Interoperability in eLearning Contexts. Interaction between LMS and PLE

The emergence of the Information and Communication Technologies and its application in several areas with varying success, implies the definition of a great number of software systems. Such systems are implemented in very different programming languages, using distinct types of resources, etc. Learning and Teaching is one of those application areas, where there are different learning platforms, repositories, tools, types of content, etc. These systems should interoperate among them to provide better and more useful learning services to students and teachers, and to do so web services and interoperability specifications are needed. This paper presents a service-based framework approach to facilitate the interoperability between Learning Management Systems and Personal Learning Environments, which has been implemented as a proof of concept and evaluated through several pilot experiences. From such experiences it is possible to see that interoperability among the personal and institutional environments it is possible and, in this way, learners can learn independently without accessing to the institutional site and teachers have information about learning that happens in informal activities

Implementation and design of a service-based framework to integrate personal and institutional learning environments

The landscape of teaching and learning has changed in recent years because of the application of Information and Communications technology. Among the most representative innovations in this regard are Learning Management Systems. Despite of their popularity in institutional contexts and the wide set of tools and services that they provide to learners and teachers, they present several issues. Learning Management Systems are linked to an institution and a period of time, and are not adapted to learners' needs. In order to address these problems Personal Learning Environments are defined, but it is clear that these will not replace Learning Management Systems and other institutional contexts. Both types of environment should therefore coexist and interact. This paper presents a service-based framework to facilitate such interoperability. It supports the export of functionalities from the institutional to the personal environment and also the integration within the institution of learning outcomes from personal activities. In order to achieve this in a flexible, extensible and open way, web services and interoperability specifications are used. In addition some interoperability scenarios are posed. The framework has been tested in real learning contexts and the results show that interoperability is possible, and that it benefits learners, teachers and institutions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Personal Learning Environments (PLE) in a distance learning course on mathematics applied to business

This paper argues that the dominant form of distance learning that is common in most e-learning systems rests on a set of learning devices and environments that may be outdated from the student’s perspective, namely because it is not supportive of learner empowerment and does not facilitate the efforts of self-directed learners. For this study we gathered and examined data on student’s use of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) within a course on Mathematics Applied to Business offered by the Portuguese Open University (Universidade Aberta). We base the discussion on aspects that characterize student’s conceptions of PLEs, the emergence of connectivism as a new account of how learning occurs in a networked global environment, and conclude that an important goal of online course design should be to let students explore what the emergent Web 2.0 tools have to offer in distance learning. The widespread adoption of PLEs, bringing together learning from different contexts and sources of learning, shows that students are capable of expression in different forms, generating an added-value to distance learning environments

Proposing a New System Architecture for Next Generation Learning Environment

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)The emergence of information exchange and act of offering features through external interfaces is a vast but immensely valuable challenge, and essential elements of learning environments cannot be excluded. Nowadays, there are a lot of different service providers working in the learning systems market and each of them has their own advantages. On that premise, in today's world even large learning management systems are trying to cooperate with each other in order to be best. For instance, Instructure is a substantial company and can easily employ a dedicated team tasked with the development of a video conferencing functionality, but it chooses to use an open source alternative instead: The BigBlueButton. Unfortunately, different learning system manufacturers are using different technologies for various reasons, making integration that much harder. Standards in learning environments have come to resolve problems regarding exchanging information, providing and consuming functionalities externally and simultaneously minimizing the amount of effort needed to integrate systems. In addition to defining and simplifying these standards, careful consideration is essential when designing new, comprehensive and useful systems, as well as adding interoperability to existing systems, all which subsequently took part in this research. In this research I have reviewed most of the standards and protocols for integration in learning environments and proposed a revised approach for app stores in learning environments. Finally, as a case study, a learning tool has been developed to avail essential functionalities of a social educational learning management system integrated with other learning management systems. This tool supports the dominant and most popular standards for interoperability and can be added to learning management systems within seconds

Interoperability in eLearning contexts: interaction between LMS and PLE

The emergence of the Information and Communication Technologies and its application in several areas with varying success, implies the definition of a great number of software systems. Such systems are implemented in very different programming languages, using distinct types of resources, etc. Learning and Teaching is one of those application areas, where there are different learning platforms, repositories, tools, types of content, etc. These systems should interoperate among them to provide better and more useful learning services to students and teachers, and to do so web services and interoperability specifications are needed. This paper presents a service-based framework approach to facilitate the interoperability between Learning Management Systems and Personal Learning Environments, which has been implemented as a proof of concept and evaluated through several pilot experiences. From such experiences it is possible to see that interoperability among the personal and institutional environments it is possible and, in this way, learners can learn independently without accessing to the institutional site and teachers have information about learning that happens in informal activities.Peer Reviewe

Interoperability in eLearning contexts: interaction between LMS and PLE

The emergence of the Information and Communication Technologies and its application in several areas with varying success, implies the definition of a great number of software systems. Such systems are implemented in very different programming languages, using distinct types of resources, etc. Learning and Teaching is one of those application areas, where there are different learning platforms, repositories, tools, types of content, etc. These systems should interoperate among them to provide better and more useful learning services to students and teachers, and to do so web services and interoperability specifications are needed. This paper presents a service-based framework approach to facilitate the interoperability between Learning Management Systems and Personal Learning Environments, which has been implemented as a proof of concept and evaluated through several pilot experiences. From such experiences it is possible to see that interoperability among the personal and institutional environments it is possible and, in this way, learners can learn independently without accessing to the institutional site and teachers have information about learning that happens in informal activities.Peer Reviewe

Formative accompaniment service in e-learning: integration between lms and ple (serviço de acompanhamento formativo no e-learning: integração entre lms e ple)

As dificuldades e as limitações dos Learning Management Systems (LMS) em interoperar com outras tecnologias tem sido um tema recorrente na literatura. É sabido que mesmo com todo o suporte oferecido por esses ambientes na condução das atividades de aprendizagem, existe uma lacuna relacionada à percepção dos professores e tutores sobre as atividades que são realizadas pelos aprendizes quando estes encontram-se fora deles. Diante desse cenário, o frequente uso de instrumentos ou ferramentas utilizadas por estes permitiram que um conceito emergente denominado Personal Learning Environments (PLE) surgisse e fosse caracterizado como um contexto educacional. Esse contexto permite aos aprendizes a executarem atividades de aprendizagem independente das planejadas nos ambientes formais de ensino fornecendo a eles autonomia para a execução e gerenciamento de suas atividades de aprendizagem. Professores e tutores de cursos baseados em LMS têm utilizado unicamente as ferramentas disponíveis nos LMS para o acompanhamento e avaliação dos aprendizes. Ademais, esses utilizam frequentemente o paradigma da avaliação formativa no intuito de averiguar o desempenho dos aprendizes baseado exclusivamente nas atividades realizadas dentro dos LMS. Sendo assim, esta tese tem como objetivo a concepção, desenvolvimento e avaliação de um serviço denominado de “Serviço de Acompanhamento Formativo”, cujo propósito é identificar atividades de aprendizagem informais que são realizadas fora dos ambientes LMS que podem ser integradas ao processo de avaliação ou de acompanhamento de atividades. A proposta metodológica foi delineada sob os princípios e recomendações do Design Thinking de Serviços formada por quatro fases a saber: exploração, criação, reflexão e implementação. Os participantes envolvidos no processo de concepção e desenvolvimento foram de 134 usuários, sendo 75 professores e tutores e 49 aprendizes, todos pertencentes a diferentes instituições e grupos de discussão especializados no Brasil. A avaliação do serviço foi dividida em três fases: a primeira avaliou a expectativa, na segunda foram propostas cinco tarefas a serem executadas por cada avaliador, e por fim, na terceira foi a avaliada a experiência do uso do serviço. Esse processo contou com 13 especialistas onde foram examinados 28 itens sobre o serviço proposto. Os resultados obtidos atestam que o serviço proposto apresentou um grau satisfatório de consistente em relação ao interesse de professores e tutores a fazerem uso em suas atividades. Além disso, permite que os mesmos possam, por meio do serviço, refletirem sobre suas ações docentes e de tutoria e, assim diligenciar ações assertivas na condução de uma disciplina ou curso, sejam estas do ponto de vista individual ou coletivo. As recomendações de melhoria resultantes da avaliação foram implementadas, permitindo a geração de uma nova versão do serviço alinhada as necessidades reais dos professores e tutores.The difficulties and limitations of the Learning Management Systems (LMS) in interoperating with other technologies have been a recurrent topic in the literature. It is known that even with all the support which is offered by these environments in conducting the learning activities, there is a gap related to the perception of teachers and tutors over activities done by the learners when They are out of the environments. Before this scenario, the regular use of instruments or tools used by them allowed that an emerging concept named Personal Learning Environments (PLE) to arise and to be characterised as an educational context. This context allows learners to execute learning activities independent from the ones planned in the formal learning environments; providing them autonomy to the execution and management of their own learning activities. Teachers and tutors of LMS based courses have only been using the available tools in the LMS to accompaniment and evaluation of their learners. Furthermore, they often use formative assessment paradigm in order to investigate the learners development based exclusively in the activities done in the LMS field. In that case, this thesis aimed the conception, development and evaluation of a service named “Formative Accompaniment Service”, which purpose is to identify informal learning activities that are done outside the LMS environments which are able to be integrated to the evaluation process or even activity accompaniment. The methodology proposed was designed under the principles and recommendations of the “Service Design Thinking” which are made of four phases, as it follows: exploration, creation, reflection and implementation. The participants involved in the process of conception and development added up to 134 users, 75 teachers and tutors and 49 learners, they belonged to different institutions and specialized discussion groups in Brazil. The evaluation of the service was divided into three phases: the first evaluated the expectation, in the second it was proposed five tasks to be executed by each evaluator, and eventually, in the third, it was evaluated the experience to use the service. This process counted with 13 experts that examined 28 items about the proposed service. The results got with it assure that the proposed service showed a satisfactory level of consistence related to the interest of teachers and tutors in doing it in their activities. Moreover, it allows that as using the service they are able to reflect over their actions as teachers and tutors and, in this way, strive for assertive actions in conducting a discipline or course, in an individual or collective point of view. The improving recommendations resulting of the evaluation were implemented, allowing the creation of a new version of service aligned with the real necessities of teachers and tutors