Processing and Linking Audio Events in Large Multimedia Archives: The EU inEvent Project

In the inEvent EU project [1], we aim at structuring, retrieving, and sharing large archives of networked, and dynamically changing, multimedia recordings, mainly consisting of meetings, videoconferences, and lectures. More specifically, we are developing an integrated system that performs audiovisual processing of multimedia recordings, and labels them in terms of interconnected “hyper-events ” (a notion inspired from hyper-texts). Each hyper-event is composed of simpler facets, including audio-video recordings and metadata, which are then easier to search, retrieve and share. In the present paper, we mainly cover the audio processing aspects of the system, including speech recognition, speaker diarization and linking (across recordings), the use of these features for hyper-event indexing and recommendation, and the search portal. We present initial results for feature extraction from lecture recordings using the TED talks. Index Terms: Networked multimedia events; audio processing: speech recognition; speaker diarization and linking; multimedia indexing and searching; hyper-events. 1

Designed and user-generated activity in the mobile age

The paper addresses the question of how to design for learning taking place on mobile and wireless devices. The authors argue that learning activity designers need to consider the characteristics of mobile learning; at the same time, it is vital to realise that learners are already creating mobile learning experiences for themselves. Profound changes in computer usage brought about by social networking and user-generated content are challenging the idea that educators are in charge of designing learning. The authors make a distinction between designed activity, carefully crafted in advance, and user-generated activity arising from learners’ own spontaneous requirements. The paper illustrates what each approach has to offer and it draws out what they have in common, the opportunities and constraints they represent. The paper concludes that user-generated mobile activity will not replace designed activity but it will influence the ways in which designed activity develops

mLearning Journeys: Redesigning Teaching for mLearning

Abstract: The excitement surrounding the potential of web2.0 tools within education has continued to grow. While almost everyone has now heard of PODCasting and YouTube, there are many more examples of social networking and content sharing tools that can be harnessed for education. Recently Twitter (microblogging) has been popularised by the media, with a reported explosive growth rate (uptake by new users) of 1500% during early 2009. While this illustrates that there is undoubtedly phenomenal interest in web2.0, there are still few concrete examples illustrating how to integrate these tools using an explicitly social constructivist pedagogical model within contemporary tertiary education environments. This paper describes the purposeful integration of web2.0 and mobile web2.0 tools within a first year Bachelor of Product Design programme, based upon an under-pinning social constructivist pedagogy. Examples of the use of several web2.0 tools that support the development of collaborative student-centred learning environments are given. Initial feedback from lecturers and students are also reported

The Blended Learning Unit, University of Hertfordshire: A Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Evaluation Report for HEFCE

The University of Hertfordshire’s Blended Learning Unit (BLU) was one of the 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs) funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) between 2005 and 2010. This evaluation report follows HEFCE’s template. The first section provides statistical information about the BLU’s activity. The second section is an evaluative reflection responding to 13 questions. As well as articulating some of our achievements and the challenges we have faced, it also sets out how the BLU’s activity will continue and make a significant contribution to delivery of the University of Hertfordshire’s 2010-2015 strategic plan and its aspirations for a more sustainable future. At the University of Hertfordshire, we view Blended Learning as the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance the learning and learning experience of campus-based students. The University has an excellent learning technology infrastructure that includes its VLE, StudyNet. StudyNet gives students access to a range of tools, resources and support 24/7 from anywhere in the world and its robustness, flexibility and ease of use have been fundamental to the success of the Blended Learning agenda at Hertfordshire. The BLU has comprised a management team, expert teachers seconded from around the University, professional support and a Student Consultant. The secondment staffing model was essential to the success of the BLU. As well as enabling the BLU to become fully staffed within the first five months of the CETL initiative, it has facilitated access to an invaluable spectrum of Blended Learning, research and Change Management expertise to inform pedagogically sound developments and enable change to be embedded across the institution. The BLU used much of its capital funding to reduce barriers to the use of technology by, for example, providing laptop computers for all academic staff in the institution, enhancing classroom technology provision and wirelessly enabling all teaching accommodation. Its recurrent funding has supported development opportunities for its own staff and staff around the institution; supported evaluation activities relating to individual projects and of the BLU’s own impact; and supported a wide range of communication and dissemination activities internally and externally. The BLU has led the embedding a cultural change in relation to Blended Learning at the University of Hertfordshire and its impact will be sustained. The BLU has produced a rich legacy of resources for our own staff and for others in the sector. The University’s increased capacity in Blended Learning benefits all our students and provides a learning experience that is expected by the new generation of learners in the 21st century. The BLU’s staffing model and partnership ways of working have directly informed the structure and modus operandi of the University’s Learning and Teaching Institute (LTI). Indeed a BLU team will continue to operate within the LTI and help drive and support the implementation of the University’s 2010-2015 Strategic plan. The plan includes ambitions in relation to Distance Learning and Flexible learning and BLU will be working to enable greater engagement with students with less or no need to travel to the university. As well as opening new markets within the UK and overseas, even greater flexibility for students will also enable the University to reduce its carbon footprint and provide a multifaceted contribution to our sustainability agenda. We conclude this executive summary with a short paragraph, written by Eeva Leinonen, our former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, which reflects our aspiration to transform Learning and Teaching at the University of Hertfordshire and more widely in the sector. ‘As Deputy Vice Chancellor at Hertfordshire I had the privilege to experience closely the excellent work of the Blended Learning Unit, and was very proud of the enormous impact the CETL had not only across the University but also nationally and internationally. However, perhaps true impact is hard to judge at such close range, but now as Vice Principal (Education) at King's College London, I can unequivocally say that Hertfordshire is indeed considered as the leading Blended Learning university in the sector. My new colleagues at King's and other Russell Group Universities frequently seek my views on the 'Hertfordshire Blended Learning' experience and are keen to emulate the successes achieved at an institutional wide scale. The Hertfordshire CETL undoubtedly achieved not only what it set out to achieve, but much more in terms of scale and impact. All those involved in this success can be justifiably proud of their achievements.’ Professor Eeva Leinonen, Vice Principal (Education), King's College, Londo

Runtime Requirements Monitoring Framework for Adaptive e-Learning Systems

International audienceAs academic learners and companies are turning to e-learning courses to achieve their personal and professional goals, it becomes more and more important to handle service quality in this sector. Despite scientific research conducted to personalize the learning process and meet learner's requirements under adaptive e-learning systems, however, the specification and management of quality attribute is particularly challenging due to problems arising from environmental variability. In our view, a detailed and high-level specification of requirements supported through the whole system lifecycle is needed for a comprehensive management of adaptive e-learning systems, especially in continuously changing environmental conditions. In this paper, we propose a runtime requirements monitoring to check the conformity of adaptive e-learning systems to their requirements and ensure that the activities offered by these learning environments can achieve the desired learning outcomes. As a result, when deviations (i.e., not satisfied requirements) occur, they are identified and then notified during system operation. With our approach, the requirements are supported during the whole system lifecycle. First, we specify system's requirements in the form of a dynamic software product line. This specification applies a novel requirements engineering language that combines goal-driven requirements with features and claims and avoid the enumeration of all desired adaptation strategies (i.e. when an adaptation should be applied) at the design time. Second, the specification is automatically transformed into a constraint satisfaction problem that reduces the requirements monitoring into a constraint program at runtime

TELMA: Technology enhanced learning environment for minimally invasive surgery

Background: Cognitive skills training for minimally invasive surgery has traditionally relied upon diverse tools, such as seminars or lectures. Web technologies for e-learning have been adopted to provide ubiquitous training and serve as structured repositories for the vast amount of laparoscopic video sources available. However, these technologies fail to offer such features as formative and summative evaluation, guided learning, or collaborative interaction between users. Methodology: The "TELMA" environment is presented as a new technology-enhanced learning platform that increases the user's experience using a four-pillared architecture: (1) an authoring tool for the creation of didactic contents; (2) a learning content and knowledge management system that incorporates a modular and scalable system to capture, catalogue, search, and retrieve multimedia content; (3) an evaluation module that provides learning feedback to users; and (4) a professional network for collaborative learning between users. Face validation of the environment and the authoring tool are presented. Results: Face validation of TELMA reveals the positive perception of surgeons regarding the implementation of TELMA and their willingness to use it as a cognitive skills training tool. Preliminary validation data also reflect the importance of providing an easy-to-use, functional authoring tool to create didactic content. Conclusion: The TELMA environment is currently installed and used at the Jesús Usón Minimally Invasive Surgery Centre and several other Spanish hospitals. Face validation results ascertain the acceptance and usefulness of this new minimally invasive surgery training environment

Evaluation of topic-based adaptation and student modeling in QuizGuide

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of a nonconventional topic-based personalization approach for adaptive educational systems (AES) that we have explored for a number of years in the context of university programming courses. With this approach both student modeling and adaptation are based on coarse-grained knowledge units that we called topics. Our motivation for the topic-based personalization was to enhance AES transparency for both teachers and students by utilizing typical topic-based course structures as the foundation for designing all aspects of an AES from the domain model to the end-user interface. We illustrate the details of the topic-based personalization technology, with the help of the Web-based educational service QuizGuide—the first system to implement it. QuizGuide applies the topic-based personalization to guide students to the right learning material in the context of an undergraduate C programming course. While having a number of architectural and practical advantages, the suggested coarse-grained personalization approach deviates from the common practices toward knowledge modeling in AES. Therefore, we believe that several aspects of QuizGuide required a detailed evaluation—from modeling accuracy to the effectiveness of adaptation. The paper discusses how this new student modeling approach can be evaluated, and presents our attempts to evaluate it from multiple different prospects. The evaluation of QuizGuide across several consecutive semesters demonstrates that, although topics do not always support precise user modeling, they can provide a basis for successful personalization in AESs

Real-time integration of IEQ with BIM - user centered approach

Altering indoor environment to increase occupants comfort may increase their productivity and reduce waste in time, energy and resources. This work attempts to understand occupants behavior and comfort to build a platform that visualizes user-centered parameters related to indoor environment in real-time using IoT. User-centered prototype platform was designed, built and tested. Gamification concepts was applied to increase participation. The results were visualized and spatially mapped to the 3D model. This platform may help users build better perception about their indoor environment,i.e in offices, schools, hotels and hospitals, using interactive content and games. Also, it may help decision makers to take faster and better decisions, relying on the abundance of user-centered data, which may help in quality improvement. A test with around 20 users was made to assess indoor and learning environments. Many have found the system useful and easy to use on their mobile devices. Users shared valuable feedbacks and ideas for further developments. The first experiment gave important insights for possible future tests