Antonis Lionarakis

The integration of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has changed significantly the field of education. Due to the adoption of new technologies, e-learning has been emerged and developed. As a result, distance learning has transformed and new possibilities have appeared. It is remarkable that distance learning became and considered as a scout of the new era in education and contributed to the quality of education. Supporting tutors by advanced learning technologies in distance education is a significant contribution for their effective role in organizational, social and educational context. The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) is a new proposal to the learning design standard.  In this paper, we propose the LAMS exploitation at the Hellenic Open University (HOU) and illustrate a guide to design and develop a sequence of learning activities on “Preparing and producing assignment”. The preparation of the assignments by students is the primary mode of the comprehension of educational materials and an important dimension of teaching students in distance education context, where they are the main responsible for their learning. This proposal highlights the advantages, requirements and constraints concerning the development of learning sequences specifically designed by tutors themselves. They follow the principles of adult learning and development of distance education material, oriented to different educational goals and individual needs of their learners.

Abstract
This paper consists of two main parts. The scope of the first part is to provide an
overview of the European project ELBEP (Eliminating Language Barriers in
European Prisons through Open and Distance Education Technology), which is based
on the philosophy that foreign prisoners should have the right to express themselves
in their mother language and to get heard and understood inside prison. The key to
accomplish this, according to the project’s concept, is the development of a welltrained
prison staff that not only respects the foreign prisoners’ personality but also is
willing to learn their mother language in order to be able to provide them with the
necessary help and guidance.
The second part is a description of the educational and general profile of the Greek
prison staff that took part in the research. This was the first and most essential of a
series of steps that the Greek team undertook in this project since this research’
findings can be used in any educational initiative (distance or traditional educational
program) that aims at the same target group.

Open Educational Resources focus on production, licensing, use and reuse of learning resources and their accessibility from open access editions as public good. A specific, more structured subset of OER is Open CourseWare, which refers to a free and open digital publication of high quality university-level educational materials. The materials are organized as courses, and often include course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content. This article presents the potential of OER to reduce significantly the courses’ educational material cost making higher education studies closer to millions of students. Aiming at open education, OER present the strategic opportunity to contribute to improving the quality and effectiveness of higher education and to facilitate the conversation regarding the relevant educational policy, disseminating knowledge and building competences.

Οι Ανοικτοί Εκπαιδευτικοί Πόροι (ΑΕΠ) εστιάζουν στην παραγωγή, αδειοδότηση, χρήση, επαναχρησιμοποίηση μαθησιακών πηγών και στην προσβασιμότητα τους από εκδόσεις ανοικτής πρόσβασης, ως δημόσια αγαθά. Ένα δομημένο υποσύνολο των ΑΕΠ, τα Ανοικτά Προγράμματα Σπουδών, αφορούν την ελεύθερη και ανοικτή ψηφιακή δημοσίευση υψηλής ποιότητας εκπαιδευτικών υλικών πανεπιστημιακού επιπέδου, τα οποία οργανώνονται σαν μαθήματα περιλαμβάνοντας συχνά, τον σχεδιασμό των προγραμμάτων σπουδών, εργαλεία αξιολόγησης, καθώς και θεματικό περιεχόμενο. Στο άρθρο παρουσιάζεται η δυναμική των ΑΕΠ στην κατεύθυνση της δραστικής μείωσης του κόστους του εκπαιδευτικού υλικού των προγραμμάτων σπουδών, κάνοντας τις ανώτατες σπουδές πιο προσιτές για εκατομμύρια φοιτητών. Στοχεύοντας στην ανοικτή εκπαίδευση οι ΑΕΠ παρουσιάζουν τη στρατηγική ευκαιρία να βελτιώσουν την ποιότητα της πανεπιστημιακής εκπαίδευσης και να διευκολύνουν το διάλογο σχετικά με την αντίστοιχη εκπαιδευτική πολιτική, τη διάδοση της γνώσης και την οικοδόμηση ικανοτήτων.

The integration of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has changed significantly the field of education. Due to the adoption of new technologies, e-learning has been emerged and developed. As a result, distance learning has transformed and new possibilities have appeared. It is remarkable that distance learning became and considered as a scout of the new era in education and contributed to the quality of education. Supporting tutors by advanced learning technologies in distance education is a significant contribution for their effective role in organizational, social and educational context. The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) is a new proposal to the learning design standard. In this paper, we propose the LAMS exploitation at the Hellenic Open University (HOU) and illustrate a guide to design and develop a sequence of learning activities on “Preparing and producing assignment”. The preparation of the assignments by students is the primary mode of the comprehension of educational materials and an important dimension of teaching students in distance education context, where they are the main responsible for their learning. This proposal highlights the advantages, requirements and constraints concerning the development of learning sequences specifically designed by tutors themselves. They follow the principles of adult learning and development of distance education material, oriented to different educational goals and individual needs of their learners.

This article deals with a documented research in order to create a pedagogical framework for the application of a supplementary distance learning program in the field of environmental education for pupils of primary education, in remote and multi-grade schools of Greece. This prospect has been considered as an interesting idea with multilateral, socio cultural and democratic dimensions, as it could enrich the school and learning environment of children of the outermost regions.
In this paper, there are described the planning criteria and the development of a polymorphic pedagogical material for distance learning, under the title: 'Captain SOS, His Bunch and the Moving Island', the needs according to the characteristics of the target group, the choice of learning theories and the determination of the teaching techniques, the specific teaching techniques and the teaching methodology, the structure of the learning material, the characteristics and the structure of the educational software, the categorization of activities, the supplementary learning material. Moreover, there are described the pilot application and the ways of the evaluation.