CourseEditor: A course planning tool compatible with IMS-LD

For the successful adoption of Computer Based Learning (CBL), it is necessary to provide teachers with user-friendly authoring tools that guide them in the process of planning a course. It is important that the documents generated by these tools are compliant with CBL standards to ensure that the instructional designs made by the teachers remain valid regardless of the Learning Management System (LMS) used to deliver the course. IMS-Learning Design (IMS-LD) is one of the most accepted specifications by the educational community for modeling of learning processes. There are some authoring-tools that allow export learning designs in IMS-LD but they are not course-planning oriented. In addition, a big challenge is how to improve the user interfaces of these tools in order to be easier to use for regular teachers. This paper presents CourseEditor, a course planning authoring tool that allows a teacher to describe the complete planning of a course (objectives, contents, methodology, and evaluation) and export the results in an IMS-LD compatible format. The paper provides a novel modeling of course planning that takes into account ideas from different instructional theories. CourseEditor combines power and flexibility, with the simplicity of an interface that can be used by teachers with no technical background. The paper illustrates the use of the tool creating a course on Telematic Services in the context of a Telecommunications Engineering degree. In addition, the relationships of course planning and IMS-LD are presented, showing which information of course planning can be represented in IMS-LD and which not. (c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 421-431, 2013This research has been partially funded by the following projects: project "Learn3: Towards Learning of the Third Kind" funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under grant No. TIN2008-05163/TSI and project E_MADRID: "Investigación y Desarrollo de Tecnologías para el e-Learning en la Comunidad de Madrid" funded by the Madrid Regional Government under grant No. S2009/TIC-1650.Publicad

MOODLE XML TO IMS QTI ASSESSMENT TEST PORTABILITY ON LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Learning Management Systems (i.e. LMS) is one of the most popular solutions towards the e-Learning objective in different universities all around the world, where this environments are used to not only deliver contents but to perform assessments, tests and other tasks related to learning. Although, there are popular LMS such as Moodle, and more developed, such as Chamilo, there is no assessment/test portability among their LMS. Each assessment export formats make difficult to transfer well done Moodle-based online courses into young platforms such as Chamilo. The purpose of this paper is to address this portability issue and to show possibility of exporting Moodle assessment data (i.e. Moodle XML), into a more standardized format, which is IMS Question & Test Interoperability (IMS QTI). That can be used not only in Chamilo, but also other LMSs globally. The present paper shows the first approach towards a more global portability tool in which not only assessments but the whole structure of the course could be easily exported to other platforms. Contribution of this work is providing data exchange between LMSs

Accessible lifelong learning at higher education:outcomes and lessons Learned at two different PilotSites in the EU4ALL Project

[EN] The EU4ALL project (IST-FP6-034778) has developed a general framework to address the needs of accessible lifelong learning at Higher Education level consisting of several standards-based interoperable components integrated into an open web service architecture aimed at supporting adapted interaction to guarantee students' accessibility needs. Its flexibility has supported the project implementation at several sites with different settings and various learning management systems. Large-scale evaluations involving hundreds of users, considering diverse disability types, and key staff roles have allowed obtaining valuable lessons with respect to "how to adopt or enhance eLearning accessibility" at university. The project was evaluated at four higher education institutions, two of the largest in Europe and two mediumsized. In this paper, we focus on describing the implementation and main conclusions at the largest project evaluation site (UNED), which was involved in the project from the beginning, and thus, in the design process, and a medium-sized university that adopted the EU4ALL approach (UPV). This implies dealing with two well-known open source learning environments (i.e. dotLRN and Sakai), and considering a wide variety of stakeholders and requirements. Thus the results of this evaluation serve to illustrate the coverage of both the approach and developments.The authors would like to thank the European Commission for the financial support of the EU4ALL project (IST-2006-034478). The work at aDeNu is also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (TIN2008-06862-C04-01/TSI “A2UN@”). Authors would also like to thank all the EU4ALL partners for their collaboration.Boticario, JG.; Rodriguez-Ascaso, A.; Santos, OC.; Raffenne, E.; Montandon, L.; Roldán Martínez, D.; Buendía García, F. (2012). Accessible lifelong learning at higher education:outcomes and lessons Learned at two different PilotSites in the EU4ALL Project. Journal of Universal Computer Science. 18(1):62-85. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/37117628518

Desarrollo de un lenguaje de dominio específico para sistemas de gestión de aprendizaje y su herramienta de implementación “KiwiDSM” mediante ingeniería dirigida por modelos

This article presents the creation of a domain-specific-language (DSL) tool called WikiDSM, which is supported by model-driven engineering (MDE) and allows modeling the different modules that conform learning management systems (LMS), particularly in the field of communications. Such a tool is platform-independent. The validation of the proposal was performed by deploying a model built with WikiDSM on Atutor platform. The tests showed that using MDE reduces the time and effort when creating and deploying the Atutormodeled modules. Moreover, it is shown that the meta-model proposed is compatible with Atutor requirements.El artículo presenta la creación de KiwiDSM: herramienta de lenguaje de dominio específico (DSL), que apoyada en ingeniería dirigida por modelos (MDE), permite modelar módulos que conforman un sistema de gestión del aprendizaje (LMS) en el área de comunicaciones; esta herramienta es independiente de la plataforma. La validación de la propuesta se realizó desplegando un modelo hecho con KiwiDSM sobre una plataforma LMS particular llamada Atutor. Las pruebas realizadas evidenciaron que al trabajar con MDE se reduce el tiempo y esfuerzo en la creación y despliegue de los módulos modelados sobre Atutor y que el metamodelo planteado es compatible con los requerimientos de dicho LMS

Incorporación de recursos web como servicios de e-learning al sistema de gestión de aprendizaje .LRN: una revisión

This paper gathers the findings of a detailed study on different technologies used to integrate web re­sources, such as electronic learning services pro­vided by third parties, into a platform belonging to learning management system .LRN (at Univer­sidad del Cauca). Additionally, a case study con­ducted in a rural school (in Cauca - Colombia) is reported in order to assess the performance of these technologies. The result of this publication represents a starting point to propose a framework (at an architectural level) for the integration of third-party learning services into the platform, which is one of the main objectives of the project.En este artículo se plasma el resultado de un de­tallado estudio de diferentes tecnologías usadas para integrar recursos web como servicios de aprendizaje electrónico prestados por terceros al sistema de gestión de aprendizaje .LRN, platafor­ma usada en la Universidad del Cauca y puesta a prueba como caso de estudio en una institución educativa rural en el departamento del Cauca.El resultado de esta publicación es la base inicial para proponer un marco de referencia a nivel arquitectónico para la integración de servicios e-learning de terceros a la plataforma en estudio, siendo este el objetivo general del proyecto, el cual será publicado en una próxima convocatoria de esta revista

Método para la construcción de OVA como servicios web

Los avances tecnológicos han puesto a disposición de los sistemas educativos, un gran volumen de información y una variedad de herramientas que permiten adaptar y organizar estos datos en contenidos específicos que se ponen a disposición de docentes y estudiantes en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje. Uno de los protagonistas de estos ambientes es el objeto virtual de aprendizaje (OVA), recurso digital utilizado en plataformas como MOODLE y BLACKBOARD, que permite agrupar información para temas específicos en paquetes autocontenidos y que por sus características y posibilidades de autoaprendizaje se convierte en pieza claves para los entornos virtuales en instituciones de educación superior.Technological advances have made much information available to educational systems, providing a variety of tools that allow adapting and organizing this data into specific content and making it available to teachers and students in virtual learning environments. One of the protagonists of these environments is the virtual learning object (VLO), a digital resource used in platforms such as MOODLE and BLACKBOARD, that allows information to be grouped for specific topics in self-contained packages and which due to its characteristics and self-learning possibilities becomes a piece keys to virtual environments in higher education institutions.Magíster en Ingeniería de SoftwareMaestrí

Semantic and pragmatic characterization of learning objects

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Informática. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201

Enterprise Module for Exercise Formal Validation applied on Java Concurrent Programming

[EN] Tools that allow detecting programming faults are useful for both docents, who may test submitted exercises, and students, who may use these tools in advance. In this article the authors develop one tool for detecting failures in applications. In many cases there are previous tools that may be readapted to be used in an educational scope. This article integrates of one of these tools, which avoids code with dead-locks and race-conditions, into the Internet. The tool integrated is JPF (Java Path Finder) and it is accessed from a Java EE web frontend which carries out the exercise assessment. The article deals with the definition of the module and its evaluation on a realistic scenario. The results show that many assignments may benefit from the output of the tool.[ES] La utilización de herramientas que permitan detectar problemas de programación es de utilidad tanto para el docente, el cual puede probar de una forma más exhaustiva las prácticas entregadas, como para el discente, el cual puede utilizar dichas herramientas. En muchos casos, existen herramientas previas utilizadas en el desarrollo software, que pueden ser adaptadas para ser utilizadas en un entorno formativo. Este trabajo aporta la integración de una herramienta de validación formal de sistemas concurrentes Java, la cual garantiza la no existencia de defectos como son el abrazo mortal y las condiciones de carrera, en un entorno Web abierto. Más concretamente, la herramienta que se ha escogido es denominada JPF (Java Path Finder) y se la ha dotado de interfaces dentro de un servidor Java EE (Enterprise Edition), lo que facilita la utilización de servicios propios de la plataforma Java EE y la interoperabilidad entre estos con el módulo diseñado. El artículo trata aspectos tecnológicos derivados de dicha integración como son el diseño de una arquitectura que da soporte a la validación vía web. También detalla una serie de experimentos relativos al rendimiento de la plataforma realizados sobre un curso real, lo que permite medir costes computacionales y su utilidad en la evaluación.Este trabajo ha sido realizado con el apoyo del proyecto iLAND (ARTEMIS-JU 100026) parcialmente financiado por ARTEMIS JTU y el Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo español. También ha sido parcialmente financiado por ARTISTDesign NoE (IST-2007-214373) del 7º programa marco de la Unión Europea, por REM4VSS (TIN2011-28339) del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y por LEARN3 (TIN2008-0513) del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.Basanta Val, P.; García Valls, M.; Estévez Ayres, I.; Martin Gutiérrez, M. (2012). Módulo Empresarial para la Validación Formal de Ejercicios aplicado a la Programación Concurrente en Java. Revista Iberoamericana de Automática e Informática industrial. 9(3):290-299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riai.2012.05.013OJS29029993Alonso D., Pastor, J.A., Alvarez, B., 2004. Real-Time Teaching with Java: JPR 3. En: OTM Workshops. Larnaca (Chipre).Basanta-Val, P., Garcia-Valls, M. y Estevez-Ayres, I., 2010. No-Heap remote objects for distributed real-time Java. ACM Trans.Embed.Comput.Syst. 10 (1): 1-25.Basanta-Val, P., Garcia-Valls, M. y Estevez-Ayres, I., 2005. Towards the Integration of Scoped Memory in Distributed Real-Time Java. ISORC 2005. Seatle(US).Basanta-Val, P., Garcia-Valls, M. y Estevez-Ayres, I., 2004. No Heap remote objects: Leaving the garbage collector at the server-side. En: OTM Workshops. Larnaca (Chipre).Bollella G. et al., 2001. The Real-Time Specification for Java, Adisson- Wesley.Caspi P., Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, A.L, Almeida, L., Benveniste, A., Bouyssounouse, B., Buttazzo, G.C., Crnkovic, I., Damm, W., Engblom, J., Fohler, G., García-Valls, M., Kopetz, H., Lakhnech, Y., Laroussinie, F., Lavagno, L., Lipari, G., Maraninchi, F., Peti, P., de la Puente, J.A, Scaife, N., Sifakis, J., de Simone, R., Törngren, M., Veríssimo, P., Wellings, A.J., Wilhelm, R., Willemse, Wang Yi, T.A.C., 2005. Guidelines for a graduate curriculum on embedded software and systems. ACM Trans. Embedded Comput. Syst. 4 (3) 587-611.de La Puente, J., Alonso, A., Garcia-Valls, M., Ruiz, J.F., 1998. Teaching real-time systems at DIT/UPM, En: Real-Time Systems, Montreal (Canada).de Tomas, M.A., Gomez, L., Perez A., 1991. Vestal: a tool for teaching concurrency in Ada. En: Proceedings of the conference on TRI-Ada’91: today's accomplishments; tomorrow's expectations. USA.Estévez-Ayres, I., Basanta-Val, P., García-Valls, M., 2004. Docencia de Programación Concurrente. Experiencias de laboratorio. En: VII Jornadas de Tiempo Real. Málaga, Spain.García-Valls, M., Alonso, A., De La Puente, J.A., 2012. A dual-band priority assignment algorithm for dynamic QoS resource management. Accepted in Future Generation Computer Systems. doi:10.1016/j.future.2011.10.005 Glassfish, Servidor GlassFish, disponible en octubre del 2011 desde http://glassfish.java.net.Guaspari, D., Marceau, C., Polak, W., 1990. Formal Verification of Ada Programs. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 16 (9): 1058-1075Henzinger, T.A, Sifakis, J. (2007) The Discipline of Embedded Systems Design. IEEE Computer 40 (10): 32-40.Ihantola, P., 2006. Test data generation for programming exercises with symbolic execution in Java PathFinder. En: 6° Baltic Sea conference on Computing education research. USA.JavaEJB, Enterprise Java Beans Container, disponible en octubre del 2011 desde http http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=220.JavaEE, Java Enterprise Edittion, disponible en octubre del 2011 desde oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/.JPF. Java Path Finder, disponible en octubre del 2011 desde http://javapathfinder.sourceforge.net.JavaServ, Java Servlets, disponible en octubre del 2011 desde http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=340.JMail, Java Mail, disponible en octubre del 2011 desde http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=919.JMS, Java Messaging System, disponible en octubre del 2011 desde http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=914.Kalibera, T., Parizek, P., Malohlava, M., 2010. Exhaustive Testing of Safety.Critical Java. En: JTRES’10, 2010 Prague,Czech Republic.Muñoz-Merino, P.J., Delgado-Kloos, C., Fernández-Naranjo, J., 2009. Enabling interoperability for LMS educational services. Computer Standards & Interfaces 31 (2): 484-498Rajan, S.P, Tkuchuk, O., Prasad, M., Ghosh, I., Goel, N., 2009. WEAVE: Web Applications Validation Environment. En: ICSE’09. Vancouver (Canada).Visser, W., Pireanu, C.S., Khurshid, S., 2004. Test input generation with java PathFinder. SIGSOFT Softw. Eng. Notes 29 (4): 97-107Visser,W., Havelund, K., Brat, G., Park,S., Lerda,. F. Model Checking Programs. Automated Software Engineering Journal. Volume 10, Number 2, April 2003.Volanschi, N., 2008.A portable compiler-integrated approach to permanent checking. Journal: Automated Software Engineering 15 (1). 21-37.Wellings, A., 2004. Concurrent and Real-Time Programming in Java. Wiley