e-Learning course design based on the virtual simulation objects concept

Abstract

Modern society has experienced many advances in science and technology. Educational communities have to respond to these changes quickly to provide students with courses and activities based on the latest achievements in science and technology. In this paper, the authors consider the Virtual Simulation Object Concept (VSO-concept) as it pertains to an e-learning course design using the requirements of reusable learning objects (RLO). This course's design is based on a VSO-project built with the use of computer-aided application packages integrated into the cloud platform for high performance computing called CLAVIRE. This platform enables users to build scientific workflows (SWF) by writing easy instructions regarding package execution in distributed heterogeneous computational environments. VSO is formed from one or more experimentally tested SWFs for solving complex interdisciplinary problems and may be shared with a scientific community for collaborative work and discussions. The proposed approach allows us to create a course quickly: structure, text-based resources, list and stack of virtual learning labs, sets of tools for learning outcomes assessment, etc. The development/changing VSO-project and performing practical works require web-browsers only (the installation of client applications is not required). The example of applying the approach for the course "Public Ground Transport Scheduling" is shown.