Transferring an Outcome-Oriented Learning Architecture to an IT Learning Game

Schmitz, B., Klemke, R., Totschnig, M., Czauderna, A., & Specht, M. (2011). Transferring an Outcome-Oriented Learning Architecture to an IT Learning Game. In C. D. Kloos, D. Gillet, R. M. Crespo Carcía, F. Wild, & M. Wolpers (Eds.), Towards Ubiquitous Learning: 6th European Conference on Technology Anhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2011 (pp. 483-488). September, 20-23, 2011, Palermo, Italy. LNCS 6964; Heidelberg, Berlin: Springer.Today’s technology enhanced learning scenarios focus on outcome-oriented delivery of learning processes, contents, and services. Also, learners increasingly demand for innovative and motivating learning scenarios that match their habits of using media. The European project ICOPER researches outcome-oriented learning infrastructures for higher education contexts. The German BMBF-project SpITKom aims at transferring such approaches to basic qualification. Based on a Browser Game, it uses ICOPER’s technical infrastructure which combines learning object metadata repositories, learning outcome repositories, learning design repositories and learner profile repositories. This paper initially depicts the technical infrastructure of an outcome-oriented learning scenario that was developed in the course of ICOPER and then outlines its transformation to the game-based learning approach as realized in the course of SpITKom.ICOPER, SPITKO

Evaluating the effectiveness of explanations for recommender systems : Methodological issues and empirical studies on the impact of personalization

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What am I not seeing? An Interactive Approach to Social Content Discovery in Microblogs

In this paper, we focus on the informational and user experience benefits of user-driven topic exploration in microblog communities, such as Twitter, in an inspectable, controllable and personalized manner. To this end, we introduce ``HopTopics'' -- a novel interactive tool for exploring content that is popular just beyond a user's typical information horizon in a microblog, as defined by the network of individuals that they are connected to. We present results of a user study (N=122) to evaluate HopTopics with varying complexity against a typical microblog feed in both personalized and non-personalized conditions. Results show that the HopTopics system, leveraging content from both the direct and extended network of a user, succeeds in giving users a better sense of control and transparency. Moreover, participants had a poor mental model for the degree of novel content discovered when presented with non-personalized data in the Inspectable interface

Towards adaptation languages for adaptive collaborative learning support

Collaborative learning involves interaction between students, whilst adaptive learning traditionally involves individual learning progress. Each of these learning paradigms has its advantages and disadvantages, which are mainly disjunctive. In order to create a more powerful learning experience, in an ideal world, these two paradigms should be integrated, in order to alleviate each others' weaknesses. This would render it possible to allow for the coexistence of collaboration in learning environments, along with adaptation and personalization, but would also enable personalized collaboration, as well as collaborative adaptation in learning. This however requires extensions to the way adaptation, personalization and collaboration are approached today. In this paper we gradually extract patterns and abstract specifications and finally show how such extensions can be applied to an adaptation language for personalized learning, in order to enable collaborative learning support

Self-Adapting Web-based Systems: Towards Universal Accessibility

. This paper discusses the employment of self-adaptation techniques in WWW-based interactive systems, as a tool for ensuring their universal accessibility. The paper first elaborates on the underpinnings of universal accessibility and their relevance to Web applications and services. Then it provides a contextual definition of self-adapting systems and an account of how self-adaptation relates to accessibility. Subsequently, different adaptation approaches that may be employed on the Web are presented, as well as their potential correlation to accessibility solutions. Finally, the application of some of the proposed approaches in the development of Web-based information systems is presented. Keywords. Universal accessibility, self-adaptation, adaptability, adaptivity, WWW. 1. Introduction The term universal accessibility has been associated with the efforts to provide computer-based interactive applications and services accessible by the broadest possible end user population..