Leonardo da Vinci

Community Vocational Training Action Programme

Second phase: 2000-2006

Pilot project entitled

“Internet-based vocational training of communication students, engineers, and technicians”

Summary

In the project we will develop, within the transnational networks of partners, a good-quality package of simulation experiments for distance learning and continuous education in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT). The simulation experiments (demos, exercises) will be accessible on the Internet. The set of simulation experiments will be mostly written in Java – a standard language used for such purposes, as well as in similar programming environments.

The experiments cover the following areas of telecommunications: information transport networks, protocols, receiver algorithms, coding and decoding, trellis coding modulations, multiple access methods, digital signal processing, simulation methods, image processing, multimedia, digital circuits design, etc. The set of experiments can be partitioned into smaller groups using different criteria. The groups of experiments create several different vocational training courses in ICT.

The purpose of each experiment is to illustrate a device operation, to explain a procedure, protocol or algorithm, to describe design steps, to analyse a solution or its characteristics.

The distance education material will be available not only on the Internet but also on compact discs, if necessary. Each of the experiments contains control questions, problems to solve, or other means that enable a student to check his understanding of the subject.

The experiments can support university courses, courses for enterprises, as well as self- training.

The primary target groups are students of electronics and telecommunications as well as ICT students at the partner universities, and people from industry who require ICT vocational training to become more competitive or to obtain state-of-the-art ICT knowledge.

Two reasons for the project subject formulation and for dissemination of the project-developed educational materials must be emphasised.

First, due to the amount of tutorials (articles) available on the WEB, the real need is now the providing of good-quality simulation experiments (demos, exercises). They fulfil a great demand for qualified vocational training in ICT, coming from ICT students, engineers, technicians, and also from other professionals who want to understand and use ICT in their work. ICT establish an important branch of human knowledge and a powerful area of business activities. ICT change very quickly and all people (working in the area, those who finished their ICT education some years ago and millions of people who want to use ICT in their work or for entertainment) need a possibility to grasp new ideas, solutions, and methods. They need continuous education in ICT. The project aims at the very clue of the problem – it prepares state-of-the-art education material (simulation experiments) covering the ICT area.

Second, new Internet application that arrived in the early 1990s, the WWW (World Wide Web), brought millions of new users to the net. Numerous kinds of pages have come into existence in a very short time. In the proposed project we use the ICT-created possibilities to vocational training in the field of ICT. The easy access to the Internet means easy access to the project-developed ICT simulation experiments and the ICT courses. It is followed by a soaring number of potential beneficiaries of our project. It is important for regular students, it is especially important for students who work and study in parallel, it is important for enterprises interested in vocational training of their staff in order to make them more competent and more competitive, it is also important for millions of the Internet users.

Generally speaking – the medium for disseminating the project results is the Internet. As regards the language of the offer, all materials will be first of all offered in the language of ICT – in English. This will enable EU students and professionals to attend the Internet-based courses. If necessary, the courses will be also offered in national languages.