Smart Learning Environment: Paradigm Shift for Online Learning

Online learning has always been influenced by advanced technology. The role of online learning is expected not only for delivering contents to massive learners anywhere and anytime but also for promoting successful learning for the learners. Consequently, this emerged role has introduced the concept of smart learning environment. More specifically, smart learning environment is developed to promote personalized learning for learners. Personalized learning focuses on individual learner and provides appropriate feedback individually. Currently, the advances of modern technologies and intelligence data analytics have brought the idea of smart learning environment into realization. Machine learning techniques are generally applied to analyze real-time dynamic learner behavior and provide the appropriate response to the right learner. In this chapter, the evolution of online learning environment from different points of technological overviews is first introduced. Next, the concepts of personalized learning and smart learning environment are explained. Then, the essential components of smart learning environment are presented including learner classification and intervention feedback. Learner classification is to understand different learners. Intervention feedback is to provide an individual response appropriately. Additionally, some machine learning techniques widely used in smart learning environment in order to perform smart classification and response are briefly explained

Designing learning-skills towards industry 4.0

The world is shrinking now more than ever due to new scientific and technological breakthroughs that expand the boundaries of human knowledge, resulting in improvements in transportation, communication, space exploration and educational technologies. Today’s students will compete in a technological, diverse, multi-cultural world and must be prepared to thrive in this futuristic environment. Therefore, it is vital that today’s pedagogy produce lifelong learners, who can succeed in a global pulpit. To ensure our educational technology progresses at the rate demanded by today’s ubiquitous digital learners, we review emerging technologies and traditional teaching methods and propose desirable changes. Future companies will need employees with specific Internet of Things connected additive manufacturing skills across the value stream, including computer-aided design, machine operation, raw material development, robotics and supply chain management; but these are only island of excellence in industry 4.0 and not the consummate requirement of the manufacturing process

Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.

With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012). The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators. The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

How important it is to use e-learning management systems in building smart university in Kuwait

The study aimed to investigate the importance of using e-learning management systems in the construction of smart universities in Kuwait, The results showed the importance of using e-learning management systems in building aa smart university in Kuwait to an average degree, and the averages ranged from (2.46to4.37) Between (The mathematical average of the instrument as a whole Associate Professor, Associate Professor aNot و  a (3.33). On the other hand, the differences came in favor of both associate professors and assistant professor, and the results showed statistically significant differences (= 0.05) between less than five years and more than15 years a and the differences came Between in favor of less than five (= 0.05) years

Middleware-based software architecture for interactions in the smart learning environment

Traditional classrooms involve the use of face-to-face and a whiteboard or projector, but the inabilities to micro manage the environment between the teaching staff and the student calls for a need for a smart interactive learning environment. The aim of this work is to develop evidence and experiments for an architecture for a smart learning environment. This paper discusses the design and implementation of integrating haptic technologies into the architecture of a smart learning environment by designing components of service oriented software middleware that defines a common gesture framework. The study utilised a software test-bed to confirm the feasibility of the architectural design based on the proposed framework. The results indicated that the new structural design allows multiple haptic and gesture peripherals to share a common protocol, as well as, facilitate individual devices to work and exist as stand-alone entities within the ambient setting to enhance collaborative learning

Smart Universities

Institutions of learning at all levels are challenged by a fast and accelerating pace of change in the development of communications technology. Conferences around the world address the issue. Research journals in a wide range of scholarly fields are placing the challenge of understanding "Education's Digital Future" on their agenda. The World Learning Summit and LINQ Conference 2017 proceedings take this as a point of origin. Noting how the future also has a past: Emergent uses of communications technologies in learning are of course neither new nor unfamiliar. What may be less familiar is the notion of "disruption", found in many of the conferences and journal entries currently. Is the disruption of education and learning as transformative as in the case of the film industry, the music industry, journalism, and health? If so, clearly the challenge of understanding future learning and education goes to the core of institutions and organizations as much as pedagogy and practice in the classroom. One approach to the pursuit of a critical debate is the concept of Smart Universities – educational institutions that adopt to the realities of digital online media in an encompassing manner: How can we as smarter universities and societies build sustainable learning eco systems for coming generations, where technologies serve learning and not the other way around? Perhaps that is the key question of our time, reflecting concerns and challenges in a variety of scholarly fields and disciplines? These proceedings present the results from an engaging event that took place from 7th to 9th of June 2017 in Kristiansand, Norway