Structured computer-based training in the interpretation of neuroradiological images

Computer-based systems may be able to address a recognised need throughout the medical profession for a more structured approach to training. We describe a combined training system for neuroradiology, the MR Tutor that differs from previous approaches to computer-assisted training in radiology in that it provides case-based tuition whereby the system and user communicate in terms of a well-founded Image Description Language. The system implements a novel method of visualisation and interaction with a library of fully described cases utilising statistical models of similarity, typicality and disease categorisation of cases. We describe the rationale, knowledge representation and design of the system, and provide a formative evaluation of its usability and effectiveness

Adaptive intelligent personalised learning (AIPL) environment

As individuals the ideal learning scenario would be a learning environment tailored just for how we like to learn, personalised to our requirements. This has previously been almost inconceivable given the complexities of learning, the constraints within the environments in which we teach, and the need for global repositories of knowledge to facilitate this process. Whilst it is still not necessarily achievable in its full sense this research project represents a path towards this ideal.In this thesis, findings from research into the development of a model (the Adaptive Intelligent Personalised Learning (AIPL)), the creation of a prototype implementation of a system designed around this model (the AIPL environment) and the construction of a suite of intelligent algorithms (Personalised Adaptive Filtering System (PAFS)) for personalised learning are presented and evaluated. A mixed methods approach is used in the evaluation of the AIPL environment. The AIPL model is built on the premise of an ideal system being one which does not just consider the individual but also considers groupings of likeminded individuals and their power to influence learner choice. The results show that: (1) There is a positive correlation for using group-learning-paradigms. (2) Using personalisation as a learning aid can help to facilitate individual learning and encourage learning on-line. (3) Using learning styles as a way of identifying and categorising the individuals can improve their on-line learning experience. (4) Using Adaptive Information Retrieval techniques linked to group-learning-paradigms can reduce and improve the problem of mis-matching. A number of approaches for further work to extend and expand upon the work presented are highlighted at the end of the Thesis

A game theoretical model for a collaborative e-learning platform on privacy awareness

De nos jours, avec l'utilisation croissante des technologies numériques, l'éducation à la préservation de la vie privée joue un rôle important en particulier pour les adolescents. Bien que plusieurs plateformes d'apprentissage en ligne à la sensibilisation à la vie privée aient été mises en œuvre, elles sont généralement basées sur des techniques traditionnelles d'apprentissage. Plus particulièrement, ces plateformes ne permettent pas aux étudiants de coopérer et de partager leurs connaissances afin d’améliorer leur apprentissage ensemble. En d'autres termes, elles manquent d'interactions élève-élève. Des recherches récentes sur les méthodes d'apprentissage montrent que la collaboration entre élèves peut entraîner de meilleurs résultats d'apprentissage par rapport à d'autres approches. De plus, le domaine de la vie privée étant fortement lié à la vie sociale des adolescents, il est préférable de fournir un environnement d'apprentissage collaboratif où l’on peut enseigner la préservation de la vie privée, et en même temps, permettre aux étudiants de partager leurs connaissances. Il serait souhaitable que ces derniers puissent interagir les uns avec les autres, résoudre des questionnaires en collaboration et discuter de problèmes et de situations de confidentialité. À cet effet, ce travail propose « Teens-online », une plateforme d'apprentissage en ligne collaborative pour la sensibilisation à la vie privée. Le programme d'études fourni dans cette plateforme est basé sur le Référentiel de formation des élèves à la protection des données personnelles. De plus, la plateforme proposée est équipée d'un mécanisme d'appariement de partenaires basé sur la théorie des jeux. Ce mécanisme garantit un appariement élève-élève stable en fonction des besoins de l'élève (comportement et / ou connaissances). Ainsi, des avantages mutuels seront obtenus en minimisant les chances de coopérer avec des pairs incompatibles. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent que l'utilité moyenne obtenue en appliquant l'algorithme proposé est beaucoup plus élevée que celle obtenue en utilisant d'autres mécanismes d'appariement. Les résultats suggèrent qu'en adoptant l'approche proposée, chaque élève peut être jumelé avec des partenaires optimaux, qui obtiennent également en retour des résultats d'apprentissage plus élevés.Nowadays, with the increasing use of digital technologies, especially for teenagers, privacy education plays an important role in their lives. While several e-learning platforms for privacy awareness training have been implemented, they are typically based on traditional learning techniques. In particular, these platforms do not allow students to cooperate and share knowledge with each other in order to achieve mutual benefits and improve learning outcomes. In other words, they lack student-student interaction. Recent research on learning methods shows that the collaboration among students can result in better learning outcomes compared to other learning approaches. Motivated by the above-mentioned facts, and since privacy domain is strongly linked to the social lives of teens, there is a pressing need for providing a collaborative learning platform for teaching privacy, and at the same time, allows students to share knowledge, interact with each other, solve quizzes collaboratively, and discuss privacy issues and situations. For this purpose, this work proposes “Teens-online”, a collaborative e-learning platform for privacy awareness. The curriculum provided in this platform is based on the Personal Data Protection Competency Framework for School Students. Moreover, the proposed platform is equipped with a partner-matching mechanism based on matching game theory. This mechanism guarantees a stable student-student matching according to a student's need (behavior and/or knowledge). Thus, mutual benefits will be attained by minimizing the chances of cooperating with incompatible students. Experimental results show that the average learning-related utility obtained by applying the proposed partner-matching algorithm is much higher than the average utility obtained using other matching mechanisms. The results also suggest that by adopting the proposed approach, each student can be paired with their optimal partners, which in turn helps them reach their highest learning outcomes

An Automatic Group Formation Method to Foster Innovation in Collaborative Learning at Workplace

Despite group formation in learning environments is commonly and successfully approached, there is a gap in the research literature with respect to its application in corporative learning. Regarding that creativity is as an important factor to increase innovation in companies, in the present research, we propose a group formation method, considering preferred roles and functional diversity, aiming to improve creativity in collaborative learning at workplace. We employed Tabu Search algorithm to automatically form groups based on Nonaka\u27s knowledge creation theory and preferred roles from Belbin’s model. We performed a case study to compare the quality of socio-cognitive interactions duringcollaborative learning in groups formed by the proposed method and randomly formed groups. The results show that groups formed by preferred roles and functional diversity are more creative and present enhanced fluency and more elaborated products in comparison to randomly formed groups

Supporting teachers in the design and implementation of group formation policies to carry out group learning activities in massive and variable scale on-line learning contexts

Los MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses, Cursos Abiertos Masivos en Línea), etiquetados como nuevo paradigma disruptivo en el entorno educativo, son criticados por un amplio sector de la comunidad educativa debido a sus altas tasas de abandono y a su baja calidad instruccional. La inclusión de pedagogías activas, tales como el aprendizaje colaborativo, en este tipo de cursos podría mejorar su calidad instruccional, además de aumentar la motivación e implicación de los alumnos. Sin embargo, la escala masiva y sus variaciones durante el curso, dificulta la introducción de dichas pedagogías y en especial la formación y mantenimiento de grupos de trabajo de alumnos. El apoyo a los profesores en las tareas de gestión de estos grupos, podría facilitar la adopción de diseños pedagógicos colaborativos. Para abordar esta meta y poder llevar a cabo el desarrollo de herramientas de apoyo a los profesores, es conveniente un conocimiento amplio y profundo del contexto y del problema a acometer, así como una visión holística del mismo. Por este motivo, este tesis propone como objetivo general, el dar apoyo a los profesores interesados en introducir actividades realizadas en grupo en este tipo de cursos, tanto en el diseño de las políticas de agrupación adecuadas para cada situación, como en la implementación de dichas políticas dentro de la plataforma educativa elegida. Para ello, se crea un marco conceptual que permita categorizar los factores relevantes a tener en cuenta para formar grupos de alumnos o equipos, en el contexto educativo MOOC, así como las principales características de este contexto que pueden influir en dichas agrupaciones. Tomando como base dicho marco, se desarrollan guías de diseño con recomendaciones y directrices que ayudan a los profesores a diseñar sus propias políticas de agrupación, así como herramientas informáticas de apoyo, que permitan implementar dichas políticas de agrupación en las diferentes plataformas educativas. A través de tres estudios en MOOCs reales y otras técnicas de investigación, tales como revisión de literatura y opinión de expertos, se han explorado propuestas de agrupación basadas en las analíticas de aprendizaje y las dinámicas de los alumnos monitorizadas durante el curso. Además, se ha generado un modelo para la creación de guías de diseño, y una arquitectura para el desarrollo de herramientas informáticas, independientes de la plataforma educativa elegida, que sirvan para implementar las agrupaciones diseñadas. Tomando como base estos modelos, se han creado pruebas de concepto que han permitido comprobar su viabilidad y su utilidad.Departamento de Informática (Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores, Ciencias de la Computación e Inteligencia Artificial, Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos)Doctorado en Informátic

The impact of learning styles on student grouping for collaborative learning: a case study

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11257-006-9012-7Learning style models constitute a valuable tool for improving individual learning by the use of adaptation techniques based on them. In this paper, we present how the benefit of considering learning styles with adaptation purposes, as part of the user model, can be extended to the context of collaborative learning as a key feature for group formation. We explore the effects that the combination of students with different learning styles in specific groups may have in the final results of the tasks accomplished by them collaboratively. With this aim, a case study with 166 students of computer science has been carried out, from which conclusions are drawn. We also describe how an existing web-based system can take advantage of learning style information in order to form more productive groups. Our ongoing work concerning the automatic extraction of grouping rules starting from data about previous interactions within the system is also outlined. Finally, we present our challenges, related to the continuous improvement of collaboration by the use and dynamic modification of automatic grouping rules.This project has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education, TIN2004-03140

The relation between prior knowledge and students' collaborative discovery learning processes

In this study we investigate how prior knowledge influences knowledge development during collaborative discovery learning. Fifteen dyads of students (pre-university education, 15-16 years old) worked on a discovery learning task in the physics field of kinematics. The (face-to-face) communication between students was recorded and the interaction with the environment was logged. Based on students' individual judgments of the truth-value and testability of a series of domain-specific propositions, a detailed description of the knowledge configuration for each dyad was created before they entered the learning environment. Qualitative analyses of two dialogues illustrated that prior knowledge influences the discovery learning processes, and knowledge development in a pair of students. Assessments of student and dyad definitional (domain-specific) knowledge, generic (mathematical and graph) knowledge, and generic (discovery) skills were related to the students' dialogue in different discovery learning processes. Results show that a high level of definitional prior knowledge is positively related to the proportion of communication regarding the interpretation of results. Heterogeneity with respect to generic prior knowledge was positively related to the number of utterances made in the discovery process categories hypotheses generation and experimentation. Results of the qualitative analyses indicated that collaboration between extremely heterogeneous dyads is difficult when the high achiever is not willing to scaffold information and work in the low achiever's zone of proximal development

Breaking persistent working group partnerships: a social experiment

Facing multidisciplinary projects is becoming quite common in companies worldwide, meaning that experts from a specific area must team up with experts from other areas in a dynamic, ad hoc manner. For a professional to meet such requirements successfully, it is important that teamwork skills are developed during college. However, such issue is usually not addressed thoroughly, and most students end up teaming with the same partners over and over again, thereby failing to achieve the critical adaptability skills expected from them. To address this drawback, in this paper we present the results of a study where students were forced to team up with other partners based on the results of a computer networking skills-ranking exam. Experimental results confirm the repeating pattern in terms of past partnerships, and student resistance to partner changes. On the positive side, results show that having new partners indeed help at achieving a more even task distribution, and that students are moderately aware of the upcoming challenges in their future professional activity, recognizing the benefits of teaming up with new people.This work was partially supported by the School of Informatics (ETSINF) and the Department of Computer Engineering (DISCA) at the Universitat Politècnica de València.Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Arlandis, J.; Torres Cortes, A. (2015). Breaking persistent working group partnerships: a social experiment. En INTED2015 Proceedings. IATED. 1329-1337. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/70447S1329133

Factors shaping the evolution of electronic documentation systems

The main goal is to prepare the space station technical and managerial structure for likely changes in the creation, capture, transfer, and utilization of knowledge. By anticipating advances, the design of Space Station Project (SSP) information systems can be tailored to facilitate a progression of increasingly sophisticated strategies as the space station evolves. Future generations of advanced information systems will use increases in power to deliver environmentally meaningful, contextually targeted, interconnected data (knowledge). The concept of a Knowledge Base Management System is emerging when the problem is focused on how information systems can perform such a conversion of raw data. Such a system would include traditional management functions for large space databases. Added artificial intelligence features might encompass co-existing knowledge representation schemes; effective control structures for deductive, plausible, and inductive reasoning; means for knowledge acquisition, refinement, and validation; explanation facilities; and dynamic human intervention. The major areas covered include: alternative knowledge representation approaches; advanced user interface capabilities; computer-supported cooperative work; the evolution of information system hardware; standardization, compatibility, and connectivity; and organizational impacts of information intensive environments

Technology-enhanced Personalised Learning: Untangling the Evidence

Technology-enhanced personalised learning is not yet common in Germany, which is why we have tasked scientists with summarising the current status of international research on the matter. This study demonstrates the great potential of technology in implementing effective personalised learning. Nevertheless, it has not been assessed yet whether the practical implementation actually works: Even in countries such as the U.S., which lead the way in using techology in classroom settings, hardly any evaluation studies have been done to prove the effectiveness of technology-enhanced personalised learning. In the light of the above, the authors make recommendations for actions to be taken in Germany to make best use of the potential of technology in providing individual support and guidance to students