Papers by Lyubka Aleksieva
AIP Conference Proceedings, Dec 31, 2022
Pedagogika-Pedagogy
STEM is an increasingly high-priority educational field on a global and national scale, which aim... more STEM is an increasingly high-priority educational field on a global and national scale, which aims to prepare young people from an early age for active participation in their own future. This is evident in various international and national programs and projects, and the efforts of many scientists are focused on preparing teachers to use appropriate integrative approaches to STEM education. The present study is also in this domain, and it focuses on the perspectives, attitudes and preparation of primary school teachers for teaching STEM, which build the basis of their competences in this area. For this purpose, at the end of the academic year 2021/2022, an online survey was conducted with 150 primary teachers. It included questions in different aspects related to teachers' readiness for STEM education (their knowledge, preparation, attitudes, and perspectives). The results of the study demonstrate the positive attitude of primary teachers towards teaching STEM, but also highligh...
Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols, 2018
Distance education is becoming more and more popular in higher education in Bulgaria and it is in... more Distance education is becoming more and more popular in higher education in Bulgaria and it is increasingly preferred by the students from all age groups. In order to provide quality education, hig...
Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols, 2018
Constantly emerging new technologies have a significant impact on higher education-both positive ... more Constantly emerging new technologies have a significant impact on higher education-both positive and negative. One of the negative aspects of using technology for education and especially for assessment is its potential to support academic dishonesty, namely to facilitate students in cheating and plagiarism. On the other hand, it provides an opportunity for academic staff to control academic dishonesty. These opportunities have not been researched enough and the contexts in which technology is able to prevent cheating and plagiarism have not been clearly determined. To address academic dishonesty, the European Commission funded TeSLA project has defined and developed a system which ensures the authentication of learners' identity and authorship in online and blended learning environments. This paper investigates the impact of technology on cheating and plagiarism from the perspective of teachers and students from Sofia University (Bulgaria) related to both aspects of facilitation and prevention/control of such behaviour. Two online surveys with 100 academic staff and 239 bachelor and master degree students from Sofia University were conducted. The results revealed that the technology affects the opportunities for dishonest behaviour in assessment differently in the three studied contexts: 1) face-to-face exams; 2) submission of paper assignments, prepared in the absence of a teacher; 3) submission of online assignments prepared in the absence of a teacher; but mainly modifies the means of cheating rather than encouraging academic dishonesty. Technological solutions for dealing with cheating and plagiarism proposed by the respondents also appeared to be dependent on the assessment context.
E-learning has never been so proliferated as it was and still is at a time of global Covid-19 pan... more E-learning has never been so proliferated as it was and still is at a time of global Covid-19 pandemic when higher education institutions globally were forced to switch to fully online education. The strengths and weakness of e-learning have long been discussed in the literature. Most of the claimed strengths depend on an appropriate pedagogy approach with a combination of relevant technologies. At the same time the limitations are mainly associated with the technological issues arising in the context of e-learning. Teachers' perspectives on the benefits and limitations of e-learning are seriously affected by a number of factors, such as their digital competences and experience in e-learning. The study of these factors and their effect on teachers’ perspectives could support the increase of the objectivity of teachers’ evaluation and attitudes towards e-learning in general. Thus this research aimed to identify the impact of experience of Sofia University (SU) academic staff in forced introduction of online education on their views and perspectives about e-learning and its strengths and limitations in particular. The research method was an online survey, conducted at the end of the academic 2019/2020 with 383 teachers from all 16 SU faculties. The paper focused on three main aspects – 1) teachers’ experience in online education before and during pandemic; 2) teachers’ views on strengths and weaknesses of e-learning; and 3) the impact of their experience on their views. Findings from data analysis revealed the existence of statistical dependencies between the experience in e-learning and the digital competencies of teachers before the pandemic, on the one hand, and different aspects of the online teaching during the pandemic, such as: the choice of e-learning environment; the ratio of synchronous / asynchronous forms of online learning; the frequency and variety of using e-resources in teaching and in supporting students’ self-preparation; the tools and forms of e-assessment, on the other hand. It appeared that far more negative attitudes are formed in inexperienced teachers, which in turn has affected their assessments of benefits and limitations that quality e-learning provides for students - they did not recognize the strengths of e-learning proven in theory and practice and exaggerated its negative aspects. Thus conclusions imposed that the forced introduction of online education has enriched the experience of teachers in this form of education, but also has discredited its quality from their perspective.
Годишник на Педагогически факултет, Тракийски университет
Early STEM education has a great potential to support children's development in building thei... more Early STEM education has a great potential to support children's development in building their knowledge, in designing, discussing and testing ideas and finding solutions to different problems. Teachers have an essential role in the STEM process, but this role is shifted from the traditional leading role to a supportive facilitating role. In order to extend learning beyond the classroom and create positive experiences for children, a key factor is the involvement of parents in this process. Parent involvement could be seriously influenced by the knowledge, attitudes and practices of preschool teachers, and therefore their exploration is very important. It could help for planning and designing more effective training for preschool teachers both during their academic preparation and within qualification courses. Accordingly, this paper presents the results of a study with preschool teachers within the framework of the Erasmus+ European multilateral project "STEM for preschool...
Mathematics and Informatics, 2021
Early STEM education has a great potential to support children’s development in constructing thei... more Early STEM education has a great potential to support children’s development in constructing their own knowledge, in designing, discussing and testing ideas and finding solutions to different problems. Significant role in achieving the goals of STEM education is played by the teacher, who scaffolds the learning process, builds a creative learning environment, provokes children with open questions and guides them to test their hypothesis as young scientists, mathematicians, engineers and technology users. Preschool teachers’ knowledge and perspectives could seriously influence their practices in STEM education and respectively, the fulfilment of STEM learning outcomes. It is very important to explore in depth teachers’ views and experiences thus to plan and provide appropriate courses for their academic preparation or continuous professional development. While reviewing some popular misconceptions for STEM education amongst teachers, this paper presents the results of pre- and post-i...
Анотация: Статията разглежда приложението на международния стандарт за качество Epprobate в дизай... more Анотация: Статията разглежда приложението на международния стандарт за качество Epprobate в дизайна на университетския електронен курс "Информационни технологии в началното училище" за магистри от Факултета по начална и предучилищна педагогика, СУ "Св. Кл. Охридски". Чрез представяне на разнообразни примери се акцентира върху практическите аспекти на приложението на критериите на Epprobate. Правят се изводи за важноста на спазването на авторските права и необходимостта от технологична подкрепа на преподавателите при проектирането на електронни курсове. Ключови думи: качество на електронното обучение, Epprobate, дизайн на електронно обучение, електронен курс Abstract: The paper describes how quality standard Epprobate was implemented in the design of the university e-course "ICT in primary education", intended for students in Master Degree Programmes of Faculty of Primary and Preschool Education, Sofia University. It focuses on practical aspects of imple...
In this presentation, we will discuss a pilot study (carried out at seven universities across Eur... more In this presentation, we will discuss a pilot study (carried out at seven universities across Europe including the Open University and involving more than 300 students) which investigated a prototype online assessment authentication system currently in development by the EU-funded TeSLA project (http://tesla-project.eu, EU H2020 Grant Agreement: 688520). TeSLA (Adaptive trust-based e-assessment system for learning) aims to allow the vast numbers of learners enrolled in online learning programmes to participate in secure online assessment. It uses a range of software technologies to help authenticate learner authorship: voice/face recognition, keystroke pattern detection, anti-plagiarism and writing style (forensic) analysis.
Education and Technologies Journal, Aug 15, 2017
Online learning has the potential to overcome the geographic and demographic restrictions of the ... more Online learning has the potential to overcome the geographic and demographic restrictions of the physical environment, as well as to improve the quality of learning content and pedagogical interaction. This explains the widespread penetration of technology into the traditional forms of education through the so-called blended learning-a pedagogical approach that combines the effectiveness and socialization opportunities of the classroom with the technologically enhanced active learning possibilities of the online environment. This report presents an author's model of blended learning called a "Virtual Guest Teacher" and the results of its pilot implementation in kindergarten during the school year 2016-2017. The model is based on the project-based learning approach supported by remote lecturers. Online teachers interact with the children in the traditional classroom through a virtual classroom. At the end of the pilot school year, the model implementation was assessed by the preschool teachers in expert evaluation forms according to predefined criteria. The collected data showed an increased interest in the learning content and raised children's motivation for an active participation in the learning process. The report ends with conclusions and ideas for the future implementation of the model.
Knowledge International Journal, 2019
Digitization in education is an evolving process which affects different aspects of education wor... more Digitization in education is an evolving process which affects different aspects of education worldwide and Bulgaria is also following this tendency. One of the tools for digitalization of education is the use of electronic resources (e-resources). Different e-resources have been adopted increasingly in primary school classrooms making them an integral part of education. European policies are also supporting e-resources usage – a European Parliament resolution on New Technologies and Open Educational Resources42 encourages the study and dissemination of good practices in order to support the efficient use of electronic resources in education, as well as conducting research to evaluate teachers' competences for the use of educational e-resources. However, there are limited researches in the literature about the use of e-resources in primary education and their findings are far from consistent (Chu et al., 2010). In the currently existing literature, the main emphasis is on the ad...
INTED2019 Proceedings, 2019
This paper presents evidences from a systematic research of disabled and non-disabled students of... more This paper presents evidences from a systematic research of disabled and non-disabled students of Sofia University (Bulgaria) regarding their views and attitudes towards the e-assessment and the use of a software for authentication and plagiarism detection. The data analysis identifies significant variances in the views and attitudes of these two groups towards e-authentication and authorship checking system TeSLA and its instruments: face recognition, voice recognition, keystroke dynamics, forensic analysis and plagiarism detection. Although most of the students express positive attitudes towards the TeSLA system in general, the disabled students show significant differences in their views and beliefs due to difficulties they face in relation to accessibility and usability of the system as a whole and its instruments in particular. Differences are also outlined with regards to the willingness of disabled and non-disabled students to share the personal data which TeSLA instruments capture. The data analysis shows that the factor "type of disability" plays a significant role in determination of these differences. The conclusions of the data analysis would be useful for the university managers and the academic community in the process of integrating software for learner authentication and plagiarism detection in e-assessment.
INTED2019 Proceedings, 2019
Students' trust is a key component in the organizations working in a very competitive env... more Students' trust is a key component in the organizations working in a very competitive environment as universities. Online assessment is also dependant on trust, and it should be considered as a very important factor for successful assessment. One of the discussed in the literature factors that can support the provision of trusted online assessment is the use of student's authentication and authorship checking system. The focus of this study is on the use of such system developed by a project funded by EU Horizon 2020 ICT Programme-TeSLA and the way it affects students' trust in online assessment. The study examines the attitudes of Sofia University (Bulgaria) students who used different TeSLA instruments or combinations of them in their course assessments during the academic year 2017/2018. It discusses whether the students found the e-authenticated assessment trustworthy and reliable alternative to traditional face-to-face assessments. Data includes two questionnaires (pre-and post-) completed respectively by 465/342 students. The results indicated a non-significant effect of student authentication and authorship checking system on students' trust and revealed the specific impact of the different authentication instruments.
Journal of Academic Ethics, 2019
EDULEARN18 Proceedings, 2018
This paper presents a case study carried out at Sofia University in Bulgaria, describing the rela... more This paper presents a case study carried out at Sofia University in Bulgaria, describing the relationship between two developments, firstly an expanding involvement with online learning and e-assessment, and secondly the development of institutional approaches to academic integrity. The two developments interact, the widening use of e-learning and e-assessment raising new issues for academic integrity, and the technology providing new tools to support academic integrity, with the involvement in technological developments acting as a catalyst for changes in approaches to academic integrity. The aim of this study is to describe in what ways the integration of technologies for student authentication and authorship checking in this university has begun to influence teachers' approach to academic integrity, and has also helped to identify specific issues that need to be resolved for the future of academic integrity in the university. Data collected during the implementation of pilots for the project TeSLA-An adaptive trust-based eassessment system-enabled an examination of the perspectives of administrators, teachers and students on approaches to cheating and plagiarism, and on possible future directions. The data suggests that the piloting of the TeSLA system has triggered a deepening consideration of approaches to academic integrity, and has also helped to identify important issues for future developments.
Abstract. The ubiquity of technology in the last decades has transformed education, accelerated t... more Abstract. The ubiquity of technology in the last decades has transformed education, accelerated the development of elearning and has placed a lot of challenges to the higher education institutions in terms of students’ assessment. These potential challenges of e-assessment slowed down the process of its proliferation to some extent but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the introduction of e-assessment in all educational stages, and in most cases institutions had to “switch, almost overnight, to online teaching and virtual education” [1]. This study aims to identify the impact of students’ experience from one of the leading Bulgarian universities – Sofia University (SU) in forced introduction of e-assessment on their views and perspectives about it. The research method is an online survey, conducted at the end of the semester in
academic year 2019/2020 and students from all 16 SU faculties were invited to take part. The paper focuses on three main aspects – 1) students experience in e-assessment during pandemic; 2) students’ views on e-assessment; and 3) the impact
of their experience in e-assessment on their views. Findings from data analysis reveal that students were mostly summative assessed through course works (artefacts) submissions and tests, and the use of different types of formative assessment was
very limited. The technologies utilised for the assessments by academic staff were also very deficient. These results demonstrate that most of the teachers transferred their experience and approaches to students’ assessment from face-toface to the online environment without adaptation and modification to specifics of the latter. This decreased to a certain extent the trust of students in e-assessment and reinforced their preference to face-to-face assessment. Conclusions impose the need for advanced training of academic staff in the field of e-learning and e-assessment design.
DOWNLOAD FULL PAPER: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/5.0041862.
Uploads
Papers by Lyubka Aleksieva
academic year 2019/2020 and students from all 16 SU faculties were invited to take part. The paper focuses on three main aspects – 1) students experience in e-assessment during pandemic; 2) students’ views on e-assessment; and 3) the impact
of their experience in e-assessment on their views. Findings from data analysis reveal that students were mostly summative assessed through course works (artefacts) submissions and tests, and the use of different types of formative assessment was
very limited. The technologies utilised for the assessments by academic staff were also very deficient. These results demonstrate that most of the teachers transferred their experience and approaches to students’ assessment from face-toface to the online environment without adaptation and modification to specifics of the latter. This decreased to a certain extent the trust of students in e-assessment and reinforced their preference to face-to-face assessment. Conclusions impose the need for advanced training of academic staff in the field of e-learning and e-assessment design.
DOWNLOAD FULL PAPER: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/5.0041862.
academic year 2019/2020 and students from all 16 SU faculties were invited to take part. The paper focuses on three main aspects – 1) students experience in e-assessment during pandemic; 2) students’ views on e-assessment; and 3) the impact
of their experience in e-assessment on their views. Findings from data analysis reveal that students were mostly summative assessed through course works (artefacts) submissions and tests, and the use of different types of formative assessment was
very limited. The technologies utilised for the assessments by academic staff were also very deficient. These results demonstrate that most of the teachers transferred their experience and approaches to students’ assessment from face-toface to the online environment without adaptation and modification to specifics of the latter. This decreased to a certain extent the trust of students in e-assessment and reinforced their preference to face-to-face assessment. Conclusions impose the need for advanced training of academic staff in the field of e-learning and e-assessment design.
DOWNLOAD FULL PAPER: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/5.0041862.