Semantic modelling of learning objects and instruction

We introduce an ontology-based semantic modelling framework that addresses subject domain modelling, instruction modelling, and interoperability aspects in the development of complex reusable learning objects. Ontologies are knowledge representation frameworks, ideally suited to support knowledge-based modelling of these learning objects. We illustrate the benefits of semantic modelling for learning object assemblies within the context of standards such as SCORM Sequencing and Navigation and Learning Object Metadata

Towards the standard-oriented E-learning : an RDF-based E-learning content management P2P infrastructure and some enabling technologies

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Interoperability Gap Challenges for Learning Object Repositories & Learning Management Systems

An interoperability gap exists between Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and Learning Object Repositories (LORs). Learning Objects (LOs) and the associated Learning Object Metadata (LOM) that is stored within LORs adhere to a variety of LOM standards. A common LOM standard found in LORs is the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) Content Aggregation Model (CAM). In contrast, LMSs are independent computer systems that manage and deliver course content to students via a web interface. This research addressed three important issues related to the interoperability gap: (a) a lack of a metadata standard that defined the format of how student assessment data should be communicated from LMSs to LORs, (b) a lack of an architectural standard for the movement of data from LMSs to LORs, and (c) a lack of middleware that facilitated the movement of the student assessment data from the LMSs to LORs. This research achieved the following objectives: (a) the SCORM CAM LOM standard was extended to facilitate the storage of student assessment data, (b) Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) was identified as the best architecture to resolve the interoperability gap between LMSs and LORs, (c) a panel of Computer Information Systems (CIS) experts participated in a five-stage, web-based, anonymous Delphi process that approved and ranked 28 functional requirements for a proposed middleware application, and (d) the functional requirements were verified via the development of a prototype that transferred student assessment data from a LMSs into the LOM of LOs that are stored within a LOR. In conclusion, the research demonstrated that there are three acceptable approaches to extending the SCORM LOM standard: (a) new metadata elements, (b) new vocabulary values, and (c) the reference of an internal or external XML file using a location element. The main accomplishments of the research were the gathering of SOA functional requirements and the development of a prototype that provided an approach for the resolution of the interoperability gap that exists between LMSs and LORs

Orchestration of e-learning services for automatic evaluation of programming exercises

Managing programming exercises require several heterogeneous systems such as evaluation engines, learning objects repositories and exercise resolution environments. The coordination of networks of such disparate systems is rather complex. These tools would be too specific to incorporate in an e-Learning platform. Even if they could be provided as pluggable components, the burden of maintaining them would be prohibitive to institutions with few courses in those domains. This work presents a standard based approach for the coordination of a network of e-Learning systems participating on the automatic evaluation of programming exercises. The proposed approach uses a pivot component to orchestrate the interaction among all the systems using communication standards. This approach was validated through its effective use on classroom and we present some preliminary results

Modelom vođena softverska arhitektura za upravljanje metapodacima obrazovnih resursa

Purpose – The purpose of the research is to enable dynamic customization of metadata that describe educational resources in digital repositories.   Design/methodology/approach – Users need to describe educational resources in digital repositories according to the user-specific metadata set. Since users are mostly unskilled to customize the software application manually, our approach relies on the techniques of the model-driven software engineering, which should allow customization of the software application programmatically with no need to develop or order a new software application. In order to verify the proposed solution, we conducted an experiment which evaluated its characteristics.   Findings – A software platform for managing educational resources described by dynamically extendable metadata is proposed. The platform enables creating data models which are programmatically transformed to the web application for the management of educational resources. In this way a user can create their own model of metadata that is relevant in a particular domain. Research limitations / implications – The solution has been verified by users with technical knowledge. We should still explore the appropriateness of the platform for domain experts with little technical knowledge who would define new metadata in their domain. Practical implications – The solution can be used for digital repositories that store diverse educational resources. Each resource could be described using metadata that relates to the domain the resource belongs to. Originality/value – Digital repositories standardly describe educational resources using some general metadata, which are more focused on the physical characteristics of resources rather than their semantics. The proposed solution introduces custom domain-specific semantics into the resources’ description, which improves their retrieval.Cilj – Cilj disertacije je da se omogući dinamičko prilagođavanje metapodataka koji opisuju obrazovne resurse u digitalnim repozitorijumima. Metodologija - Postoji potreba da se u digitalnim repozitorijumima obrazovni resursi opišu putem skupa metapodataka koji je specifičan za određenog korisnika ili domen. Obzirom da korisnici ne mogu samostalno da ručno vrše izmenu softverske aplikacije, pristup predložen u ovoj disertaciji se zasniva na tehnikama modelom vođenog razvoja softvera, koji treba da omogući prilagođavanje softverske aplikacije programski, bez potrebe za razvojem ili naručivanjem nove aplikacije. Da bi se predloženo rešenje verifikovalo, sproveden je eksperiment koji evaluira njegove karakteristike. Rezultati - U disertaciji je predložena softverska platforma za upravljanje obrazovnim resursima opisanim dinamički proširivim skupom metapodataka. Platforma omogućuje kreiranje modela podataka koji se programski transformišu u veb aplikaciju za upravljanje obrazovnim resursima. Na ovaj način, korisnik može da kreira sopstveni model metapodataka koji je odgovarajući u određenom domenu. Ograničenja istraživanja/implikacije – Rešenje verifikovano od strane korisnicima sa određenim tehničkim znanjem. Potrebno je istražiti prikladnost platforme za domenske eksperte sa ograničenim tehničkim znanjem, koji treba da definišu nove skupove metapodataka u svom domenu. Praktične implikacije – Rešenje se može koristiti u digitalnim repozitorijuma koji skladište raznolike obrazovne resurse. Svaki resurs može biti opisan koristeći metapodatke iz domena kojem resurs pripada. Originalnost/vrednost - Digitalni repozitorijumi standardno opisuju obrazovne resurse koristeći neki generalni skup metapodataka, koji je više fokusiran na fizičke karakteristike resursa, umesto na njihovo značenje. Predloženo rešenje uvodi proizvoljnu domenski-zavisnu semantiku u opis resursa, čime se unapređuje njihovo dobavljanje

Context-Aware and Adaptable eLearning Systems

The full text file attached to this record contains a copy of the thesis without the authors publications attached. The list of publications that are attached to the complete thesis can be found on pages 6-7 in the thesis.This thesis proposed solutions to some shortcomings to current eLearning architectures. The proposed DeLC architecture supports context-aware and adaptable provision of eLearning services and electronic content. The architecture is fully distributed and integrates service-oriented development with agent technology. Central to this architecture is that a node is our unit of computation (known as eLearning node) which can have purely service-oriented architecture, agent-oriented architecture or mixed architecture. Three eLeaerning Nodes have been implemented in order to demonstrate the vitality of the DeLC concept. The Mobile eLearning Node uses a three-level communication network, called InfoStations network, supporting mobile service provision. The services, displayed on this node, are to be aware of its context, gather required learning material and adapted to the learner request. This is supported trough a multi-layered hybrid (service- and agent-oriented) architecture whose kernel is implemented as middleware. For testing of the middleware a simulation environment has been developed. In addition, the DeLC development approach is proposed. The second eLearning node has been implemented as Education Portal. The architecture of this node is poorly service-oriented and it adopts a client-server architecture. In the education portal, there are incorporated education services and system services, called engines. The electronic content is kept in Digital Libraries. Furthermore, in order to facilitate content creators in DeLC, the environment Selbo2 was developed. The environment allows for creating new content, editing available content, as well as generating educational units out of preexisting standardized elements. In the last two years, the portal is used in actual education at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Plovdiv. The third eLearning node, known as Agent Village, exhibits a purely agent-oriented architecture. The purpose of this node is to provide intelligent assistance to the services deployed on the Education Pportal. Currently, two kinds of assistants are implemented in the node - eTesting Assistants and Refactoring eLearning Environment (ReLE). A more complex architecture, known as Education Cluster, is presented in this thesis as well. The Education Cluster incorporates two eLearning nodes, namely the Education Portal and the Agent Village. eLearning services and intelligent agents interact in the cluster

MPEG-SCORM : ontologia de metadados interoperáveis para integração de padrões multimídia e e-learning

Orientador: Yuzo IanoTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de ComputaçãoResumo: A convergência entre as mídias digitais propõe uma integração entre as TIC, focadas no domínio do multimídia (sob a responsabilidade do Moving Picture Experts Group, constituindo o subcomitê ISO / IEC JTC1 SC29), e as TICE, (TIC para a Educação, geridas pelo ISO / IEC JTC1 SC36), destacando-se os padrões MPEG, empregados na forma de conteúdo e metadados para o multimídia, e as TICE, aplicadas à Educação a Distância, ou e-Learning (o aprendizado eletrônico). Neste sentido, coloca-se a problemática de desenvolver uma correspondência interoperável de bases normativas, atingindo assim uma proposta inovadora na convergência entre as mídias digitais e as aplicações para e-Learning, essencialmente multimídia. Para este fim, propõe-se criar e aplicar uma ontologia de metadados interoperáveis para web, TV digital e extensões para dispositivos móveis, baseada na integração entre os padrões de metadados MPEG-21 e SCORM, empregando a linguagem XPathAbstract: The convergence of digital media offers an integration of the ICT, focused on telecommunications and multimedia domain (under responsibility of the Moving Picture Experts Group, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29), with the ICTE (the ICT for Education, managed by the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36), highlighting the MPEG formats, featured as content and as description metadata potentially applied to the Multimedia or Digital TV and as a technology applied to e-Learning. Regarding this, it is presented the problem of developing an interoperable matching for normative bases, achieving an innovative proposal in the convergence between digital Telecommunications and applications for e-Learning, both essentially multimedia. To achieve this purpose, it is proposed to creating a ontology for interoperability between educational applications in Digital TV environments and vice-versa, simultaneously facilitating the creation of learning metadata based objects for Digital TV programs as well as providing multimedia video content as learning objects for Distance Education. This ontology is designed as interoperable metadata for the Web, Digital TV and e-Learning, built on the integration between MPEG-21 and SCORM metadata standards, employing the XPath languageDoutoradoTelecomunicações e TelemáticaDoutor em Engenharia ElétricaCAPE

Orchestration of E-Learning Services for Automatic Evaluation of Programming Exercises

Abstract: Managing programming exercises require several heterogeneous systems such as evaluation engines, learning objects repositories and exercise resolution environments. The coordination of networks of such disparate systems is rather complex. These tools would be too specific to incorporate in an e-Learning platform. Even if they could be provided as pluggable components, the burden of maintaining them would be prohibitive to institutions with few courses in those domains. This work presents a standard based approach for the coordination of a network of e-Learning systems participating on the automatic evaluation of programming exercises. The proposed approach uses a pivot component to orchestrate the interaction among all the systems using communication standards. This approach was validated through its effective use on classroom and we present some preliminary results

Third international workshop on Authoring of adaptive and adaptable educational hypermedia (A3EH), Amsterdam, 18-22 July, 2005

The A3EH follows a successful series of workshops on Adaptive and Adaptable Educational Hypermedia. This workshop focuses on models, design and authoring of AEH, on assessment of AEH, conversion between AEH and evaluation of AEH. The workshop has paper presentations, poster session and panel discussions