DIGITAL CAPACITY IN CURRENT EDUCATION 4.0 DEVELOPMENT TENDENCY

This paper has been published in Journal of Technical Education Science, No.62 (02/2021) 

Hien T. Lam, Lam T. Nguyen, Phuong D.V Van 

Lac Hong University, Vietnam

ABSTRACT 
The development of science and technology has had a strong impact on the education environment recently. The integration of digital technologies and tools in teaching and learning activities and curricula have renovated the role of the schools, educators, and learners. Accordingly, learners are at the center of the learning process while educators and schools create suitable conditions to promote creativity and autonomy in the learners' spirit. Both educators and learners need to have knowledge about digital capabilities which is one of the essential competencies in the 21st century. 
Keyword: Digital capacity, Education development tendency, Lifelong learning, Educational technology

CONCLUSIONS

Currently, science and technology have been developing quickly. This has had a strong impact on almost all areas of social life including education. Accordingly, the integration of digital technologies and tools in teaching activities and training programs has become common. The educational environment has been changing dramatically and new educational models are gradually replacing traditional ones. The roles of school, educator and learner are being redefined. In the current educational development trend, learners are at the center of the learning process while educators and schools need to create favorable conditions to promote creativity and autonomy of learners. Both educators and learners need to be equipped with lifelong learning capacities in which digital capacity is one of the kernel competencies in the 21st century. In this research article, the authors only present the importance of digital capabilities for educators and learners in the present educational environment. The development of digital capabilities in the national education system in general or educational institutions, in particular, requires further research and investment to make decisions, policies and appropriate development

models.

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IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF STUDENTS' PROGRESS ASSESSMENT IN A BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AT LAC HONG UNIVERSITY

This paper has been published in Journal of Technical Education Science, No.62 (02/2021) 

Phuong V. D. Van, Hien T. Lam, Lam T. Nguyen, Truong P. Le

Lac Hong University.

ABSTRACT
Thanking to the application of digital technology in education, students are obtaining outstanding benefits such as diverse learning resources, more learning flexibility in both time and place. However, besides these advantages, students must wisely avoid inappropriate information sources and trends by selecting and following the right way to receive, learn and process information. In the competence-development-learning model, students become the center being proactive in selecting information, analyzing and proposing solutions for problems with support from lecturers and reference resources. Many questions exist and require educational institution and faculty to answers such as how to assess students' understanding and if it is in the right direction; how to see students’ progress to assist students positive change; how to conduct formative assessment throughout the entire student progress instead only summative ones (in final exam, final product). This paper reflects the practical results to answer these above questions when applying ePortfolio in assessing students’ performance in the blended learning environment at Lac Hong University. The research is conducted as a part of EMVITET Erasmus+ project.
Keyword: ePortfolio, Formative assessment, Education 4.0, Digital pedagogy

CONCLUSIONS

From the above results, it can be seen that students who have recorded, implemented and updated additional information such as learning knowledge, receiving and following comments on ePortfolio actually have better learning results, especially in presentation skills. Teachers are able to follow-up, support and evaluate students' competencies formatively and summatively regarding the ability to analyze and solve problems, ability to present and communicate. Students themselves express better understanding by responding to the requirements in their own expression. The application of ePortfolio for assessment not only improves efficiency and accuracy but also gradually builds up students' lifelong learning skills. Level 1 competencies including listening, watching and taking notes, storing content on demand periodically by weeks and months are firmly achieved. Moreover, a habit at level 2, that students go deeper into searching information, analyze and comment on the content through exercises and projects with good time arrangement for learning activities, is formed. This is a stepping stone to achieve level 3 easily. Level 3 provides an overview of students' abilities through knowledge acquired by topics or products on their ePortfolio, students' strengths, as well as their future directions and goals. Obviously, the approach to gain knowledge and resources is gradually changing. The role of the teachers and learners have also changed in blended learning environment. Thus, the method of teaching and learning must also be changed. Being the center, the learners become more proactive, combine the surrounding factors, e.g. the teachers or the coaches, other resources and environment to achieve results, skills and products. Now, the teachers are no longer the main character as in the traditional teaching model. However, because they have a great impact on the student's learning, improvement and development process, they must also change a lot. ePortfolio is highly suggested to put into a comprehensive application among Lac Hong University students in particular and Vietnamese schools in general. Although in the first stage, students face many difficulties in presenting knowledge and responding to requests according to their personal style, it can be seen that ePortfolio is a good means for students to chain all their knowledge and work. This is also a tool to improve presentation skills and the channel for objective and accurate assessment.

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INTERGRATING ONLINE ASSESSMENT INTO BLENDED TRAINING FORM: A CASE STUDY AT LAC HONG UNIVERSITY

This paper has been published in Journal of Technical Education Science, No.62 (02/2021) 

Le Phuong Truong, Garces Eduard Aves 

                                                                                                                                  

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a method to integrate online assessment into blended training form. Based on the Bloom Taxonomy, this study supports digital tools and methodology for assessment online based on the blended training form. Furthermore, ePortfolio has applied to assess the soft skill and knowledge during the time students study the course. From the results, this paper found the benefit of student and lecturer in teaching and learning activities based on the blended learning form including assessments online such as (1) the benefit and challenges of blended training method, (2) the benefits and challenges of online assessment (3) developing the assessment model for blended method, and (3 ) proposing suitable digital tools for assessment online.

Keywords: ePortfolio; assessment online; blended training form.

                                 Figure 1. The method for assessment online and digital tool

                                  Fig 2. The assessment model for Blended training form

    CONCLUSION

 This paper presents a method to integrate assessment online into a blended training method.  From the practical analysis, this study proposes a digital tool and method for assessment online-based lower order thinking and higher-order thinking. From practical perspectives, the research shows the following advantages: (1) the benefit and challenges of blended training method, (2) the benefit and challenges of online assessment (3) developing the assessment model for blended method, and (3) proposing suitable digital tools for assessment online. The results of this study may serve as the basis for other studies to integrate the digital pedagogy in Vietnam and this result proves that it is an example to expand the technology in educational development in Vietnam.

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Web 2.0, Web 3.0 and power tools support Communication, collaboration and creativity (P1)

Can you hear me? - we need to communicate. 

Should we work together to go faster and farther? - we need to cooperate.

How or new? - We need creativity and Critical thinking

As mentioned in "Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Leve" by Arthur Chickering and Stephen C. Ehrmann [1], the first three of the Seven Principles of Good Practice are "Good Practice Encourages Contacts Between Students and Faculty" - communicating; "Good Practice Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students" - Collaboration and "Good Practice Uses Active Learning Techniques" - creativity

Web 2.0, Web 3.0 platform with powerful tools for Communication, collaboration, and creativity for Higher Education and lifelong learning

Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 with their differences [2]

WEB 1.0	WEB 2.0	WEB 3.0
Mostly Read-Only	Wildly Read-Write	Portable and Personal
Company Focus	Community Focus	Individual Focus
Home Pages	Blogs / Wikis	Live-streams / Waves
Owning Content	Sharing Content	Consolidating Content
Web Forms	Web Applications	Smart Applications
Directories	Tagging	User Behaviour
Page Views	Cost Per Click	User Engagement
Banner Advertising	Interactive Advertising	Behavioural Advertising
Britannica Online	Wikipedia	The Semantic Web
HTML/Portals	XML / RSS	RDF / RDFS / OWL

How does power tools support communication, collaboration, and creativity? you need to ask, do and answer yourself.

• Why do we use tools? What is the reason?
• Find the best tool for the problem (there are plenty of tools on the internet, you should review it or ask for advice)
• Then practice and practice with the tools. Get the feedback and evaluate how they support? Is it okay to use or change someone else?

In (P2), I will go into more detail about tools in web 2.0 to improve communication skill.

#LHU #Eramus+ #EMVITET

 

References

[1] Chickering, Arthur & Ehrmann, Stephen. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin. 49. 3-6.

[2] Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 with their difference, https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/web-1-0-web-2-0-and-web-3-0-with-their-difference/

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Project Based Learning in Covid

 The project-based learning method makes students more active in thinking.

Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget once said: "Knowledge is the result of experience". Indeed, "learning with practice" is the fastest way to help us get closer to the civilization of humanity.

Because I was an engineer at a multinational company. Reality-based learning will help students apply knowledge or learn more deeply about real problems.

Smart thermometer system uses artificial intelligence. Prevent cross-contamination. Helping the community to cope with COVID-19

Discussion of a group of students on building Smart Farm program

The students discuss about designing a system

This may reflect what learners have learned, how they learned and what they learned for. In addition, the instructor can give positive feedback to each project to help students improve and do better in the future.

[Studens - University - Industry]

After developing the application, the enterprise realizes the practical application and applicability. This project has already been deployed to connect to the user.

Project in researching and building

The product have worked at Dong Nai hospital

At Lac Hong University

From projects, and the Student - School - Business connection makes new connections. Helping students to apply knowledge into practice to solve problems encountered in life.

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Aligning Education 4.0 with Industry 4.0

Learning to solve problems throughout our life. We need to address different types of problems and levels from children to retirement (Children - college-age - Early career - Late career - Retirement). Therefore, you need to be able to adapt, analyze, and process in the working environment as well as life.

Therefore, Edu4.0 needs to be flexible and the curriculum is tailor-made to support students in receiving and maximizing their abilities to adapt with IR4 .0 (Figure 1). The roles of educators have changed, from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. Teachers become mentors or coaches for their students. Help them become a quality workforce and to become active lifelong learners. Edu4.0 helps students know how to identify and find ways to solve problems.

Figure 1 - Aligning of the industry requirements with education (Intelitek, 2018)

The education platform changes many to forwards Edu4.0. From location classroom to technology, curriculum structure to gadgets. So you have suitable assessments for this model. The assessments also change to forward to Edu4.0. From the manage and control to support, assessment as a separate and only final exam to Embedded learning process and multiple methods evidence their competencies, etc (Figure 2)
What is basic to help students be DIY and have well-collaboration in working

Figure 2: Rethinking assessment towards Edu 4.0

#LHU #EMVITET #Eramus+

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Applying the Powtoon tool to create video tutorials

 In this example, we make two videos. one video introduces some modern teaching methods such as project-based learning and the Flipped classroom and another video we introduce the learning outcome of the course  Also, these videos are examples of applying the Powtoon tool to create video tutorials effectively and quickly. These Videos makes by Phan Phuoc and Le Truong

To make a video like this example visit the link below: https://www.powtoon.com/

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How to make Interactive Video

 There are many digital tools for creating interactive videos. In this video, we will show you how to use the H5P integrated in LMS (Moodle) to build interactive video. This Video make by Ta Nguyen.

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Meeting online tools

 There are many support tools for distance learning. In this article, the author introduces some tools for online meetings.

1. Zoom 
Zoom is the digital tool based video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. Zoom has a security issue but I think zoom is going to solve this issue.

Fig1. Online meeting with Zoom software

link:
 https://zoom.us/
2. Webex

Cisco Webex is a solution for video conferencing, online meetings, screen share, and webinars. 

link:
 https://www.webex.com/

3. Skype Meeting

Skype Meeting is a free conference meeting with up to 50 people powered by Skype. No sign ups or downloads required, simply generate your unique link and share it with all.

link:
 https://www.skype.com/en/free-conference-call/

4. Google meet

 Google meet has developed by Google. This tool not only makes a video meeting but also share your video, desktop, and presentation with teammates.
link:
https://meet.google.com/

In addition, to understand I  made a small comparison of the three  online meeting software shown in the table below:

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Sharing how to apply the digital tools in teaching and learning activities at LHU

The Digital Pedagogy is precisely not about using digital technologies for teaching and, rather, about approaching those tools from a critical pedagogical perspective. So, it is as much about using digital tools thoughtfully as it is about deciding when not to use digital tools, and about paying attention to the impact of digital tools on learning[1].

 Lac Hong University is fully qualified to apply digital technologies to improve teaching and learning. In order to widely deploy digital pedagogical method to lecturers, the members in EMVITET project group held a series of seminars to share methods of applying digital tools in teaching and learning activities.

These activities at the seminar

[Credits to EMVITET Project funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union]

                                                                                                                                  Le Phuong Truong

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It's so easy to follow student's learning process by LMS

In previous years, my colleagues and I had not enough data for assessment at the end of course. We used to get 10% for participant, 30% for self-study report and 60% for final exam, however it is really hard for teachers to manage the student’s learning process in whole course.

Fig 1. Grade for Q&A at the end of chapter

After deploying Learning Management System in my university we have more powerful tools for assessment. My colleagues, who feel uncomfortable of changes in pedagogy at the beginning, have to say “wonderful” because of they can keep the track of every activity in their class. Especially, the study still continues in the spread of COVID-19. They know exactly which student having problem in learning process by just one click on the “report menu”.

Everything from log-in status, activity, participant, statistics and events to competency breakdown. From that, teachers will help their student right the time when they face the problem in study. Furthermore, teachers have more evidences to make the assessment during the course.

Fig 2. Activity report

In my opinion, LMS is one of the most important platform for my teaching activity toward Education 4.0. For more information about the Education 4.0, you are invited to visit www.emvitet.org, the official website of EMVITET project which is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

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Active model for online activities

Students have a habit of completing assignments online instead of watching lectures and/or reading document. One of the solutions is to encourage students to complete lessons is to embed quiz scattered in videos or documents. In addition, from practical study at Lac Hong University proposed an active online model for teaching online as shown in Figure 1.

Accordingly active model for online activities, the teachers need to bring up topics in the real world, build opportunities for cooperation, and create feedback opportunities in a virtual environment for learners to respond to topics. However, in order to accomplish the activity, teachers need to build activities for learners through video, documents, and/or websites. Practical activities in distance learning mode are very different from the blended training mode. In order to implement hands-on activities, teachers need to build research topics based on online topics such as simulating and synthesizing materials from which to write feedback on learners' practice activities.

Le Phuong Truong

[Credits to EMVITET Project funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union]

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Teachers Study visit in 2019! A good memory from our LHU teachers

Nice lessons learned from our dear European partner- HAMK 

during our Teachers Study visit in 2019!

Thanks for the warm hospitality and support by HAMK! Special thanks to EMVITET Project and the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

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VIETNAM- Your tourism destination!

This is an interesting tool for teacher and student to be better in changing teaching method. Our group 3 from Lac Hong university, Hue Industrial college, Ho Chi Minh university of Technology & Education, Ho Chi Minh Technology college and Danang university of Technology & Education has made this work together. 

For further information, please visit https://vietnam.travel/home.

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Lac Hong Open Workshop and HAMK Design Factory

That was really interesting to visit and learn about the model of HAMK Design Factory today. The entrepreneurs, teachers and students work together in the collaborative environment to find out the solution for the authentic problems. The first year students are forced to join the project as a compulsory module in their curricula.

I think it's really interesting because I had the same idea when I built Lac Hong Open Workshop (LHOWS) in my university. It's quite similar when HAMK Design Factory and LHOWS was built to connect companies with students by co-working for innovation.
Comparing with operation of LHOWS, HAMK Design Factory has the professional process to help the first year students how to manage the project step by step from the beginning to the end of project.

The best thing I learn from this module is the teacher believe that the first year student can do and give them the challenge. I should apply this thinking and give my students more opportunities to face the authentic problems and directly work with the customer.

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The first week at HAMK

I am on a business trip at HAMK University, Finland. This is a developed country in terms of quality of life; income as well as education leading the world. I learned about their education in the 4.0 revolution. What will change in education 4.0

         

I have been introduced by the teachers about 9 success factors of education in Finland. The factors are Student in the center means trust; Equality in education system; Less is more; The concept of learning; Active students; Pedagogical well-being; Collaboration / interaction; Competence- based education; Authentic - real world learning. The way of raising issues and discussing are similar to what is available in Vietnam but there is another thing about the comfortable style of dress for the teachers here. As i known Finland was a poor country, people were enough food. But now it has the world's leading economy and educational development.

I  worked at a leading software corporation in Vietnam, worked with Western teachers, so I was not surprised by their working style. But it is a bit confusing and curious about why some of the methods have been applied at Vietnam, even if they were applied more than a decade ago but still not really effective, bringing a great breakthrough to Vietnamese education.

I have learned a lot about teaching and learning methods, tools to support education and how to raise children from the moment they are born. Finnish education has really good elements and has greatly helped the development of education and economy.

The Finnish have changed and synchronized the methods of education, in addition to other factors such as family and society.

The other key factor is the contribution of society to help young children learn to be independent from an early age.

I have learned some methods of raising children from a young age, how they can be more independent in life. This will help students be more active in learning as well as in their life. Teaching methods (focusing on students, competency-based learning, etc.) will help students acquire knowledge in an active and moderate manner, learned vividly without being boring. To achieve the above, the consent of the school, family, society and the government to be synchronized with the education system.

After this trip, I will improve my known teaching methods.

Applying new learning methods to make the lesson come alive, students will actively acquire and practice knowledge.

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Ta Nguyen - Begin The Journey For Reaching The Higher Level - Day 1

Hello everyone, I am Ta Nguyen, a lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology, Lac Hong University, I have learned a lot of things during my 10 years of working as a lecturer, but the main field I teach is website development, some subjects such as Web Design, Web Programming, Web Administration, Open Source Software Development, Internet Marketing, E-Commerce, ...

On a beautiful day, I received a great opportunity from the EMVITET project (Empowering Vietnamese VET Teachers for Transformation Towards Education 4.0), which is a project to strengthen teachers' capacity to work towards education 4.0 and funded by Erasmus + a program of European Union. An opportunity for me to see first-hand about one of the world's leading education. On September 14, 2019, the Journey began, the journey to reach a higher level in my work.

Day #1
-----------oOo-----------

I have seen new things ...

After 15 hours of flight and with 4 hours transit in Turkey, I arrived in Finland. The country with the world's leading education, we can say this is a journey to discover why they are so successful in education. With the first impression is the friendliness of the airport staff, their enthusiasm has brought us warmth even though it is 7 degrees Celsius outdoors. This is the first time we experience this cold weather like this, even though I knew in advance and prepared very well from home, it was inevitable that I was not adapting, but the air in here was extremely clean. On the way from the airport to the hostel, there are lots of trees and extremely good transportation infrastructure, these have brought in me a quite big initial impression in this country.

Finnish are so nice, they knew we had a long flight, so the next day everyone started working at 10am, they also went to the hotel to walk and lead us to campus. I was really impressed with the hospitality and the way they organized the project.

I have learned ...

From the beginning, we were told how they succeed in education, from a poor country that has become so developed thanks to education, which takes place in just a few decades in A country that doesn't have as many mineral resources as Finland.

This really made us ponder a lot and I wanted to document these factors in detail so that I and you, the readers, will do something to change for our country.

1. Student in the center

• Trust in the student
• Trust in the learning process, learning takes time, but it happens
• Trust in a teachet: she/he is an autonomous professional
• Trust in teaching: It is effective, meaningful and it makes a difference

2. Equality in education system

• Education is free at all level
• Everyone has an equal access to education - no dead ends
• Equal possiilities
• Every pupil and student has the right to educational support
• Special needs education is generally provided in conjuction with mainstream education
• Efforts are made for supporting language minorities and migrants

3. Characteristics in primary school

• Education is based on child's development
• The potential of every individual should be maximized
• Learners should experience success and joy of learning
• During the first school years it is important to play
• Learner centered pedagogy
• Pupils are encouraged to work together
• Learning by doing
• Assessment is part of daily schoolwork
• Pupils' capabilities for self-assessment are strongly supported
• No national tests (the matriculation examination the only one)

4. The concept of learning - Socio Constructivistic approach

• Learners construct understanding
• New learning depends on current understanding
• Learning is facilitated by social interaction
• Meaningful learning occurs within authentic learning tasks

                --> Focus on LEARNING process - Not just TEACHING

5. Active Students

• Students ownership for their own learning is crucial 
• They plan and assess their own learning 
• They make choices
• They have responsibility
• They lead their learning
• Teachers as facilitators

6. Pedagogical Wellbeing

• Feelings of competence relatedness and autonomy must be supported
• Learners need to experience that they are seen and heard as individuals - who they really are?
• Fundamental for motivation

7. Collaboration/Interaction

• Team learning
• Peer assessment
• Students as tutors
• Peer learning is an essential resource of learning 
• Social interaction promotes learning

8. Competence-based education

• Focus on competencies - not traditional subjects/not contents
• Competence is a combination of
• Knowing - the theoretical knowledge - WHAT YOU KNOW?
• Doing - the practical knowledge - WHAT YOU CAN DO?
• Being - the self-regulative and socio-cultual knowledge - WHO YOU ARE? Or WHO YOU ARE BECOMING?

• Tool to reflect individual and collaborative learning

9. Authentic - real world learning

• Real world - learning tasks motivates the students, not just theory
• Classrooms are limited environments to learn competencies
• PBL - Phenomenom, Problem, Project based learning enables better competence development.

These  are the things that have brought Finland's great success in education, thereby leading to the development of all aspects of their social and their life. Hopefully, within the short 3 weeks here, I will learn and discover a lot of things to be able to decipher why they succeed and why we have not reached such levels.

I think ... 

What is special about the method they convey about these factors, we, the project participants, is divided into small groups of 4 based on the card we have chosen. We will stand from the factor number like in the card, and discuss together, asking any questions about that factor. After that, we will move on to the next factor and continue the discussion and ask questions, and so on until we have gone through all nine factors.

With such a discussion group organization that brings interest and clearly connections with learners, learners become truly involved in lesson development. And once the atmosphere of the classroom becomes more exciting with thinking together, expressing your personal views in the group will bring to mind the problem and the ability to think of each member.

A lesson in teaching method from the first session, along with an understanding of what makes Finnish education successful.

Besides, when I was able to visit the facilities of HAMK, I was really impressed with every design detail, everything was directed to students, creating an inspiring learning environment, a extremely comfortable study and work space.

It is true that studying and working in such an environment will bring a good result, because when you are inspired and feel the professional will motivate you seriously to study and work..

I will do ...

The first thing I thought I would to convey the message of their nine success factors, so that we, the people of education, could think together.

I intend to create a blog just to share the details of learner-centered teaching methods, methods to make the atmosphere of classroom more exciting, students will absorb the lesson. learn better. We will no longer have boring lectures, no stress, no pressure on class. To make teaching and learning really like trips, adventure of knowledge discovery, and together we can change this education to become more progressive, towards education 4.0.

But wait, what is education 4.0? This maybe me and you will find out together in the next time. See you in the following articles to continue exploring more great things ahead. 

Ta Nguyen - LHU

(Next: Amazing Business Train and Reflection Skills, What are they?)

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