gap analysis report - pools - producing open online learning systems

There is some variety in the software used by the Romanian vocational high
school teachers for educational purposes. Significantly enough, AEL is the favourite,
52% of the teachers declaring their preference for it. Being promoted by the Romanian
Ministry of Education and Research, the software provided by AEL is somehow
perceived as both official and compulsory. The fact that it was distributed to all
vocational high schools also explains the fact than half of the teachers use it. Computer
literacy of these teachers is shown by the use of other well-known software mentioned
in the answers.
5.6.
Specify the source(s) of the
software products used in you
teaching activities.
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Schools'
Inspector
ate
Ministry
of
Education
1……………..
………………
Phare
Project
Series1 7% 41% 4% 45% 3%
22
2………………..
…………………
Siveco
Romania Softwin
3……………….
………………..
Series1
Siveco Romania, with a percentage of 46%, is the main software supplier of the
educational market. The quality of its products, as well as their variety and flexibility
greatly contributed the success of the firm. The Ministry of Education and Research
(41%) seems to be the second producer of the educational software used in vocational
high schools, but we have to take into consideration that the software distributed by the
ministry to vocational high schools is in fact produced by the Siveco
(http://www.siveco.ro)! The process of decentralization of the educational system being
still in progress, the ministry continues to play an important role, and this is both
administrative and didactic. Financial resources that are used for creating educational
software’s are also concentrated at the central level and the way they are used is
illustrated by the AEL component of the SEI programme.
Schools’ inspectorates have a minor contribution in this field, with a percentage
of 7%. Being mainly involved in administrative matters, these institutions didn’t find
the best ways to coordinate local initiatives or launching their own ICT programmes,
although all the vocational high school servers are connected to the server of the
inspectorate.
Other minor “actors” in the “game” are Softwin and Phare Project, with
percentages of 3%, while software produced by vocational high school teachers is
insignificant for the statistic point of view. Even when such products do exist in a
percentage of 3% (shown by 5.4) they are used only by those who produced them,
without being known, or made known by other similar schools. The lack of own
produced educational software is, therefore, accompanied by the lack of their
dissemination.