Introduction of the Information and Reference System "Unibell" in the Educational Environment Institution of Higher Education

Abstract

Scientific work is aimed to identifying problem areas during distance educational process and to development of services that could help of solving them. Empirical methods and methods of real-life observation were used to collect the initial data for study. Processing of the obtained data is performed on the basis of using analytical methods and methods of expert evaluations. This allowed to identify weaknesses at distance education organization and to form a list of necessary services, which development and implementation will improve the quality of distance and inpatient educational process and education situation generally. The study identified and characterized the range of internal stakeholders of the educational environment, to meet the needs of which the development of these services is aimed. The results of empirical observations are presented using of set theory. To identify priority of declared services on the range for immediate implementation were provided their detailed analysis that showed high needs of an informational reference system development for remote access to the schedule with its further integration into educational environment. The proposed system is called "UniBell". This system is the part of education project "Smart-University", the main purpose of which is to integrate Universities into modern digital environment. Also, study defined the term "Smart University" or "Smart Educational Environment" and described main functionalities, general architecture and features of separate client as well as server parts of the "UniBell" service. Furthermore, features of additional subsystems of server part management, implemented with the use of software technologies.Net, Java and the language of structured queries SQL were highlighted. The model of client-server architecture, as well as algorithms for accounting and control of the training schedule have formed the basis for the development of an existing application for the Android operating system with the ability to download it via Google Play. The analysis of educational process virtualization has identified the main factors that may affect the educational process quality in the format of distance learning. The results of the analysis have become the basis for developing the architecture and algorithm of information system "UniBell" tasked to organize remote access to the training schedule using mobile technology. Using the conceptual apparatus of set theory, the volumes of internal stakeholders are investigated have been characterized, which provides a solid basis and target audience for further research on the effectiveness of the developed system in the Lviv State University of Life Safety educational environment.