Collective Intelligence Analytics Dashboard Usability Evaluation

Online deliberations can reach a size where it is not possible anymore to quickly infer what is going on in a debate. This report presents results from the usefulness and usability evaluation of visualisations that aid the sense-making of large debates. Based on the results of the evaluations we prepared a set of recommendations to inform CI tool providers about the usefulness and usability of each visualisation

A Learner-Centred Approach for Lifelong Learning Powered by the Blockchain

The emergence of Blockchain technology promises to revolutionise not only the financial world, but also lifelong learning in many different ways. Blockchain technology offers opportunities to thoroughly rethink how we find educational content and training services online, how we register and pay for them, as well as how we get accredited for what we have learned and how this accreditation affects our career trajectory. This paper explores the different aspects of lifelong learning that are affected by this new paradigm and describes an ecosystem that places the learner at the centre of the learning process and its associated data. More specifically, we outline the ways that ePortfolios, accreditation and tutoring can evolve within this learner-centred ecosystem and we discuss the various benefits that this evolution bears for lifelong learners

A Visualisation Dashboard for Contested Collective Intelligence. Learning Analytics to Improve Sensemaking of Group Discussion

The skill to take part in and to contribute to debates is important for informal and formal learning. Especially when addressing highly complex issues, it can be difficult to support learners participating in effective group discussion, and to stay abreast of all the information collectively generated during the discussion. Technology can help with the engagement and sensemaking of such large debates, for example, it can monitor how healthy a debate is and provide indicators of participation's distribution. A special framework that aims at harnessing the intelligence of - small to very large – groups with the support of structured discourse and argumentation tools is Contested Collective Intelligence (CCI). CCI tools provide a rich source of semantic data that, if appropriately processed, can generate powerful analytics of the online discourse. This study presents a visualisation dashboard with several visual analytics that show important aspects of online debates that have been facilitated by CCI discussion tools. The dashboard was designed to improve sensemaking and participation in online debates and has been evaluated with two studies, a lab experiment and a field study in the context of two Higher Education institutes. The paper reports findings of a usability evaluation of the visualisation dashboard. The descriptive findings suggest that participants with little experience in using analytics visualisations were able to perform well on given tasks. This constitutes a promising result for the application of such visualisation technologies as discourse-centric learning analytics interfaces can help to support learners' engagement and sensemaking of complex online debates. In Spanish: La habilidad para participar y contribuir en los debates es importante para el aprendizaje informal y formal. Especialmente cuando se abordan temas altamente complejos, puede ser difícil apoyar a los alumnos que participan en una discusión grupal efectiva y mantenerse al tanto de toda la información generada colectivamente durante la discusión. La tecnología puede ayudar con el compromiso y razonamiento en debates tan grandes, por ejemplo, puede monitorear cuán saludable es un debate y proporcionar indicadores sobre la distribución de la participación. Un marco especial que pretende aprovechar la inteligencia de grupos de pequeños a muy grandes con el apoyo de herramientas de discurso y argumentación estructuradas es la Inteligencia Colectiva Controvertida (CCI). Las herramientas de CCI proporcionan una fuente rica de datos semánticos que, si se procesan de manera adecuada, pueden generar un sofisticado análisis del discurso en línea. Este estudio presenta un panel de visualización con varios análisis visuales que muestran aspectos importantes de los debates en línea que han sido facilitados por las herramientas de discusión de CCI. El tablero de instrumentos fue diseñado para mejorar la creación de sentidos y la participación en los debates en línea y se ha evaluado con dos estudios, un experimento de laboratorio y un estudio de campo, en el contexto de dos institutos de educación superior. Este artículo informa sobre los resultados de una evaluación de usabilidad del panel de visualización. Los hallazgos descriptivos sugieren que los participantes con poca experiencia en el uso de visualizaciones analíticas pudieron desempeñarse bien en determinadas tareas. Esto constituye un resultado prometedor para la aplicación de tales tecnologías de visualización, ya que las interfaces analíticas de aprendizaje centradas en el discurso pueden ayudar a apoyar el compromiso de los alumnos y su razonamiento en debates en línea complejos

Smart Blockchain Badges for Data Science Education

Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise education in a number of ways. In this paper, we explore the applications of Smart Blockchain Badges on data science education. In particular, we investigate how Smart Blockchain Badges can support learners that want to advance their careers in data science, by offering them personalised recommendations based on their learning achievements. This work aims at enhancing data science accreditation by introducing a robust system based on the Blockchain technology. Learners will benefit from a sophisticated, open and transparent accreditation system, as well as from receiving job recommendations that match their skills and can potentially progress their careers. As a result, this work contributes towards closing the data science skills gap by linking data science education to the industry

Peer-reviews on the blockchain

Peer-reviewing holds significant importance in the process of scientific publishing. The process of peer-reviewing has been criticized for its defects, but research communities have faith in it, and hence, it is perceived as the backbone of scientific publishing. The process needs improvements in a number of ways, i.e, establishing trust in the process, preventing abuse, bringing transparency in the process and keeping the integrity of data intact. Moreover, the activity of peer-reviewing is carried out without any formal incentives. We present considerations in refreshing peer-review and our approach to experiment in this space

ECOSENSUS: developing collaborative learning systems for stakeholding development in environmental planning

ECOSENSUS *(Electronic/Ecological Collaborative Sensemaking Support System) investigates the socio-technological issues around developing collaboration tools for participatory environmental decision making amongst (a) marginalised natural resource users, (b) professional 'experts' from different countries, and (c) key decision makers associated with managing ecosystems. An integral activity is the production of open content learning resources to support stakeholders in facilitating distributed environmental decision making. This involves the integrated use of three open source software tools: Moodle (online course management), Compendium (dialogue mapping) and uDig (user friendly desktop/internet GIS). In the first ECOSENSUS-1 phase, the pilot collaborative effort has been focused on supporting stakeholders in developing adaptive management plans for the Rupununi Wetlands in southern Guyana, a region rich in flora and fauna but also under intense pressure to expand the exploitation of its natural resources, including timber, gold, and commercially viable fish species. Results of the ECOSENSUS-1 are briefly described along with some preliminary notes on the current ECOSENUS-2 phase of associated research in Guyana supported by an additional grant from DEFRA. The paper prompts questions on how ECOSENSUS can feed into wider open source course development using the LabSpace on the OpenLearn project

The ECOSENSUS Project: Co-Evolving Tools, Practices and Open Content for Participatory Natural Resource Management

ECOSENSUS (Electronic/Ecological Collaborative Sensemaking Support System)[www.ecosensus.info] is an ESRC e-Social Science pilot project, using a Participatory Action Research methodology to evolve tools and work practices for collaborative work in environmental and natural resource management between a European-based team, and stakeholders involved in the region of concern, the North Rupununi District of Guyana. To promote long term capacity building in the region and beyond, the project's outputs will be disseminated as open source learning resources. Given the disparities in knowledge and power in such a project, central to our work are issues of stakeholder empowerment in the geographical modelling, interpretation and decision making practices that constitute environmental management. We argue that in e-Science, such factors have yet to receive much attention. This paper reports work accomplished to date: progress towards an environment which integrates GIS modelling with participatory deliberation about the implications of the models, and reactions from the indigenous Amerindians to this tool

Blockchain Applications in Lifelong Learning and the Role of the Semantic Blockchain

The emergence of the blockchain promises to revolutionise not only the financial world but also lifelong learning in various ways. Blockchain technology offers opportunities to thoroughly rethink how we find educational content and tutoring services online, how we register and pay for them, as well as how we get accredited for what we have learned and how this accreditation affects our career trajectory. This chapter explores the different aspects of lifelong learning that are affected by this new paradigm and describes an ecosystem that places the learner at the centre of the learning process and its associated data. This chapter also discusses the possibilities that will be afforded by the combination of trustworthy educational data enhanced with meaningful web-accessible linked data, and what these developments will mean for learners, educators, and the employment market

Towards Complete Decentralised Verification of Data with Confidentiality: Different ways to connect Solid Pods and Blockchain

Over-centralisation of data leads to tampering and sharing user information without the consent of the owners. This problem has been studied extensively in recent times providing separate solutions involving distributed storage, Blockchain technology and Solid Pods. Individually these solutions are not sufficient to build realistic applications in a decentralised environment; however, a combination of them can effectively provide more powerful and useful use-cases. In this paper, we propose the methods of combining Solid Pods and distributed ledgers in introducing complete decentralisation of data with total user-control, keeping the integrity of the stored information intact through Blockchain-based verification. We demonstrated multiple configurations of our solutions, offering several new use-cases in various sectors. These configurations introduce new dimensions on the Web and mobile applications’ data storage that developers can benefit from building Distributed Applications (DApps) in a complete decentralised environment

Towards A Blockchain-based Decentralised Educational Landscape

Institutions in the current educational landscape op- erate independently. They exhibit reluctance in sharing their teaching and qualifications with others due to the fear of dam- aging individuality. This practice, however, is counterproductive for the students as they suffer from various difficulties and get deprived of certain benefits. In this paper, we explore the possibility of finding a solution to this deadlock. We argue that Blockchain-based decentralisation can offer a passageway where educational institutions get to keep their individuality but participate in collaborations to help overcome the problems students undergo. Our principal contribution in this paper is a conceptual educational landscape to show how institutions could potentially manage record-keeping, credential verifications, and continued career support in a decentralised environment