Improving Collaborative Learning Using Pervasive Embedded System-Based Multi-Agent Information and Retrieval Framework in Educational Systems

E-learning is a form of Technology SupportedEducation where the medium of instruction is throughDigital Technologies, particularly Computer Technology.An instance is the use of search engines like Google andYahoo, which aid Collaborative Learning. However, thewidespread provision of distributed, semi-structuredinformation resources such as the Web has obviouslybrought a lot of benefits; but it also has a number ofdifficulties. These difficulties include people gettingoverwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available,making it hard for them to filter out the junk andirrelevancies and focus on what is important, and also toactively search for the right information. Also, people easilyget bored or confused while browsing the Web because ofthe hypertext nature of the web, while making it easy to linkrelated documents together, it can also be disorienting. Toalleviate these problems, the Web Information Food ChainModel was introduced. How effective has this been with thedynamic nature of computing technologies? Pervasivecomputing devices enable people to gain immediate accessto information and services anywhere, anytime, withouthaving to carry around heavy and impractical computingdevices. Thus, the bulky PCs become less attractive andbeing slowly eroded with the development of a newgeneration of smart devices like wireless PDAs, smartphones, etc. These embedded devices are characterized bybeing unobtrusively embedded; completely connected;intuitively intelligent; effortlessly portable and mobile; andconstantly on and available. This paper presents the use ofembedded systems and Intelligent Agent-Based WebInformation Food Chain Model in Multi-Agent Informationand Retrieval Framework (IIFCEMAF), to realizing fullpotentials of the internet, for users’ improved system ofcollaborative e-learning in education

SEMA4A: An ontology for emergency notification systems accessibility

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Expert Systems with Applications. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.Providing alert communication in emergency situations is vital to reduce the number of victims. Reaching this goal is challenging due to users’ diversity: people with disabilities, elderly and children, and other vulnerable groups. Notifications are critical when an emergency scenario is going to happen (e.g. a typhoon approaching) so the ability to transmit notifications to different kind of users is a crucial feature for such systems. In this work an ontology was developed by investigating different sources: accessibility guidelines, emergency response systems, communication devices and technologies, taking into account the different abilities of people to react to different alarms (e.g. mobile phone vibration as an alarm for deafblind people). We think that the proposed ontology addresses the information needs for sharing and integrating emergency notification messages over distinct emergency response information systems providing accessibility under different conditions and for different kind of users.Ministerio de Educación y Cienci

The OBAA Standard for Developing Repositories of Learning Objects: the Case of Ocean Literacy in Azores

This paper describes the existing web resources of learning objects to promote ocean literacy. The several projects and sites are explored, and the shortcomings revealed. The limitations identified include insufficient metadata about registered learning objects and lack of support for intelligent applications. As solution, we promote the seaThings project that relies on a multi-disciplinary approach to promote literacy in the marine environment by implementing a specific Learning Objects repositories (LOR) and a federation of repositories (FED), supported by a OBAA, a versatile and innovative standard that will provide the necessary support for intelligent applications for education purposes, to be used in schools and other educational institutions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

BROA: An agent-based model to recommend relevant Learning Objects from Repository Federations adapted to learner profile

Learning Objects (LOs) are distinguished from traditional educational resources for their easy and quickly availability through Web-based repositories, from which they are accessed through their metadata. In addition, having a user profile allows an educational recommender system to help the learner to find the most relevant LOs based on their needs and preferences. The aim of this paper is to propose an agent-based model so-called BROA to recommend relevant LOs recovered from Repository Federations as well as LOs adapted to learner profile. The model proposed uses both role and service models of GAIA methodology, and the analysis models of the MAS-CommonKADS methodology. A prototype was built based on this model and validated to obtain some assessing results that are finally presented

Ontology-based personalisation of e-learning resources for disabled students

Students with disabilities are often expected to use e-learning systems to access learning materials but most systems do not provide appropriate adaptation or personalisation to meet their needs.The difficulties related to inadaptability of current learning environments can now be resolved using semantic web technologies such as web ontologies which have been successfully used to drive e-learning personalisation. Nevertheless, e-learning personalisation for students with disabilities has mainly targeted those with single disabilities such as dyslexia or visual impairment, often neglecting those with multiple disabilities due to the difficulty of designing for a combination of disabilities.This thesis argues that it is possible to personalise learning materials for learners with disabilities, including those with multiple disabilities. This is achieved by developing a model that allows the learning environment to present the student with learning materials in suitable formats while considering their disability and learning needs through an ontology-driven and disability-aware personalised e-learning system model (ONTODAPS). A disability ontology known as the Abilities and Disabilities Ontology for Online LEarning and Services (ADOOLES) is developed and used to drive this model. To test the above hypothesis, some case studies are employed to show how the model functions for various individuals with and without disabilities and then the implemented visual interface is experimentally evaluated by eighteen students with disabilities and heuristically by ten lecturers. The results are collected and statistically analysed.The results obtained confirm the above hypothesis and suggest that ONTODAPS can be effectively employed to personalise learning and to manage learning resources. The student participants found that ONTODAPS could aid their learning experience and all agreed that they would like to use this functionality in an existing learning environment. The results also suggest that ONTODAPS provides a platform where students with disabilities can have equivalent learning experience with their peers without disabilities. For the results to be generalised, this study could be extended through further experiments with more diverse groups of students with disabilities and across multiple educational institutions

Futuristic Advancements in AI for Knowledge Management Systems and Multi Model Based Agent

In recent years, especially between the years of 2012 and 2022, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the education industry has grown significantly. Some of the key areas are Task Automation, Personalized Learning, Smart Content Creation, Teaching The Teacher, Knowledge Repository, Portals, and Maps.  AI has already been applied to many educational systems that help develop skills and facilitate easier exchange of knowledge. The Internet Of Things (IoT) based smart schools and collaborative e-learning platforms would be the next big thing, which can take the education sector to the next level, parallel to medical, automobile and other industries. AI can provide many benefits, such as efficiency, and personalization, as well as streamline both automation and admin tasks to allow easier and faster accessibility for knowledge seekers. AI Based Smart Knowledge Management System (KMS) and portal would provide better searching and mapping capabilities, to find the relevant assets for researchers/students, who would like to learn and leverage their knowledge in any domain. Some of the new AI based technologies include MLOps, AutoML, ExplainableAI and Transfer Learning. This research work introduces and explains related literature on these topics to help enable effective, scalable and automatic Knowledge repositories, Systems and K-Map populations

SEMANTICALLY INTEGRATED E-LEARNING INTEROPERABILITY AGENT

Educational collaboration through e-learning is one of the fields that have been worked on since the emergence of e-learning in educational system. The e-learning standards (e.g. learning object metadata standard) and e-learning system architectures or frameworks, which support interoperation of correlated e-learning systems, are the proposed technologies to support the collaboration. However, these technologies have not been successful in creating boundless educational collaboration through e-learning. In particular, these technologies offer solutions with their own requirements or limitations and endeavor challenging efforts in applying the technologies into their elearning system. Thus, the simpler the technology enhances possibility in forging the collaboration. This thesis explores a suite of techniques for creating an interoperability tool model in e-learning domain that can be applied on diverse e-learning platforms. The proposed model is called the e-learning Interoperability Agent or eiA. The scope of eiA focuses on two aspects of e-learning: Learning Objects (LOs) and the users of elearning itself. Learning objects that are accessible over the Web are valuable assets for sharing knowledge in teaching, training, problem solving and decision support. Meanwhile, there is still tacit knowledge that is not documented through LOs but embedded in form of users' expertise and experiences. Therefore, the establishment of educational collaboration can be formed by the users of e-learning with a common interest in a specific problem domain. The eiA is a loosely coupled model designed as an extension of various elearning systems platforms. The eiA utilizes XML (eXtensible Markup Language) technology, which has been accepted as the knowledge representation syntax, to bridge the heterogeneous platforms. At the end, the use of eiA as facilitator to mediate interconununication between e-leaming systems is to engage the creation of semantically Federated e-learning Community (FeC). Eventually, maturity of the FeC is driven by users' willingness to grow the community, by means of increasing the elearning systems that use eiA and adding new functionalities into eiA

New Media and Education: An Overview of Its Impacts on the Academic Performances of Nigerian Students

Over the years, the transitional advancement in digital technologies and the increasing numbers of new media platforms have revolutionized the ways in which people communicate and share information. The new information and communication technologies have impacted on the society positively and negatively. These technologies have affected the socio-cultural, political and economic structures of the contemporary society. Advancement in technologies have eased and expanded the frontiers of communication and information reception and dissemination among people. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet, have impacted greatly on the society; increasing access to information and creating fresh challenges for the society. This study appraises the relationship between new media/ICT and education in Nigeria. It also examines the impacts of new media on the academic performances of students and the society in general. Keywords: New media, ICT, education

Virtual Reality Applications for Higher Educations: A Market Analysis

Benefits and applications of virtual reality (VR) in higher education have seen much interest both from research and industry. While several immersive VR applications for higher education have been described, a structured analysis of such applications on the market does not exist. We use design elements from research for applying VR in higher education to analyze available VR apps. The analyzed VR applications were acquired from pertinent online stores to capture the market’s state. We analyze the current picture of the available apps by categorizing them based on design elements and learning content. The aims are to map what types of apps are available, to study what expected types cannot (yet) be found, to compare the current state of the literature and the educational VR app market, as well as to scrutinize the most frequently used design elements for VR in education

Semantic Web Application and Framework Development in South African Higher Education Institutions

The evolution of the Semantic Web (SW) and its application marked a turning point in how students could benefit from a range of educational web tools and applications enabled by the SW, also referred to as Web 3.0 technology for academic purposes to meet their demands. This shift afforded students the opportunity to obtain meaningful information, collaboration and data filtering to suit their needs. It also offers freedom in how and where they choose to learn. SW tools and applications are progressively being used at several universities worldwide. However, educators’ ability to integrate the use of these tools and applications in teaching and learning appears to be a major problem in almost every development plan of education and educational reform efforts. Moreover, very few educators integrate web tools to their full potential in teaching. This paper probed the integration and use of SW tools and applications in higher education institutions (HEIs), and developed a framework for its adoption in academic processes. The objectives aimed to establish the credible features and benefits of SW tools and applications in HEIs, and how the integration supports students’ academic goals. It is anticipated to improve learning interaction and collaboration, and build a social presence and cohesion among students. The paper employed a systematic literature review, and information and communication technology theory of adoption. The developed framework ultimately suggests that SW tools and applications are beneficial and useful in positively impacting the pedagogical setting. Findings revealed that certain challenges with human factors (technophobia, beliefs), infrastructure, security concerns, ethical and legal issues were identified as a hindrance to be considered during integration. Despite the challenges, these tools and applications provide variety and a new wave of teaching and learning in South African HEIs, which is crucial for meeting the demand of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) era