Ontology-based recommender system in higher education

International audienceAcademic advising is limited in its ability to assist students in identifying academic pathways. Selecting a major and a university is a challenging process rife with anxiety. Students at high school are not sure how to match their interests with their working future or major. Therefore, high school students need guidance and support. Moreover, students need to filter, prioritize and efficiently get appropriate information from the web in order to solve the problem of information overload. This paper represents an approach for developing ontology-based recommender system improved with machine learning techniques to orient students in higher education. The proposed recommender system is an assessment tool for students' vocational strengths and weaknesses, interests and capabilities. The main objective of our ontology-based recommender system is to identify the student requirements, interests, preferences and capabilities to recommend the appropriate major and university for each one

Artifact-Centric Semantic Social-Collaboration Network in an Online Healthcare Context

The emergence of Web 2.0 technology and associated social networking system, brings many possibilities and features for online collaboration. Several reference models, frameworks, tools and infrastructures have been proposed to support seamless interaction and communication between human entities in an online social environment. A few studies indicated that social networks are not only constructed on social connections of people, but also mediated by shared objects, known as object-centred sociality. However, most of the developed social software system was centred around the concept of maintaining human-centric social relationships only. This may be because of the common issues of exploiting social network approach for online collaboration related to maintaining the social behaviour, interaction and communication between human and artifacts themselves. These resources or artifacts (i.e., physical objects, software entities, documents, etc.) are active elements in a way that they may coordinate, cooperate, and even trigger collaborative work in a social environment, which is difficult understand and implement. Thus, it is essential to concentrate on exploring the artifact-centric social relations in a new generation of social-collaboration network. This paper explores the concept and characteristics of the social software system and emphasise the importance and role of objects and artifact-centric sociality in a social-collaboration network. We also outline the benefits of semantic representation of social-collaborative network structure by extending existing social ontologies such as FOAF, SIOC, and DC that define additional concepts, properties and complex social relationship of humans, social objects and collaboration artifacts. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach by applying it to a large-scale social-collaborative healthcare service called GRaCE-AGE within the United Kingdom

Using a Summarized Lecture Material Recommendation System to Enhance Students’ Preclass Preparation in a Flipped Classroom

Research has revealed the positive effects of flipped classroom approaches on students’ learning engagement and performance compared with conventional lecture-based classrooms. However, because of a lack of out-of-class learning support, many students fail to comprehensively prepare the provided lecture materials before class. One promising solution to this problem is recommendation systems in the educational area, which have been instrumental in helping learners identify useful and relevant lecture materials that satisfy their learning needs. Thus, in this study, we propose a summarized lecture material recommendation system, which is integrated into an e-book reading system as an enhancement of the flipped classroom approach. This system helps students identify pages that contain essential knowledge that must be thoroughly studied before class. The proposed system was constructed on the basis of our previous work. In this study, a quasi-experiment was conducted in a graduate course that implemented the flipped classroom model: experimental group students learned with the proposed system, whereas the control group students had no access to the additional features. The findings of this study suggest that students who learn with the proposed recommendation system significantly outperform those who learn without the system in a flipped classroom in terms of their learning outcomes and engagement in preclass preparation

AI for Inclusive Learning in Higher Education: Diversity, Accessibility, and Mental Health

The paper addresses the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in promoting inclusive and diversity-aware learning environments in higher education. It emphasizes the importance of equal access to education, especially for people with different abilities and backgrounds. The narrative paper explores inclusive learning, personalized learning, adaptive learning through AI, and user models for inclusion. It emphasizes the diversity of learners, study-related disabilities, and the challenges of mental health in higher education. Examples of AI applications in the areas of adaptive learning, improving accessibility, and supporting mental health are presented. In addition, an outlook on future developments is given, highlighting the positive potential of AI in creating inclusive learning environments while pointing out the challenges related to addressing diversity and inclusion.Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit der Rolle von künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der Förderung inklusiver und diversitätsbewusster Lernumgebungen in der Hochschulbildung. Es unterstreicht die Bedeutung eines gleichberechtigten Zugangs zur Bildung, insbesondere für Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Fähigkeiten und Hintergründen. Der Artikel befasst sich mit inklusivem Lernen, personalisiertem Lernen, adaptivem Lernen durch KI und Nutzer*innenmodellen für Inklusion. Betont werden die Vielfalt der Lernenden, studienrelevante Beeinträchtigungen und die Herausforderungen der psychischen Gesundheit in der Hochschulbildung. Es werden Beispiele für KI-Anwendungen in den Bereichen adaptives Lernen, Verbesserung der Barrierefreiheit und Unterstützung der psychischen Gesundheit vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus wird ein Ausblick auf künftige Entwicklungen gegeben, der das positive Potenzial der KI bei der Schaffung inklusiver Lernumgebungen hervorhebt und gleichzeitig auf die Herausforderungen im Zusammenhang mit der Berücksichtigung von Vielfalt und Inklusion hinweist

Використання нечіткої логіки у процесі експертного оцінювання електронних навчальних ресурсів

The paper deals with expert evaluation of eLearning resources based on the theory of fuzzy logic using the method of hierarchy analysis. The concept of fuzzy logic was used to quantify qualitative data in real decision-making tasks. The authors propose to develop a recommender system based on fuzzy logic methods for expert evaluation of eLearning resources, including computer mathematics systems and for deciding on the selection of the most effective ones for use in the educational process. In the course of research the concept of recommender systems is considered and analyzed according to the field of application. The concept of the recommender system was introduced to support decision-making on the selection of the most effective eLearning resources. A literature review on expert evaluation, on using of fuzzy logic methods and recommender systems in the decision-making process is presented. The general structure of the recommender system of decision support with the description of all subsystems is given as well. The basic information of the theory of fuzzy logic concerning the decision-making process is described. The practical use of fuzzy logic theory in the process of choosing computer mathematics systems is considered. The main criteria for evaluating computer mathematics systems are given. The method of pairwise comparisons was used to calculate the importance of the criteria. The process of evaluating eLearning resources using fuzzy logic methods is described in detail and the algorithm of this approach is given. As a result of the expert assessment, a list of recommended alternatives to eLearning resources that meet the set criteria was obtained. The general structure of the recommender system of decision support for the selection of eLearning resources is given.Розглянуто процедури експертного оцінювання для визначення якості електронних навчальних ресурсів, що базуються на теорії нечіткої логіки та використанні методу аналізу ієрархій. Концепцію нечіткої логіки використано для кількісної оцінки якісних даних для генерування рекомендацій. Запропоновано проєкт рекомендаційної системи на підставі методів нечіткої логіки для експертного оцінювання електронних навчальних ресурсів, зокрема систем комп'ютерної математики та генерування рекомендацій щодо вибору найефективніших для використання в навчальному процесі. Розглянуто та проаналізовано поняття рекомендаційних систем залежно від сфери застосування. Введено поняття рекомендаційної системи для вибору найефективніших електронних навчальних ресурсів. Здійснено огляд наукових публікацій щодо застосування експертного оцінювання, використання методів нечіткої логіки та рекомендаційних систем. Наведено загальну архітектуру рекомендаційної системи з описом функціоналу підсистем. Показано основні можливості застосування теорії нечіткої логіки у процесах генерації рекомендацій. Розглянуто приклади практичного використання теорії нечіткої логіки в процесі вибору систем комп'ютерної математики. Наведено основні критерії оцінювання систем комп'ютерної математики. Використано метод парних порівнянь для розрахунку важливості критеріїв. Детально описано процес оцінювання електронних навчальних ресурсів з використанням методів нечіткої логіки та подано алгоритм роботи цього підходу. Внаслідок проведеного експертного оцінювання отримано перелік рекомендованих альтернатив електронних навчальних ресурсів, що відповідають заданим критеріям. Наведено загальну структуру рекомендаційної системи вибору електронних навчальних ресурсів

DESIGN AND EXPLORATION OF NEW MODELS FOR SECURITY AND PRIVACY-SENSITIVE COLLABORATION SYSTEMS

Collaboration has been an area of interest in many domains including education, research, healthcare supply chain, Internet of things, and music etc. It enhances problem solving through expertise sharing, ideas sharing, learning and resource sharing, and improved decision making. To address the limitations in the existing literature, this dissertation presents a design science artifact and a conceptual model for collaborative environment. The first artifact is a blockchain based collaborative information exchange system that utilizes blockchain technology and semi-automated ontology mappings to enable secure and interoperable health information exchange among different health care institutions. The conceptual model proposed in this dissertation explores the factors that influences professionals continued use of video- conferencing applications. The conceptual model investigates the role the perceived risks and benefits play in influencing professionals’ attitude towards VC apps and consequently its active and automatic use

Transforming visitor experience with museum technologies: The development and impact evaluation of a recommender system in a physical museum

Over the past few decades, many attempts have been made to develop recommender systems (RSs) that could improve visitor experience (VX) in physical museums. Nevertheless, to determine the effectiveness of a museum RS, studies often encompass system performance evaluations, e.g., user experience (UX) and accuracy level tests, and rarely extend to the VX realm that museum RSs aim to support. The reported challenges with defining and evaluating VX might explain why the evidence that the interaction with an RS during the visit can enhance the quality of VX remains limited. Without this evidence, however, the purpose of developing museum RSs and the benefits of using RSs during a museum visit are in question. This thesis interrogates whether and how museum RSs can impact VX. It first consolidates the literature about VX-related constructs into one coherent analytical framework of museum experience which delineates the scope of VX. Following this analysis, this research develops and validates a VX instrument with cognitive, introspective, restorative, and affective variables which could be used to evaluate VX with or without museum technologies. Then, through a series of UX- and VX-related studies in the physical museum, this research implements a fully working content-based RS and establishes how the interaction with the developed RS transforms VX. The findings in this thesis demonstrate that the impact of an RS on the quality of VX can depend on the level of engagement with the system during a museum visit. Additionally, the impact can be insufficient on some mental processes within VX, and it can vary following the changes in contextual variables. The findings also reinforce that system performance tests cannot replace a VX-focused analysis, because a positive UX and additional information about museum objects in an RS do not imply an improved VX. Therefore, this thesis underscores that more VX-related evaluations of museum RSs are required to identify how to strengthen and extend their influence on the quality of VX

Learners as Learning Leaders: How Does Leadership for Learning Emerge Beyond the Traditional Teaching Models?

This E-book is a collection of outcome reports by thematic working groups (TWGs) of EDUsummIT2019 held from September 29 – October 2, 2019 in Quebec City, Canada. The theme of EDUsummIT2019, “Learners and learning contexts: new alignments for the digital age” was chosen to consider misalignments due to the consequences of changing knowledge representations, human computer interactions, blurring of formal and informal learning, changes in leadership patterns and many more emerging influences from IT. Thirteen TWGs discussed aspects of the overall them