Courseware ZČU
Following the example of prestigious foreign universities, UWB introduced, as the first university in the Czech Republic, the idea of courseware. The aim is to gather all information and teaching materials in an electronic version as help for students and teachers.
The system is sufficiently comprehensive and user-friendly that it meets the needs of all University Faculties. Its primary advantage is the maximum integration and extraction of the information entered into the study administration and information system IS/STAG and other UWB systems. Courseware is integrated into the University Portal website, which is operated with the IBM WebSphere Portal technology.
Information for teachers
By placing the webpage of your subject into Courseware, you get several benefits:
- easy editing of the webpage without prior technical knowledge,
- connection to IS/STAG and, therefore, automatic update of information (schedules, abstracts of students' works, staff information, etc.),
- secure access to information without the need to set up additional passwords for your students,
- other features that are not available on standard webpages, or are difficult to implement (discussions, electronic submission of works, etc.).
- the possibility of sharing documents with selected groups of students, such as with students of a course, all university students, or everyone using the internet.
There is a coursemaster at each Faculty, who knows how to use both Courseware and the University Portal. The coursemaster is, therefore, the contact person whom you can contact to solve problems and suggest ideas related to Courseware and Portal webpages of a course. The list of coursemasters and their e-mail addresses:
If you want to have a webpage of your subject in UWB Courseware, contact the coursemaster.
The history of the UWB courseware project
The full project name was "Improving access to electronic learning materials of selected study programmes at UWB" . The project was financed within the operational programme Human Resources Development, according to Section 3.2., and it was co-financed from the state budget and the European Structural Fund.
The project aimed at gathering information and materials in an electronic version from more than 600 courses (from about 4100 taught at UWB) and their presentation in a unified form and single structure . Thanks to the project, students can access information simply and transparently, either during their studies, or when creating an individual study plan , and teachers can provide them with all information quickly and easily.
The target group were students of twelve Bachelor's degree programmes. Five of the seven UWB Faculties participated in the project: The Faculty of Applied Sciences, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the Faculty of Education and Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art. The group of selected students (based on information obtained from IS/STAG) included 4,500 people in one academic year.
The project was scheduled for the period June 2006 - June 2008. The results and experience were used for a smooth introduction and operation of Courseware at other Faculties.
