Integrated content presentation for multilingual and multimedia information access

For multilingual and multimedia information retrieval from multiple potentially distributed collections generating the output in the form of standard ranked lists may often mean that a user has to explore the contents of many lists before finding sufficient relevant or linguistically accessible material to satisfy their information need. In some situations delivering an integrated multilingual multimedia presentation could enable the user to explore a topic allowing them to select from among a range of available content based on suitably chosen displayed metadata. A presentation of this type has similarities with the outputs of existing adaptive hypermedia systems. However, such systems are generated based on “closed” content with sophisticated user and domain models. Extending them to “open” domain information retrieval applications would raise many issues. We present an outline exploration of what will form a challenging new direction for research in multilingual information access

Educational hypermedia resources facilitator

Se analiza el impacto que la enseñanza en web ha tenido en la educación superior y las distintas herramientas que permiten la creación de documentos hipertexto como recursos de enseñanzaWithin the university the introduction of computers is creating a new criterion of differentiation between those who as a matter of course become integrated in the technocratic trend deriving from the daily use of these machines and those who become isolated by not using them. This difference increases when computer science and communications merge to introduce virtual educational areas, where the conjunction of teacher and pupil in the space-time dimension is no longer an essential requirement, andwhere the written text is replaced (or rather complemented) by the digital text. In this article a historical defence is made of the presence of this new standard in the creation of digital educational resources such as the hyperdocument, as well as the barriers and technological problems deriving from its use. Furthermore, HyCo, an authoring tool, is introduced which facilitates the composition of hypertexts, which arestored as semantic learning objects, looking for that through of a simple and extremely intuitive interface and interaction model, any teacher with a minimum knowledge of computer science has the possibility of transforming his or her experience and knowledge into useful and quality hypermedia educational resources

Applying digital content management to support localisation

The retrieval and presentation of digital content such as that on the World Wide Web (WWW) is a substantial area of research. While recent years have seen huge expansion in the size of web-based archives that can be searched efficiently by commercial search engines, the presentation of potentially relevant content is still limited to ranked document lists represented by simple text snippets or image keyframe surrogates. There is expanding interest in techniques to personalise the presentation of content to improve the richness and effectiveness of the user experience. One of the most significant challenges to achieving this is the increasingly multilingual nature of this data, and the need to provide suitably localised responses to users based on this content. The Digital Content Management (DCM) track of the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) is seeking to develop technologies to support advanced personalised access and presentation of information by combining elements from the existing research areas of Adaptive Hypermedia and Information Retrieval. The combination of these technologies is intended to produce significant improvements in the way users access information. We review key features of these technologies and introduce early ideas for how these technologies can support localisation and localised content before concluding with some impressions of future directions in DCM

Reviews

Teaching and Learning Materials and the Internet by Ian Forsyth, London: Kogan Page, 1996. ISBN: 0–7494‐ 20596. 181 pages, paperback. £18.99

Supporting personalization in a web-based course through the definition of role-based access policies

Role-based access policies model the users domain by means of complex structures where roles, which represent jobs or responsibilities assumed by users, are specialized into more concrete subroles which inherit properties and authorizations from their parents. Such an approach can be applied within the context of educational applications, where different roles are easily identified each of which has different views of the same information items and different capabilities to modify them. Moreover, even though this approach, has only been oriented towards modeling security requirements, it can be extended to support personalized access to the information. In this paper, we describe how to combine the basic principles of RBAC policies and adaptation with a view of providing personalized access to the different types of users of a web-based course. Moreover, we also present Courba, a platform to generate personalized web-based courses using XML to support the definition of access policies.Role-based access policies model the users domain by means of complex structures where roles, which represent jobs or responsibilities assumed by users, are specialized into more concrete subroles which inherit properties and authorizations from their parents. Such an approach can be applied within the context of educational applications, where different roles are easily identified each of which has different views of the same information items and different capabilities to modify them. Moreover, even though this approach, has only been oriented towards modeling security requirements, it can be extended to support personalized access to the information. In this paper, we describe how to combine the basic principles of RBAC policies and adaptation with a view of providing personalized access to the different types of users of a web-based course. Moreover, we also present Courba, a platform to generate personalized web-based courses using XML to support the definition of access policies

Supporting personalization in a web-based course through the definition of role-based access policies

Role-based access policies model the users domain by means of complex structures where roles, which represent jobs or responsibilities assumed by users, are specialized into more concrete subroles which inherit properties and authorizations from their parents. Such an approach can be applied within the context of educational applications, where different roles are easily identified each of which has different views of the same information items and different capabilities to modify them. Moreover, even though this approach, has only been oriented towards modeling security requirements, it can be extended to support personalized access to the information. In this paper, we describe how to combine the basic principles of RBAC policies and adaptation with a view of providing personalized access to the different types of users of a web-based course. Moreover, we also present Courba, a platform to generate personalized web-based courses using XML to support the definition of access policies.Role-based access policies model the users domain by means of complex structures where roles, which represent jobs or responsibilities assumed by users, are specialized into more concrete subroles which inherit properties and authorizations from their parents. Such an approach can be applied within the context of educational applications, where different roles are easily identified each of which has different views of the same information items and different capabilities to modify them. Moreover, even though this approach, has only been oriented towards modeling security requirements, it can be extended to support personalized access to the information. In this paper, we describe how to combine the basic principles of RBAC policies and adaptation with a view of providing personalized access to the different types of users of a web-based course. Moreover, we also present Courba, a platform to generate personalized web-based courses using XML to support the definition of access policies

The guiding process in discovery hypertext learning environments for the Internet

Hypertext is the dominant method to navigate the Internet, providing user freedom and control over navigational behaviour. There has been an increase in converting existing educational material into Internet web pages but weaknesses have been identified in current WWW learning systems. There is a lack of conceptual support for learning from hypertext, navigational disorientation and cognitive overload. This implies the need for an established pedagogical approach to developing the web as a teaching and learning medium. Guided Discovery Learning is proposed as an educational pedagogy suitable for supporting WWW learning. The hypothesis is that a guided discovery environment will produce greater gains in learning and satisfaction, than a non-adaptive hypertext environment. A second hypothesis is that combining concept maps with this specific educational paradigm will provide cognitive support. The third hypothesis is that student learning styles will not influence learning outcome or user satisfaction. Thus, providing evidence that the guided discovery learning paradigm can be used for many types of learning styles. This was investigated by the building of a guided discovery system and a framework devised for assessing teaching styles. The system provided varying discovery steps, guided advice, individualistic system instruction and navigational control. An 84 subject experiment compared a Guided discovery condition, a Map-only condition and an Unguided condition. Subjects were subdivided according to learning styles, with measures for learning outcome and user satisfaction. The results indicate that providing guidance will result in a significant increase in level of learning. Guided discovery condition subjects, regardless of learning styles, experienced levels of satisfaction comparable to those in the other conditions. The concept mapping tool did not appear to affect learning outcome or user satisfaction. The conclusion was that using a particular approach to guidance would result in a more supportive environment for learning. This research contributes to the need for a better understanding of the pedagogic design that should be incorporated into WWW learning environments, with a recommendation for a guided discovery approach to alleviate major hypertext and WWW issues for distance learning