OnEdu -offline

Tired of learning materials not working? Is your school's internet connection unreliable? Does information security worry you?

Transitioning to electronic learning materials can be quite challenging as they require reliable internet connectivity. A teacher’s job is interrupted every time the connection is lost. Teachers and students alike risk losing their motivation in using e-learning materials due to unreliable systems. Building a reliable WLAN with enough capacity is difficult and expensive for many schools. Information security is always a concern, and e-learning does not make an exception. Recently, banks have been suffering from denial of service attacks, and all public institutions need to evaluate their information security and take appropriate measures to protect themselves. At the same time, many high schools are trying to figure out how to create a reliable and secure platform for completing electronic matriculation exams.

New offline learning solution

Mobie Oy will introduce a new fully service in the spring of 2015 that will complement the always connected OnEdu cloud learning environment. This new service concept involves the use of a fully featured OnEdu learning environment, together with e-learning materials, that can be used on the students’ tablet devices without internet connectivity. Available e-learning materials include Mobie Zine books in HTML5 format as well as linked exercises and self-assessment tests together with images, animations, and video and audio files.

The teacher’s device is a more powerful server tablet with technical specifications that support ad-hoc wireless connections between it and the students’ tablets. A maximum of 50 students can join the ad-hoc wireless connection which has a two-way speed of 300 Mbps. Devices joining the wireless network need not have the OnEdu learning environment installed.

This approach allows students to complete exams in the OnEdu environment installed on the teacher’s tablet – within the confines of a secure internal network and without the need for an internet connection. Teachers may also prepare new or edit existing learning materials or exercises, and instruct students to download their personal copies from the teacher’s tablet. Once connected to the ad-hoc internal network, exercises completed by the students in offline mode are automatically transmitted to a course database installed on the teacher’s tablet.

In classroom mode, both the teacher and student devices can connect to the internet, but only to the OnEduCloud’s online shop. Teachers can use the shop to download learning materials for use as such or for further editing, and students can purchase personal copies of e-books or reading privileges. The OnEdu learning environment installed on the teacher’s tablet will install updates automatically when the tablet is connected to the internet. OnEduCloud can also be used to purchase storage space for automatic backups of personalized learning environments and learning materials.

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A secure solution that will bring substantial savings

The OnEdu offline solution is completely secured and extremely reliable. All learning and exams take place without the internet which means it is immune to network problems, hacking attempts from the outside as well as denial of service attacks. In addition, the service runs on the extremely safe Linux operating system and only allows outbound internet connections to the OnEduCloud service. All content is protected by a password and 256-bit encryption.

Use of the service significantly reduces the need for schools to invest in network infrastructure while reducing exposure to radio frequency radiation from wireless networks. OnEduCloud also functions as the students’ personal learning environment which safely stores their personal copies of learning materials and exam results even after their studies have been concluded.

Mobie Oy tablet collection

Mobie Oy launches a collection of tablet devices that are tailor-made for learning environments.

Mobie Oy to introduce a branded tablet collection

Mobie Oy is bringing the company’s own brand of tablet computers to the educational sector market. The devices will feature the new offline learning environment pre-installed. The tablet computers are manufactured in China by a contract manufacturer. At launch, the devices will be supplied with both Windows 8.1 and Linux operating systems installed. All learning activities will take place in the Ubuntu environment with the Windows functionality reserved for regular internet use.

The student devices feature powerful Intel processors, 8” or 10.5” screens depending on the model, 64 GB of storage, an SD card slot (max. 64 GB), 2 GB of internal memory and a keyboard that doubles as a protective cover. All student devices meet the requirements of future electronic matriculation examination device specifications.

The teacher’s Mobie OnEduServer model features an extremely powerful Core i7 processor, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, SD card slot, and an 11.6” FHD display. The server model is equipped with a powerful network interface capable of creating a two-way 300 Mbps internal wireless connection for a maximum of 50 devices simultaneously.

Estimated prices for these devices with the OnEdu learning environment pre-installed are, depending the model, €495 and €695 (incl. VAT) and €1,195 (incl. VAT) for the teacher’s power server. The tablet computers will be supplied with pre-installed OnEdu online course materials on how to use the tablet, the OnEdu learning environment as well as other pre-installed software such as LibreOffice, GIMP and InkScape. In addition, the tablet computers can be supplied with specified course materials pre-installed. The devices can be preordered in February and deliveries will start in April and May 2015.

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