Supporting Education in Math Sciences with a Low-budget LMS SAKAI

📝 Abstract

In this paper we present the Low-budget LMS Sakai, the analysis conducted and its selection from a list of few popular Low-budget LMSs, as well as its capability in presentation of math texts and formulas. The MATHEIS e-learning system for learning mathematics and informatics and its empowering with few software agent based features including the new developed GUPA (Graphic User Presentation Agent) software agent is emphasized. The plugins offered for Sakai allow powerful mathematics presentation capabilities, one of them being the WIRIS plugin. The paper is focused on the Sakai WIRIS plugin implementation.

💡 Analysis

In this paper we present the Low-budget LMS Sakai, the analysis conducted and its selection from a list of few popular Low-budget LMSs, as well as its capability in presentation of math texts and formulas. The MATHEIS e-learning system for learning mathematics and informatics and its empowering with few software agent based features including the new developed GUPA (Graphic User Presentation Agent) software agent is emphasized. The plugins offered for Sakai allow powerful mathematics presentation capabilities, one of them being the WIRIS plugin. The paper is focused on the Sakai WIRIS plugin implementation.

📄 Content

Математички Билтен

ISSN 0351-336X (print) Vol. 40(LXVI) No. 2

ISSN 1857-9914 (online) 2016 (95-108)

UDC Скопје, Македонија

SUPPORTING EDUCATION IN MATH SCIENCES WITH A
LOW-BUDGET LMS SAKAI

Mimoza Petrova, Vanco Cabukovski, Roman Golubovski

Abstract In this paper we present the Low-budget LMS Sakai, the analysis conducted and its selection from a list of few popular Low-budget LMSs, as well as its capability in presentation of math texts and formulas. The MATHEIS e-learning system for learning mathematics and informatics and its empowering with few software agent’s based features including the new developed GUPA (Graphic User Presentation Agent) software agent is emphasized. The plugins offered for Sakai allow powerful mathematics presentation capabilities, one of them being the WIRIS plugin. The paper is focused on the Sakai WIRIS plugin implementation.

1. INTRODUCTION

In information era we learn from different media of information: books, pictures, audio files, audio-video presentations, etc. We learn in every place and at every time sharing the knowledge with the coworkers or our mentors by pressing only one or few buttons of our mobile phones or smart devices used. Nowadays trend is to implement new technological advancements in all educational stages and in almost all educational forms. Successful accompli- shment of this mission depends on quality of developed e-content (unit of information in digital form) – it attracts challenges and motivates the learners; but it is not the only key factor for success.
The e-learning is a process. This process must be delegated by some management system – Learning Management System (LMS). The key respon- sibilities to this system are providing learners with:

• necessary learning material (e-contents);
• ability to communicate (with each other and/or with professors/educators)
• team work;

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 97R40, 97R50,97U50, 97D60
Key words and phrases. E-learning, mathematics education, software agents
96 M. Petrova, V. Cabukovski, R. Golubovski

• work on projects and share files. On the other hand the LMS system must provide the professors/educators ability to:
• give assignments to the learners;
• track the learners activities;
• make quizzes and tests;
• grade learners tests;
• enroll and unenroll learners from courses. And last but not the least the LMS system must also provide means to Government institutions for auditing, tracking the learning processes, doing some external testing, etc. - but this is out of the scope of this paper. The LMS market is growing rapidly. E-learning training tools, administrati- on functions, mobile accessibility, and social media communication features make LMSs attractive not only for educational organizations but in general for any kind of organization. These LMS’s features make e-learning systems irreplaceable to many organizations.
  Mathematics equips pupils/students with a uniquely powerful set of tools to understand and change the world. These tools include logical reasoning, problem-solving skills, and the ability to think in abstract ways. Mathematics is important in everyday life, in many forms of employment, in the science and technology, in the medicine, in the economy, in the environment and develop- ment, and in the public decision-making [2]. Mathematics educators must be prepared to empower students with the advantages technology can bring. Schools and classrooms, both real and virtual, must have educators who are equipped with technology resources and skills [12]. E-content is a very powerful tool of education. E-content is valuable to the learners and also helpful to educators of all individual instruction systems; The use of e-content is changing education [20]. There are many Learning Management Systems (LMS) like as: Moodle, Canvas, SAKAI, JoomlaLMS, aTutor, dotLRN, Claroline, Ilias, Chamilo, Dokeos, SharePointLMS, etc. [5], [9], [14]. More popular are low-budget LMS (Open Source LMS) [1], those integrating capabilities of more specific e- content creation, integration and delivery as math sciences contents are – which integrate text, formulas, special symbols, graphics, etc., import and export capabilities to specific formats and editors as well as tools based on OpenMath, MathML and similar e-content math sciences standards. OpenMath is a standard for representing mathematical objects with their semantics, allowing them to be exchanged between computer programs, stored in databases, or SUPPORTING EDUCATION IN MATH SCIENCES … 97

published on the Web. MathML is a mathematical markup language. It is an application of XML for describing mathematical notations and capturing both its structure and content. It aims at integrating mathematical formulas

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