Study method

The entire learning and teaching process takes place online. The portal www.zielonagora.site has a dedicated space: the Educational Virtual Space , where learning and teaching take place in five languages: Italian, French, English, Greek and Arabic. The online learning environment is transferred directly to the student’s desk: lessons, multimedia products, databases, exercises, assessment and self-assessment systems, online supervision, forums, chat, chat, wiki topics.

Educational virtual space

Educational activities are carried out on the Internet in a special web area called the educational virtual space. In the educational virtual space, the learning and teaching process is carried out and the method of access varies from one user to another, but it is done using login information and password and is customized based on the role of the actors in the educational process: supervisors, teachers and students. The three categories of users can access the same information for each teaching material. In particular, the teacher and supervisor can modify or replace teaching materials and add new study materials for the duration of the teaching of the material, while the student has his own space where he can enter data, information and personal notes.
The student can access:

The page dedicated to the subject teacher;
To the admin page.

Student webpage: Each student in the virtual space has his own space where he enters: the educational planning in a personal way and linked to the individual courses, the agenda that allows the display of the appointments set by the supervisor and “My lessons today on TV” with the display of the schedule of the video lessons that will be broadcast on the satellite channel of the activated educational courses. In his page, the student can monitor and control his entire learning process.

Online supervision / virtual classrooms: Online supervision is organized in classes of 20 or 30 students, with an advanced schedule capable of identifying each user and customizing the training intervention. An advanced qualitative and quantitative tracking system allows to continuously monitor the learning process of each student.
Remote supervision activities occur as follows:

Synchronously, using chat, video chat and virtual halls, these tools are activated in the educational virtual space, and the 3D classroom activated in the knowledge island of the University of Zielona Gora remotely on Second Life;
Asynchronously, through tools such as forums, wikis, and social networks.
The virtual classroom is the environment in which direct interaction takes place between professors, supervisors and students, where they share knowledge.
In virtual classrooms, interactive practical exercises, intermediate assessment tests are held, and dialogue and learning take place in a collaborative and participatory manner.

Virtual classrooms in the University of Zielona Gora Knowledge Island on Second Life: In the University of Zielona Gora Knowledge Island, student avatars and supervisors/teachers avatars interact with their voices in a 3D world on Second Life. They conduct practical exercises, assessment tests, video conferences and live practical activities are managed by avatars and professors/teachers. Students and teachers build and share knowledge with people from different political, cultural and religious realities; different cultures dialogue and meet, they activate social atmosphere processes and create new knowledge.

Chat, forums, wikis and social networks: Through these tools, virtual communities of learning are created. During the course or phase of delivering and pumping the course, chat topics are organized according to specific contents and forums, wikis and social networks where students ask questions, express their opinions and discuss the content of these courses. In these virtual spaces, intelligences are connected, knowledge is exchanged and learning develops. The cultures and ideas of professors, supervisors and students from different countries of the world confront each other in a continuous flow of mutual relations.

Learning Environment

The learning environments where the teaching materials that make up the contents of the courses are available are entered on the course professor’s page and on the supervisor’s page : dei corsi:

Video Library:

The digital video lessons are the starting point of the learning process. Each video lesson is divided into topics and indexed in order to give the student the opportunity to follow either the entire video lesson or to choose a specific topic to delve into. Each topic is linked by hyperlinks and multimedia to articles, books, texts of exercises, virtual laboratories, references specific to the topic itself, and lists of websites (links to websites of interest to the educational material, selected by teachers and supervisors).

Online exercises:

This section includes interactive online exercises related to the topics of the video lessons

Virtual Lab:

It is an environment in which the student, through the process of “learning by doing”, integrates theory with application.

Who is teaching

According to Article 15 of the Constitution or Regulations of the University of Zielona Gora and as stated in the General Regulations of the University, approved by the Ministry of Education on March 16, 2013, in Chapter III, “Teaching and Faculty”, Article 17 “Faculty and Researchers”, Paragraph 3, and following:

Article 15 of the Statutes states that the faculty members who will perform the function of teaching and scientific research in accordance with the models of the University of Zielona Gora education delivery through Internet and satellite networks (Internet, television, videoconferencing systems) are divided into the following types:

Sector or field professors, who coordinate the educational activities according to the educational curriculum sectors;
Content authors professors, who produce video lessons and test the contents and educational materials to be introduced into the educational environments of the educational portal;
Supervisors, who monitor the students’ learning processes using technologies;

Field Professor:

Coordinates the research and teaching activities of the disciplines related to the educational fields linked to the categories of the degree certificates defined by the Poland Ministry of Education;

Identifies and proposes to the Faculty Council, professors and supervisors the video contents and other possible contents to be included in the portal;
Identifies and proposes to the supervisors who follow the activities of the students in the educational paths; Given the fundamental role played by the supervisor in the educational model – learning at the university, the supervisors, together with the field professors, chair the examination boards;
Organizes, in collaboration with the supervisors, the program of educational materials specific to the field;
Ensures the educational planning of the educational materials related to the field;
Coordinates the work of the supervisors.

Professor Author and Content Creator:

Produces the video lessons
Prepares the educational materials and their subsequent connection to all the topics of the video lessons to be included in the appropriate place on the portal.
In particular,

the professors who create the contents are selected by the Faculty Councils and appointed by the Board of Directors. When the purpose is to prepare the contents of the courses in different languages ​​(Arabic, English, French, Greek, etc.), special mixed scientific committees are formed, which are composed of professors from and international universities, in particular from professors from universities for courses in , from the best universities in Egypt, Syria, Morocco, and the countries of the southern Mediterranean for courses in Arabic, from the best American and British universities for courses in English, and from French high schools for courses in French.

These are the mixed scientific committees, which, according to the criteria of excellence, select the professors who are the authors of the contents for the different courses and scientific and specialized sectors. These professors continue to work at the universities of origin and have contracts with theUniversity of Zielona Gora , called copyright contracts.

The supervisor manages the students’ learning processes by setting up synchronous teaching methods (videoconferences, chat, video chat) and asynchronous methods (forums and wikis).
The value of excellence in pumping the university course remotely stems mainly from the quality of the contents offered. If the quality is guaranteed from a technical point of view thanks to the organized engineering structure and thanks to the technical standards used, from a content point of view, ensuring the highest level of quality is provided by excellence in the presence of national and international professors who have been called upon to design and implement video lessons for each educational course and provide in-depth content related to the video lessons, which are slides, texts, notes, articles and selected references, and the selection of websites related to the topics of the video lessons, virtual laboratories and exercises.

The authorized professors at the university are the professors of the educational field and supervisors.a

Technologies

The technologies used are the Internet, satellite television and videoconferencing systems. Satellite transmitting and receiving antennas have created a technological network, and thanks to broadband Internet systems, as well as via satellite, they have allowed all partners to communicate and exchange knowledge, produce and transmit knowledge. With the Rai Nettuno Sat 1 television network, which broadcasts 24 hours a day, open and clear university lectures, using the Hot Bird 13° East satellite via Eutelsat, covering all of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, the International Telematic University has been able to democratize access to knowledge.

Research activities

The University’s research activities address the development of research on technologies applied to educational processes. These activities involve international students from different disciplines (technologists, computer scientists, psychologists, experts in different languages). The research is based on a strong interaction between theoretical and experimental, pure and applied activity.

The results of these activities have enabled us to identify new ways of implementing teaching and learning processes face-to-face or at a distance, which have had a significant impact on theories relating to learning processes and teaching methods, and the relationship of distance interaction. From an economic point of view, the results have also provided the basis for the development of new organizational models for the distance university and new models for e-learning. The research activities of the faculties are research related to specific topics for each faculty.

The faculty has established specific structures, also in agreement with research laboratories of traditional universities, and with research centers in the public or private sectors, or foreign. This allows the faculties of the Distance University to have advanced laboratories to conduct research in each area of ​​interest.