Forward, back and home again : analyzing user behavior on the web

In a period of less than two decades, the World Wide Web has evolved into one of the most important sources of information and services. Due to the infancy of the Web and its rapid growth, our knowledge on how users interact with the Web is limited - knowledge which is likely to provide pointers for improvements in the design of Web sites and Web browsers. In this thesis, we aim to provide an integrative overview of theoretical insights and empirical findings, and to extend this body of knowledge with results from a number of user studies

Competence Matching Tool - Explanations and Implementation

Herder, E., Kärger, P. (2009) Competence Matching Tool - Explanations and Implementation. The document contains the technical specification of the competence matching tool. The tool can be found at http://tencompetence.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/tencompetence/wp7/CompetenceMatcher/ and the location computation module is to be found here: http://tencompetence.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/tencompetence/wp7/JobLocationComputerServlet/ Available under the three cause BSD licence, copyright TENCompetence Foundation.The Competence Matching Tool provides a user interface to search for job advertisements, making use of various criteria. This functionality is similar to common job boards, such as Monster and Hotjobs. In contrast to these job boards, the Competence Matching Tool compares the user’s competence profile with the competence profile that is required for the job. Thus – in a few words – the Competence Matching Tool adds the competence dimension to nowadays job search tools and allows the learner to see her abilities in context. It gives the learner the possibility to judge her position and potentially required competences for the labor market. In the CMT relevant job advertisements are ranked and visualized on a two-dimensional grid: the vertical axis represents how close the match of an advertisement is with the user’s competence profile and the horizontal axis represents the match with the user’s preferences (for example in terms of job location or industry). This document provides and overview of current standards in Job search and competence matching and describes the implementation of the TENCompetence Competence Matching Tool.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the TENCompetence Integrated Project that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning. Contract 027087 [http://www.tencompetence.org

TENCompetence: Construyendo la Red Europea para el Desarrollo Continuo de Competencias

Burgos, D., Herder, E., & Olmedilla, D. (2007). TENCompetence: Construyendo la Red Europea para el Desarrollo Continuo de Competencias. Inteligencia Artificial, Revista Iberoamericana de Inteligencia Artificial (AEPIA).El proyecto TENCompetence (The European Network for Lifelong Competence Development) apoya a personas e instituciones europeas en el desarrollo de competencias profesionales más allá de la formación reglada oficial. El desarrollo de habilidades específicas y competencias laborales que enriquecen un curriculum y mejoran la valoración del individuo y sus capacidades profesionales centran el núcleo del proyecto. Como tal, existen dos áreas de trabajo principales: por un lado la implementación e integración de una estructura de servicios; por otro, la investigación de nuevas soluciones y técnicas a los problemas habituales en la materia. Específicamente, en referencia a la investigación, existen cuatro áreas complementarias de actuación, con diferente grado de granularidad: 1) Compartición y Administración de Recursos de Conocimiento, 2) Actividades y Unidades de Aprendizaje, 3) Programas de Desarrollo de Competencias, y 4) Redes para el Desarrollo de Competencias. Este artículo presenta los principales problemas por resolver para el desarrollo contínuo de competencias y describe las líneas de investigación definidas en el proyecto TENCompetence para abordarlos, incluyendo las principales técnicas en uso o de aplicación inmediata.This work has been sponsored by the EU project TENCompetence [www.tencompetence.org

Context-Dependent Use of Authority and Empathy in Lifestyle Advices Given By Persuasive Voice Assistants

As smart technology becomes more readily available for the general public, so do the systems that can benefit of such technology, such as recommender systems and Voice Assistants. Persuasive Voice Assistants have a great potential to change people's lives by promoting changes in behavior that benefit people's health and lifestyles. Previous studies have focused on finding personality traits that systems can use to optimize persuasive capabilities, but the findings have been contradictory. In this study, we investigate these contradictions by comparing the effect of empathic phrasing versus authoritative phrasing of persuasive recommendations in three lifestyle-related domains. The study results as well as the literature survey strongly indicate that it is close to impossible to isolate general effects, emphasizing the importance of taking all specifics of the user population, individual differences and user context as whole - as well as interactions between these variables - into account when designing persuasive adaptive systems

ID 7.18: Completed user study on the Competence Matching Tool

Herder, E., Kärger, P., Drachsler, H., & Kalz, M. (2009). ID 7.18: Completed user study on the Competence Matching Tool. TENCompetence.In this internal deliverable we present the results of the user evaluation of the Competence Matching Tool. A qualitative, case-based user study, making use of eye-tracking technology and a desirability toolkit. This study provides various insights in how users search for job vacancies and how interactive visualizations can support this search.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the TENCompetence Integrated Project that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning. Contract 027087 [http://www.tencompetence.org

Making Legacy LMS adaptable using Policy and Policy templates

Koesling, A., Herder, E., De Coi, J., & Abel, F. (2008). Making Legacy LMS adaptable using Policy and Policy templates. In J. Baumeister & M. Atzmüller, Proceedings of the 16th Workshop on Adaptivity and User Modeling in Interactive System, ABIS 2008 (pp. 35-40). October, 6-8, 2008, Würzburg, Germany: University of Würzburg. Website with link to proceedings: http://lwa08.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/Wiki.jsp?page=FGABIS08In this paper, we discuss how users and designers of existing learning management systems (LMSs) can make use of policies to enhance adaptivity and adaptability. Many widespread LMSs currently only use limited and proprietary rule systems defining the system behaviour. Personalization of those systems is done based on those rule systems allowing only for fairly restricted adaptation rules. Policies allow for more sophisticated and flexible adaptation rules, provided by multiple stakeholders and they can be integrated into legacy systems. We present the benefits and feasibility of our ongoing approach of extending an existing LMS with policies. We will use the LMS ILIAS as a hands-on example to allow users to make use of system personalization.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the TENCompetence Integrated Project that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning. Contract 027087 [http://www.tencompetence.org

ID 7.13+17 – Validation of learning path description, Implementation of the Learning Path Manager and Editor

Herder, E., Kärger, P., Berlanga, A., Janssen, J., & Heyenrath, S. (2009). ID 7.13+17 – Validation of learning path description, Implementation of the Learning Path Manager and Editor. TENCompetence.In this internal deliverable we discuss the latest version of the Learning Path Editor (LPE), which has been integrated into the TenCompetence infrastructure. The development activities for the LPE were also conceived as an evaluation of the pragmatic quality of the underlying model, the Learning Path Specification.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the TENCompetence Integrated Project that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning. Contract 027087 [http://www.tencompetence.org

Using Linked Data in Learning Analytics

Learning Analytics has a lot to do with data, and the way to make sense of raw data in terms of the learner’s experience, behaviour and knowledge. In this article, we argue about the need for a closer relationship between the field of Learning Analytics and the one of Linked Data, which in our view constitutes an ideal data management layer for Learning Analytics. Based on our experience with organising the “Using Linked Data in Learning Analytics” tutorial at the Learning Analytics and Knowledge conference, we discuss the existing trends in the use of linked data and semantic web technologies, in general in education and in learning analytics specifically. We find that the emerging connections between the two fields are still, at the time of writing, much less prominent than one would expect considering the complementary nature of the considered technologies and practices. We therefore argue that specific efforts, somehow materialised through the tutorial and the work in the LinkedUp support action, are needed to ensure the realisation of the potential cross-benefits that combining Learning Analytics and Linked Data research could bring.LinkedU