Panorama of Recommender Systems to Support Learning

This chapter presents an analysis of recommender systems in TechnologyEnhanced Learning along their 15 years existence (2000-2014). All recommender systems considered for the review aim to support educational stakeholders by personalising the learning process. In this meta-review 82 recommender systems from 35 different countries have been investigated and categorised according to a given classification framework. The reviewed systems have been classified into 7 clusters according to their characteristics and analysed for their contribution to the evolution of the RecSysTEL research field. Current challenges have been identified to lead the work of the forthcoming years.Hendrik Drachsler has been partly supported by the FP7 EU Project LACE (619424). Katrien Verbert is a post-doctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). Olga C. Santos would like to acknowledge that her contributions to this work have been carried out within the project Multimodal approaches for Affective Modelling in Inclusive Personalized Educational scenarios in intelligent Contexts (MAMIPEC -TIN2011-29221-C03-01). Nikos Manouselis has been partially supported with funding CIP-PSP Open Discovery Space (297229

Evaluating Recommender Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning: A Quantitative Survey

The increasing number of publications on recommender systems for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) evidence a growing interest in their development and deployment. In order to support learning, recommender systems for TEL need to consider specific requirements, which differ from the requirements for recommender systems in other domains like e-commerce. Consequently, these particular requirements motivate the incorporation of specific goals and methods in the evaluation process for TEL recommender systems. In this article, the diverse evaluation methods that have been applied to evaluate TEL recommender systems are investigated. A total of 235 articles are selected from major conferences, workshops, journals, and books where relevant work have been published between 2000 and 2014. These articles are quantitatively analysed and classified according to the following criteria: type of evaluation methodology, subject of evaluation, and effects measured by the evaluation. Results from the survey suggest that there is a growing awareness in the research community of the necessity for more elaborate evaluations. At the same time, there is still substantial potential for further improvements. This survey highlights trends and discusses strengths and shortcomings of the evaluation of TEL recommender systems thus far, thereby aiming to stimulate researchers to contemplate novel evaluation approaches.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Evaluating Recommender Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning: A Quantitative Survey

The increasing number of publications on recommender systems for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) evidence a growing interest in their development and deployment. In order to support learning, recommender systems for TEL need to consider specific requirements, which differ from the requirements for recommender systems in other domains like e-commerce. Consequently, these particular requirements motivate the incorporation of specific goals and methods in the evaluation process for TEL recommender systems. In this article, the diverse evaluation methods that have been applied to evaluate TEL recommender systems are investigated. A total of 235 articles are selected from major conferences, workshops, journals, and books where relevant work have been published between 2000 and 2014. These articles are quantitatively analysed and classified according to the following criteria: type of evaluation methodology, subject of evaluation, and effects measured by the evaluation. Results from the survey suggest that there is a growing awareness in the research community of the necessity for more elaborate evaluations. At the same time, there is still substantial potential for further improvements. This survey highlights trends and discusses strengths and shortcomings of the evaluation of TEL recommender systems thus far, thereby aiming to stimulate researchers to contemplate novel evaluation approaches.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Evaluating Recommender Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning: A Quantitative Survey

The increasing number of publications on recommender systems for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) evidence a growing interest in their development and deployment. In order to support learning, recommender systems for TEL need to consider specific requirements, which differ from the requirements for recommender systems in other domains like e-commerce. Consequently, these particular requirements motivate the incorporation of specific goals and methods in the evaluation process for TEL recommender systems. In this article, the diverse evaluation methods that have been applied to evaluate TEL recommender systems are investigated. A total of 235 articles are selected from major conferences, workshops, journals, and books where relevant work have been published between 2000 and 2014. These articles are quantitatively analysed and classified according to the following criteria: type of evaluation methodology, subject of evaluation, and effects measured by the evaluation. Results from the survey suggest that there is a growing awareness in the research community of the necessity for more elaborate evaluations. At the same time, there is still substantial potential for further improvements. This survey highlights trends and discusses strengths and shortcomings of the evaluation of TEL recommender systems thus far, thereby aiming to stimulate researchers to contemplate novel evaluation approaches.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

MREPSA : modelo de recomendação de estratégias pedagógicas baseado em aspectos socioafetivos do aluno em ambiente virtual de aprendizagem

Esta pesquisa investiga como construir um modelo de recomendação que integra estratégias pedagógicas a partir dos aspectos socioafetivos do aluno em Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem (AVA). Considerando que os aspectos afetivos e sociais vivenciados pelo sujeito interferem sobre seu desenvolvimento cognitivo, é relevante que o docente acompanhe as alterações comportamentais de cada aluno em sala de aula e, especialmente, no AVA. Neste contexto, a mediação do professor através de estratégias pedagógicas (EP) personalizadas adequadas à situação socioafetiva do estudante é significativa e pode contribuir em prol do aprendizado. Estratégias pedagógicas são ações planejadas para atingir aos objetivos pretendidos na formação do alunado. O presente estudo foi realizado em uma abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa do tipo estudo de casos múltiplos. O público-alvo da investigação são professores de ensino superior que utilizaram o AVA ROODA - Rede cOOperativa De Aprendizagem como plataforma para o desenvolvimento de suas atividades de ensino. Neste escopo, a pesquisa foi desenvolvida em cinco etapas, a saber: 1) Realização de estudo teórico sobre as temáticas de Sistemas de Recomendação, Socioafetividade, segundo a epistemologia genética de Piaget, Traços de Personalidade e Estratégias Pedagógicas, visando ao embasamento teórico nas respectivas e a identificação de trabalhos correlatos. 2) Construção do Modelo de Recomendação de Estratégias Pedagógicas a partir do perfil socioafetivo do aluno em ambiente virtual de aprendizagem. 3) Implementação das definições do MREPSA em um sistema de recomendação no AVA de aplicação. 4) Avaliação do Modelo no AVA de aplicação. 5) Análise dos resultados. A coleta de dados foi realizada mediante a aplicação de questionário cujas respostas foram examinadas segundo a metodologia de Análise de Conteúdo. Nesta perspectiva, foram estabelecidas três categorias de análise: Categoria I – A efetividade do MREPSA como modelo de recomendação, Categoria II – A qualidade do MREPSA como modelo de recomendação e Categoria III – A pertinência das recomendações ofertadas a partir do MREPSA. Os resultados apresentados apontam que as recomendações fornecidas são pertinentes com os estados socioafetivos dos estudantes. Ressaltam, ainda, que as sugestões são adequadas e úteis como ferramenta de apoio ao professor. Desse modo, as EP auxiliam a compreender a situação em que o aluno se encontra, ao mesmo tempo que provêm sugestões de ação pedagógica em resposta ao momento que este está passando. Com isso, vislumbra-se que o modelo pode servir de base para o desenvolvimento de novas abordagens de recomendação baseadas em aspectos socioafetivos, as quais podem contribuir para que os docentes possam dar uma atenção mais personalizada às necessidades afetivas e sociais de seus alunos em Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem, em especial, na Educação a Distância.This research investigates how to build a recommendation model that integrates pedagogical strategies based on the student's socio-affective aspects in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Considering that the affective and social aspects experienced by the subject interfere with his cognitive development, it is relevant that the teacher accompanies the behavioral changes of each student in the classroom and, especially, in the VLE. In this context, the mediation of the teacher through personalized pedagogical strategies (EP) tailored to the student's socio-affective situation is significant and can contribute to learning. Pedagogical strategies are actions designed to achieve the intended educational objectives. The present study was carried out using a qualitative and quantitative approach, such as multiple case studies. The target audience of the investigation are higher education teachers who used the VLE ROODA as a platform for the development of their teaching activities. In this scope, the research was developed in five stages, namely: 1) Carrying out a theoretical study on the themes of Recommendation Systems, Socio-affectivity, according to Piaget's genetic epistemology, Personality Traits and Pedagogical Strategies, aiming at the theoretical foundation in the respective and the identification of related works. 2) Construction of the Pedagogical Strategies Recommendation Model based on the student's socio-affective profile in a virtual learning environment. 3) Implementation of MREPSA definitions in a recommendation system in the application AVA. 4) Evaluation of the Model in the VLE. 5) Analysis of the results. Data collection was performed by applying a questionnaire whose answers were examined according to the Content Analysis methodology. In this perspective, three categories of analysis were established: Category I - The effectiveness of MREPSA as a recommendation model, Category II - The quality of MREPSA as a recommendation model and Category III - The relevance of the recommendations offered from MREPSA. The results presented show that the recommendations provided are relevant to the students' socio-affective states. They also emphasize that the suggestions are adequate and useful as a tool to support the teacher. In this way, the EPs help to understand the situation in which the student is, while providing suggestions for pedagogical action in response to the moment he is going through. Thus, it is envisaged that the model can serve as a basis for the development of new recommendation approaches based on socio-affective aspects, which can contribute so that teachers can give a more personalized attention to the affective and social needs of their students in the Virtual Learning Environment, especially in Distance Education

Análisis de portales para compartir contenido digital en la formación del profesorado. Una propuesta conceptual de diseño

Los avances tecnológicos se hacen cada día más presentes en todos los ámbitos de la sociedad. En el ámbito educativo las principales instituciones internacionales y europeas se han preocupado de promover políticas para favorecer la construcción de espacios web que congreguen el contenido digital educativo disperso en la red. En el ámbito concreto de la formación del profesorado, las prácticas de compartición son limitadas y los servicios existentes no se adecúan completamente a la idiosincrasia de este colectivo. Esta tesis tiene como objetivo proporcionar unas guías para el diseño de portales educativos que atiendan a las necesidades educativas, sociales y tecnológicas de formadores de profesores y otros profesionales de la educación. Con el fin de arrojar luz a este problema se realiza una investigación multimétodo abordando dos estudios. En primer lugar, se analiza a fondo un portal europeo para la compartición de contenido digital en el ámbito de la formación del profesorado, Share.TEC, así como la información proporcionada por sus informantes. Para ello se utiliza el método de estudio de caso y se recaban y analizan los datos mediante técnicas cualitativas y cuantitativas de investigación. En segundo lugar se analiza una selección de portales educativos para compartir contenido digital y experiencias educativas. Para ello se genera un modelo de evaluación, permitiendo el análisis comparativo de estos portales. Finalmente se proponen un conjunto de consideraciones pedagógicas, tecnológicas y sociales para el diseño de portales educativos mediante la integración de las principales interpretaciones de cada estudio. Las contribuciones de este tesis son: 1) la definición de necesidades pedagógicas, tecnológicas y sociales de los formadores de profesores y otros profesionales de la educación sobre el uso de portales para compartir contenidos digitales educativos y experiencias; 2) la generación de un modelo de evaluación de portales educativos de contenido digital; 3) la detección de buenas prácticas de portales educativos; y 4) la propuesta teórica para la creación/remodelación de portales educativos para la formación del profesorado.Departamento de PedagogíaDoctorado en Investigación Transdisciplinar en Educació