Collaborative Educational Systems in the Virtual Environment

The work leads to an original approach to the construction of collaborative systems metrics. The approach is based both on research already conducted by the author, on the experimental results obtained, and the foundation taken from the specific literature. The collaborative systems in knowledgebased economy are formalized and their characteristics are identified. The virtual campus structure is described and a comparison with the classical university is achieved. The architecture of virtual is designed and the categories of agents in virtual campus are analyzed.

Dynamic group formation in mobile computer supported collaborative learning environment

Forming suitable learning groups is one of the factors that determine the efficiency of collaborative learning activities. However, only a few studies were carried out to address this problem in the mobile learning environments. In this paper, we propose a new approach for an automatic, customized, and dynamic group formation in Mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (MCSCL) contexts. The proposed solution is based on the combination of three types of grouping criteria: learner’s personal characteristics, learner’s behaviours, and context information. The instructors can freely select the type, the number, and the weight of grouping criteria, together with other settings such as the number, the size, and the type of learning groups (homogeneous or heterogeneous). Apart from a grouping mechanism, the proposed approach represents a flexible tool to control each learner, and to manage the learning processes from the beginning to the end of collaborative learning activities. In order to evaluate the quality of the implemented group formation algorithm, we compare its Average Intra-cluster Distance (AID) with the one of a random group formation method. The results show a higher effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in forming homogenous and heterogeneous groups compared to the random method.(undefined

Location-Based Learning Management System for Adaptive Mobile Learning

E-learning and distance learning are all forms of learning that take place outside of a traditional learning environment and can be alternatives for learners who are not able to study in a traditional environment for various reasons. With advancement in technologies and increased use of smart phone, mobile learning has gained popularity as another form of learning and has enabled learners to learn anywhere and anytime. Ubiquitous learning takes mobile learning to another level by providing contents that are context and location aware. There is therefore the need to provide mobile devices with the right learning contents for the right users. The right learning contents should be adaptive to the learner’s location, as well as learning style and device etc. To be able to implement the learning, learning management systems play the important role in creating, managing, and delivering the learning contents. In this paper, a location-based Learning Management System for adaptive and personalized mobile learning is presented. The systems makes use of 5R Adaptation Framework for Location based Mobile learning, the location-based dynamic grouping algorithm, and concepts of the IMS Learning Design model to produce a location-based adaptive mobile learning setting

Collaborative Educational Systems in the Virtual Environment

The work leads to an original approach to the construction of collaborative systems metrics. The approach is based both on research already conducted by the author, on the experimental results obtained, and the foundation taken from the specific literature. The collaborative systems in knowledge-based economy are formalized and their characteristics are identified. The virtual campus structure is described and a comparison with the classical university is achieved. The architecture of virtual is designed and the categories of agents in virtual campus are analyzed

Using students’ learning style to create effective learning groups in MCSCL environments

Students have different ways for learning and processing information. Some students prefer learning through seeing while others prefer learning through listening; some students prefer doing activities while other prefer reflecting.Some students reason logically, while others reason intuitively, etc. Identifying the learning style of each student, and providing learning content based on these styles represents a good method to enhance the learning quality. However, there are no efforts onhow to detect the students’ learning styles in mobile computer supported collaborative learning (MCSCL) environments. We present in this paper new ways for automatically detecting the learning styles of students in MCSCL environments based on the learning style model of Felder-Silverman. The identified learning styles of students could be then stored and used at anytime toassign each one of them to his/her appropriate learning group

Collaborative Learning and Convergence: Library Strategies and Solutions with an Eye on the USG Information Technology Strategic Plan

The article discusses collaborative learning as a library strategy of the University System of Georgia (USG) Information Technology Strategic Plan 2010 and the role of convergence in fostering it. It is stated that collaborative learning enables people to achieve quality learning by way of efficient technologies and its integration with content and environments that will benefit people and institutions. Convergence reportedly refers to the integration of distinct library services that will support the shared purpose of learning

Facilitating social collaboration in mobile cloud-based learning: a teamwork as a service (TaaS) approach

Mobile learning is an emerging trend that brings many advantages to distributed learners, enabling them to achieve collaborative learning, in which the virtual teams are usually built to engage multiple learners working together towards the same pedagogical goals in online courses. However, the socio-technical mechanisms to enhance teamwork performance are lacking. To meet this gap, we adopt the social computing to affiliate learners’ behaviors and offer them computational choices to build a better collaborative learning context. Combining the features of the cloud environment, we have identified a learning flow based on Kolb team learning experience to realize this approach. Such novel learning flow can be executed by our newly designed system, Teamwork as a Service (TaaS), in conjunction with the cloud-hosting learning management systems. Following this learning flow, learners benefit from the functions provided by cloud-based services when cooperating in a mobile environment, being organized into cloud-based teaching strategies namely “Jigsaw Classroom”, planning and publishing tasks, as well as rationalizing task allocation and mutual supervision. In particular, we model the social features related to the collaborative learning activities, and introduce a genetic algorithm approach to grouping learners into appropriate teams with two different team formation scenarios. Experimental results prove our approach is able to facilitate teamwork, while learners’ capabilities and preferences are taken into consideration. In addition, empirical evaluations have been conducted to show the improvement of collaborative learning brought by TaaS in real university level courses

MobiGroup: Enabling Lifecycle Support to Social Activity Organization and Suggestion with Mobile Crowd Sensing

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This paper presents a group-aware mobile crowd sensing system called MobiGroup, which supports group activity organization in real-world settings. Acknowledging the complexity and diversity of group activities, this paper introduces a formal concept model to characterize group activities and classifies them into four organizational stages. We then present an intelligent approach to support group activity preparation, including a heuristic rule-based mechanism for advertising public activity and a context-based method for private group formation. In addition, we leverage features extracted from both online and offline communities to recommend ongoing events to attendees with different needs. Compared with the baseline method, people preferred public activities suggested by our heuristic rule-based method. Using a dataset collected from 45 participants, we found that the context-based approach for private group formation can attain a precision and recall of over 80%, and the usage of spatial-temporal contexts and group computing can have more than a 30% performance improvement over considering the interaction frequency between a user and related groups. A case study revealed that, by extracting the features such as dynamic intimacy and static intimacy, our cross-community approach for ongoing event recommendation can meet different user needs

Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—The state of eTourism research

This paper reviews the published articles on eTourism in the past 20 years. Using a wide variety of sources, mainly in the tourism literature, this paper comprehensively reviews and analyzes prior studies in the context of Internet applications to Tourism. The paper also projects future developments in eTourism and demonstrates critical changes that will influence the tourism industry structure. A major contribution of this paper is its overview of the research and development efforts that have been endeavoured in the field, and the challenges that tourism researchers are, and will be, facing

Augmenting reality and formality of informal and non-formal settings to enhance blended learning

Visits to museums and city tours have been part of higher and secondary education curriculum activities for many years. However these activities are typically considered "less formal" when compared to those carried out in the classroom, mainly because they take place in informal or non-formal settings. Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and smartphones can transform such informal and non-formal settings into digitally augmented learning settings by superimposing "digital" layers of information over physical objects or spaces. At the same time, the formality of these settings increases when connected to formal settings through these digital layers. The right combination of AR and mobile technologies with computer-based educational tools such as Learning Management Systems (LMSs) drives this digital connection, leading to articulated blended learning activities across formal, non-formal and informal settings. This paper contributes to the TEL field with: (1) three blended learning activities illustrating the idea of augmented informal/non-formal settings; (2) results from the cross-analysis of these activities that evidence the impact of technology to enhance blended learning; and (3) a set of lessons learned about the possibilities of NFC/GPS AR technologies and LMSs for blended learning. This work provides insights for the design and implementation of similar technology-enhanced blended learning activities. © 2008-2011 IEEE