The cloud hovering over the virtual campus

The Virtual Campus has been around for about 20 years. It provides an online environment that mimics the processes and services of the physical campuses and classrooms. Its adoption is almost complete in countries where Internet access has become ubiquitous. For a time seemed like the innovation in education was happening in the Virtual Campus, but this is no more. Personal Learning Environments, Life Long Learning, MOOCS, Open Educational Resources, Mobile Apps, Gamification, Social Networks, free Cloud based services... al of the above and even more hint that not all the learning today is happening at school or in the Virtual Campus.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Assessment of barriers for people with disability to enjoy national parks

[EN] There is increasing awareness of the importance of nature-based recreation to human wellbeing. Given its significant benefits, natural-protected area management has not always provided equitable access to all potential users. Limited research till now has been focused on how the outdoor barriers impact the equal enjoyment of people with mobility/motor disabilities (PwMDs) of nature when promoting sustainable nature-based tourism. This study intends to shed light on those aspects which constrain the PwMD¿s enjoyment of the great outdoors at national parks (NPs). The study was carried out in Canada and Spain through an online survey on amenities needed and accessibility barriers for PwMDs in parks. It was analyzed through log linear models for cross-frequency tables, which allow us to estimate the associations between questions/variables and, thus, ultimately, obtain insights into how the needs of amenities and accessibility barriers can affect and limit PwMDs¿ enjoyment of natural parks. The results show a predisposition on the part of participants to enjoy parks more frequently than they usually do, as well as a preference for forests and mountain landscapes. Information and communication technologies are the tools most chosen to prepare for their trip and visit to the park. PwMD finds barriers in NPs as impediments to benefit from nature-based recreation and adding to their wellbeing. NP managers should take into consideration that PwMD¿s visits to parks are related to the main obstacles they perceive such as slopes and pavement and that they require amenities such as recreation and signposting. They would also like to enjoy parks more often, with footpaths suitable for walkability/wheelability, e.g., compact pavement, low inclines, and adequate signposting. In addition to the physical barriers, managers should also consider intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints to provide outdoor activities in parks focused on PwMDs¿ needs.This research received partial support and external funding from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain (grant CD21/00186-Sara Borrell Postdoctoral Fellowship) and was co-funded by the European Union.Aguilar-Carrasco, MJ.; Gielen, E.; Vallés-Planells, M.; Galiana, F.; Riutort-Mayol, G. (2023). Assessment of barriers for people with disability to enjoy national parks. Frontiers in Psychology. 13:1-16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.10586471161

Analyzing Moodle/LMS logs to measure mobile access

Most Educational Institutions worldwide have deployed web based Learning Management Systems (LMS) as a means to provide support for their presence-based lectures and offer online-exclusive learning. These LMSs were designed and developed for users accessing the system through web browsers on desktop computers or laptops. However, over the last years, an increasing percentage of the registered accesses to various LMS platforms have been from mobile devices such as smartphones. While tackling the problems arising through the design of a mobile client for the Open Source LMS Moodle called Moodbile, the question of how to decide which services of Moodle could be accessed from smartphones became very relevant. This paper presents a data analysis study conducted on the Moodle server logs of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-Barcelona Tech (UPC) virtual campus, Atenea, and the insight gained regarding the particular characteristics of the accesses from mobile devices. The main achievement of this study is that it provides insight of the use of the university LMS from mobile devices.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Evaluating limiting factors for people with disabilities using mobility assistive technologies to enjoy National Parks: Comparative findings between Canada and Spain

Research has demonstrated the benefits of nature contact within wellbeing. Outdoor barriers versus amenities can impact on people with mobility/motor disabilities (PwMD) to enjoy nature such as National Parks (NPs). An online questionnaire was designed to obtain information in Canada and Spain on how these barriers influence PwMD to carry out outdoor activities in NPs. It was structured on three main themes: basic data, park’s public use and park knowledge. Statistical analysis has shown the predisposition of PwMDs to enjoy nature and highlights the barriers that prevent them from accessing outdoor activities. More research is needed in this area

Considering a pull mechanism for an informal learning activities collector

There is a recent interest in the research of Lifelong Learning and other related kinds of learning (formal, non-formal and informal). Some projects have been held in order to propose frameworks for managing all these types of learning, giving special attention to the informal learning. The TRAILER project is one of them. It supports the identification and management of informal learning activities. It gathers informal learning activities with an Informal Learning Collector (ILC) and a Portfolio is used to make visible how much a learner acquires informal learning. The main way for registering informal learning activities data into the ILC is using push mechanisms where the users explicitly introduce such information. In this paper, we propose an alternative way to register information about informal learning activities, but using a pull mechanism, where the ILC collects data from external applications. In this sense, we improve ILC usability.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Extending Moodle services to mobile devices: The Moodbile Project

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are widespread among most education and training institutions. Even though LMS are a mature technology, they have left the vanguard of innovation in e-learning to mobile devices and tablets. Mobile Learning (M-learning)may enhance e-learning by increasing communication and conversation opportunities to convents the learning process more collaborative and learner-centred. This paper describes a way to integrate mobile devices and educational applications with a LMS as Moodle through web services: The Moodbile Project. Rather than just creating mobile apps that replicates LMS functionalities on a mobile device, Moodbile provides to m-learning developers with the necessary tools to allow mobile devices to interact with the LMS. In this paper, we describe our proposal of an open specification of web services to support the integration of mobile external applications with Moodle.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Moodbile: A Framework to Integrate m-Learning Applications with the LMS.

[ES] Los Sistemas de Gestión de Aprendizaje (LMS) se han generalizado entre la mayoría de los centros de educación y formación. Ya se trata de una tecnología madura, han dejado la vanguardia de la innovación. Los usos educativos de la Web 2.0, los Entornos Personales de Aprendizaje, el aprendizaje basado en el juego y en particular la introducción de los teléfonos móviles y las tabletas en la educación están sucediendo fuera de los límites de los LMS. En este trabajo se propone una manera de integrar los dispositivos móviles y las aplicaciones educativas con el LMS a través de servicios web; Se presenta el proyecto Moodbile que proporciona una extensión de servicios web de Moodle 2.0 para la integración móvil y dos clientes móviles listos para utilizar en situaciones reales.[EN] Learning Management Systems (LMS) have become widespread among most centres for education and training. Being a mature technology, LMS have left the vanguard of innovation. Educational usages of the Web 2.0, Personal Learning Environments, Game-based Learning and particularly the introduction of mobile phones and tablets in education are happening outside the boundaries of the LMS. This paper proposes a way to integrate mobile devices and educational applications with the LMS through webservices; introducing the Moodbile project that provides an extension of Moodle 2.0 webservices for mobile integration and two mobile clients ready to use on real courses

Integració de GoogleDocs a la plataforma Moodle/Atenea

Google és una suite molt coneguta en línia d'instruments de col · laboració per al processament documental, fulls de càlcul, presentacions en línia, dibuix i fins i tot formes. Les últimes versions del principal LMS de codi obert Moodle, ofereix integracions febles amb Google Docs tractant com un contingut del repositori. No obstant això, aquestes integracions estan descuidant les qualitats de col · laboració de la Google suite i el seu potencial com una activitat d'aprenentatge al curs LMS. En aquest projecte es presenta una proposta d'integració que l'ús del protocol estàndard d'interoperabilitat Basic Learning Tools Interoperability (IMS-BLTI) de forma que Google Docs esdevé un motor que impulsa activitats d'aprenentatge col·laboratiu dins el Moodle LMS. Obtenint un prototip que es posa en mans dels estudinats per a fer-ne una valoració, que ha resultat molt satisfactòria. Concretament, introduir l'ús de les eines cloud computing que ofereix Google Docs, com a activitats educatives integrades en la plataforma Atenea/Moodle. Google Docs en el context d'un curs Atenea ofereix un conjunt d'eines docents que permetran suportar activitats d'aprenentatge col·laboratiu i oferir un ventall eines d'edició avançades (processador de text, full de càlcul, presentacions, qüestionaris simples, etc.).Peer Reviewe