Towards a new generation of Learning Management Systems

Vogten, H., & Koper, R. (2014) Towards a new generation of Learning Management Systems. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, Barcelona, Spain.In this paper we argue that a centrally governed Learning Management System (LMS) still has ample legitimacy in an information society that is ever more adopting cloud computing services in daily life. We argued that control over services and produced data is essential from the perspective of an educational institute for reasons of accountability, quality control, legislation, privacy and reliability. However, the current generation learning management systems are primarily geared to provide ‘additional’ online learning. In ‘real’ online learning teachers and students almost never need to meet face-to-face. All instruction, tests, communication and collaboration is organised using internet and mobile technologies. We propose a paradigm shift for the next generation LMS, discarding the course as key concept in favour of the social learning network concept. We argue that a generic social collaborative portal platform is a good foundation for the development of this next generation LMS. We support our arguments by presenting a real world case and we conclude that we can reuse 80% of the standard code

Metaversia: a mooc model for higher education

Globalization and economic interdependency of a post-modern society point toward an internationalization mission for the university. However, on a global scale, social, economic, and cultural circumstances have significant effects upon an individual’s ability to show the merit required in higher education. The growing open access movement reveals the early emergence of a meta-university that bring cost-efficiencies to institutions through the shared development of educational materials, which is particularly important to the developing world. But despite the huge success in the dissemination and democratization of knowledge provided by the open access movement, it has attached a severe financial downside, and configures a hamper in educational innovation due to its failure in harnessing Web 2.0 collaborative technologies. In order to find a model that better suits the needs of collaborative teaching and learning in a networked information economy, two approaches are followed in this dissertation. The first consists in the analysis and comparison of the open education ecosystem. On the other approach, based on the previous results, we propose a MOOC model, Metaversia, for a collaborative network that harness the capital exchange potential, and knowledge-building opportunities that rests on the connections between people, enabling citizen's full participation in the actual networked information economy.A globalização e interdependência económica de uma sociedade pós-moderna impelem a universidade para uma missão de internacionalização. Mas à escala global, circunstâncias sociais, económicas e culturais têm implicações significativas sobre a capacidade dos indivíduos em mostrar o mérito exigido no ensino superior. O movimento de acesso livre revela o surgimento precoce de uma meta universidade que traz mais valias do ponto de vista financeiro para as universidades através do desenvolvimento partilhado de materiais educativos. Mas, apesar do enorme sucesso na disseminação e democratização do conhecimento proporcionado pelo movimento de acesso livre, este possui severas desvantagens financeiras e configura um grande passo atrás na inovação pedagógica devido a sua falha no devido aproveitamento das tecnologias colaborativas da Web 2.0. A fim de encontrar um modelo que melhor se adeque às necessidades de ensino e aprendizagem colaborativa numa economia da informação em rede, duas abordagens são seguidas nesta tese. A primeira consiste na análise e comparação do ecossistema educação aberta. Na outra abordagem, com base nos resultados anteriores, propomos um modelo para um MOOC, Metaversia, para uma rede de colaboração que aproveita o potencial de troca de capital, e de construção de conhecimento que existe no relacionamento interpessoal, permitindo uma plena participação dos cidadãos numa economia da informação em rede

JISC Preservation of Web Resources (PoWR) Handbook

Handbook of Web Preservation produced by the JISC-PoWR project which ran from April to November 2008. The handbook specifically addresses digital preservation issues that are relevant to the UK HE/FE web management community”. The project was undertaken jointly by UKOLN at the University of Bath and ULCC Digital Archives department

State of digital news preservation

Research Team: Edward McCain (Principal Investigator, Digital Curator of Journalism, University of Missouri Libraries, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute), Neil Mara (Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow, Neil Mara News-Tech Consulting; former McClatchy News Systems Director and Journalist), Kara Van Malssen (Partner and Senior Consultant, AVP Consulting), Dorothy Carner (Head, Journalism Libraries/Adjunct Journalism Professor, University of Missouri Libraries/Missouri School of Journalism), Bernard Reilly (President Emeritus and Senior Advisor, Center for Research Libraries), Kerri Willette (Senior Consultant, AVP Consulting), Sandy Schiefer (Journalism Research and Digital Asset Librarian, University of Missouri Libraries), Joe Askins (Head, Instructional Services, Library Research and Information Services, University of Missouri Libraries), Sarah Buchanan (Assistant Professor, School of Information Science and Learning Technologies)"Are you concerned about the longevity of your news organization's content? Have you lost any content or critical metadata through the constant churn of shifting digital technologies? Can you pull up the original, full-resolution videos and photographs your newsrooms produced for that major breaking news story last year? Can you prove definitively that you own the copyright to the story that went with it? And are you wondering whether you can locate and access the evergreen content you need for that proposed new digital product you're considering on food or travel or sports? If any of these questions worry you, or you wonder about the future of the public record of our communities in the age of massive expansion of digital news channels and sources, there are problems that need to be understood and solved, and steps newsrooms can take to ensure availability, access and control of digital news content and assets. That's the purpose of this report, to provide the results of research into what's happening in today's news media when it comes to preserving irreplaceable digital news content. And to share the best ideas and practices news organizations can adopt to address the common problems that can so easily threaten the digital news content we are creating every day. In an effort to address these questions, a research group from the University of Missouri Libraries and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute launched an 18-month-long project to assess the status of preservation of born-digital news content across the news industry. Supported by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this report provides the results of that research, conducted through onsite and video conference interviews, including a wealth of information and analysis on a little-known, largely hidden problem that's been developing in the shadow of the news industry's financial crisis and the shift to digital production and publishing. This report includes a User's Guide to finding and understanding what's in each section, followed by a concise Background on how the switch to digital publishing, and the collapse of old business models helped fuel the upheavals that developed into today's preservation problems. A summary of the Methodology used in this research comes next, followed by the report's Findings, Recommendations, Conclusion and Appendices. ..."--Executive Summary."A report on a research project led by faculty and experts at Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and the University of Missouri Libraries. This project was supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation."--Cover.Includes bibliographical references (pages 123-125)

e-Learning and the aspect of students in forestry and environmental studies

The new information technologies (ICTs) and the services they provide, is a tool that can transport data with high speed and allow the diffusing of vast amount of knowledge and information, to lay the groundwork to redefine a new improved relationship between person and environment with benefits that are important for both recipients. The need for a sustainable natural environment, based on sustainable facts, has led to the resurgence and support of systems such as agroforestry, whose services are vital to the life of modern man. This work will therefore focus on a presentation of modern technology and tools of e-learning, describes the current situation in in the European Union and Greece, but also examine the need for the participation of these tools in agriculture and forestry courses, particularly those of agroforestry systems and the aspects of students in forestry and environmental studies. For that reason, finally presents results from a survey that took place amongst students of Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment</jats:p