As part of the national pilot project “e-Schools: Establishing a System for Developing Digitally Mature Schools,” conducted by the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNet and its partners, digital educational content (DECs) has been developed for 7th and 8th-grade primary school students and teachers, as well as 1st and 2nd-grade secondary school students and teachers in STEM subjects (chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics).
There are a total of sixteen DECs (four for each subject mentioned), which will be published in stages throughout the school year to also enable the said subjects to be learned via the Internet.
DECs are contents intended for use in education, and, apart from the textual and visual elements, may also contain audio, video, and other multimedia and interactive elements. DECs are not textbooks, nor any replacement for them, but are developed within the e-Schools pilot project in order to encourage even more active application of information and communication technology in learning and teaching, and are accessible in Edutorij.
Edutorij is a type of digital library, also developed as part of a pilot project. It allows teachers, students, and schools to centrally search for and access educational materials. Edutorij will also serve as a platform for teachers and publishers to issue their digital course materials. It will offer the ability to search by many criteria, with content organized by school subjects and scientific fields.
Besides the students and teachers from 151 schools included in the pilot project, the Edutorij content will also be available to all other schools that are not participating in the e-Schools project implementation. Furthermore, the Edutorij will be accessible to the general public who are not members of the academic or educational community, provided they register first through an online form.
“DECs have been prepared as open educational resources under the Creative Commons license, which enables the free-of-charge use, processing, and distribution of educational materials and data. Access to such content enables flexible and creative classes and learning in different environments – at school, in field classes, and at home. The created DECs also enable different forms of work – lectures, individual work, pair work, or group work – and can be used on different platforms, on various types of mobile or desk devices, in both online and offline environments,” says Branka Vuk, CARNet's assistant director for educational support.
Suppliers of the mentioned digital educational contents are the Profil Klett publishing house (with subcontractors UX Passion and the Inclusive Support Centre “IDEM”) and Algebra (with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing as subcontractor). Profil Klett has been entrusted with the production of DECs in chemistry and biology, while the DECs in mathematics and physics are prepared by Algebra. Special attention has been paid to the inclusivity and accessibility of materials for users, including those using assistive technologies, during the preparation of these contents, making sure the materials were created in a way that allows for their adaptation for children with developmental difficulties.
Numerous experts participated in the preparation of these DECs (for example, Toni Milun, one of the best-known Croatian mathematics teachers, Saša Ceci, a physicist from the Ruđer Bošković Institute, and Lidija Kralj, the current Assistant to the Minister of Science and Education, prior to assuming that role). To properly include all areas in the preparation of digital educational content and teacher guides, the content has undergone reviews for subject matter, methodology, inclusivity, and technical accuracy. CARNet hires prominent experts to conduct these reviews as independent external reviewers, and the reviews are ongoing throughout the duration of the contract between the contractor and CARNet.
To view the DECs within the Edutorij website, please visit https://edutorij.e-skole.hr/share/page/dos-eskole.