=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2507/261-265-paper-46
|storemode=property
|title=JINR Educational Portal («edu.jinr.ru») — Open Educational Resources and Modern Visualization Tools
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2507/261-265-paper-46.pdf
|volume=Vol-2507
|authors=Victoria Belaga,Evgenii Dolgy,Ksenia Klygina,Pavel Kochnev,Anna Komarova,Marina Osmachko,Denis Sadovskii,Oleg Smirnov,Yury Panebrattsev,Nikita Sidorov,Natalia Vorontsova
}}
==JINR Educational Portal («edu.jinr.ru») — Open Educational Resources and Modern Visualization Tools==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2507/261-265-paper-46.pdf
Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium Nuclear Electronics and Computing (NEC’2019)
Budva, Becici, Montenegro, September 30 – October 4, 2019
JINR EDUCATIONAL PORTAL («EDU.JINR.RU») — OPEN
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AND MODERN
VISUALIZATION TOOLS
Victoria Belaga1,3, Evgenii Dolgy2,3, Ksenia Klygina1,2, Pavel Kochnev2,
Anna Komarova1,2,Marina Osmachko1, Denis Sadovskii2, Oleg
Smirnov1,2,Yury Panebrattsev1,2, Nikita Sidorov1,2, Natalia Vorontsova1
1
JINR, Joliot-Curie 6, 141980 Dubna, Moscow region, Russia
2
InterGraphics LLC, Programmistov str. 4, 141980 Dubna, Moscow region, Russia
3
Dubna University, 141980 Dubna, Moscow region, Russia
E-mail: belaga@jinr.ru
Today open online courses have shown their effectiveness for further education in various fields. We
have created new courses devoted to JINR research projects: NICA/MPD, SHE Factory, applied
researches with heavy ions and neutrons. The open educational portal of JINR is being developed for
university students of the JINR Member States and Associate Members, young specialists and science
teachers. The portal hosts the MOOC format courses connected with priority JINR activities. The
portal also contains links to digital materials, that overview the basic JINR physical facilities using 3D
modeling tools, as well as to the Virtual Laboratory project devoted to the experimental nuclear
physics. Another section of the portal – “Scientists for schools” which could be used as additional
educational materials for the course of school physics. The materials of the portal could be used for
student trainings before and during the JINR student practices, to train students for their research work
and for conducting the specialized courses at the universities of JINR Member States and Associate
Members.
Keywords: Open online courses, educational portal, virtual laboratory, 3D modeling tools
Victoria Belaga, Evgenii Dolgy, Ksenia Klygina, Pavel Kochnev, Anna Komarova, Marina
Osmachko, Denis Sadovskii, Oleg Smirnov , Yury Panebrattsev, Nikita Sidorov, Natalia Vorontsova
Copyright © 2019 for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
261
Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium Nuclear Electronics and Computing (NEC’2019)
Budva, Becici, Montenegro, September 30 – October 4, 2019
1. Online courses for professional training of specialists of research centers
In the past few years, people often talk about the “revolution in education,” which was
accomplished by the massive open educational resources that appeared in 2014. Over the past few
years, the number of students studying at MOOC platforms, the number of new online courses, and the
number of new platforms have grown rapidly and continue to grow.
According to the Class Central resource for 2018, the total number of MOOC students
worldwide reached 100 million, and by the end of the year, more than 900 universities around the
world announced the launch or opening of 11.4 thousands of MOOCs [1, 2, 3].
The world's most popular MOOC platforms publish online courses of experts from leading
universities, or courses developed in collaboration with universities and their business partners. At the
same time, an analysis of existing courses shows that among them there are quite a few courses
devoted to the topics and problems of modern physical experiments developed by scientists and
specialists personally involved in these experiments. Therefore, the task of creating online courses
from leading JINR specialists dedicated to various aspects of priority research conducted at this
international scientific center seems actual [4].
The JINR educational resource helps to solve the following tasks:
popularization of modern scientific research, achievements in science and technology,
increasing the attractiveness of scientific and scientific-technical careers for students
and graduates,
attracting young scientists and specialists to participate in specific research projects,
professional development of school and university teachers,
possibility to include materials related to modern achievements in science and
technology in traditional educational courses.
The choice of topics for the online courses being developed at JINR is determined primarily
by the need for young specialists to work at the Accelerator complex NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion
Collider fAcility), in experiments on the synthesis of new superheavy elements (SHE Factory), in
research in the field of the physics of condensed state of matter and environmental science carried out
at a high-resolution neutron source IBR-2, in Deep-water Baikal Neutrino Telescope experiment and
computing for megaprojects. Working in these and other experiments, students need to gain additional
knowledge in the following areas:
experimental physics
accelerator physics and technology
distributed computing and working with big data
cryogenic technique
biomedical physics
radiation material science
radiobiology
use of neutrons and synchrotron light in applied research
Of course, online courses on these topics can hardly be widespread – a relatively small number
of students need them. Nevertheless, these courses can play an important role in training specialists for
modern research centers. The same courses can be useful for remote student trainings for various
universities, if these universities do not have enough specialists of this profile.
2. Online courses at the JINR Educational Portal
The JINR educational portal consists of four sections (fig. 1):
1. Online courses in MOOC format on priority JINR activities,
2. Multimedia resources using the capabilities of 3D modeling and augmented reality, which
popularize experiments conducted in JINR laboratories,
3. Virtual Laboratory on Experimental Nuclear Physics,
4. Scientists to schools.
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Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium Nuclear Electronics and Computing (NEC’2019)
Budva, Becici, Montenegro, September 30 – October 4, 2019
Figure 1. Structure of the JINR educational portal
The first online courses in Russian and English have already been created. The first of them
tells about the NICA megaproject. The leading specialists of the project A.O. Sidorin, S.A. Kostromin
and A.V. Konstantinov took part in the creation of these courses. Two courses from V.A. Nikitin on
experimental high-energy physics and detectors in nuclear physics and high-energy physics were also
created. Yu.E. Penionzhkevich wrote a course on the physics of heavy ions and the synthesis of heavy
elements. An online course on basics of quantum computing and quantum informatics was given by
V.P. Herdt (fig. 2).
Figure 2. Online courses published at the JINR Educational Portal
Now new several online courses are under construction, and there are agreements with leading
experts from various JINR laboratories on recording new educational courses.
The team of specialists working on the creation of online courses and interactive multimedia
educational resources includes specialists of various profiles: content developers, computer
methodologists, editors, designers and programmers. Moreover, in conditions of high competition and
increasing quality requirements for digital educational materials, it is necessary to use the widest range
of modern information technologies (fig. 3).
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Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium Nuclear Electronics and Computing (NEC’2019)
Budva, Becici, Montenegro, September 30 – October 4, 2019
Figure 3. Information technologies used to create online courses and interactive multimedia
educational resources
JINR specialists, representatives of universities of JINR Member States and Associate
Members, and representatives of the basic departments of the JINR University Centre expressed their
desire to create educational content for online courses.
To organize the learning process, the MOODLE learning management system was deployed
on the portal. Using the system capabilities, the following tasks are easily solved:
learning planning,
role distribution,
organization of knowledge and competency testing,
opportunities for various training material support,
user interaction opportunities in the system.
3. Multimedia resources, with use of opportunities of 3D modeling and
augmented reality, popularizing experiments carried out in JINR
laboratories
In recent years, JINR has been developing multimedia educational resources using the
opportunities of 3D modeling and augmented reality, popularizing experiments conducted at JINR
laboratories. These resources are used in organizing various events, such as student schools and
practices, exhibitions and open door days. There is a special section dedicated to such resources on the
JINR Educational Portal, which currently presents educational modules about the NICA collider,
IBR-2 reactor, the synthesis of new superheavy elements and SHE Factory, Baikal neutrino
experiment (fig. 4).
Great interest in these resources is shown by physics teachers participating in annual
international schools for teachers, which take place in Dubna and CERN. Since all modules are freely
available, teachers can use them in physics classes, or when conducting specialized classes and
electives, with an explanation of the relevant topics.
The developed models help clarify the operation of a particular facility.
Figure 4. Multimedia resourses about JINR basic facilities
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Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium Nuclear Electronics and Computing (NEC’2019)
Budva, Becici, Montenegro, September 30 – October 4, 2019
The mission of any major scientific center along with scientific research is to solve a wide
range of educational problems. Since the system of school and university education is very
conservative, it is scientific centers that can become an objective source of knowledge about the latest
achievements in science and technology
Another example of such a multimedia educational resource is the lesson for school students
“NICA — The Universe in the Lab”, located in the section “Scientists for Students”. The lesson was
based on a lecture given by academician Grigory Trubnikov (fig. 5).
Figure 5. Open Lesson «Collider NICA – the Universe in the Lab»
4. Future plans
In the nearest future, the development of JINR educational portal is expected in several
directions. The first involves the creation of new online courses and the expansion of materials for
existing ones, the creation of new models of facilities and new educational materials for students. The
second direction is the inclusion of portal materials in the educational process. A lot of work is to be
done in this direction together with universities interested in using the materials of the portal as a
component of their distance education. The third direction is the promotion of the portal in terms of
relevant search queries.
References
[1] McAuley A, Stewart B, Siemens G and Cormier D 2010 The MOOC model for digital practice
(Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island)
[2] Coursera 2019 About Coursera. Available at: https://about.coursera.org (accessed 10.11.2019)
[3] EdX 2019 About Open edX. Available at: https://open.edx.org/about-open-edx) (accessed
10.11.2019)
[4] Araya D and Peters M (Eds.) 2010 Education in the creative economy: Knowledge and Learning
in the age of innovation (New York: Peter Lang)
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