University of Ruse to learn the basic concepts studied in the course "Coding in Telecommunication Systems", including different codes applied in the field of telecommunications, such as linear block codes, Hamming codes, cyclic codes, BCH codes, Reed-Solomon codes, etc. The application covers different types of testing exercises, for example combining in pairs, crosswords, etc. The application will be used in the educational process in the course "Coding in Telecommunication Systems" for the bachelors in the specialty "Internet and Mobile Communications" in the University of Ruse "Angel Kanchev", and mainly for Erasmus students attending the course. The application is planned to be multilingual, incorporating Bulgarian (designated for Bulgarian students) and Spanish (the second most widely spoken language in the world), in addition to English.