E-LEARNING SCHOOL OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS · 1 E-LEARNING SCHOOL OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On 15th September 2011 the first e-learning program for students

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E-LEARNING SCHOOL OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYOn 15th September 2011 the first e-learning program for students in the area of democ-racy and human rights was launched in Serbia. The „E-learning School of Democracy and Human Rights” was developed and implemented by Partners for Democratic Change Ser-bia (Partners Serbia) and Committee for Human Rights in Nis (CHRIN), with the support of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia. During the previous 12 months, Partners Serbia and CHRIN, with the IT support of the Metropoli-tan University Faculty for Information Technologies (FIT) from Belgrade developed this internet based training program on core democratic and human rights values, for a pilot group of 150 university students through-out Serbia. The first E-learning program ended on 31 December 2011.

Program descriptionInitially planned as a 10-lecture program for a target group of 100 students, the cur-riculum finally included 11 lectures that were made available to participants via in-ternet during the period of 15 September to 31 December 2011. This innovative pro-gram included presentations of the most prominent national experts in this field, and eventually attracted participation of 146 students from 35 cities and 26 universities from all parts of Serbia. E-learning lectures consisted of video and audio presentations, power-point presenta-tions, practical examples and exercises. At the end of each lesson, the participants were offered a mini-test (self-evaluation).

E-learning curriculum included the following topics presented by the most prominent lecturers:• TheroleoftheCommissionerfortheProtectionofEqualityinCombatingDiscrimination

– Nevena Petrusic, Commissioner for Protection of Equality;• FreeAccesstoInformationofPublicImportance – Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for

Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection;• OmbudsmanoftheRepublicofSerbia – Sasa Jankovic, State Ombudsman of the Re-

public of Serbia; • PersonalDataProtection − Aleksandar Resanovic, Deputy Commissioner for Infor-

mation of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection; • ProhibitionofDiscriminationandtheMostDiscriminatedGroups − Goran Miletic, Direc-

tor for Western Balkans, Civil Right Defenders;

E-learning program included 146 partici-pants from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kraguje-vac, Požarevac, Sombor, Kruševac, Subotica, Novi Pazar, Prokuplje, Gnjilane, Novi Bečej, Bajina Bašta, Užice, Pančevo, Lazarevac, Pri-boj, Čačak, Smederevo, Vranje, Petrovara-din, Zrenjanin, Obrenovac, Sjenica, Kraljevo, Vrbas, Paraćin, Zaječar, Aleksinac, Loznica, Velika Plana, Smederevska Palanka, Kosov-ska Mitrovica, and Majdanpek.

Best aspects of the E-learning program (participants’ comments):„Selectedtutors,diversityofthelectures,tutors’knowledge,clarityofthepresentations.”„Abilitytopauseandcontinuewiththelectureatmyconvenience,andprogramaccessibilityfromanyplace.“„Usinginternetineducation,andprogramattendanceinaccordancewithpersonalandprofessionalavailability.”

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• IntroductiontotheStudyofHumanRights – prof. Vojin Dimitrijevic, Belgrade Center for Human Rights

• CorruptionandGoodGovernance – Nemanja Nenadic, Program Director, Transparency Serbia

• InstrumentsfortheProtectionofHumanRightsinDomesticandInternationalLegalOrder – Vesna Petrovic, Executive Director, Belgrade Center for Human Rights

• TheRighttoaFairTrialandCivilProcedure – prof. Vesna Rakic Vodinelic, Union Univer-sity School of Law

• InstrumentsfortheProtectionofHumanRights - European Convention and European Court of Human Rights – Nenad Vujic, Director, Judicial Academy

• MediaFreedoms– Sasa Gajin, Assistant Professor, Union University School of Law

The participants were selected from univer-sities throughout Serbia through a public call for applications. The announcement was posted on „Infostud”, and over 30 other web sites, sent to 250 e-mail addresses, while the poster was displayed on 15 universities and higher education institutions. An on-line application form was developed for the candidates. In total, 236 candidates applied for the program. The selection was performed on the basis of their capacity and potential to become future decision makers - leaders in their communities. Initially, 104 candidates were selected for participation. Due to this increased demand and interest in the project, Partners Serbia and CHRIN managed to re-negotiate an extension of the program capacity with FIT at no addi-tional cost, hence 146 students were even-tually admitted, while 139 of them actually recorded attendance on the system. Each selected student was assigned a user name and password. Candidates that were not selected received a rejection and expla-nation letter. Partners Serbia and CHRIN re-ceived no objections or complaints on the selection process. Each topic was presented in the form of a recorded lecture with a power-point presentati-on, while a number of additional practical samples was incorporated, such as hyper-links and resources relevant to the lectured topic. Accordingly, the participants were able to follow courses from any computer, in „real-time”, at their own convenience and depending on their daily work schedules.Lectures were recorded at the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) in Belgrade. Each lecture was reviewed by the lecturer and Partners Serbia staff before its publication on the e-learning system. The lectures were recorded between May and September 2011.

Students from the following schools partici-pated in the program:

Belgrade Faculty of Law, Union University Faculty of Law, Nis Faculty of Law, Novi Sad Faculty of Law, Kragujevac Faculty of Law, Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy, Nis Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade Faculty of Philology, Novi Sad Faculty of Political Sciences, Fa-culty of Security Studies, Belgrade Business School, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Belgrade Faculty of Economy, Subotica Fa-culty of Economy, Faculty for Media and Communication Singidunum University, Belgrade Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade Faculty for Special Education and Rehabili-tation, Graduate School of Business Studies Megatrend University, Medical School „Mi-lutin Milankovic” Belgrade, School of Electri-cal Engineering and Computer Science Vo-cational Studies, Belgrade Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Technical College „Mihajlo Pupin” University of Belgrade, Fa-culty of Orthodox Theology, Faculty of Tech-nical Sciences Novi Sad, University Business Academy Novi Sad.

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On-line applicationsAll activities related to this program were performed on-line, such as:

Access to information/Public web-pageApplication/RegistrationLog-inAttendance/Participation/DownloadTechnical supportProgrammatic supportInteractive participationMini-testsMini-project grant applicationMonitoringEvaluation

E-learning Mini-ProjectsFollowing the implementation of the E-learning program, participants were invited to submit mini-project proposals to the organizers, in order to implement and disseminate the acquired knowledge in their universities and communities. In total 8 project propo-sals were submitted by the participants who organized themselves in teams consisting of minimum two members. Each proposal reflected understanding and successful adoption of human rights concepts presented through the E-learning program, as well as the desire for their implementation. Since the budget was limited, four projects that received the highest evaluation were selected for support. More information on the mini-projects is in the next chapter.

MonitoringGiven the nature of the project (on-line program) it was essential to perform effective monitoring. Implementation of the program was constantly monitored by one FIT IT ad-ministrator, and 2 Partners Serbia and CHRIN program administrators. Through the e-le-arning system, administrators could monitor individual attendance in different ways: per participant, per lecture, number of log-ins, total time spent, number of log-ins per lecture, time spent at each lecture, number of components addressed per lecture, etc. During the program, administrators and participants were in constant communication, exchanging information about new additions to the system, resolving problems, and warning „lazy” participants.Monitoring of the program’s implementation revealed that several participants recorded only negligible attendance, while some had no attendance at all. Those participants were sent warning notes. Following the warnings, several participants reported problems with internet connection and access to the program, while others significantly improved their attendance records. Still, 7 participants did not record any attendance on the system.

„Creativity, scope and practi-cal aspects of your School ofDemocracyandHumanRightsaremuchbetter incomparisonwithsomeuniversityprogramsaddressing these issues, yourprogram and tutors are excel-lent”.

(Participant’s comment)

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Evaluation of the program and statistical dataAfter completing the program, participants had an opportunity to evaluate its quality. An eva-luation form, including evaluations for each lecture and for the entire program, was posted on the system. As with the other components, evaluation forms were also completed on-line.Participants were asked to evaluate, in detail, each individual lecturer and the topics cove-red, as well as general technical and program organization of the e-learning program. The entire program received an average rating of very successful or 4.1 (scale 1-5) and can be assessed as very successful. All targets and goals were achieved and exceeded. Expected num-ber of lectures was exceeded by 10%, while the number of participants was higher by 46%.The only component of the e-learning program that was not realized, were direct „live” con-sultations with the lecturers. Monitoring of the program activities revealed that the organi-zation of direct „live” sessions would have required additional preparation and commitment by the lecturers. Due to their official obligations and commitments, some of the lecturers could not have committed any additional time for these direct communications and „live” sessions, therefore it was decided not to implement this component of the program.

Altogether, participants recorded a total of 73876 minutes (1231 hours) of on-line attendance, or an average of 531 minutes per participant (per 139 participants who actually recorded attendance), or 6716 minutes (111 hours) per lecture. The highest attendance for any individual lecture was 12321 minutes (205 hours – the first lecture posted on the system), while most of the lectures recorded between 7000 and 10000 minutes of attendance. The highest individual attendance was 7088 minutes, while 3 participants had over 5000 minutes of usage. 12 participants recorded over 4000 minutes on the system, 18 participants recorded over 3000 minutes of attendance, while 62 participants recorded between 1000-2000 minutes each. There were 43 participants with less than 1000 mi-nutes, and, on the down side, 7 participants with no recorded attendance at all.

Advantages of the e-learning program: • Wide availability - there are no obstacles in terms of distance, schedules and other

circumstances which may complicate access to the lectures. • Participants choose the time and method of accessing the program, since lectures

and materials are constantly available.• Dynamic interaction between participants and lecturers (the possibility of using

forums, chat, tutorials ...). • Individualized instructions (participants’ progress meets the needs and acquired

knowledge in a given field). • Coupled with other electronic sources of information, this method allows for

research on contemporary issues in accordance with participants’ interest. • Permanent or temporary interactions with other sources of information enhance the

development of critical thinking, analysis and reasoning. • The lecturers can be selected among the most prominent experts in the given field

which provides increased quality of the program. • Occasional knowledge assessment throughout the learning phase, in addition to

knowledge evaluation during the interaction with other participants, allows for self-evaluation as well continuous learning and professional development.

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Lessons learned • Constant IT support is essential for the program effectiveness Participants who

experience problems with access and internet connection are most likely to drop out or have reduced attendance;

• participants’ interest by far exceeds the available capacity;• preparation of lecturers takes longer compared to traditional lecturing;• „live” sessions and direct consultations require increased involvement of the lectu-

rers, and early advanced notice and preparation is necessary.

Final Conclusions • According to the evaluations and statistics the project could be rated as „very succe-

ssful”. The average evaluation grade was 4.1 for the entire E-learning program • This specific or modified program can be offered to other students in Serbia, which

involves potentially large target group. • Once launched, the program can be accessed from any part of the world via internet

and at any time. • The Program can be updated, with additional links and supporting documents ad-

ded throughout the duration of the program. • Potential for other target groups with mass interest, especially where a large target

group is required to be trained at the same time (training in relevant fields, innovati-ve legal solutions and practices, etc.).

• Mini-project grants are an excellent method of practical implementation and evalu-ation of the project results.

• Great potential for regional programs. • Any subject can be covered and any target group can be trained using the e-lear-

ning method. Possibilities for expansion of the program are unlimited.

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Final Project Evaluation Overall and specific objectives of the project were fully realized, all results achieved and exceeded, and the activities implemented as planned.

• Internet based E-learning program for next generations of participants was created and tested in practice

• 146 final year university students educated on the core democratic and human rights values

• 11 lectures produced by prominent Serbian democracy and human rights experts representing permanent future educational resource

• Created a cohort of critically oriented, open minded university graduates, trained in democracy and human rights and ready to become leaders – future decision makers in their communities, as evidenced by their very effective mini-projects.

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E-learning mini-projectsFollowing successful production and posting of all lectures on the E-learning system, Par-tners Serbia and CHRIN invited participants to submit mini-project proposals in order to implement and disseminate the acquired knowledge in their universities and commu-nities. In total, 8 project proposals were submitted by the participants of the E-learning program who organized themselves in the teams consisting of minimum two members. Partners Serbia and CHRIN created an Evaluation Committee to consider all received proposals and to establish objective evaluation criteria. The Committee consisted of five members (three representatives of Partners Serbia and two representatives of CHRIN) who were independent and autonomous in ranking. The Committee reviewed and assesed all proposals in detail, and evaluated them based on the following criteria:

-relevance with the field of democracy and human rights, -relevance to the needs of the particular target group(s), -activity plan – clear, coherent and logical, -feasibility and consistency of activities with the results and objectives of the proposal.

The maximum number of points awarded under each category was 40, and a total maximum score for the evaluation of each proposal was 200 points. The following is the final scoring chart:

Title of the project Total score

„Tolerance as a prevention of school violence”

175

„Letter to a woman” 174

„Equal (Truth) to the World” 165

“Personal Data Protection” 153

“Labor Rights” 120

When Your Rights are Violated, Do You Know – Who to Address?” 119

„Non – Discriminator” 117

„I can do it on my own” 89

Each of the proposed projects showed understanding and sensibility for the concepts presented by the E-learning School of Democracy and Human Rights, and initiative for their practicial implementation. Since the budget for these mini-projects was limited (to-tal of 3,000 EUR), the Committe decided to award the top 4 projects from the above list. Tolerance as a Prevention of School Violence aims to increase individual participation of Nis high school students in non-violent conflict resolution, through acceptance of diffe-rencies, combating prejudice and fostering non-violent communication. Letter To a Woman, deals with the problem of domestic violence against women within family and partnership relations in 50 villages on the territory of Kraljevo. Equal (Truth) to the World, aims to utilize internet and social networks to underline the position of marginalised groups in relation to dominant social groups in Serbia. Personal Data Protection project intends to raise awareness of students in Belgrade on consequences of unauthorized processing of personal data.

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„TOLERANCE AS A PREVENTION OF SCHOOL VIOLENCE”Project „Tolerance as a Prevention of School Violence“ was aimed at increasing the participation of high school students in non-violent conflict resolution, through acceptance of differencies, combating prejudice and fostering the quality of non-violent communication. The project team, consisting of Milena Vicic, Milan Matejic and Vladimir Nakic, organized interactive workshops on human rights, conflict prevention and non-violent conflict resoultion for students of two technical schools in Nis. Key lecturers were students of the E-learning program, providing for the specific peer education approach. During the project, more than 500 educational brochures were distributed to students of four technical schools in

Nis. In cooperation with Human Rights Committee Nis, members of the project team had an imortant role in marking the International Human Rights Day, 10 December.

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„LETTER TO A WOMAN”Project „Letter to a Woman“ deals with the problem of violence against women within family and par-tnership relations in order to empower women living in rural areas to recognise the violence and request adequate support in case the violence occurs. The project team, consisting of Milica Jelic and Marko Arandjelovic from Kraljevo, intended to improve general awareness on gender based violence and possibilites for supporting the victims. During the project, 30 volunteers delivered 5000 letters with in-formation on domestic violence, forms of assistance to victims and useful contacts to women living in ru-ral areas in Kraljevo and its surroundings, chosen by random sampling. The project team also created the Facebook page, where inte-rested users can get information on the project, as well as additional information on violence prevention. One of the project results were calls by several victims of domestic violence, who were then advised to get further assistance by relevant institutions and organizations.

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„EQUAL (TRUTH) TO THE WORLD”Project „Equal (Truth) to the World“ was implemented by students from Belgrade: Aleksandra Hegedis, Jovana Mijovic, Mihailo Filipovic and Milos Bukvic, aiming to stress the position of marginalised groups in Serbia. Through an on-line campaign consisting of interviews with representatives of marginalised groups, creation and administration of Facebook group, Youtube channel and Twitter account, as well as creation of email account and on-line forum, project team intended to expolore every-day problems and discrimination faced by representatives of marginalized groups in our society, in order to establish On-line Counseling for combating discrimination. During

the project, four short form movies with interviews with representatives of marginalized groups (persons with HIV/AIDS, deaf persons, Roma and IDPs) were filmed and broadcast. In only three weeks, these movies had more than 2000 views, from almost 40 countries! Furthermore, examples of discrimination cases in Serbia were collected, published and analysed on a daily basis, in order to improve knowlegde and raise public awareness on human rights and fight against discrimination.

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„PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION”Project „Personal Data Protection” was aimed at improving the knowledge and raising awa-reness of University of Belgrade students on possibilities of unauthorized personal data processing. As a part of this project, designed and implemented by Jelena Jovic and Milica Bogdanov, a one-day training for more than 50 students, teaching assistants and professors of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy was organized in Belgrade by the Belgrade Youth Centre. The presenters at the seminar were students of the E-learning program and their colleagues, while the visiting lecturer at the seminar was Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection (Commissioner), who pointed out the possibility of misuse of personal data to the students. During the seminar, students gained insight into the issues on the protection of personal data through interactive workshops and presentations by law students, followed by discussions in working groups on the possibility for implemen-ting the Law on Personal Data Protection in everyday student life. During the discussion with the Commissioner, the students listed various examples of misuse of personal data and were very interested in the existing mechanisms of data protection.

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E-learning program evaluation The total of 114 students completed the evaluation forms. Detailed report on the project is available at www.partners-serbia.org

38 students assessed the program quality as Very high (5), 41 as High (4), 26 as Adequate (3), while 6 students assessed the program as Low (2), and 3 as Very Low (1).

Individual E-learning Program Evaluation

38

41

26

63

0

10

20

30

40

50

Very High High Adequate Low Very Low

4.1

1

2

3

4

5

Average E-learning Program Evaluation Grade

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Selection of the most common participants’ comments:What did you like most about the E-learning program?

-The selected tutors, diversity of the lectures, the tutors’ knowledge, clarity of the presentations

-The ability to pause and continue with the lecture at my convenience and program accessibility from any place

-Internet utilization in education, and program attendance in accordance with perso-nal and professional obligations

-The creativity, scope and practical aspects of your School of Democracy and Human Rights are much better in comparison with universities addressing these issues, your program and tutors are excellent

What did you least like about the e-learning program?-Bad audio quality of one lecture, inability to download the presentations; -Short deadlines for the tests, even though we heard some lectures twice;-The fact that at times technical components were not functioning well, so I had pro-

blems to attend some lectures, occasional system dysfunction;-Duration. I believe the course should be briefer.

Your suggestions to improve similar programs in the future?-Only to resolve technical problems, all the rest was excellent. -More dynamic presentations, utilization of interactive presentations -The lectures should contain more practical examples, be shorter, interactive, include

chat with the tutors, meetings with other students, chats on lectures, etc.

Would you recommend this program to your colleagues?

Are you interested in additional programs in this field?

94%

6%0

20

40

60

80

100

YES NO

92%

8%0

50

100

YES NO

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Documents

E-LEARNING SCHOOL OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS · 1 E-LEARNING SCHOOL OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On 15th September 2011 the first e-learning program for students