On the automatic compilation of e-learning models to planning

[EN] This paper presents a general approach to automatically compile e-learning models to planning, allowing us to easily generate plans, in the form of learning designs, by using existing domain-independent planners. The idea is to compile, first, a course defined in a standard e-learning language into a planning domain, and, second, a file containing students learning information into a planning problem. We provide a common compilation and extend it to three particular approaches that cover a full spectrum of planning paradigms, which increases the possibilities of using current planners: (i) hierarchical, (ii) including PDDL (Planning Domain Definition Language) actions with conditional effects and (iii) including PDDL durative actions. The learning designs are automatically generated from the plans and can be uploaded, and subsequently executed, by learning management platforms. We also provide an extensive analysis of the e-learning metadata specification required for planning, and the pros and cons on the knowledge engineering procedures used in each of the three compilations. Finally, we include some qualitative and quantitative experimentation of the compilations in several domain-independent planners to measure its scalability and applicability.This work has been supported by the Spanish MICINN under projects TIN2008-06701-C03 and Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00022, by the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology and the regional projects CCG08-UC3M/TIC-4141 and Prometeo GVA 2008/051.Garrido Tejero, A.; Fernandez, S.; Onaindia De La Rivaherrera, E.; Morales, L.; Borrajo, D.; Castillo, L. (2013). On the automatic compilation of e-learning models to planning. Knowledge Engineering Review. 28(2):121-136. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269888912000380S121136282Garrido A. , Onaindía E. 2010. 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Modeling E-learning activities in automated planning. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Competition on Knowledge Engineering for Planning and Scheduling (ICKEPS-2009), Thessaloniki, Greece, 18–27.Essalmi, F., Ayed, L. J. B., Jemni, M., Kinshuk, & Graf, S. (2010). A fully personalization strategy of E-learning scenarios. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(4), 581-591. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.12.010Camacho D. , R-Moreno M.D. , Obieta U. 2007. CAMOU: a simple integrated e-learning and planning techniques tool. In 4th International Workshop on Constraints and Language Processing, Roskilde University, Denmark, 1–11.Fox, M., & Long, D. (2003). PDDL2.1: An Extension to PDDL for Expressing Temporal Planning Domains. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 20, 61-124. doi:10.1613/jair.1129KONTOPOULOS, E., VRAKAS, D., KOKKORAS, F., BASSILIADES, N., & VLAHAVAS, I. (2008). An ontology-based planning system for e-course generation. 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Automatic generation of temporal planning domains for e-learning problems. Journal of Scheduling, 13(4), 347-362. doi:10.1007/s10951-009-0140-xUllrich, C., & Melis, E. (2009). Pedagogically founded courseware generation based on HTN-planning. Expert Systems with Applications, 36(5), 9319-9332. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2008.12.043Boticario J. , Santos O. 2007. A dynamic assistance approach to support the development and modelling of adaptive learning scenarion based on educational standards. In Proceedings of Workshop on Authoring of Adaptive and Adaptable Hypermedia, International Conference on User Modelling, Corfu, Greece, 1–8.IMSMD 2003. IMS Learning Resource Meta-data Specification. Version 1.3 (August, 2006). Retrieved December, 2012, from http://www.imsglobal.org/metadata.Mohan P. , Greer J. , McCalla G. 2003. Instructional planning with learning objects. In IJCAI-03 Workshop Knowledge Representation and Automated Reasoning for E-Learning Systems, Acapulco, Mexico, 52–58.Alonso C. , Honey P. 2002. Honey-alonso Learning Style Theoretical Basis (in Spanish). Retrieved December 2012, from http://www.estilosdeaprendizaje.es/menuprinc2.htm

Designer - Supporting Teachers Experience in Learning Management Systems

Our paper entitled “Designer - Supporting Teachers Experience in Learning Management Systems” has been accepted for presentation at the International Conference on Web-based Learning in Sinaia, Romania. This conference is one of the top conferences in the area of technology enhanced learning and the acceptance of our paper at this conference provided us with the chance to present our work to leading researchers in our area. In our paper, we introduced Designer, an approach for teachers to help them in designing courses via a semi-automatic design process based on dynamic user modeling and adaptive learning design generation. In a virtual learning environment supporting the competence development process as well as providing students with personalized/adaptive courses ends up being an elusive and time-consuming task for teachers and/or instructional designers. Our proposed tool, Designer, aims at addressing this issue by supporting teachers to create adaptive courses based on students’ competencies and learning styles. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of Designer in supporting teachers to create such adaptive courses. The presentation of our paper was received very well and leaded to many questions after the presentation, further discussions during the conference, many ideas for future research, and a potential collaboration with an international research group.In the lifelong learning context, the efficiency of learning is measured according to the users’ achievement of the target competences. However, in a virtual learning environment supporting the competence development process ends up being an elusive and time-consuming task for teachers or instructional designers. Furthermore, tailoring courses to the individual learner’s needs and preferences has high potential to improve the learning process of learners. However, again, this is a time-consuming and complex task for teachers and instructional designers. In this paper, we introduce Designer, an approach for teachers to help them in designing courses via a semi-automatic design process based on dynamic user modeling and adaptive learning design generation. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of Designer in supporting teachers to create adaptive courses

E-Learning and Intelligent Planning: Improving Content Personalization

Combining learning objects is a challenging topic because of its direct application to curriculum generation, tailored to the students' profiles and preferences. Intelligent planning allows us to adapt learning routes (i.e. sequences of learning objects), thus highly improving the personalization of contents, the pedagogical requirements and specific necessities of each student. This paper presents a general and effective approach to extract metadata information from the e-learning contents, a form of reusable learning objects, to generate a planning domain in a simple, automated way. Such a domain is used by an intelligent planner that provides an integrated recommendation system, which adapts, stores and reuses the best learning routes according to the students' profiles and course objectives. If any inconsistency happens during the route execution, e.g. the student fails to pass an assessment test which prevents him/her from continuing the natural course of the route, the systeGarrido, A.; Morales, L. (2014). E-Learning and Intelligent Planning: Improving Content Personalization. IEEE Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologías del Aprendizaje. 9(1):1-7. doi:10.1109/RITA.2014.2301886S179

Course generation as a hierarchical task network planning problem

This thesis presents course generation based on Hierarchical Task Network planning (HTN planning). This course generation framework enables the formalization and application of complex and realistic pedagogical knowledge. Compared to previous course generation, this approach generates structured courses that are adapted to a variety of different learning goals and to the learners\u27; competencies. The thesis describes basic techniques for course generation, which are used to formalize seven different types of courses (for instance introducing the learner to previously unknown concepts and supporting him during rehearsal) and several elementary learning goals (e. g., selecting an appropriate example or exercise). The course generator developed in this thesis is service-oriented thus allowing the integration of learning supporting services into the generated course in a generic and pedagogically sensible way. Furthermore, learning environments can access the functionality of the course generator using a Web-service interface. Repositories are treated as services that can register at the course generator and make their content available for course generation. The registration is based on an ontology of instructional objects. Its classes allow categorizing learning objects according to their pedagogical purpose in a more precise way than existing metadata specifications; hence it can be used for intelligent pedagogical functionalities other than course generation. Course generation based on HTN planning is implemented in Paigos and was evaluated by technical, formative and summative evaluations. The technical evaluation primarily investigated the performance to Paigos; the formative and summative evaluations targeted the users\u27; acceptance of Paigos and of the generated courses.Diese Arbeit stellt Kursgenerierung vor, die auf Hierarchical Task Network Planung (HTN Planung) basiert. Der gewählte Rahmen erlaubt die Formalisierung von komplexem und realistischem pädagogischem Wissen und ermöglicht im Vergleich zu bisherigen Techniken die Generierung von strukturierten Kursen, die an eine Vielzahl von Lernzielen angepasst sind. Aufbauend auf allgemeinen Techniken zur Kursgenerierung wird das pädagogische Wissen für sieben verschiedene Kurstypen und für eine Reihe von elementaren Lernzielen formalisiert. Die in dieser Arbeit vorgestellte Kursgenerierung ist service-orientiert. Dadurch steht ein generischer Rahmen zu Verfügung, in dem externe Lernsysteme in die generierten Kurse eingebunden werden und dem Lernenden zur Verfügung gestellt werden können, wenn es pädagogisch sinnvoll ist. Weiterhin können andere Lernsysteme über eine Web-Service Schnittstelle auf die Funktionalitäten des Kursgenerators zugreifen: Datenbanken werden als Services betrachtet, die an dem Kursgenerator registriert werden können, und auf die während der Kurserstellung zugegriffen wird. Die Registrierung verwendet eine Ontologie, die verschiedene instruktionale Typen von Lernobjekten repräsentiert und es erlaubt, Lernobjekte nach ihrem pädagogischen Verwendungszweck zu klassifizieren. Sie geht dabei über existierende Metadatenspezifikationen hinaus und ermöglicht pädagogische komplexe Funktionalitäten, so wie beispielsweise Kursgenerierung und weitere. Die vorgestellte Kursgenerierung ist implementiert in Paigos und wurde durch technische, formative und summative Evaluationen untersucht. Die technische Evaluation analysierte in erster Linie die Performanz von Paigos; die formative und summative Evaluationen widmeten sich der Frage der Akzeptanz und Verständlichkeit der von Paigos erzeugten Kurse aus Benutzersicht

Metodologías de ensamblaje de objetos de aprendizaje : Análisis bajo la lupa del concepto de objetos de aprendizaje subyacente

En este trabajo se presenta un análisis sobre Metodologías de Ensamblaje de Objetos de Aprendizaje (OA), con foco en la definición adoptada por cada una en relación a lo que es un OA. La investigación forma parte de un estudio más abarcativo sobre este tipo de metodologías, sin embargo se discute aquí la incidencia que tiene el no contar con una definición acordada de OA para llevar adelante el proceso de ensamblaje. Para ello se realiza un análisis detallado de 33 metodologías seleccionadas a partir de una revisión bibliográfica. Los resultados señalan la necesidad de explicitar una definición de OA previo al trabajo con una de tales metodologías y atender a las principales características de los OA acordadas por la comunidad académica.XIII Workshop Tecnología Informática Aplicada en Educación (WTIAE).Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

On the use of case-based planning for e-learning personalization

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Expert Systems with Applications. 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. A definitive version was subsequently published in Expert Systems with Applications, 60, 1-15, 2016. DOI:10.1016/j.eswa.2016.04.030In this paper we propose myPTutor, a general and effective approach which uses AI planning techniques to create fully tailored learning routes, as sequences of Learning Objects (LOs) that fit the pedagogical and students’ requirements. myPTutor has a potential applicability to support e-learning personalization by producing, and automatically solving, a planning model from (and to) e-learning standards in a vast number of real scenarios, from small to medium/large e-learning communities. Our experiments demonstrate that we can solve scenarios with large courses and a high number of students. Therefore, it is perfectly valid for schools, high schools and universities, especially if they already use Moodle, on top of which we have implemented myPTutor. It is also of practical significance for repairing unexpected discrepancies (while the students are executing their learning routes) by using a Case-Based Planning adaptation process that reduces the differences between the original and the new route, thus enhancing the learning process. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work has been partially funded by the Consolider AT project CSD2007-0022 INGENIO 2010 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the MICINN project TIN2011-27652-C03-01, the MINECO and FEDER project TIN2014-55637-C2-2-R, the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology, the Valencian Prometeo project II/2013/019 and the BW5053 research project of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.Garrido Tejero, A.; Morales, L.; Serina, I. (2016). On the use of case-based planning for e-learning personalization. Expert Systems with Applications. 60:1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2016.04.030S1156

Criterios para evaluar metodologías de ensamblaje de objetos de aprendizaje

[ES]—La selección y secuenciación del material educativo digital es un trabajo que requiere de un esfuerzo importante por parte de docentes, especialistas, e incluso de estudiantes. Actualmente, se busca acompañar estas tareas a partir de procesos de ensamblaje de materiales educativos digitales, y en particular de objetos de aprendizaje. Se han comenzado a desarrollar metodologías y herramientas que soportan e implementan este proceso. Este trabajo propone profundizar en el análisis de las metodologías de ensamblaje de objetos de aprendizaje, que constituyen un tema de investigación y debate en la comunidad científica y académica. Para ello se aporta un conjunto de criterios de análisis para este tipo de metodologías, y se los aplica a una selección de 33 metodologías recopiladas. Este análisis ha permitido obtener resultados de interés en relación al estado del arte de estas estrategias de ensamblaje. En particular, se visualiza una tendencia en el desarrollo de sistemas automáticos o semiautomáticos para apoyar a docentes y alumnos en la creación de itinerarios de aprendizaje, y una baja cantidad de herramientas disponibles que implementen las metodologías revisadas. Los resultados y conclusiones de este trabajo abren las puertas para profundizar la investigación en la temática

Sistemas ensambladores de objetos de aprendizaje : Estado del arte

Esta nueva web participativa ha provocado un notable incremento de publicación materiales educativos digitales. Esto complejiza la localización y selección de los mismos. Si a lo anterior se le añade la creación de un itinerario de aprendizaje y la personalización de los aprendizaje se puede afirmar que la tarea de diseño de actividades educativas insume cada vez más tiempo y esfuerzo. La problemática expuesta, ha motivado a parte de la comunidad científica a desarrollar metodologías que apoyen y faciliten este proceso de selección y ensamblado de materiales y recursos educativos. Los Sistemas Ensambladores no poseen una revisión que de cuenta del estado del arte de la investigaciones sobre esta temática. Es por esto que en este artículo se presenta una selección y revisión de trabajos que permiten describir el estado de la cuestión en el marco de los Sistemas Ensambladores de Objetos de Aprendizaje.Eje: Tecnología en EducaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI