Asteros.EDU

The Asteros company develops the system of distance learning on the Asteros.EDU platform which integrates 20 educational institutions. Till May 1, 2011 it is going to connect to the system of 10 more educational institutions and to expand functionality of the solution, having added the modules 3D - visualization and for work with multimedia materials. New opportunities will increase learning efficiency due to increase in intensity and quality of information exchange between teachers and students.

The System of Distance Learning (SDL) on the Asteros.EDU platform at the moment integrates 20 educational institutions in different corners of Russia and contains more than 1000 training courses. More than 50 thousand students and over 500 teachers use SDO. Thus, large-scale information space which consolidates intellectual resources of universities and opens to them access for students from the different cities of our country is created.

Asteros.EDU supports all cycle of educational process, including development and the publication of training courses, mailing of educational tasks to students and assessment of their accomplishment; carrying out tests, examinations and examinations; joint work over projects and holding group occupations in real time; collecting of statistics; system interpersonal messaging.

According to the results of the open competition organized by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the further development of a system and expansion of its functionality providing implementation in process of distance learning of modern multimedia technologies is entrusted to Asteros.

The new module for interaction between teachers and students constructed by the principle of a video conferencing will support not only exchange, but also group work on documents in real time. Students will be able to synchronize lectures when updating training courses, to leave own tags and comments on the training materials during the occupations, and then to browse them in personal space. It will help to facilitate understanding and assimilation of the studied objects.

The module 3D - visualization will allow to show visually operations of mechanisms, the internal structure of an organism when studying medical disciplines, to model the physical phenomena and chemical processes. Using a system it is possible to create virtual space of educational audience in which teachers and students will configure the image, to start necessary applications from a desktop of own computers.

Asteros.EDU allows to solve the main objectives of support of educational process:

• develop training courses, create lectures and publish their schedule;
• create educational tasks, send them to students and estimate their accomplishment;
• hold testing, examinations and examinations;
• put down marks to students, store and tell students of assessment online;
• collect statistics at the rate of and to each student;
• perform joint work over projects and give group classes in real time;
• provide classical and multimedia distance learning using audio and video records;
• keep up personal correspondence and information exchange between users of a system.

On August 24, 2011 expanded with Asteros functionality of a system of remote formation of Asteros.EDU and developed the add-on module for schools which does simple control of attendance and progress of pupils and also allows to provide remotely profound training in the selected objects. The new module helps to adjust information exchange between schools and universities and at the expense of it to increase quality of training, career guidance and preliminary selection of entrants.

The system of distance learning Asteros.EDU opens access to modern educational technologies, providing via the Internet tools for creation of training courses, training (including using multimedia technologies), collecting and the analysis of statistics of attendance and progress of pupils. Still a system was focused on use in universities. The new module Asteros.EDU expands possibilities of the software product for use at schools.

In addition to functionality, standard for the school systems, as the electronic diary and the online schedule, the module contains tools for preparation of the bright and saturated training content, holding fascinating interactive occupations, objective check of the acquired knowledge and quality evaluation of teaching, close communication of teachers and parents of pupils.

Parents of school students will be able to control attendance and progress of the children, to be predeterminated with specialization of further training in middle and high school, to remotely organize profound training of pupils in the selected objects. Teachers will have an opportunity to be in constant contact with parents of pupils and to quickly convey to them information on learning process. Information exchange of schools and universities will allow to identify the most perspective and gifted school students, pozhzht them in the choice of future profession and preparation for receipt in profile university. On the basis of statistics collected in a system about progress and additional activity of pupils (participation in the Olympic Games, tenders and so forth) universities will be able to plan a flow of future entrants in advance and to provide to the most talented and prepared from them a privilege at receipt.

Asteros is going to render to schools services in placement of a system on resources of own DPC, reducing thus costs of educational institutions for implementation and adaptation of a system.

"Application modern multimedia and Internet technologies in school training already became customary practice in the developed countries. At the Russian market there are separate solutions maintaining the functionality which is most demanded by schools. The product Asteros.EDU offered by us is unique: in it all opportunities for building of an end-to-end vertical educational system for schools and universities are for the first time created. The unity of a technology platform facilitates integration of information flows and allows to use collected data most effectively. At the same time schools should not incur some essential expenses for system implementation, Asteros undertakes functions of hosting provider, – Yury Mazurov, the area director on work with organizations of formation of Asteros company claims. – Advantages of such integration are obvious both at the level of separate schools and universities, and in scales of territorial subjects of the federation and the countries in general, high-quality increase in level of training of professionals in whom the economy of Russia so is in great need will become its result".

In the summer of 2012 the Asteros company expanded the system of distance learning Asteros.EDU with functionality for work with smartphones on platforms iOS and Android. Online access to educational resources and means of communication will help students and teachers to control constantly educational process and to stay in the know of the latest news.

The system of distance learning Asteros.EDU developed by Asteros company on the open Sakai platform is used almost in 30 Russian universities. The convenience and efficiency of the organization of educational process estimated thousands of students and several hundreds of teachers and employees. The Asteros.EDU platform is constantly improved and supplemented with new opportunities. Development of mobile technologies and a particular interest of students in them demanded creation of the new interface for work with a system via smartphones.

The solution supports basic functions of management of lecture materials and educational tasks, allows to pass test, to browse the lesson schedule, to read news and declarations, to receive notifications and to communicate by means of the chat which is built in a system. The ergonomics of the application are thought over taking into account the small sizes of screens of smartphones and low speed of communication channels in Russian regions. The solution freely extends through Apple App Store and Android Market.

Students and teachers of St. Petersburg State University became the first users of mobile application for Asteros.EDU. Developers are sure of new splash in interest in mobile systems capabilities from the beginning of new academic year.

The next version of the mobile solution on the Asteros.EDU platform will be focused on support of tablets. Also the application will be complemented with opportunities for work with the record book, new types of training materials and tools for the organization of a video conferencing.