ABSTRACT
Nowadays, Collaborative Learning is getting growing importance to the learning environment. Therefore, consideration must be given to the development of collaborative activities outside the classrooms, which enables students to learn together. This research offers collaborative learning in a good learning environment to do homework, projects, and assessments. The purpose of the study was to design “Lotfi VCL” (Lotfi Virtual Collaborative Learning), particularly on Secondary School and Pre University learners’ participation. The proposed model gives an application of the tools and features to do group projects, group assessments, and online classes. The instruments used to gather data were interviews and a survey that undertook the completion of two questionnaires for both learners and teachers before implementing the software. The data collected was then subjected to statistical analysis. The findings gathered and analyzed in the Educational Complex of Imam Khomeini Kuala Lumpur were found to satisfy the involvement of collaborative learning at home.
INTRODUCTION:
Collaborative Learning (CL) supports active student involvement in the learning field. In CL, students can work together in small groups towards a shared learning goal. Collaborative learning emphasizes collaborative efforts among students in their group along with the teachers’ guidance. Students are accountable for their learning and are also responsible for the group members’ learning. Hence, the success of one student helps other students to be successful too (Gokhale, 1995). Another advantage of CL is that it allows students to express and discuss their opinions, and encourages their understandings (Nobel, 2002).
CONCLUSIONS
This research explained the analysis and design of Lotfi VCL with functional and non-functional requirements and then showed the structure chart, user interface in architectural design. Lotfi VCL is a collaborative learning software for doing a group project, group assessments, and online classes.
The product aspect deals with the capabilities of the system. Listed below are some strengths and competitive advantages of Lotfi VCL as compared to the other three existing systems ( Atutor, Moodle and Sakai)
- Lotfi VCL has group assessment and project that they can be uploaded different assessments and projects for different groups and this ability motivate and activate students to do the assessments and projects by own group and cannot get the answers from the other groups. Students have improved their knowledge by doing assessments and projects in the group.
- In Lotfi VCL, teachers can create many sub courses for each course and this ability allowed the students are groping in different groups for each subcourse. So, students learn to work with different students at the course, and working closely with others promotes critical thinking, develops a higher level of cognitive skills, and communication skills.
- The available features are separated for each kind of users such as Administration, Student, and Teacher.
- Lotfi VCL has most of the needed features for collaborative learning in education, such as, online class, group assessment (posting and submission), group project, discussion during the online classes, or working together for project or assessment with group members. These features are not provided in other systems such as ATutor, Moodle, and Sakai.
- All posted data are stored in SQL Server. This ensures security by forbidding unauthorized access to these data.
- Lotfi VCL is a secure system. With a strong authentication system, only valid users can log in to the system and login to the registered group. The different roles of members in each group also differentiate the authorities given to the member.
- The online chatting feature is developed using ASP.Net and the output to the client side is purely HTML. Therefore, unlike other chat room that developed using java or ActiveX, the client-side need not install the chat program (some users might not have the permission to install a program into the certain computer) and the chat feature can be used it directly. Lotfi VCL is written with a facility for two languages Persian and English because of the area of research was the Educational Complex of Imam Khomeini in Kuala Lumpur that is Iranian School in Malaysia.
About KSRA
The Kavian Scientific Research Association (KSRA) is a non-profit research organization to provide research / educational services in December 2013. The members of the community had formed a virtual group on the Viber social network. The core of the Kavian Scientific Association was formed with these members as founders. These individuals, led by Professor Siavosh Kaviani, decided to launch a scientific / research association with an emphasis on education.
KSRA research association, as a non-profit research firm, is committed to providing research services in the field of knowledge. The main beneficiaries of this association are public or private knowledge-based companies, students, researchers, researchers, professors, universities, and industrial and semi-industrial centers around the world.
Our main services Based on Education for all spectrums people in the world. We want to make an integration between researches and educations. We believe education is the main right of Human beings. So our services should be concentrated on inclusive education.
The KSRA team partners with local under-served communities around the world to improve the access to and quality of knowledge based on education, amplify and augment learning programs where they exist, and create new opportunities for e-learning where traditional education systems are lacking or non-existent.
Collaborative Learning for Secondary SchoolVCL Design
Nasim Gazerani was born in 1983 in Arak. She holds a Master's degree in Software Engineering from UM University of Malaysia.
