The Development of a SMS-based Teaching and Learning System

The short message service (SMS) technology is one of the most stable mobile technologies around. Most of our tertiary students carry mobile phones with SMS facilities and can be used for teaching and learning. There are many projects of using SMS technologies in education as outlined in the literature review, but many publications do not provide the possible underlying technologies to implement such the teaching and learning systems. In this paper, the development of a SMS-based teaching and learning system is presented. The underlying technology of using GSM modems to build the SMS-based teaching and learning system is revealed. The system is capable of supporting administrative, teaching and learning activities via the SMS technology. Examples of various activities such as brainstorming, voting, and assessment activities supported by the system are illustrated

Support of Database Skills Testing

The paper deals with a database system (DBS) component which is used for support of database skills testing of students. Testing is focused on Structured Query Language, especially statements of Data Manipulation Language, and relational algebra. DBS component consists of subcomponents which are realized as plugins to Learning Management System (LMS) Moodle. DBS component also enforces designed security policy and supports of errors processing

SQL Tester: An online SQL assessment tool and its impact

Learning SQL can be surprisingly difficult, given the relative simplicity of its syntax. Automated tools for teaching and assessing SQL have existed for over two decades. Early tools were only designed for teaching and offered increased feedback and personalised learning, but not summative assessment. More recently, however, the trend has turned towards automated assessment, with learning as a side-effect. These tools offer more limited feedback and are not personalised. In this paper, we present SQL Tester, an online assessment tool and an assessment of its impact. We show that students engaged with SQL Tester as a learning tool, taking an average of 10 practice tests each and spending over 4 hours actively engaged in those tests. A student survey also found that over 90% of students agreed that they wanted to keep trying practice tests until they got a “good” mark. Finally, we present some evidence that taking practice tests increased student achievement, with a strong correlation between the number of practice tests a student took and their score on the assessed test

Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

A structured approach to malware detection and analysis in digital forensics investigation

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of PhDWithin the World Wide Web (WWW), malware is considered one of the most serious threats to system security with complex system issues caused by malware and spam. Networks and systems can be accessed and compromised by various types of malware, such as viruses, worms, Trojans, botnet and rootkits, which compromise systems through coordinated attacks. Malware often uses anti-forensic techniques to avoid detection and investigation. Moreover, the results of investigating such attacks are often ineffective and can create barriers for obtaining clear evidence due to the lack of sufficient tools and the immaturity of forensics methodology. This research addressed various complexities faced by investigators in the detection and analysis of malware. In this thesis, the author identified the need for a new approach towards malware detection that focuses on a robust framework, and proposed a solution based on an extensive literature review and market research analysis. The literature review focussed on the different trials and techniques in malware detection to identify the parameters for developing a solution design, while market research was carried out to understand the precise nature of the current problem. The author termed the new approaches and development of the new framework the triple-tier centralised online real-time environment (tri-CORE) malware analysis (TCMA). The tiers come from three distinctive phases of detection and analysis where the entire research pattern is divided into three different domains. The tiers are the malware acquisition function, detection and analysis, and the database operational function. This framework design will contribute to the field of computer forensics by making the investigative process more effective and efficient. By integrating a hybrid method for malware detection, associated limitations with both static and dynamic methods are eliminated. This aids forensics experts with carrying out quick, investigatory processes to detect the behaviour of the malware and its related elements. The proposed framework will help to ensure system confidentiality, integrity, availability and accountability. The current research also focussed on a prototype (artefact) that was developed in favour of a different approach in digital forensics and malware detection methods. As such, a new Toolkit was designed and implemented, which is based on a simple architectural structure and built from open source software that can help investigators develop the skills to critically respond to current cyber incidents and analyses

A new paradigm for open data-driven language learning systems design in higher education

This doctoral thesis presents three studies in collaboration with the open source FLAX project (Flexible Language Acquisition flax.nzdl.org). This research makes an original contribution to the fields of language education and educational technology by mobilising knowledge from computer science, corpus linguistics and open education, and proposes a new paradigm for open data-driven language learning systems design in higher education. Furthermore, the research presented in this thesis uncovers and engages with an infrastructure of open educational practices (OEP) that push at the parameters of policy for the reuse of open access research and pedagogic content in the design, development, distribution, adoption and evaluation of data-driven language learning systems. Study 1 employs automated content analysis to mine the concept of open educational systems and practices from qualitative reflections spanning 2012-2019 with stakeholders from an on-going multi-site design-based research study with the FLAX project. Design considerations are presented for remixing domain-specific open access content for academic English language provision across formal and non-formal higher education contexts. Primary stakeholders in this ongoing research collaboration include the following: knowledge organisations – libraries and archives including the British Library and the Oxford Text Archive, universities in collaboration with Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers; an interdisciplinary team of researchers; and knowledge users in formal higher education – English for Academic Purposes (EAP) practitioners. Themes arising from the qualitative dataset point to affordances as well as barriers with the adoption of open policies and practices for remixing open access content for data-driven language learning applications in higher education against the backdrop of different business models and cultural practices present within participating knowledge organisations. Study 2 presents a data-driven experiment in non-formal higher education by triangulating user query system log data with learner participant data from surveys (N=174) on the interface designs and usability of an automated open source digital library scheme, FLAX. Text and data mining approaches (TDM) common to natural language processing (NLP) were applied to pedagogical English language corpora, derived from the content of two MOOCs, (Harvard University with edX, and the University of London with Coursera), and one networked course (Harvard Law School with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society), which were then linked to external open resources (e.g. Wikipedia, the FLAX Learning Collocations system, WordNet), so that learners could employ the information discovery techniques (e.g. searching and browsing) that they have become accustomed to using through search engines (e.g. Google, Bing) for discovering and learning the domain-specific language features of their interests. Findings indicate a positive user experience with interfaces that include advanced affordances for course content browse, search and retrieval that transcend the MOOC platform and Learning Management System (LMS) standard. Further survey questions derived from an open education research bank from the Hewlett Foundation are reused in this study and presented against a larger dataset from the Hewlett Foundation (N=1921) on motivations for the uptake of open educational resources. Study 3 presents a data-driven experiment in formal higher education from the legal English field to measure quantitatively the usefulness and effectiveness of employing the open Law Collections in FLAX in the teaching of legal English at the University of Murcia in Spain. Informants were divided into an experimental and a control group and were asked to write an essay on a given set of legal English topics, defined by the subject instructor as part of their final assessment. The experimental group only consulted the FLAX English Common Law MOOC collection as the single source of information to draft their essays, and the control group used any information source available from the Internet to draft their essays. Findings from an analysis of the two learner corpora of essays indicate that members of the experimental group appear to have acquired the specialised terminology of the area better than those in the control group, as attested by the higher term average obtained by the texts in the FLAX-based corpus (56.5) as opposed to the non-FLAX-based text collection, at 13.73 points below

A semantic framework for cloud learning environments

Cloud Learning Environments (CLEs) are gradually gaining ground over traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS) by facilitating the lone or collaborative study of user-chosen blends of content and courses from heterogeneous sources, including Open Educational Resources (OER). In this chapter, we describe the use of ontologies for modelling various aspects of the learning process within such an environment. In particular, we consider a semantic knowledge base as the core of the learning environment, facilitating learners in finding educational services on the cloud. We describe how different stakeholder clusters are involved in the creation and maintenance of this knowledge base, through collaborative ontology management techniques. Finally, we define the mechanisms for the evolution of this knowledge base and the constant updating of the associated cloud learning services

Infusing critical thinking into an employability skills program: The effectiveness of an immersion approach

The demands of the knowledge economy have placed renewed emphasis on graduate employability and the development of higher-order thinking skills. Preparing graduates for the workplace requires new instructional approaches to develop a matrix of interrelated skills. This study investigates an immersion approach to developing employability skills with emphasis on the infusion of critical thinking skills in an undergraduate business degree. The research is situated within the pragmatic paradigm and comprises a mixed methods approach. Analyses of project instructions, student reflections and test scores are presented in an explanatory case study in three parts: the infusion of critical thinking skills in a program that targets employability, the process of critical thinking within a community of inquiry, and the performance of students in a standardised critical thinking skills test after completing the first year of the program. The study shows critical thinking skills to be central to the development of employability skills in an immersion approach and that the project tasks engaged students in a critical thinking cycle. Analyses of test results show that participants in the program outperformed nonparticipants, but that not all participants improved their own performance. Participants from non-English-speaking backgrounds achieved lower means, but still outperformed nonparticipants. It was therefore found that participation in the program can improve student performance in a standardised test, but also that test scores in a standardised test may not be an ecologically valid indicator of critical thinking skills development in authentic learning environments following an immersion approach. The study provides new insight into the infusion of critical thinking skills in an immersion approach and makes explicit a model for employability skills development that will enable business education to deliver graduates who can participate effectively in the workplace of the 21st. century

Enhanced Living Environments

This open access book was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1303 “Algorithms, Architectures and Platforms for Enhanced Living Environments (AAPELE)”. The concept of Enhanced Living Environments (ELE) refers to the area of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) that is more related with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Effective ELE solutions require appropriate ICT algorithms, architectures, platforms, and systems, having in view the advance of science and technology in this area and the development of new and innovative solutions that can provide improvements in the quality of life for people in their homes and can reduce the financial burden on the budgets of the healthcare providers. The aim of this book is to become a state-of-the-art reference, discussing progress made, as well as prompting future directions on theories, practices, standards, and strategies related to the ELE area. The book contains 12 chapters and can serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate students, post-graduate students, educators, faculty members, researchers, engineers, medical doctors, healthcare organizations, insurance companies, and research strategists working in this area

What Happens in Peer-Support, Stays in Peer-Support: Software Architecture for Peer-Sourcing in Mental Health

Digital health technology utilizing wearables, IoT and mobile devices has been successfully applied in the monitoring of numerous diseases and conditions. However, intervention, in response to monitored data, is yet to benefit from technological support and continues to follow a traditional point-of-care delivery model by providers and health professionals. Mental health is an example of a critical health area in dire need for technology solutions to enable timely, effective and scalable interventions. This is especially the case with an increasing prevalence of mental health conditions and a declining capacity of the healthcare professional workforce. Numerous studies reveal the potential for peer support groups as an effective, scalable, cost-effective, first-line of response in mental health interventions. Peer support helps participants, at low and moderate risk, better understand their diseases or conditions and empowers them to take control of their own health. Peer support interactions also seems to inform health professionals with insights and intricate knowledge, making it effectively a learning health system. This paper proposes a software architecture to better enable "peer-sourcing". We present related work and show how the proposed architecture might draw similarity to and differences from crowd-sourcing architectures. We also present a study in which we interacted with service users (mental health patients) and mental healthcare professionals to better understand and elicit the key requirements for the software architecture