ELECTRONIC SUPPORT IN DIAGNOSTICS,

MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF EDUCATION RESULTS

OF FUTURE SOCIAL EDUCATORS
A new paradigm of education considers specialist’s ability to self-studying,
self-sustained searching of knowledge and shaping of his/her need for professional
and personal self-improvement as one of the goals of specialist’s professional
training. The solution of this task entails an increase in the role of students'
independent work.
An important element of the organization of students' independent work is
the control of knowledge. Practice shows the feasibility of using a combination of
various forms of control for this purpose, among which testing is one of the
modern forms of control and self-control of the student’s independent work. The
test provides an opportunity to assess the student's level of knowledge and skills on
the subject or section of the course. The test allows not only to carry out
diagnostics of the student’s level of preparation, but also has educational and
organizational significance. Testing opens up the possibility to quantify objectively
the level of student’s knowledge, minimizing the teacher’s subjectivity.
The aim of the article is to reveal some aspects of the development of
e-support in diagnosis, monitoring and evaluation of the results of education of
future social educators, taking as an example professionally oriented tests in the
process of preparing future social educators.
Domestic researchers and pedagogues-practitioners’ considerable attention
to mentioned above problem has been attracted due to its importance. In particular,
we can refer to the works of S. Goncharenko, V. Bykov, G. Kedrovych, V.
Lozova, O. Kovalenko, I. Zakharova, M. Lazaryev, V. Kozakov, T. Dmitrenko
and others. The problems of organizing learning activities for students and pupils,
as well as advisable forms and methods of managing them are considered in these
works. At the same time, in our opinion, insufficient attention is paid to the
application of highly effective modern information technologies in this case.
 Internal testing is conducted by teachers either with the help of a separate
computer-based testing program (for example, MyTestX or KTS Net, etc.) or using
the capabilities of the Moodle distance learning system. Modern testing programs
allow you to create test task banks, organize and conduct test sessions both on-line
and off-line, generate test results in various forms and much more. To use
computer testing allows to reduce the time spent on processing the results, as well
as to apply multimedia formats in the development of tests that are of particular
interest to students.
It is recommended to held internal testing several times a semester, for
example, after studying each section (or topic) of the discipline, as it is believed
that regular testing increases students’ activity, forms their responsibility and
contributes to the concentration of attention when studying a new material. Some
teachers conduct 10–15-minutes tests at their practical classes to check up the
knowledge of theoretical material on the subject of the lesson.
Testing is one of the possibilities of self-control of students’ knowledge in
the context of the organization of their independent work. With a large variety of
forms of control in recent years, computer testing is becoming increasingly
popular.
From the point of view of the organization of independent work of students,
computer testing technologies provide:
 independent assessment of students' educational achievements in order to
determine the levels of knowledge in the discipline;
 implementation of continuous monitoring of students' knowledge in the
learning process;
 assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of the activities of the teacher,
providing the educational process in this discipline;
 elimination of the teacher's subjective attitude in the assessment of students'
knowledge.
Let's analyze the existing testing systems.
 Moodle is a free, open system of distance learning. The system implements
the philosophy of "pedagogy of social constructivism" and focuses primarily on
organizing the interaction between the teacher and the students, although it is also
suitable for organizing traditional distance courses, as well as supporting lifelong
learning. Moodle is translated into dozens of languages, in particular, there is a
partial translation into Ukrainian. The system is used in 175 countries of the world,
as well as in Ukraine. It should also be noted that this project is open and involves
a large number of other developers [8]. Moodle is written in PHP using the SQL
database. Moodle can work with SCO objects and complies with the SCORM
standard.
ATutor is a Learning Content Management System (LCMS). The program is
easy to install, configure, and maintain for system administrators; Teachers
(instructors) can easily create and transfer educational materials and run their
online courses. And since the system is modular, that is, it consists of separate
functional units - modules, then it is open for the modernization and expansion of
functionality.
Claroline is a collaborative e-learning program with the eWorking platform
(Learning Management System) released under the Open Source license. This
allows hundreds of organizations worldwide (universities, schools, companies,
associations, ...) to create and administer courses and collaborate over the Internet.
The platform is used in more than 80 countries in more than 30 languages.
eCollege is software service (SaaS), a provider of e-learning software and
services for secondary and higher education institutions. Founded in 1996 in Real
Education, the company became public in 2002 eCollege.com (NASDAQ: ECLG).
The use of distance learning systems, such as Moodle, to control students'
knowledge, although it requires a teacher a significant amount of time during the
creation phase, but significantly reduces the time spent during training, providing
the teacher with a lot of statistical material.
You can suggest the following algorithm for organizing student self-study at
Moodle: a student studies the study material independently or under the guidance
of a tutor, then testing is carried out, Moodle creates a detailed report with
recommendations for further study of the course.
In our opinion, it is important to give students the opportunity to test on
small portions of the material (for example, on one topic or section) and give them
several attempts. After each attempt, the student has the opportunity to analyze his
mistakes, once again study the theoretical material and perform the test again.
It is also important to use tests to prepare for practical and seminars, before
which the student must understand the theory on the subject of the lesson, be tested
and come to the lesson prepared. The teacher, using the capabilities of the Moodle
system, can always see how well each student has learned theoretical material,
which is not always possible during the lesson itself. During the classroom time,
the teacher will free up time to explain the most difficult material not understood
by students, to help lagging students, etc.
Evaluation of educational results is an important means of stimulating
students' learning activities. As practice shows, attempts to exclude controlling the
activities of a student in whole or in part from the educational process lead to a
decrease in the quality of education. Today, “the functions of pedagogical
assessment are not limited only to identifying the shortcomings of the organization
of the educational process, but are considered as a critical analysis conducted to
improve learning outcomes and improve the quality of education” [4].
Despite the fact that the possibilities of the developed testing complex in our
educational institution are somewhat limited by the possibilities of the participants
in the experimental pedagogical ground, the availability of the necessary software
and staffing, their use makes it possible:
 intensify the educational process;
 to realize an effective combination of new and traditional training
technologies based on the use of ICT [6, p.156];
 to develop skills of independent study of educational material;
 to simplify the functions of controlling the level of knowledge, skills and
abilities of students;
  to conduct continuous monitoring of students' satisfaction;
 to save time on training of the teacher for studies, creation of distribution
materials.
Thus, the professional training of students to perform various professional
functions of a social teacher, which involves solving their tasks simulating the
abilities of various types of social and pedagogical work, should be accompanied
by an electronic support for the diagnosis of their professional knowledge, skills
and abilities. This kind of control does not allow teachers to deviate from the
thematic plan of academic discipline and puts more emphasis on the quality of
student preparation.