Современные информационные технологии/3.Программное обеспечение

Modern information technologies/3.

Software

Maksimenko I.S., Klyuka E.V.

North Kazakhstan State University named after M. Kozybayev, Kazakhstan

Educational institution automation at various levels

Universities are going through some serious changes: transition to the new standards, reorganization, introduction of new information technologies into the educational process. Due to this fact the issue of automating the process of higher education institutions is rather acute [1].

To informatize education management there can be used information systems of the following levels:

· the first level – information systems of certain application aspects;

· the second level – corporate information systems of a unified information base (of one university or several ones);

· the third level – management automation on the base of information support system of decision-making.

In practice, Information Systems of the first and the second levels collect necessary “administrative” information (for example, about the educational process, the participants of educational process – teachers, faculties, students, students` groups, etc.) of the monitoring of the various systems functioning – academic, educational, managerial and others; of partial or complete monitoring. The third level information systems can materially facilitate managerial decision-making, provide a basis for optimizing the structure and functioning of the administrative university departments [2].

In Kazakhstan systems of university management successfully operate and also there is a constant deliberation of systems improving education quality. We consider the example of North Kazakhstan State University in order to investigate the actual state of information technology in high schools of Kazakhstan. The Mission of NKSU named after M. Kozybayev is to form a highly professional and socially successful individual who is able to solve strategic problems of the republic. The university is aimed to develop a united innovative, informative and analytical, socially oriented system for integrating the university in the world educational space.

The example of first-level systems, i.e. automation of the educational process, is Testing Area used in the university Programming Olympiads. This system can prepare students to participate in international Olympiads of ACM Technology Programming; allows to assess reasonably students achievements. Now we are conducting an experiment of introducing the system into the educational process as it can improve the professional competence of future teachers. This technology is used in the following disciplines: "Programming", "Practice in Solution of Olympiad Sums." The use of this technology in different kinds of lessons develops certain qualities that help to promote further educational potential of teachers of Informative Studies.

Thus, the university has the experience using information systems on individual aspects of the application.

The second level systems in our university are local information networks and systems covering all areas of activity (i.e. educational, teaching and methodical, research and development, organizational and managerial, logistic, financial and others areas) which, of course, increase the efficiency of interuniversity control.

The third level system, the level of university management system, is "Electronic Rectorat". This system provides information support and automating the core functions of the operational monitoring and management of educational resources at the level of rectorat (university administration), deans, department chairpersons, services and departments that provide operating the educational process. This interface configuration is a much sought-after part of the university electronic space. "Electronic Rectorat" is one of the most advanced developments in the field of educational informatization and it implements the complex management of all major components of the educational process provided better management of the whole educational process (i.e. informing all specialists and university departments, easy planning curriculum, scheduling, load the individual teachers` charges and occupation of department teaching staff, facilities, laboratories and laboratory equipment), automated quality control of curriculum (registration and analysis of the results of intermediate tests, examination credits and examinations) and of even an individual student, full support for all recruitment processes of student contingent.

Now in North Kazakhstan State University there is a development of one of the system modules, "Academic Charge of the Teaching Staff." Distribution of academic charge is a complex and non-trivial task that requires great effort. The introduction of new curricula, changes in the contingent of teachers, changes educational groups contingent and various emergent situations make this process more difficult due to the fact that it is sometimes to repeat this procedure several times during one semester. Although the algorithm of the charge distribution remains the same, only initial data can be changed. This module will provide an effective information support of decision-making for automated distribution of the teaching staff academic charge and will improve the efficiency of the department chairs.

As a perspective, it should be noted that there is a plan to develop a unified information system of education linking high schools and involving the formation of a unified state system of management and monitoring, accreditation, certification and assessment, construction of targeted train monitoring and specialists`employment, predicting staff requirements, books, book funds [2].

It is clear that creating a single corporate information system of higher education on the level MES of RK will help to address such pressing issues as improving the quality of training, ensuring the effectiveness of university management and higher education system as a whole, ensuring interoperability between Kazakhstani universities and universities of the world that caused by integration and globalization processes, etc.

Great benefit in the management of higher education could be obtained through information systems that provide information of reference, guidance, factual nature of universities and higher education system, teacher data base containing information on educational developments and advanced pedagogical practices, etc. Moreover at this stage of education computerization university websites and the official website of the Ministry of Education and Science are of great value.

Decision-making support systems significantly rationalize daily activities of employees at all levels of management by reducing the charge of the upper and middle management levels, releasing them to deal with strategic and long-term objectives, but at lower managerial levels these systems help to make decisions quickly and efficiently due to the support of powerful computer resources.

To informatize higher education institutions, abroad experience and comparison of all available development variants and informative management technologies must be taken into consideration, and there should be development and implementation of a phased programme of high institution management systems which will be the base for related information programmes in Kazakhstan universities.

In order to train and retrain university managerial staff, all teaching staff should purposefully pass retraining courses.

References:

1. Trine VA, Trine IV Information and communication technology teaching (generalizations and recommendations). - M., 2005. - 280.

2. Kapitza SP, Kurdyumov SP, Malinetskii GG Synergetics and forecasts of the future. - M., 2003. - 288.