Journal of Innovations and Sustainability Vol2 N1 2016

ISSN 2367-8127 (CD-ROM) ISSN 2367-8151 (on-line)

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability Volume 2, Number 1, 2016

Innovations and Sustainability Academy 2016

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability Volume 2, Number 1, 2016 https://sites.google.com/site/journalinsust/

Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Vesela Radović, Ph.D. Managing Editor: Ekaterina Arabska

Š Innovations and Sustainability Academy 1, Lotos Str., Plovdiv 4006, Bulgaria

E-mail: insustacademy@gmail.com https://sites.google.com/site/insustacademy/

2016 ISSN 2367-8127 (CD-ROM) ISSN 2367-8151 (on-line)

ISSN 2367-8127 (CD-ROM), ISSN 2367-8151 (on-line)

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 1 2016

Contents Foreword .............................................................................................. 5

Using IT to Enhance the Educational Achievement of Students Asya Stoyanova-Doycheva & Vanya Ivanova Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics - Bulgaria ............................................................................ 9

Application of Block Programming and Game-Based Learning to Enhance Interest in Computer Science Todorka Glushkova Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics - Bulgaria .......................................................................... 21

Analyzing the Results of Electronic Tests Using Intelligent Agents Pencho Malinov & Irena Kehayova Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics - Bulgaria .......................................................................... 33

Information systems in logistics - transition challenges Nikolay Dragomirov University of National and World Economy – Sofia, Bulgaria ................ 45

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Volume 2 Number 1 2016

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Foreword This issue of the Journal of Innovations and Sustainability is devoted to Information system and technology. The papers included were successfully presented and discussed at the First International Scientific Conference “Sustainability Challenges In Modern Organizations: Knowledge & Innovation in Management & Operation� organized by Innovations and Sustainability Academy on December 12, 2015 in Plovdiv.

The inclusion of three papers resulting of a scientific project is of special consideration bearing in mind the topic of the project oriented to research in the field of innovative ICT business orientation and training. The use of IT to enhance students’ achievements, application of block programming and came-based learning and specific use of intelligent agents are the topics discussed providing valuable conclusions and recommendations about application of successful approaches and instruments in training and raising its effectiveness.

Transition challenges in information systems in logistics are the other direction embraced by this issue dealing with the requirements of finding adequate solutions to effective implementation of information systems in logistics through the application of the project approach.

The significance of the presented research works in the field of ICT and its use in trainings and logistics is in that it is just an example of the broad opportunites of modern

technology

and

provides

new

insights

for

further

research

and

improvements. The relationship to innovations and sustainability is unquestionable and thus the studies are considered of high relevance to the journal policy and scope.

Furthermore, this could be a matter of continuation in a specific conference topic into the near future.

Ekaterina Arabska Innovations and Sustainability Academy

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Volume 2, Number 1, 2016

ISSN 2367-8127 (CD-ROM), ISSN 2367-8151 (on-line)

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 1 2016

Using IT to Enhance the Educational Achievement of Students Asya Stoyanova-Doycheva & Vanya Ivanova1 Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski” Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics - Bulgaria

Abstract This article presents the use of information technology (IT) in the education of students in Software Engineering and in English at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Plovdiv University. The teaching process incorporates traditional methods with applications based on the E-learning standards QTI and SCORM. The use of IT has been applied to the education of full-time and part-time Bachelor degree students from the 1st to the 4th year of studies. Based on the statistics from the teaching some conclusions have been drawn regarding the students’ performance and possible ways of enhancing their educational achievement.

Key words: IT, educational achievement, QTI and SCORM standards.

INTRODUCTION In modern education e-learning is spreading rapidly at all educational levels.

Nowadays a large number of academic institutions offer training materials in an electronic format along with traditional forms of teaching. An environment, which provides various services for e-learning, is the Distributed e-Learning Center (DeLC) (Stoyanov et al., 2010). In this article we will consider the e-content and e-tests as a

1

Corresponding authors: Asya Stoyanova-Doycheva & Vanya Ivanova, Plovdiv University “Paisii

Hilendarski”, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, 4003 Plovdiv, 236, Bulgaria Blvd.

E-mail: astoyanova@uni-plovdiv.net, vantod@abv.bg

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way to improve the educational achievement of students. To guarantee the quality of e-learning materials we use two standards in DeLC – SCORM 2004 R42 and QTI3.

The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is developed by ADL and it is a set of technical standards for e-learning software products. SCORM is the industry standard for e-learning interoperability and more specifically it governs how online learning content and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) communicate with each other. In DeLC is developed the SCORM Player (Doychev, 2013), which is used to play to students e-learning content developed in the SCORM format. The goal is to reuse e-learning objects which have already been created as we save them in digital libraries. According to the SCORM standard these objects are named SCO (Sharable Content Object). They represent small and reusable components that can contain text, images, animations, and others (assets), and the organization of SCOs in bigger components is named Aggregations. Another concept of SCORM is to define the sequence of execution of the different components and the navigation that determine a pedagogical education model.

The IMS Question and Test Interoperability specification (QTI) defines a standard format for the representation of assessment content and results, supporting the exchange of this material between authoring and delivery systems, repositories and other learning management systems. It allows assessment materials to be authored and delivered on multiple systems interchangeably. It is, therefore, designed to facilitate interoperability between systems. We have developed a test environment (Gramatova et al., 2014) in DeLC that implements the QTI specification.

In this article we discuss how we use these educational services of DeLC to improve the knowledge of students in Software Engineering and in English at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Plovdiv University.

CREATING AND USING E-LEARNING CONTENT IN SCORM FORMAT To enhance the educational achievement of students in Software Engineering we have developed an e-textbook in SCORM format. This e-textbook is available in DeLC24.

First we will focus on the development of this e-textbook that has been implemented in several steps: 

Designing an e-textbook in SCORM format;

2

SCORM: http://scorm.com

3

QTI: http://www.imsglobal.org/question/index.html

4

DeLC2: http://delc2.fmi.uni-plovdiv.net/courses/show/1

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

Designing and realization of the e-textbook in the SCORM editor;



Implementation of the control tests;



Testing the e-textbook in our SCORM player in DeLC.

Designing the e-textbook in SCORM is the most time-consuming step in the development process. To create the structure of the SE e-textbook we used activity diagrams (Figure 1). On the activity diagram we defined the components that build the lesson. The activity states correspond to aggregations, and states correspond to SCOs. Transitions between components present the order of the component execution, and decisions serve as go-ahead conditions. Figure 1 shows the structure of the first lecture in the SE e-textbook.

Fig. 1. SCORM structure of the first lecture in the SE e-textbook

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In this structure we defined different components, the sequence, and the navigation between them. Each lecture ends with a control test that determines the navigation scheme in this e-content.

SCO2 – Test1

Is it done?

Yes

No

Wrong questions?

and/or

and/or

Fig. 2. A control test and a relevant navigation scheme

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Figure 2 shows the first test based on the first lecture in Software Engineering and the navigation scheme for it. This navigation scheme shows what happens when the obtained answers of the different questions are wrong. Let us give an example from the first test: when the answer to question one is wrong the SCORM player will return the student to A0.1 SCO1. This navigation makes the e-learning process adaptive and each student will make his/her own track in the lecture.

The design and realization of the SE e-textbook are made in the SCORM editor Trident 2.05. It creates a manifest file of the e-textbook that consists of all e-learning components, the execution order of the components and all resource files associated with the e-learning components.

Figure 3 presents a screenshot of the real SE e-textbook. On the right-hand side is the navigation tree of the textbook including different topics with subthemes. There are SCORM restrictions that we define in a sequence and a navigation of the econtent. Each topic concludes with a test. If the test has been passed, the SCORM player will unlock the next topic in the tree. In case the test has been failed, the SCORM Player returns the student to the e-content where the content regarding the wrong question or questions is located.

Fig. 3. Software Engineering e-textbook

We use the E-textbook in Software Engineering in our classes with Computer Science students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Plovdiv University. Below we explain how exactly we do that.

5

IDE Trident http://www.scormsoft.com/trident

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According to the curriculum bachelors have 30 academic hours of lectures, 20 academic hours of lab exercises and 100 academic hours dedicated to self-study.

Besides different resources students are obliged to read the e-textbook. In this way we have feedback about the learning process of each student both from the students and from the SCORM Player. We collect information which allows us to draw some conclusions about each student’s knowledge in this discipline.

The first statistic that we collect as we use some of the parameters of SCORM refers to the personal progress of each individual student in the e-textbook. On Figure 4 is shown some common information – how many students have managed to start the e-textbook, how many students have started reading the e-textbook and how many have finished it, as well as the progress of each student – what percentage of the content has been covered by each student.

Fig. 4. SCORM statistic

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Another kind of statistic that is collected by SCORM is shown in figure 5. It is a statistic for different SCO components. We can see how many attempts have been made for each SCO by students. It helps a lecturer to make some conclusions about the level of knowledge of the students, which part of the book is the easiest/the most difficult for them and about the quality of the e-content. It is possible that certain material is difficult for students to understand and the lecturer may wish to explain it further.

Fig. 5. SCORM statistic about each SCO

The introduction to the SE e-textbook in the educational process in Software Engineering is useful both for students and lecturers. It motivates students to read the study materials because these consist of control tests, which are examples of the final exam. The materials give learners additional knowledge, they can read them anytime and anywhere and the lecturer can track the progress of each individual student during the semester.

The SCORM statistics that the lecturer receives from the SCORM Player assists the tracking of the students’ progress and the evaluating the quality of the educational e-materials.

The use of the e-textbook improves the quality and personalization of the educational process.

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USING

SELF-PRACTICE

ELECTRONIC

TESTS

TO

ENHANCE

THE

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS Self-testing is considered one of the most efficient methods of study (Dunlosky at al., 2013). Long-term memory is increased when some of the learning period is devoted to retrieving the information that needs to be remembered, which is known as the testing effect. At the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics we use e-tests in the education in English to consolidate the course content and practice the students’ language skills. These online tests are created by the teacher on the basis of the study material that is covered during the seminars in English. These tests are administered every week as self-study practice in a place and time which is convenient to each and every student.

Content of e-tests When constructing self-study tests one of the most important questions to consider is which study material to include in them. For this purpose we have developed five criteria for evaluating the learning outcomes based on Bloom’s taxonomy (Ivanova et al., 2015). For each criterion we have proposed several types of test questions with varying degrees of difficulty.

Criteria for evaluating the learning outcomes 1. Reproduction of information.

2. Understanding the meaning of a word, expression or a phraseological unit and finding a match.

3. Detection and correction of errors in various contexts.

4. Analysis of the use of words or expressions and selection of an appropriate grammatical form of verbs in a context.

5. Text creation.

Form of e-tests All self-study tests have the same format – they include open and closed types of questions with equivalent maximum total scores. To ensure higher reliability of etests, the DeLC environment can impose some restrictions on test-takers, for example the test validity authorizes only selected students to do the test in a specific period of time, and the time limit determines the time allowance to complete the tasks.

(Figure 6) The short-answer open questions as well as the closed type of test tasks

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such as True or False, Multiple choice questions, Strict and non-strict matching, etc., are graded automatically, while the long-answer open questions are evaluated manually by the teacher. As soon as students have submitted their tests, they can see their current scores, and the points from the essay-type questions are added subsequently (Figure 7).

Fig. 6. Example of setting test validity and a time limit in DeLC

Administration of e-tests Self-study tests are administered every week in the students’ own place and time.

Learners simply need a device connected to the Internet. In case they are not satisfied with their scores students are allowed to complete the test again as many times as they wish within the week of the particular test administration. As only the highest grades obtained by the test-takers are considered for their final evaluation, learners feel motivated to spend more time on e-tests and achieve better results.

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Fig. 7. Example of administered test questions

Use of e-tests Practice tests can be used both for formative and for summative assessment. In other words, e-tests can be used not only to assign grades to students for their performance but also to adapt teaching in order to realize certain educational purposes. Test statistics allow teachers to evaluate their own work as well as the learners’ progress (Figure 8).

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Fig. 8. Example of test grading

CONCLUSIONS The use of SCORM e-content and e-tests in the educational process motivates students to improve their knowledge and makes learning more interesting and rewarding for them. In the future we plan to create more SCORM materials and tests and make use of some additional educational services of DeLC, for example educational games, intelligent services, and others. Also, we plan to integrate other language skills in the e-tests such as listening comprehension tasks and speaking instead of typing the answers to open questions.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This paper is supported by Project IT15-FMIIT-004 "Research in the domain of innovative ICT oriented towards bussiness and education" of the Scientific Fund of the University of Plovdiv "Paisii Hilendarski".

REFERENCES [1]

DeLC2: http://delc2.fmi.uni-plovdiv.net/courses/show/1

[2]

Doychev, E. (2013). Sreda za elektronni obrazovatelni uslugi, Dissertation, PU „P. Hilendarski“, Bulgaria.

[3]

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising

Directions

From

Cognitive

and

Educational

Psychology,

http://www.indiana.edu/~pcl/rgoldsto/courses/dunloskyimprovinglearning. pdf.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

[4]

Gramatova, K., Doychev, E., & Dimitrov, N. (2014). “eTesting in Virtual eLearning Space” International Conference “From DeLC to VelSpace”, 26-28 March 2014, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

[5]

IDE Trident http://www.scormsoft.com/trident

[6]

Ivanova, V., & Terzieva, T. (2015). Criteria for the Construction of Tests for Language Assessment and Evaluation, Doctoral Conference in Mathematics and Informatics, IMI at BAS, Sofia.

[7]

QTI: http://www.imsglobal.org/question/index.html

[8]

SCORM: http://scorm.com

[9]

Stoyanov, S., Popchev, I., Doychev, E., Mitev, D., Valkanov, V., StoyanovaDoycheva, A., Valkanova, V., & Minov, I. (2010). DeLC Educational Portal, Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Vol. 10, No. 3., Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, pp. 49-69, ISSN 1311-9702.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 1 2016

Application of Block Programming and Game-Based Learning to Enhance Interest in Computer Science Todorka Glushkova1 Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski” Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics - Bulgaria

Abstract More rapid development of the information society poses increasingly acute issue to increase the effectiveness of training in the field of computer science. The fact is that students prefer more applied fields of information and communication technologies in comparison with the informatics and programming. To solve this problem, leading universities and software companies develop multiple environments for block programming, which is inherently more interesting, motivating, fun and practical. It is known that game-based learning significantly increased interest and activity of the students and significantly increases the effectiveness of the training. The article will present a model for application of block programming in the development of educational games for standard and mobile devices and their application in both computer science students and secondary school students. Will be presented the experience of the team in the use of elearning environments and implementation of these applications in developed courses. The application of the model currently shows increasing interest of all groups of students to programming. All this gives grounds for continuing the work and research in this direction.

Key words: block programming, game-based learning.

1

Corresponding author: Todorka Glushkova, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, Faculty of

Mathematics and Informatics, 4003 Plovdiv, 236, Bulgaria Blvd.

E-mail: glushkova@uni-plovdiv.bg

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INTRODUCTION The digital technologies impose new realities in contemporary society that require more dynamic and adequate changes in education that is inherently conservative.

Every innovation and experience to change the traditional educational system requires more time for design, synchronizing the legal basis, approbation and implementation. This generates a continuous delay from rapidly increasing demands on the education system, for that is increasingly difficult to meet public expectations.

From another perspective, the fact is that the activation of processes of automation and robotics in all sectors of production and management determine the radical change in attitudes to the modern labor market and determine the necessity of improving the quality and effectiveness of training in the field of computer science and technology.

Recent statistics show that fewer students want to engage in programming, unlike in more applied ICT fields. To solve this problem, teams from leading universities and software companies create different block-based programming environments, that are inherently visual, interactive, multimedia and attractive2. The code is also graphic and it is a set of colorful blocks that are associated with each other according to the desired algorithm. No syntax errors, problems with the structures of operators - also.

All this gives confidence to students and allows them to focus on algorithms and scenarios, by which will implement them. In most cases, the block-based programming environments are Internet-based, that allowing access from anywhere, anytime and the ability to share created products with friends and followers. These features make it possible to use block-based programming for students with different level of knowledge and experience. Some of the most popular environments are presented in the following table (Table1.)

Table 1. Some popular block-based environments Name

Internet site

Short description Created by MIT (MIT-Massachusetts Institute

http://scratch.mit.edu

of

Technology)

LLK

Research Group.It represents a 2D platform

with

graphical

and

functional resources. Scratch 2.0 is

2

Block-based programming environments:

https://www.kidscodecs.com/resources/programming/education/.

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Name

Internet site

Short description web-based

and

provides

an

environment for creating, sharing and

commenting

on

developed

projects. The programming language is similar to C (Source, 2011).

Blockly is environment for blockbased programming, designed by Google. Blockly is relatively new, and borrows many ideas from Scratch.

For those who are familiar with http://code.google.com/p/blockly

Scratch is easy to work in the new environment.

Can

be

exported

Blockly program in JavaScript, Dart (object-oriented language by Google), Python or XML and to embed in other software products.

Snap! (formerly known as BYOB Build Your Own Blocks) BYOB is the next

step

developed

of in

Scratch, the

and

is

University

of

California at Berkeley. It added more http://snap.berkeley.edu

new blocks, which every student alone can create, and new properties associated

with

object-oriented

programming. Snap 4.0 is used instead C#. It is available on the Internet without installation.

Stencyl is strongly influenced by Scratch, but is mainly focused on the creation of games. Games can be created

and

published

for

IOS,

Android, Windows and Mac. MIT App Inventor is a block-based programming http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu

environment

for

Android Mobile devices. Developed by a team of MIT in collaboration with

Google.

environment.

It As

is a a

web-based result

of

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Name

Internet site

Short description programming is generated apk-file that can be published and shared in Google Apps.

Alice is a 3D environment, developed by

a

team

at

Carnegie

Mellon

University. This is perhaps the most popular

and

used

block-based

programming environment in recent http://alice.org

years. In Alice we can program with 3D objects from libraries and to create our own objects. Since version 3.0. the users can develop their applications in blocks in Java, can also export a project in standard Java code.

In recent years, many universities around the world organize education of students and teachers. App Inventor has great potential to transform Computer Science education and it is the most motivating tool for engaging students with computing (Wolber et al., 2015).

It is especially effective for training IT students and teachers. By using the opportunities offered its last realization, this tool is powerful enough for students and professionals in the field of computer science (Benjamin et al., 2015). At MIT and other leading universities conduct trainings for teachers to apply block-based programming environments to work with different groups of students. They believe that it is better to start with SCRATCH and to continue with Blockly, BYOB, Alice and App Inventor. The reason for the great success of App Inventor is that the animations and robots are interesting and entertaining, but with App Inventor the students can build anything, including apps that directly improve in their everyday life and those of their family and friends. To date, over 3.9 million users from 195 countries have created over 11.5 million projects with the MIT App Inventor3.

Alfred Thompson - a leading specialist in Microsoft, and Aman Yadav from Michigan State University believe that for each students / teachers, according his background knowledge and personal aims may be offered a suitable environment for block-based

3

MIT App Inventor - Explore MIT App Inventor, 2015. URL http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore.

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programming4. Another reason for the success of this style of programming is the easy migration from one platform to another, and the rapid transformation of the code to traditional programming languages, for example from Alice- in Java; from Blockly to Dart; to JavaScript, C# and Python from another ones.

Despite good reviews from many renowned scientists from around the world, there are a lot of critical remarks to this style of programming. There have been studies in the USA among students in high school classes and students from many universities for

their

opinion

in

terms

of

the

block-based

and

text

programming

(David & Wilensky, 2015). Aggregated data on the advantages and disadvantages of block-based programming are presented in Table 2.

Table 2 Advantages

Disadvantages

Easy programming style without syntax

Difficulties in copying and pasting code

errors;

between different objects in the application.

quick

result;

work

on

natural

language; different colored blocks; dragand-drop mode Suitable

different

programming

It is difficult to find fragments of block-based

environments for learners of all ages and

code, because it is scattered among the

level of training

common area. In many environments all events, methods and procedures are coded in a common area.

Possibilities for use of all basic algorithms in

Difficulty in creating of math expressions

programming

and in describing of math functions

Work online without installations

There are difficulties in creating your own objects

in

terms

of

object-oriented

programming Rich libraries of objects and resources with

Some problems associated with the use of

which to create application

Web databases

Opportunities to transfer the code to the standard language - java, Python, Dart, Javascript, etc.

Obviously it makes sense to think about whether we really need only from the standard programming environments to teach students in programming skills and

4

Alfred Thomson site: https://plus.google.com/116648179447008949472

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whether to pay more attention to the environment for block-based programming, which significantly increases the interest and motivation of students. Experience in most colleges in different countries shows that lecturers organize such courses, but they are usually short and did not show the full potential of these programming environments. Then, they continues with traditional programming. For example, in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Cagliari in introductory programming courses is used SCRATCH instead of C ++. Stefano Federici (2011) shows a model for this mode of training, make a comparative analysis and concluded that this type of training gives very good results. Similar results are reported for using an Alice instead of Java in the first year of training students in computer science.

From 2013, according to the US project The Mobile Computer Science Principles (Mobile CSP) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in different universities are organized trainings of 10,000 teachers and professors of computer science, which will apply block-based programming for mobile devices in more than 10,000 high schools and colleges5. There are developed a complete set of course materials.The training lasts six weeks, and teachers are certified to work in these programming environments. Similar projects are being implemented in other countries such as Canada, Australia and so on.

Considering the realities in Bulgaria and the fact that the majority of students prefer a more applied areas of computer science and do not want to deal with programming, in 2014 and 2015 separate teams from Varna, Shumen, Plovdiv, etc. organized training courses with teachers and students to use block-based programming and to create real applications. We organized festivals, IT competitions and Workshops to promote this style of programming (Momcheva et al., 2014).

In the region of Plovdiv in collaboration with Regional Inspectorate of Education in the spring of 2015 we organized training for IT teachers to work in environments SCRATCH 2.0 and App Inventor 2. The training lasted one day. The interest and willingness of teachers to implement this style of programming is high.

Spontaneously they organized groups of students in many schools and started training process (Fig. 1).

5

The Mobile CSP Project: http://mobile-csp.org

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Fig 1. Training students on block-based programming

The results obtained show undoubtedly increase the interest in programming (Komsalova-Tabakova & Glushkova, 2015). According to teachers at the end of the school year the advantages of this type of work are: motivation and stimulation of cognitive activity of students; development of logical and algorithmic thinking; opportunities for the application of differentiated approach; capacity building of students to work independently; to apply and develop their skills for self-control and self-esteem.

To verify the hypothesis that this type of programming is appropriate for university students in computer science, in the spring trimester of the last school year at Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics of Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski" was declared training course "Block-based programming"6. The training was attended by about 60 students from all disciplines of the faculty. Learners with interest and desire participated in training process and developed their projects in App Inventor, Scratch and Alice. The course was directed to the possibilities for processing of data structures, working with different types of databases, creation of procedures and own blocks, using and management of sensors for mobile devices, creation of 3D animations and interactive applications. In the final stage of training, students developed their own applications and submit them to their colleagues. They indicated their willingness to continue their education in the next academic year. Similar are the results of work with students from specialty Telematics in Physics Faculty of University of Plovdiv during the current school year.

Game-based learning has proven its effectiveness in the learning process (David & Wilensky, 2015). Increasingly, this didactic technology is placed in the focus

6

Faculty of mathematics and informatics: http://fmi-plovdiv.org/index.jsp?ln=1&id=2208

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of the new educational doctrine and "serious games" become one of the most effective teaching tools. It is believed that the game is an important part of cognitive and social development of the students; that they learn through play with other people and so increase their degree of cognitive and emotional development; that the symbolic using of

different

objects

in

the

game

is

prerequisite

of

abstract

thinking

(Whitton & Moseley, 2012). From one point of view game-based learning can be seen as a means to increase interest, motivation and effectiveness of training and on the other hand as an opportunity for simulation of real situations (Glushkova, 2014).

The Google team has chosen to use game-based learning in preparing students for block-based programming. For this purpose is created a special environment Blockly

games

(https://blockly-games.appspot.com)

After

registration

each

participant given the opportunity to play and compete with others7. The scenarios of the games are different - to search the way in the maze, to draw shapes and pictures, to create scenarios and stories and so on. For moving to the next level, the student needs to create the right algorithm and to build the program from the provided blocks.

In many of the tasks is required to optimize the created algorithm and to achieve a result with a limited number of steps. After solving of each task, the students pass to the next level, earn points and badges. If he wants, the block- written program can be transformed to some standard programming language with a text interface. A similar idea is of game-based environment Code.org (https://code.org), supported by Infosys Foundation, Google and Microsoft8. To use more convenient by students of all ages, we provided an interface in Bulgarian language of this environment. The teachers form the groups, determine the tasks, and chose the games for the lesson (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Game-based learning in Blockly games and Code.org

7

Blockly games:https://blockly-games.appspot.com

8

An Hour of Code for every student: http://code.org

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These environments can be used both for training and for verification and evaluation.

After passing all levels in the games, students receive certificates and badges.

On the other hand, in the course of training in block-based programming clearly is highlighted the willingness of all groups of students to develop educational games.

About 80% of the students in the schools, at the end of the training course, created projects, that are games; for university students this percentage is around 70%. Even more interesting fact is that about 70% of all developed games are educational games and are intended for direct use in the learning process. For example, the game "For excellent students and not only" is designed to prepare students for national external evaluation in biology, history and geography in seventh grade. The game is mobile application on App Inventor 2 (Fig. 3) Such is the game "Fun School", which is available over the Internet and is a game for preparation of students for national external evaluation in fourth grade. Both games were awarded from the team of Student Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 2015.

Fig. 3. Learning games, developed from school students

We got similar results and with the university students. Educational game "You should know this" is mobile application. It aims are to help students in their

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preparation for the state exam. Other games are designed to facilitate the teaching of economic disciplines, computer graphics, etc. (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Educational mobile games, developed from university students

In some groups, the students were encouraged to participate in role play "Software company". Participants were placed in almost real situation - they made analyze, plan, develop, test and install the developed software. In the "Software company" is formed teams of graphic designers, programmers, analysts, group for testing, installation and maintenance. The fact is that most thereby created software products were educational games. On the other hand created games were immediately presented to the students from different grades for using in the real training situation.

Thus the activity and responsibility of the "programmers" are significant increased.

They are satisfied with the fact that the result of their labor immediately finds its application in the real learning process and just completed one project already planning its improvement and expansion.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK All data currently undoubtedly confirm our expectations for raising interest of students of all ages to programming. The lightweight style of work in the block-based environments stimulate students and allows them to concentrate mainly on the algorithm and the script of the project. This greatly develop their logical and algorithmic thinking and frees them from the oppression associated with syntax errors. Combining the use of block-based programming and game-based learning multiply the effect of the training and increases its efficiency, stimulate interest, motivation and activity of students. All data to date indicate that this style of programming

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is

particularly

successful

for

school

students

and

beginner

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programmers, as giving them a home base for future development as professionals.

This gives grounds for the continuation of experiments and studies in this direction.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This paper is supported by Project IT15-FMIIT-004 "Research in the domain of innovative ICT oriented towards bussiness and education" of the Scientific Fund of the University of Plovdiv "Paisii Hilendarski".

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Alfred Thomson site: https://plus.google.com/116648179447008949472, Accessed on 10.11.2015.

[2]

An Hour of Code for every student: http://code.org, Accessed on 30.11.2015.

[3]

Benjamin, X., Shabir, I., & Abelson, H. (2015). Measuring the Usability and Capability of App Inventor to Create Mobile Applications. 2015 ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity (SPLASH), pp. 1-8, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-4503-3908-7.

[4]

Block-based programming environments: https://www.kidscodecs.com/resources/programming/education/, Accessed on 25.11.2015.

[5]

Blockly games: https://blockly-games.appspot.com, Accessed on 29.11.2015.

[6]

David, W., & Wilensky, U. (2015). To block or not to block, that is the question: students' perceptions of blocks-based programming, IDC '15 Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 199-208, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-4503-3590-4.

[7]

Faculty

of

mathematics

and

informatics:

http://fmi-

plovdiv.org/index.jsp?ln=1&id=2208, Accessed on 19.11.2015.

[8]

Feberici, S. (2011). A minimal, extensible, drag-and-drop implementation of the C programming language, Proceeding SIGITE’11 conference on Information technology education, pages 191-196, New York, NY, USA, ISBN: 978-1-45031017-82011.

[9]

Glushkova, T. (2014). Model for Application of Game-based learning in Secondary School, in proc. of International conference “Informatics in Science Knowledge”,

Varna,

26-29

June

2014,

ISSN

1313-4345,

http://www.vfu.bg/dokladi_ot_konferentsii/files/Informatika-konf-2014.pdf.

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[10]

Komsalova-Tabakova, V., & Glushkova, T. (2015). Block-based programming for everybody, "Education and Technology", Issue 6, ISSN 1314-1791, Burgas, BG, http://itlearning-bg.com/magazines/Spisanie2015.

[11]

MIT App Inventor - Explore MIT App Inventor, 2015. URL http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore. Accessed on14.11.2015.

[12]

Momcheva, D., Spassova, C., & Pavlova, E. (2014). The competition TECHNOVATION -training in creating mobile applications and enterprise, IV international scientific-conference "Modern trends of cooperation between school and family", Varna, 2014.

[13]

Source,

W.

(2011).

Scratch

Programming,

publ.

General

Books,

ISBN 1234853191, 9781234853198.

[14]

The Mobile CSP Project: http://mobile-csp.org, Accessed on 10.11.2015.

[15]

Whitton, N., & Moseley, A. (2012). Using games to enhance learning and teaching, Routledge, ISBN-10: 0415897726, ISBN-13: 978-0415897723.

[16]

Wolber, D., Abelson, H., Spertus, E., & Looney, L. (2015). App Inventor 2Create your own Android apps, O’Reilly Media, USA, ISBN-13: 9781491906842, ISBN-10: 1491906847.

Internet sites [17]

http://scratch.mit.edu

[18]

http://code.google.com/p/blockly

[19]

http://snap.berkeley.edu

[20]

http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu

[21]

http://alice.org

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 1 2016

Analyzing the Results of Electronic Tests Using Intelligent Agents

Pencho Malinov & Irena Kehayova1

Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski” Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics - Bulgaria

Abstract This article presents the use of intelligent agents in analyzing the results of electronic tests, based on IMS Question & Test Interoperability (QTI) standard. The results of the analysis show the average assessment of the conducted test, sections of the study material and issues of the test that hinders students. The aim is to support the educational process by creating a personal assistant which will be in service to teachers. The assistant will be developed like a multi-agent system of rational agents or such based on BDI (Beliefs, Desires, Intentions) architecture.

Key words: QTI standard, BDI agents, electronic test.

INTRODUCTION Nowadays, there are different models and methods of training. There are also different methods for assessment of the knowledge obtained in the course of training.

Electronic education and, respectively, distance learning are becoming increasingly important. Various systems are being developed to provide electronic educational services containing a lot of educational materials and tests for assessment and selfassessment. The rapid development of technologies leads to greater dynamics and interactivity of the provided educational services. Therefore, it is necessary to create 1

Corresponding authors: Pencho Malinov & Irena Kehayova, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”,

Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, 4003 Plovdiv, 236, Bulgaria Blvd.

E-mail: pepo.malinov@gmail.com, irena.kehayova@gmail.com

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intelligent components ensuring greater flexibility and proactive behaviour of a system for electronic learning.

At present, the centre for electronic learning DeLC is changing its concepts and is making a transition from a dynamic distributed network structure, consisting of units and relations between them (Doychev, 2013) to a virtual learning environment.

This virtual learning environment is intended to operate in the virtual world of the Internet of things and a semantic web. From a contextual viewpoint, the dependence will be maintained by autonomous components located within the internal structure of the environment which act reactively, interactively and proactively and are capable of maintaining different mental levels. Within the virtual learning environment, the assessment of the students’ knowledge will be implemented by a system for electronic tests, which has been constructed entirely in accordance with the QTI standard. The QTI standard provides comprehensive and easy-to-analyze information about the results from each conducted test.

The purpose of this article is to present one of these autonomous components – an agent supporting the electronic learning by means of an analysis of the results from the electronic tests, which will be implemented as an agent with BDI architecture.

OVERALL ARCHITECTURE OF THE VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT The virtual learning environment consists of different software components for planning, preparation, organization and delivery of shareable, contextually-related and personalized electronic educational services and electronic learning content (Orozova et al., 2013). In order to ensure the better structure of the information resources, two standards are used in the virtual learning environment: 1.

SCORM 2004 – this is a standard for structuring learning content2. SCORM is

a set of specifications proposed by ADL. The standard enables the educational platforms to present, search for and exchange learning content in a standardized way. In particular, the purpose of SCORM is to provide an opportunity to create learning content that has the following features: Reusability – the content must be independent of the context in which it is

 used;

Operational compatibility – the content must function in different hardware



and software configurations;

2

SCORM 2004 4th Edition. Retrieved from http://www.adlnet.gov/scorm/scorm-2004-4th/

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Durability – the content does not require changes to be made in case of



changes in the software system working with it; 

Accessibility – the content can be identified and found;



Maintenance – the content can be easily changed, reconfigured or recoded;



Adaptability – the content can be adapted based on various individual and

organizational needs.

2.

QTI 2.1 – this is a standard for structuring electronic tests. The IMS Question

Test Interoperability specification describes a model of the data for presenting a question (assessmentItem) and test (assessmentTest) data and their reports with the results3. Therefore, the specification allows the exchange of these elements, the test and result data between the tools used for editing, the elements banks, the test constructive tools, the educational systems and the systems for assessment delivery.

The data model has been described in an abstract way, using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) in order to facilitate the connection with a wide variety of tools for modelling the data and the programme languages. The standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been provided to exchange the data between the connected systems and its use is highly recommended. The IMS QTI specification is intended to support the operational compatibility and innovations by providing particular extensions. These extensions can be used for packing specialized or private data in a way that will allow it to be used along with the elements that can be presented directly. The System for Electronic Testing has been based on the QTI standard.

The virtual learning environment consists of a number of different active components functioning within an information medium, which is a set of various information resources such as data bases, digital libraries and ontologies. These active components are: 

specialist agents – these are server intelligent agents whose main task is to

support the execution of educational services(Orozova et al., 2013); 

guarding agents – server agents that will become active only in extreme

circumstances. For example, in case of fire they will inform the other agents who will have to take the necessary measures; 

personal assistants – these are intelligent agents that will establish a

connection between the users and the virtual learning environment. The main objective is for the structure of the environment to become completely transparent

3

IMS Question and Test Interoperability Specification. Retrieved from

http://www.imsglobal.org/question/

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for the users as the connection will be maintained by means of appropriate “entry points� implemented as personal assistants (Orozova et al., 2013). The personal assistants can operate on various types of devices, including mobile ones. The personal assistants can be established as multi-agent systems whose purpose will be to provide support to the users with tasks related to finding out information, planning calendars and managing the educational process. Each personal assistant will have to be personalized for each individual user (Kehayova et al., 2014).

Architecture of the agent Figure 1 shows examples of results from a conducted examination. The exam test consists of four sections and each section designates a certain part of the educational materials. The average result from the examination is 5 based on the six-point marking system. This mark guarantees a high level of acquisition of the educational material but the graph shows that in section 3 all the students have achieved lower results compared to the other sections. The total mark cannot be used to make substantiated conclusions regarding the acquisition of the material. It is necessary to further analyze the data from each individual test from the conducted examination and also to analyze the activeness of the student during the process of training and his/her interim results.

Fig. 1. Sample results from a conducted test

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The results must be given to the teacher and the student so that they both will be aware of the existing gaps in the acquisition of the educational material. For that purpose, an agent will be created to analyze the results from the system for electronic testing. In accordance with the reference architecture of the virtual environment, this agent will be a specialist agent. The agent will be transparent for both the teachers and the students and will contact them through their personal assistants.

Main Functions of the Agent We can distinguish between two types of functions depending on to whom agent delivers the information from the analysis and what this information is: 1.

To inform the teacher’s assistant about:



the average mark of the student obtained from the conducted examination –

submits to the teacher’s assistant the average mark from the conducted examination. 

the sections of the educational material that the students find problematic –

submits to the teacher’s assistant information about the results obtained from the different sections of the examination by ordering these sections in an ascending order depending on the summarized performance of the students. It also provides the respective information about the activeness of the students in the SCORM player. 

those questions of the conducted test that the students find problematic -

submits a list of the questions that the students most often mistake.

2.

To inform the student’s assistant about:



the relevant mark from the examination – provides the respective student’s

assistant information about the mark from the analyzed test. 

problematic sections of the educational material – provides the respective

student’s assistant with information about the results from the various sections of the examination by ordering these sections in an ascending order depending on the summary of the students’ performance.

Agent’s Environment Each agent operates in a certain environment for the purpose of achieving its objectives by interacting and influencing its environment with the support of its operators. Figure 2 shows the agent’s environment which consists of: 1.

The System for electronic testing – it provides the agent with information about

the test results. Based on the QTI standard, the result from an electronic test contains information on several levels: a total mark of the entire test; a total mark of each section; the obtained result for each question. The result also contains metadata

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providing information about the type of the question, the expected results (number of points – in case of a correct answer), which can be further analyzed if necessary.

2.

SCORM player – provides the agent with information about the activeness of

the student in the electronic content section, including the percentage of the covered material, the marks from the conducted control tests after each unit, the number of times each test has been done and others.

3.

The teacher’s assistant – this is the link between the analytical agent and the

teacher. The agent sends the teacher’s assistant a summarized analysis of the conducted examination and the activeness of the student from the SCORM player.

The teacher’s assistant then presents in an appropriate way the results from the analysis and if necessary (if the teacher requires it), it will turn to the agent again asking for additional information and analysis.

4.

The students’ assistants – the agent sends the students’ assistants information

from the analysis of the respective test, which is the intermediate unit between the students and the analytical agent. The student’s assistant will submit the result to the student and if necessary, will offer the student additional educational materials.

Fig. 2. Agent’s environment

Agent’s Lifecycle The most widely used architecture for agents is BDI – Belief – Desire – Intention.

BDI sets a high level of abstraction, which is extremely important for the design and

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implementation of an agent-based system (Rao & Georgeff, 1995). The BDI architecture uses a model of human activity in which: 

The Beliefs of an agent is the information about the environment. It is subject

to uncertainties and mistakes. 

The Desires are the objectives set to an agent.



The Intentions are the commitments of an agent to achieve certain objectives.

These are the plans that are currently being implemented.

The concept of the BDI architecture is that an intelligent agent will activate itself upon the occurrence of a certain event and a change in the environment (proactive behaviour), will evaluate the situation, will set an objective and will choose a certain action plan to achieve its objective. If this action plan does not achieve the objective set, the implementation of the next action plan will be initiated, if there is such.

The presence of electronic tests, which have not been analyzed, is the initial belief of the analyzing agent. The desires of the agent are generated depending on the interim results from the analysis. They can be various conditions in which the agent will have to intervene and initiate additional analyses. Depending on the circumstances, one of the desires will be transformed into an objective. The objective determines the respective intention of the agent. After completing the overall analysis of all the tests from the examination, it will submit the results to the teacher’s assistant and the student’s assistant. They will inform the teacher and the students about the achieved results.

Consequently, the analytical agent, whose internal architecture is based on the BDI concept, will go through several states: 1.

Upon the occurrence of a change in the environment – if there is a definite end

of the examination and tests to be analyzed, the agent is activated.

2.

The agent activates a certain action plan.

3.

During the analysis, when receiving certain results, the agent will set different

objectives and will activate the respective action plans to achieve them.

4.

It informs the student’s assistant of the result from the analyzing of the test –

upon the completion of the overall analysis of a test, the agent sends the obtained results to the respective student’s assistant.

5.

It informs the teacher’s assistant of the results from the analyzing of the tests –

upon the completion of the analysis of all the tests, the agent will send the summarized results to the teacher’s assistant.

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Implementation Figure 3 shows a diagram of the agent’s activities. Upon the occurrence of an event “the end of the examination”, the agent is activated and performs a check in order to establish the existence of tests to be analyzed. If there are such, it takes a test and checks the final mark. If it is not satisfactory (an excellent mark has not been obtained considering the respective marking system), an action plan is selected to analyze the test. On the grounds of this analysis, results are obtained and if these results do not meet the expectations, the agent will proceed with the next action plan until satisfactory results have been achieved.

Fig. 3. Diagram of the agent’s activities

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At this stage, several action plans have been developed: 1.

An inspection of a test mark – if the mark is excellent, it is not necessary to

make any other test analyses.

2.

Analyzing the results from a certain section – the agent checks the results from

the separate sections of the test by ordering these sections in an ascending order depending on their results.

3.

Analyzing the results from the separate questions – a list of the most commonly

mistaken questions is made.

4.

Analyzing the material covered by the student in the SCORM player – the

analysis is made depending on the sections of the test.

5.

Analysis of the results from the interim tests in the SCORM player – the

analysis is made for the purpose of comparing the results from the System for electronic testing and the SCORM player.

Upon the completion of the test analysis, the agent proceeds with the summary of the results and sends the results from the analysis of this test to the student’s assistant of the respective student. Then, the agent checks if there are still tests to be analyzed – if there are any, the action will be repeated. Otherwise, the agent will proceed with the sending of the summarized results from the analysis of all tests to the teacher’s assistant.

As a result: 

the student receives detailed information about his/her performance at the

examination as well as the performance throughout the entire course of training. 

the student’s assistant receives sufficient information so as to be able to take

measures for improving his/her knowledge, if necessary. 

the teacher receives detailed information to analyze his/her work and the

motivation of the students. 

the teacher’s assistant receives sufficient information so as to be able to offer

the teacher concrete steps to improve the process of training.

The technology selected to implement the agent is JADEX. This is a project developed by the Distributed Systems and Information Systems Group at the University of Hamburg. The platform allows the programming of intelligent software agents in XML and Java which can be located on various types of middleware such as JADEX4. The project has an open code. The implementation of the JADEX agents is based on the

4

Jadex Active Components. Retrieved from

https://www.activecomponents.org/bin/view/About/New+Home

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BDI architecture. These agents are capable of acting purposefully with the help of its beliefs, desires and intentions.

In addition to these cognitive means, which are particularly useful for doing complex tasks, JADEX also provides simple reactive micro agents that are similar to active objects and are very effective considering the low consumption of resources5. The platform allows the mixing of agents with different types of architecture into one and the same application. When creating the agent, different annotations are used to define the beliefs, the desires, the intentions and the plans of the agent.

In conclusion, we can use the example illustrated in Figure 1 to present a possible sequence of actions that the agent will perform for a lifecycle: 1.

Upon the occurrence of the event called “the end of the examination”, the agent

is activated and checks the System for electronic testing for the presence of test results.

2.

Checks the total mark of the examination → it is not excellent (5 based on the

six-point marking system) and subsequently generates an objective: “To find the reason for the unsatisfactory result”.

3.

The purpose is to initiate an action plan to analyze each test separately, which

in its turn will initiate a plan for analyzing the tests in sections. After the analysis, the results show that in section 3 all the results are low. It generates an objective “To find the reason for the poor acquisition of the material contained in the respective section”.

4.

Another plan is activated to analyze the material covered by the students in

the SCORM player – this analysis is performed depending on the sections of the test. a) The results show that the student has not covered the entire content. It generates an objective “To inform the student”. The agent sends a message to the student’s assistant, which then offers the student to read the learning content. b) The student has covered the entire material → a plan for analyzing the results from the interim tests is activated. These steps will be repeated until all the available tests have been analyzed. When the results are summarized, the objective “To inform the teacher” will be generated.

5.

The agent sends a message to the teacher’s assistant with all the information

from the analysis, which then presents it to the teacher in a comprehensible way and turns his/her attention to the sections with the lowest mark.

5

Ibid.

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6.

The agent is in a position waiting for a new event, which will activate it again

(a new change in the environment).

CONCLUSION The use of intelligent agents for analyzing the test results gives us great opportunities for improving the quality of the offered electronic educational services. Using the QTI standard and SCORM 2004, we can trace in details the sections where the students make most mistakes and have greatest difficulties in acquiring the educational material. This provides important information to the teacher, who can then change the content of the lectures so as to make it easier to understand and more comprehensible.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This paper is supported by Project IT15-FMIIT-004 "Research in the domain of innovative ICT oriented towards bussiness and education" of the Scientific Fund of the University of Plovdiv "Paisii Hilendarski".

REFERENCES [1]

Doychev, Е. (2013). An environment for e-learning services. Plovdiv.

Dissertation.

[2]

IMS Question and Test Interoperability Specification. Retrieved from http://www.imsglobal.org/question/.

[3]

Jadex Active Components. Retrieved from https://www.activecomponents.org/bin/view/About/New+Home

[4]

Kehayova, I., Malinov, P. & Stoyanov, S. (2014). Intelligent personal assistants in a virtual learning space. International Conference "From DeLC to VelSpace", 175-182.

[5]

Orozova, D., Stoyanov, S., & Popchev, I. (2013). Virtual Learning Space.

International Conference "Knowledge – tradition, innovation, perspectives", 153-159.

[6]

Rao, A.S. & Georgeff, M. (1995). BDI Agents: from Theory to Practice. The 1st International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, 312–319.

[7]

SCORM 2004 4th Edition. Retrieved from http://www.adlnet.gov/scorm/scorm-2004-4th/.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 1 2016

Information systems in logistics - transition challenges Nikolay Dragomirov1 University of National and World Economy – Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract The implementation of information systems in business organizations does not consist of just buying software products and installing them on the servers. Most of these systems are important for the development of the organizations concerned and in some cases are very expensive. Therefore, their success requires a properly managed process of implementation, which seeks a balance between the aims of the systems and the financial and technical capabilities of the organization. The implementation problem becomes greater when the emphasis is on the logistics function in the context of the supply chain management. Last, but not least, these initiatives are related to something much more challenging, namely the adoption of the new information system by the users, which involves a change of habits in the organization. It is no secret that a new system may be rejected by its users and this will make it useless. All this requires finding adequate solutions to analyze these problems and to ensure the effective use of information systems in logistics.

Key words: information systems, logistics, organizations.

INTRODUCTION The process of transition into operation of information systems is part of the process of implementation of information systems. This part of the process includes a number of important issues related to the actual implementation of the information systems

1

Corresponding author: Nikolay Dragomirov, University of National and World Economy – Sofia,

Bulgaria E-mail: nikolay@balbg.com

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and their use in the organisation. This process is definitively not an easy task, and it cannot be completed solely on the basis of the willingness of the managers to implement innovations and changes. The new system may be accepted by its users and may operate successfully, but it may also be rejected. The resolution of this implementation problem, in addition to the proper planning of a number of interrelated management activities. To do this, strong support from the company management is needed, because this process is also related to the change of habits in the organisation. It is a special issue when the problems concern the information systems in logistics in the context of chain of supply management.

The purpose of the present report is to clarify the nature of the process of transition into operation of information systems in logistics, and to define the main related issues.

THE NATURE OF THE PROCESS OF TRANSITION INTO OPERATION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS This is one of the final steps in the overall process of implementation of information systems (Dragomirov, 2014). Notwithstanding the above, this step should not be underrated, since it is possible to compromise the whole project of implementation, thereby necessitating additional financial expenses. Notwithstanding this fact, whether a new system is being introduced or an existing one is being upgraded, a moment comes when the implementation of the changes into practice must begin.

Unfortunately, as with any other initiative for change in an organisation, the implementation may be blocked by the system users (the employees). Especially if the changes are far-reaching and large-scale ones, the possibilities for the above are many. This statement is also valid for information systems as a whole - whether you are implementing a completely new system or upgrading a currently used system, there is always a risk of discontent. Theories have defined numerous examples of confusion, blocking of processes, sabotage, etc., and it is practically impossible to predict all possibilities. However, the implementation problem may be presented for illustrative purposes by showing the curve of the changes, a technique which is used in numerous theoretical models. Despite its origin, which is not related to corporate management, the basic principles are widely valid. With reference to the business organisation and the information system which is to be implemented, it can be said that there are four stages. As a matter of course, they can vary depending on the specific situations, but it is possible to summarize them (FigFig. 1).

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Fig. 1. The classic change curve project phases, key events, and problem areas Source: Nikula, U., Jurvanen, C., Gotel, O., & Gause, D. (2010). Empirical validation of the Classic Change Curve on a software technology change project. Information & Software Technology, 52(6), 680-696.

Start-up – The transition to the new system starts. At this time, the employees learn that the change is being implemented in practice. New work rules are being implemented and old habits need to be changed, as a result of which the efficiency of the employees drops considerably; dissatisfaction and resistance start to occur.

Despair – The effect of the start of the project starts to materialise, the final term is coming up, but success is still far away. Even the managers, who are responsible for the project, start to feel dubious about their actions. They start thinking that none of their plans will come to be. This is the most critical moment for the change.

Recovery - Sooner or later, if the project for the transition to the new system has been properly planned and realised in practice, the results start to appear. The new system becomes better and starts to function normally.

Improved performance – The effects are evident. The organisation starts to function well with the new system. The problems are not massive anymore, but become rather individual, small issues and occur more rarely. The employees start to get used to the new system and to work with it. The aims of the management focus less on the acceptance of the new system by the personnel, and more on its comprehensive utilization.

Adoption by the users is discussed widely. It is mentioned that part of the process is a preliminary test of user acceptance of the new information system (Kirilov & Milev,

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2015). Also, there are other important aspects of a successful process – one of them is the relationship between users and information system developers. Users and information system specialists tend to have different backgrounds, interests, and priorities. This is referred to as the user-designer communications gap (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). Although it is concerned with the system’s design it is also valid for this stage, examples of the gap are represented in table 1.

Table 1. Communications gap between developer and user User

Designer

Will the system deliver the information I

How much disk storage space will the

need for my work?

master file consume?

How quickly can I access the data?

How many lines of program code will it take to perform this function?

How easily can I retrieve the data?

How can we cut down on CPU time when we run the system?

How much clerical support will I need to

What is the most efficient way of storing

enter data into the system?

these data?

How will the operation of the system fit into

What database management system should

my daily business schedule?

we use?

Source: Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. (2012). Management information systems (12th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.

Logistics and supply chain management is another point of view. It is totally clear that the organisation is not alone and that it is a part of a bigger system called the supply chain. Applying different supply chain management practices is impossible without using information systems. These systems are needed to coordinate the processes in the supply chain (Dimitrov et al., 2010). In this complicated environment it is important to focus at the same time on the organisation and on the supply chain.

The possible difficulties are multiplied when the scope of the implementation project is enlarged, although the essential solutions are simple.

MAIN STAGES OF TRANSITION OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS There are many basic models related to the successful implementation of information systems. Chaffey, using the classic models developed by Lewin and Schein, defines three stages (Chaffey, 2009):

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

Unfreeze the present position by creating a climate of change through

education, training and motivation of future participants. 

Quickly move from the present position by developing and implementing the

new system. 

Refreeze by making the system an accepted part of the way the organisation

works.

According to the curve of change and the nature of logistics the main factors for the successful transition of information systems could be defined as follows: 1) Project planning, design and start-up management; 2) Despair and resistance management, and 3) Recovery management.

Project planning, design, and start-up management The well prepared plan will lead the organisation to successful implementation in most cases. Notwithstanding the above, there are several common traps in the implementation process that have to be avoided.

Designing without a specific target – the information systems can solve individual management problems, but in order to achieve this, it has to be clear from the start exactly what is to be expected of them. It is incorrect to approach the issue by designing and implementing information systems, and only then to check whether they will be useful in practice and thus make the investment worthwhile.

Formal designing – the possibility also exists for the design of the information system to be carried out solely with the aim of imitating work on the respective problem. In many cases, when the targets of the organisation are not clear but a decision has been made to implement an information system, the managers conduct a number of initiatives aiming to achieve this target, but they are not convinced of the usefulness of their ideas and do not apply the required concentration to the resolution of the problem. In this way, the required support on behalf of the senior managers and the respective financing are not properly provided.

Design that is not relevant to the supply chain – The organisation does not stand alone, it is part of the supply chain. Even if integration with the remaining participants in the supply chain is not necessary for the time being, it is advisable for such integration to be foreseen for the information system.

Design by employees without authority – this is another problem that often occurs, in which employees without the required authority within the organisation are appointed to design the system. If there are no representatives of the higher

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management in the design team, there is no way for the design of the new system to foresee for example the future direction of development of the organisation, which can be fatal mistake.

Fitting the systems into a predefined financial framework – this is one of the most frequent errors, since in its aim to achieve the required results, the managers are forced to accept serious compromises in the functionalities of the future information system. In some cases, it even happens that the new system cannot function unless expensive upgrading is implemented. In order to resolve the situation, additional expenses are necessitated and the initial financial plan is considerably disrupted.

Designing without consideration for the return on the investment – this is another example of improper planning. A very ambitious project is foreseen at the beginning, with claims to resolve numerous problems in the organisation and to lead it ahead of all its competitors. Unnecessary functionalities are designed and no consideration is given to the eventual return on the investment. There are many examples where a company could afford to make a large investment in the information system, but then, despite the benefits from this, the investment turns out to have been too high and unjustifiable. Therefore, the planning must be pragmatic with reference to the investment in information systems and the future benefits. Precisely for this reason, it is advisable to include financial experts in the project team.

When the plan is prepared there are several strategies to employ (Stair & Reynolds, 2010): 1) Direct conversion; 2) The phase-in approach; 3) Pilot start-up and 4) Parallel start-up. The right approach depends on many factors, related to the specific needs of the organisation and to the competitive environment. At this starting point, the possible resistance in the next stages is formed. Overall, success in this stage depends on building the right climate in the organisation for the coming change.

Despair and resistance management The problems during the change can be avoided to a considerable extent, or at least their negative effects can be reduced, by providing active training of the organisation’s employees and the system users. This is a key activity to realise the internal promotion of the changes. Such activities can be performed in numerous different formats, one of the important issues being to ensure the employees do not feel detached from the process. Every employee, who is an expert in his specific field, has very good ideas on the specifics of his work and would not appreciate someone else

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defining the new work rules without his participation. Therefore, it is necessary to establish conditions and a feeling for a team project. Even though a large number of the following initiatives could be performed during the previous stages, they can be performed during this stage: 

Conducting collective training and workshops for additional clarification of

functionalities. 

Conducting intra-company studies and evaluations of the product and its

interface as regards its acceptance by the employees and to get their views on potential problems while using it. 

Testing the software for bugs, and eliminating them.



Conducting simulations of eventual future situations, etc.

It is most important at this stage to learn the actual opinions of the system users, as well as to investigate the reasons for any eventual resistance, to hear out the employees and, as far as possible, to have them become active in the whole process.

Recovery management At this stage, the organisation has already passed through the most difficult stages and the results of the new system implementation are beginning to materialise. It is necessary to give awards to the responsible teams for their successful work and it is essential to look forward to eventual improvements. Basically, this is a continuous process of improvement of the activities of the organisation, especially when we refer to such a dynamic activity as logistics. In many cases, immediately after the start of the new system, its further development and provision of new functionalities become necessary, which is within the framework of the expected effects. At this stage another problem may appear, namely, the generation of ideas for improvements, which should predominantly come from the system users. At this stage it is also possible to organise competitions to collect ideas for improvements, to arrange joint events for the employees of various companies comprising the supply chain, and to play out simulations of the varying behaviour of competitors, etc.

CONCLUSION The process of transition into operation of the information systems is definitively a complex process and has specific challenges, which can be classified into several groups. In general, the success of the overall project depends on good planning of the required work, the active encouragement of participation in the process of all system users, and good intra-organisational promotion of the new system. The current article

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encompasses different points of view of the basic problems of the information systems implementation in logistics. It could be used as a fundamental theoretical background for future research. One of the possible areas is related to revealing in details the factors that influence the implementation process in the organization.

Other possible area is to research the models of collaboration between the organizations when they implement information systems across the supply chain.

REFERENCES [1]

Chaffey, D. (2009). E-business and e-commerce management (4th ed., pp. 586-588). Harlow, England: FT Prentice Hall.

[2]

Dimitrov, P. i kolektiv (2010). Logistichni sistemi (p. 27). Sofia: Universitetsko izdatelstvo “Stopanstvo”.

[3]

Dragomirov, N. (2014). Informatsionni sistemi v logistikata – sastoyanie i tendentsii v izpolzvaneto (p. 134). Sofia: Izdatelski kompleks – UNSS.

[4]

Kirilov, R., & Milev, P. (2015). Razrabotka i upravlenie na integrirani informacionni sistemi (pp. 273-278). Sofia: Izdatelski kompleks – UNSS.

[5]

Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. (2012). Management information systems (12th ed., p. 541). Boston: Prentice Hall.

[6]

Nikula, U., Jurvanen, C., Gotel, O., & Gause, D. (2010). Empirical validation of the Classic Change Curve on a software technology change project.

Information & Software Technology, 52(6), 680-696.

[7]

Stair, R., & Reynolds, G. (2010). Fundamentals of information systems (5th ed., p. 366). Boston: Course Technology.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability Volume 2, Number 1, 2016

First International Scientific Conference SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES IN MODERN ORGANIZATIONS Knowledge & Innovation in Management & Operation

Conference Panel INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

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Volume 2, Number 1, 2016

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