Template-driven teacher modelling approach : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Information Science at Massey University, Palmerston North

This thesis describes the Template-driven Teacher Modeling Approach, the initial implementation of the template server and the formative evaluation on the prototype. The initiative of Template-driven teacher modeling is to integrate the template server and intelligent teacher models in Web-based education systems for course authoring. There are a number of key components in the proposed system: user interface, template server and content repository. The Template-Driven Teacher Modeling (TDTM) architecture supports the course authoring by providing higher degree of control over the generation of presentation. The collection of accumulated templates in the template repository for a teacher or a group of teachers are selected as the inputs for the inference mechanism in teacher's model to calculate the best representation of the teaching strategy, and then predict teacher intention when he or she interacts with the system. Moreover, the presentation templates are kept to support the re-use of the on-line content at the level of individual screens with the help of Template Server

Adaptive Educational Hypermedia based on Multiple Student Characteristics

The learning process in Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH) environments is complex and may be influenced by aspects of the student, including prior knowledge, learning styles, experience and preferences. Current AEH environments, however, are limited to processing only a small number of student characteristics. This paper discusses the development of an AEH system which includes a student model that can simultaneously take into account multiple student characteristics. The student model will be developed to use stereotypes, overlays and perturbation techniques. Keywords: adaptive educational hypermedia, multiple characteristics, student model

An evaluation of Digital Chisel 3.0 as a multimedia authoring tool in a year seven classroom

Most commercial interactive multimedia authoring packages are designed to be used by teachers and trainers to build commercial training or classroom teaching applications (Handler, Dana, Peters & Moor, 1995; Magel, 1997). The evolution of interactive multimedia technologies however, has made it possible for students to become actively involved in creating their own interactive multimedia projects, and in so doing, gain considerable learning benefit (Lehrer 1993). Facilitating this in the classroom and particularly at the Year Seven level, requires the use of a cost-effective, purpose-built authoring tool. Digital Chisel 3.0 (DC3), was developed by Pierian Spring Software (1997), as just such a product. This study was a summative product evaluation, utilising qualitative methodology that assessed the effectiveness of DC3, as a multimedia authoring tool for student use in a Year Seven classroom. Two adult expert reviewers and four Year Seven students assisted with the evaluation. The sources of evidence for this study included the use of participant observation, conversational and semi-structured interview, video recording, questionnaire and anecdotal field notes. The process of analysis was inductive, using the Analytic Framework suggested by Le Compte, Millroy & Preissle, (1992, pp. 763-766). Digital Chisel 3.0 was packaged with an easy to read printed manual and a useful audio/visual library on CD-ROM. With WYSIWYG display and drag-and-drop visual programming environments, the students found the component routines in DC3 relatively easy to learn. The use of the Microsoft style of interface and edit conventions allowed the previous learning of the students to be readily transferred to this product. The students also found constructing complex interactions in the Workbench relatively easy to master, as no scripting was required. DC3 was also customisable to three learning/school levels. Probably the most outstanding problem with this application was the amount of RAM it required to run efficiently. In it\u27s former configuration, it did not allow \u27room\u27 for multi-tasking and definitely did not run smoothly at the recommended 32 Megabytes of RAM. This both lowered the efficiency of operation, and severely challenged the motivation of all the users. The Table facility was almost totally unusable, as it failed to hold inserted elements and remained unstable through all attempts to use it. Although the intention for DC3 was to allow for cross-platform application, this function was not evident at the time it was evaluated. However, despite its shortcomings, Digital Chisel 3.0 proved to be well received by the students. They expressed enthusiasm for the extra freedom that this product\u27s features provided

Co-authorship in the age of cyberculture: Open Educational Resources at the Open University of the United Kingdom

Locating Open Educational Resources (OER) as a phenomenon of cyberculture, this paper presents a reflection on the possibilities of co-authorship that are entailed in OER initiatives of different natures and settings within a large organisation. A selection of OER-related projects and activities carried out at the Open University of United Kingdom (UKOU) are examined from the perspective of a comparative framework proposed by Okada (2010). The framework identifies key features and differences between ‘Closed’ and ‘Open’ Education, that is, respectively, formal education, which takes place within the constraints of institutional Virtual Learning Environments, and informal education, which is gradually taking place more widely in cyberspace. The paper is introduced with a succinct discussion of the connection between cyberculture and the emergence of OER, followed by a presentation of the comparative framework adopted. The UKOU´s structure and methods are then presented, and various projects are discussed. The article concludes by proposing a brief commentary on the creative potential that is being unleashed at the very boundaries between formal and informal educational spaces that cyberculture is challenging

Report of the discussion on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for OER

Appendix: FOSS tools for OER development, management and dissemination