From Theory to the Practice

In 2013 and 2014, 29 digital textbooks were developed at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in the framework of a new curriculum develop-ment project (Benedek–Molnár 2014: 3646–3650)� Their authors, distinguished experts of their respective fields, were requested to participate in a training ses-sion where they were expressly asked to include visual objects in the content, corresponding to the principles of modern OER (Open Education Resources) development� Analysing 10 randomly selected examples of the textbooks with different professional content, but essentially made for the training of vocational teachers, we could conclude that the textbooks, 90 pages long on average and optimised for a screen, included altogether 602 images (figures, photos, tables)�

It means that even in the newest textbooks that support online learning, there is one image for every 1�5 pages on average only� From these, tables and figures

(drawings) represented 42% and 36%, respectively, and only 22% (one-fifth of the visual content) were photos�

Improving the efficiency of an education system predominantly relying on verbal content may represent a significant challenge due to the lack of the neces-sary time and information and the slowness of correction mechanisms in the case of traditional curricula, as it was proved by several methodology experiments as cooperative methods, project-based work, and connectivism (Siemens 2005) in learning� Even “modern” curricula that had been developed by the end of the 20th century had a linear structure and the prevailing dominance of verbal content (80% on average) was changing only slowly, giving way to visual content which in turn were mostly composed of static pictures�

In the first semester of the study year 2015/2016, we directly surveyed our postgraduate students who studied for a second-degree about the learning frame-works facilitated by ICT tools� We presumed that cooperative networking activities well matched the life of students as well as their everyday ICT use� We surveyed students specialised at teaching as they were presumed to be interested both in teaching and learning� The survey also included questions related to the use of visual content� Conventional learning and preparing for classes often necessitates the processing or development of visual content, including learning aids and dem-onstration materials� Although students specialised at teaching received support in the form of online content and e-learning programmes, we also phrased direct questions about the framework system (Moodle) that has been applied for almost a decade�

The survey included altogether 27 questions; most of these could be answered on a 5-point scale� They tackled the attitude of the users of e-learning curricula�

The survey was sent to 150 students from which 115 responded� The sample may be described as follows: respondents were both males and females, 56 and 59 per-sons, respectively; the age of respondents approached normal distribution: 28%

between 31 and 40 years old, 40% between 41 and 50 years old and 28% between 51 and 60 years old�

To the question “How efficiently can you learn from the e-learning curriculum regarding didactics and methodology?” students’ responses were essentially posi-tive� Those who were fully satisfied with these curricula made up for 20�4%� More than half of the respondents, 54�9% ranked these curricula as ‘good’ while 21�2%

considered them being of ‘medium quality’� Only 2�7% indicated dissatisfaction�

As for the active contribution of students to curriculum development, the preference of students regarding visual content was particularly important� To the question “Would you consider it useful if case studies (descriptions of good

SysBook as a Visual Learning Frame 165 practices) were developed in this framework?” almost two-thirds of the respond-ents (61�7%) fully agreed and no rejections were received� Considering all this, we created a new learning content net with the following features:

Figure 1: The schema of complex learning content net

This program had methodological questions in mind, with special regard to math-ematics and other disciplines of natural sciences and the related applied sciences such as technical sciences and their applications� The schema of the complex learning content net (Figure 1) shows how the curricula are based on descriptive verbal elements (Text – t) that are supported by visual elements (Visual – V) and mathematical formulas (Math – M)� Traditional curricula (published in the format of textbooks) usually include the combination of these, structured in a rigid linear sequence, such as ‘explanation, figures, formulation, explanation’ and so on� Often random examples are only given as case studies (Case – C) to illustrate practical applications� The visual representation illustrates the most important features of the structure as knowledge elements are organised into a system, which is inde-pendent of scale� For curriculum design developed in open access, cloud services offer a development infrastructure surpassing all previous solutions� Showing other connections between these elements in order to develop a dynamic network was typically hindered by disciplinary and temporal restrictions knowledge on systems�

This new curriculum was supported by e-learning, i�e� a digital textbook was available for students in the MOODLE (Modular Object-Oriented Learning En-vironment) framework system as a form of permanent support� Also we used the SysBook platform (W1), mentioned previously, which combines general knowl-edge with applications, thus creating a framework where textual information,

static comics elements, animated GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format) and, in several cases, elements of mathematical representation (formulas, functions) to-gether form a ‘knowledge space’ that can be extended as needed�