Isı transferi eğitimin etkileşimli bilgisayar ortamında java destekli web tarayıcısı formatı kullanılaraka gerçekleştirilmesi

Abstract

Dünyada daha çok insanın eğitim gereksinimlerini karşılamak ve her yaşta eğitimin devamım sağlamak amacıyla uzaktan eğitim ("distance education") denilen kavram ortaya çıkmıştır. En ilkel araç olarak basılı araçlarla (ders notlan ve kitapları) yürütülebilen uzaktan eğitim, radyo, televizyon ve video gibi araçlarla daha etkin bir şekilde verilebilmektedir. Günümüzde ise hızla yaygınlaşan uzaktan eğitime, en büyük katkıyı İnternet yapmaktadır. İnternet yoluyla, çok daha geniş kitlelere, daha hızlı bir şekilde ulaşmak mümkün olmaktadır. İnternet' in en popüler olarak kullanılan bileşeni "World Wide Web'"tir. Hazırlanan "web sayfaları" ile İnternet üzerinden büyük bilgi alışverişi sağlanmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, Gıda Mühendisliği eğitiminin programında bulunan "Isı Transferi" dersinin, "HTML" (Hyper Text Marked Language) kullanılarak öğretim programı geliştirilmeye çalışılmıştır. Programda eğitimde önemli bir yeri olan etkileşimi sağlamak amacıyla Java programlama dilinden faydalanılmıştır. Böyle bir eğitici programın geliştirilmesinde HTML'nin seçilmesinin sebeplerinden biri HTML'nin platform bağımsız olmasıdır. Kullanılan sistem ne olursa olsun, hazırlananların görülmesi ve kullanılması mümkün olmaktadır, ikinci önemli sebep ise, İnternet yoluyla daha çok insana ulaşabilme şansının olmasıdır. Çalışmada Isı Transferi konusunun anlatım bölümlerinin tamamı HTML kullanılarak yapılmıştır. Konularla ilgili problem örneklerinin hazırlanması için ise Java kullanılmıştır. Java, son 2-3 yıl içinde kullanımı artmış olan nesneye dayalı bir programlama dilidir. Java'nın en büyük avantajı, yapılan programların her türlü işletim sisteminde çalışabilmesidir. Yani Java da platform bağımsızdır. Problemlerin yam sura, birim çevirme programı ve hava ile suyun özelliMerinin hesaplanması için kullanılan bir problem de Java ile hazırlanmıştır. Problemlerde soru tanımlanmış, sorudaki değişkenler ise kullanıcı tarafından belli sınırlar içinde değiştirilebilecek şekilde verilmiştir. Böylece farklı değişkenlerle problemin sonucunun, bazen de çözümünün değişmesi sağlanmıştır. Ayrıca programın, istenildiğinde klasik müzik dinlenmesi için bir özelliği ve konularla ilgili İnternet adreslerine bağlantıları bulunmaktadır. Çalışmanın sonucunda 12 kişilik bir grupla yapılan anket çalışmasında, program kullanım kolaylığı açısından %100, anlatım bölümlerinin veriliş şekli açısından %96.7 ve problem bölümlerinin etkileşimliği açısından da %93.3 başarı sağlamıştır. Anket çalışmasında alman fikirler doğrultusunda, programda bir takım iyileştirmeler de yapılmıştır. Sonuç olarak genel değerlendirme de %96.7'lük bir başarıya ulaşılmıştır. 1998-1999 öğretim yılında Isı Transferi derslerinde yardımcı program olarak kullanılması da düşünülen programın, bu alanda ileride yapılacak olan çalışmalara öncü olacağı düşünülmektedir.

Within a context of rapid technological change and shifting market conditions, the education system in the world is challenged with providing increased educational opportunities without increased budgets. Many educational institutions are answering this challenge by developing distance education programs. At its most basic level, distance education takes place when a teacher and student(s) are separated by physical distance, and technology, often in concert with face-to-face communication, is used to bridge the instructional gap. These types of programs can provide adults with a second chance at a college education, reach those disadvantaged by limited time, distance or physical disability, and update the knowledge base of workers at their places of employment. The most common items used in distance education, are printed materials, such as class notes and workbooks and technological tools like radio, television, videotapes, and computers. Effective distance education programs begin with careful planning and a focused understanding of course requirements and student needs. Appropriate technology can only be selected once these elements are understood in detail, and by this way, the development and success of distance education programs are unavoidable. This great accomplishment does not happen spontaneously; dedicated efforts of many hard working individuals and organizations have made the distance education programs effective and accessible. In fact, successful distance education programs also rely on the consistent and integrated efforts of students, faculty, facilitators, support staff, and administrators. Classroom teachers rely on a number of visual and unobtrusive cues from their students to enhance their delivery of instructional content. A quick glance, for example, reveals who is attentively taking notes, pondering a difficult concept, or preparing to make a comment. The student who is frustrated confused, tired, or bored is equally evident. The attentive teacher consciously and subconsciously receives and analyzes these visual cues and adjusts the course delivery to meet the needs of the class during a particular lesson. In contrast, the distant teacher has few, if any, visual cues. Those cues that do exist are filtered through technological devices such as video monitors. It is difficult to carry on a stimulating teacher-class discussion when spontaneity is altered by technical requirements and distance. Without the use of a real-time visual medium such as television, the teacher receives no visual information from the distant sites. The teacher might never really know, for example, if students are asleep, talking among themselves or even in the room. Separation by distance also affects the general rapport of the class. Living in viu different communities, geographic regions, or even states deprives the teacher and students of a common community link. In distance education, where the instructor and students may share limited common background and typically have minimal face-to-face contact, an extra process is essential. This process, instructional development provides a process and framework for systematically planning, developing, and adapting instruction based on identifiable learner needs and content requirements. Although instructional development models and processes abound, the majority follow the same basic stages of design, development, evaluation, and revision (Fig. 1). DESING. Determine need. Analyze audience. Establish goals REVISION. Develop and implement revision plan DEVELOPMENT. Create content outline. Review existing materials. Organize and develop content. Select/develop materials and delivery methods EVALUATION. Review goals and objectives. Develop evaluation strategy. Collect and analyze data Figure 1. Development model for distance education. In recent years, educators have witnessed the rapid development of computer networks, dramatic improvements in the processing power of personal computers, and striking advances in magnetic storage technology. These developments have made the computer a dynamic force in distance education, providing a new and interactive means of overcoming time and distance to reach learners. Computer applications for distance education fall into four broad categories: Computer Assisted Instruction (CAT) - uses the computer as a self-contained teaching machine to present discrete lessons to achieve specific but limited educational objectives. There are several CAI modes, including drill and practice, tutorial, simulations and games, and problem-solving. IX Computer Managed Instruction (CMI) - uses the computer's branching, storage, and retrieval capabilities to organize instruction and track student records and progress. The instruction need not be delivered via computer, although often CAI (the instructional component) is combined with CMI. Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)- describes computer applications that facilitate communication. Examples include electronic mail, computer conferencing, and electronic bulletin boards. Computer-Based Multimedia- HyperCard, hypermedia, and a still-developing generation of powerful, sophisticated, and flexible computing tools have gained the attention of distance educators in recent years. The goal of computer-based multimedia is to integrate various voice, video, and computer technologies into a single, easily accessible delivery system. Several advantages of computers are combining different technologies like audio and video facilitating to self-learning and to accessing information, and the relatively low costs regardless of the rapid advance in computer technology. However, high costs of network setting and operating software, the widespread existence of computer illiteracy, and the need of students with a good level of computer knowledge are the limitations of computer-based distance education programs. Today, Internet is the biggest contributor to the rapidly advancing distance education system in the world. Internet, being the largest network in the world, facilitates the accessment to large ranges with remarkable speeds. The three major Internet tools that can be used by the distant educators are electronic mail, bulletin boards and the World Wide Web. Some instructional possibilities of the Internet include: Using e-mail for informal one-to-one correspondence. Feedback from the instructor can be received more quickly than messages sent by mail. Students can read messages at their convenience and easily store them for later reference. Establishing a classroom bulletin board. Distant students often work in isolation without the assistance and support of fellow students. Setting up a class bulletin board can encourage student-to-student interaction. With a class computer conference, individual students can post their comments or questions to the class, and every other individual is free to respond. The conference can also be used to post all modifications to the class schedule or curriculum, assignments/tests, and answers to assignments/tests. Engaging students in dialogue with other students, faculty, and researchers by encouraging them to join a bulletin board(s) on topic(s) related to the class. Developing a classroom home page. The home page can cover information about the class including the syllabus, exercises, literature references, and the instructor's biography. The instructor can also provide links to information on the WWW that would be useful to students in the class (e.g., real research data on agricultural markets, global climate change, or space missions). Other links could access library catalogs or each student's individual home page. The most common component of Internet today, is the World Wide Web. The web pages provide a big information flow through the Internet. Thus, usage of web pages for distance education has become a convenient method. The WWW and Web browsers have made the Internet a more user-friendly environment. The ability to integrate graphics, text, and sound into a single tool means that novice users do not have to struggle with such a steep learning curve. In addition, organizations and individuals can create home pages independently and link to other home pages on their own computers or to pages created by others on different computer systems. For educators, the WWW provides an exciting new opportunity for distance teaching and learning. The WWW can be used by the distance educator to build a classroom home page. The home page can cover information about the class including the syllabus, exercises, literature references, and instructor's biography. The instructor can also provide links to information on the WWW that would be useful to students in the class (e.g., research data on agricultural markets, global climate change, or space missions). Other links can access library catalogs or each student's individual home page. In addition, the home page can link students to a discussion list or listserv that set up for student communication. It is also a relatively simple matter to use the homepage to create forms that students can fill out and that will end up being sent to the instructor as an e-mail message. In this study, a distance education program for "Heat Transfer", a course in the Food Engineering curriculum, has been developed via "Hyper Text Marked Language" (HTML). In order to provide interaction which plays an important role in education, programming language Java has been used. There are several reasons for choosing HTML for developing such an instructive programme; one of them is HTML being portable. Regardless of the system being used, it is possible to see and utilize what has been prepared. The possibility of accessing a large number of people through Internet, and the HTML, being portable, are the other reasons for choosing HTML. In the project, the whole course text has been written with HTML, and the example problems have been prepared with Java. Java is an object-oriented computer prograrriming language whose usage has been increased rapidly in the last 2-3 years. Major reason why Java has become so common is that it is portable. What is meant by "portable" is that a Java programme prepared in a system can easily work in another system. The importance of this will be more clearly understood when the variation of computers and systems connected to Internet, is taken into consideration. Another reason is that the programs are small and they occupy little space. In addition to problems, a program for unit conversion, and another for calculating the properties of water and air, have been prepared with Java. In the problems, questions have been defined, and the parameters have been given in such a way that they can be changed by the user within certain limits. This way, the result and sometimes the solution of the problems can be changed with different parameters. This provides a reaction of the programme to the user, in other words "interaction". Also, the programme includes a property by which the user can listen to the classical music and links to related Internet addresses. It has become a need to use the rapidly developing technology in every stage of life, in order to adapt to the era we live in. Considering education as one of the biggest investments for a country, the necessity of giving priority to related topics is more clearly understood. For this reason, our country must start working on distance education via Internet, which is being highly developed throughout the world. Inspired with this idea, this project has been designed in such a way as to assist to XI "Heat Transfer", a course in Food Engineering. It is expected that this project will enlighten the way to the coming studies on distance education.