Towards a learning analytics approach for supporting discovery and reuse of OER: an approach based on Social Networks Analysis and Linked Open Data

The OER movement poses challenges inherent to discovering and reuse digital educational materials from highly heterogeneous and distributed digital repositories. Search engines on today?s Web of documents are based on keyword queries. Search engines don?t provide a sufficiently comprehensive solution to answer a query that permits personalization of open educational materials. To find OER on the Web today, users must first be well informed of which OER repositories potentially contain the data they want and what data model describes these datasets, before using this information to create structured queries. Learning analytics requires not only to retrieve the useful information and knowledge about educational resources, learning processes and relations among learning agents, but also to transform the data gathered in actionable e interoperable information. Linked Data is considered as one of the most effective alternatives for creating global shared information spaces, it has become an interesting approach for discovering and enriching open educational resources data, as well as achieving semantic interoperability and re-use between multiple OER repositories. In this work, an approach based on Semantic Web technologies, the Linked Data guidelines, and Social Network Analysis methods are proposed as a fundamental way to describing, analyzing and visualizing knowledge sharing on OER initiatives

Design study of OER-CC ontology: a semantic web approach to describe open educational resources

Through the application of semantic technologies to describe Open Educational Resources, any agent (human or software-based) could process and understand its contents; therefore, the agent could perform tasks autonomously or in a more effective way. In this paper, we describe the design and validation of the OER-CC ontology, which models the domain knowledge of educational resources licensed under Creative Commons Licenses. One of the most important contributions of this work is that we implement different rules and axioms to identify inconsistencies between rights provided by a licensed on an learning material and particular uses that are performed on it

OER Development and Promotion. Outcomes of an International Research Project on the OpenCourseWare Model

In this paper, we describe the successful results of an international research project focused on the use of Web technology in the educational context. The article explains how this international project, funded by public organizations and developed over the last two academic years, focuses on the area of open educational resources (OER) and particularly the educational content of the OpenCourseWare (OCW) model. This initiative has been developed by a research group composed of researchers from three countries. The project was enabled by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid OCW Office�s leadership of the Consortium of Latin American Universities and the distance education know-how of the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL, Ecuador). We give a full account of the project, methodology, main outcomes and validation. The project results have further consolidated the group, and increased the maturity of group members and networking with other groups in the area. The group is now participating in other research projects that continue the lines developed her

A user profile definition in context of recommendation of open educational resources. An approach based on linked open vocabularies

Open Educational Resources include a diverse range of materials making it the most representative icon arisen within the Open Content movement. Users who access and use OERs could be classified into one of these three groups: instructor, student and self-learner. To provide personalized lists of OERs according to the user profile and personal preferences, the user should be characterized by an open and scalable model. In this paper, an open linked vocabulary is proposed to describe user profiles of the open educational resources, which take into account the challenges and opportunities that an open and extensible platform as the Web can provide to learn about the OER users, and from this knowledge, offer the most appropriate resource

Using linked open data to improve the search of open educational resources for engineering students

In this paper, authors apply the Linked Data Design Issues to describe and retrieve information that is semantically related to open educational resources related to the Engineering Education, that are accessible via the OCW Higher Institutions. Linked data have the potential of create bridges between OCW data silos. To assess the impact of Linked Data in OCW, the authors present an interface of faceted search for open educational content. The authors demonstrate that OCW resource metadata related to engineering open courses can be consumed and enriched using datasets hosted by the LinkedOpenData cloud

An approach for description of Open Educational Resources based on semantic technologies

Open Educational Resources are accessed through the web, whose real setting shows an explosion in the use and development of tools and services based on Social Software. However, the growth of this data repository makes it difficult to find information of value, and reduces the possibilities of sharing and exchanging resources. Using semantic technologies to describe educational resources enables any agent (human or software-based) to process and understand its content (applying inference rules on more structured knowledge). Metadata standards can be used to annotate educational resources; they facilitate their interoperability and discovery. In this work, we propose, OER-CC ontology, for the description of Open Educational Resources under Creative Commons Licenses. This approach is based on standard technology and metadata standards. The ontology could be utilized in higher education institutions (and organizations) to facilitate sharing and discovery of their digital content. This electronic document is a "live" template. The various components of your paper [title, text, heads, etc.] are already defined on the style sheet, as illustrated by the portions given in this documen

Marco de Trabajo de Interoperabilidad Semántica para la Educación Abierta : un enfoque para la Integración de Sistemas de Información de Recursos Educativos Abiertos autónomos, distribuidos y heterogéneos

CONTEXTO – El término Recursos Educativos Abiertos (REA) fue acuñado en el 2002 en el Foro de Open “Courseware” de UNESCO. Actualmente, cientos de instituciones de educación superior en todo el mundo producen, reutilizan y re-mezclan materiales educativos. Este movimiento ha desafiado la cadena de valor tradicional de creación de materiales educativos mediante el empleo de nuevos métodos que permiten ofrecer contenidos educativos abiertos de alta calidad. En este nuevo paradigma de consumo de contenidos educativos, se espera que los REA desempeñen un papel decisivo en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. La reutilización de los recursos educativos, tanto por individuos y organizaciones pueden tener un beneficio económico significativo y creativo para el entorno educativo. A pesar de los REA son puestos disponibles bajo una licencia abierta, sin embargo, legalmente libre no implica que un REA sea fácil de descubrir, usar, reutilizar, adaptar, remezclar, y compartir. El publicar un material educativo con una licencia abierta no es suficiente, una licencia abierta no produce un REA. En la actualidad, los REA son compartidos como silos de información (sistemas de información de OER autónomos, heterogéneos y distribuidos) o "jardines amurallados". La presencia de silos de REA impide la interoperabilidad, el descubrimiento, la síntesis, y el flujo de conocimientos. Además, dificulta la posibilidad de desarrollar herramientas para consumir globalmente materiales educativos abiertos. Los repositorios de datos, distribuidos y heterogéneos han ganando la atención de muchos investigadores que intentan interoperar e integrar diferentes sistemas de información autónomos, heterogéneos y distribuidos, al tiempo que se permite que los sistemas locales mantengan el control completo de sus operaciones. En el contexto de REA, la conexión entre repositorios/recursos heterogéneos y distribuidos es sólo factible teóricamente, pero inviable en la práctica debido al entorno extremadamente autónomo, heterogéneo y distribuido. La necesidad de comunicación y la interoperabilidad entre los sistemas autónomos y distribuidos de información REA está aumentando con el uso de expansión de la Web. El desafío es conectar los silos de sistemas de información REA. Las diferentes iniciativas OER no son interoperables porque hay barreras que impiden la interoperabilidad entre los sistemas de información. Existen barreras comunes -o incompatibilidadesque afectan a todos los proveedores de REA, grandes cantidades de contenidos educativos no estructurados y semi-estructurados; la heterogeneidad de las estructuras / tecnologías / semántica; no todos los sistemas y recursos de información REA tienen una estructura y significado similar o compatible. Propuesta – El objetivo es mejorar la capacidad de descubrimiento, reutilización e integración de REA en la educación formal e informal. Desde una perspectiva general, el marco es la sinergia entre los REA, Linked Open Data y la experiencia humana. El desarrollo de la interoperabilidad semántica en el contexto de la educación abierta es un proyecto de investigación y desarrollo complejo. Aunque algunos conocimientos y soluciones relacionadas con la interoperabilidad se han acumulado desde años, un enfoque de interoperabilidad semántica no está disponible. La interoperabilidad se define generalmente como la capacidad para que dos (o más) sistemas intercambien información y utilicen la información que se ha intercambiado (IEEE, 1990). En el contexto de los REA, la interoperabilidad se refiere a la capacidad de interacción (intercambio de información y semántica) entre los sistemas de información de REA. La interoperabilidad semántica es considerada significativo, si las interacciones pueden tener lugar al menos en los cuatro niveles: tecnología/datos, la semántica/información, organizacional y legal en un contexto definido y determinado. La autonomía, la heterogeneidad y la distribución no son el problema más importante. El problema clave es la presencia de silos y la escasa colaboración entre los miembros para establecer acuerdos encaminados hacia alcanzar interoperabilidad global. La World Wide Web utiliza las tecnologías relativamente simples y abiertas con la escalabilidad suficiente, la eficiencia y la utilidad que han dado lugar a un espacio de información de recursos interrelacionados, cada vez mayor en todos los idiomas, culturas y medios de comunicación. De esta manera, la Web Semántica, es una nueva forma de contenido Web que sea significativo para los ordenadores va a desatar una revolución de las nuevas posibilidades de la Web actual en el que se da información de significado bien definido, lo que permite mejores seres humanos y máquinas para trabajar en cooperación. Para llevar a cabo la interoperabilidad semántica de los Ecosistemas del REA, de una manera organizada y eficiente, este trabajo presenta un marco, que tiene por objeto ayudar a establecer la interoperabilidad de los sistemas de información de REA de forma gradual. El marco propuesto combina la creación y el intercambio de conocimientos (poder humano), con las tecnologías emergentes de laWeb y de los sistemas basados en el conocimiento para crear un vasto ecosistema de recursos educativos compartidos abiertamente, mientras se aprovecha el espíritu de colaboración para desarrollar enfoques educativos que respondan mejor a las necesidades del alumno. La interoperabilidad se aborda a partir de cuatro aspectos: técnicos, semánticos, organizacionales y legales. En nuestra propuesta, estos cuatro aspectos son considerados como problemas (barreras) que deben abordarse en lugar de que se establezca la interoperabilidad. El marco que se presenta en este trabajo se compone de cuatro partes principales: visión estratégica, instrumentos generales, instrumentos tecnológicos, REA ecosistema de interoperabilidad semántica. La interoperabilidad y la apertura en el ecosistema REA mejora a través del Marco de Trabajo LOD4OER (Linked Open Data for Open Educational Resources). Se ha elaborado un marco de interoperabilidad para estructurar problemas y preocupaciones de interoperabilidad. Se ha diseñado un enfoque de medición de interoperabilidad para caracterizar el grado de interoperabilidad en cada sistema de información de OER. Se ha definido un enfoque de ciclo de vida de datos enlazados, se presentan las fases principales que se deben seguir para alinearse al marco de trabajo LOD4OER. Se utilizan el enfoque de Web Semántica y las tecnologías de Linked Data para consolidar e integrar los sistemas información de REA, con el objetivo de asegurar un mayor descubrimiento, uso y reutilización de los REA. Linked Data es esencial para conectar la Web semántica. Linked Data es acerca del uso de la Web para conectarse datos relacionados que no estaban vinculados, y acerca del uso de la Web para reducir las barreras para exponer, compartir y conectar piezas de datos, información y conocimiento en la Web Semántica, utilizando URIs, RDF y ontologías. Actualmente, este enfoque ofrece la interoperabilidad más escalable y de mayor rendimiento disponible para fuentes de REA. El marco de trabajo LOD4OER es un esfuerzo por fomentar la colaboración mundial con el propósito de hacer frente a los retos de interoperabilidad e integración en el ecosistema de REA y en la educación abierta. La presencia de silos y el aislamiento deben terminar. La forma es romper los silos y facilitar la colaboración. ABSTRACT CONTEXT – The term Open Educational Resources (OER) was coined at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on Open Courseware. Currently, hundreds of higher education institutions worldwide produce, reuse, and remix educational materials. This movement has challenged the traditional value chain of educational material creation, by employing new methods to deliver high-quality open educational content. In this new paradigm for educational content consumption, OER are expected to play a decisive role for learning. Reuse of educational resources by both individuals and organizations may have significant creative and economic benefit for the educational environment. Although OER are made available under an Open License, however, legally free not imply that the OER is easy to discover, use, reuse, adapt, remix, and share. Open license is not enough, an open license doesn’t OER make. Currently, OER are shared as Information Silos (autonomous, heterogeneous and distributed OER information systems) or "Walled Gardens. The presence of OER silos impedes the interoperability, discovery, synthesis, and flow of knowledge. Additionally, It’s difficult to develop tools for consume global open educational materials. The distributed and heterogeneous data stores has gaining attention of many researchers that attempts to logically interoperate and integrate several different independent, distributed and heterogeneous information systems, while allowing the local systems to maintain complete control of their operations. In the OER context, the heterogeneous and distributed repositories/resources connection is only theoretically feasible, but unfeasible in practice because of the extremely autonomous, heterogeneous and distributed environment. The need for communication and interoperation between autonomous and distributed OER information systems is increasing with the expansion usage of the Web. The challenge is to connect silos of autonomous and heterogeneous OER information systems distributed across the Web. Different OER initiatives are not interoperable because there are barriers to interoperability between information systems. There exist common barriers –or incompatibilities– to all OER providers, large amounts of unstructured, and semi-structured educational content; heterogeneity of structures/technologies/ semantics; not all OER information systems and resources have a similar or compatible structure and meaning. Approach – The goal is enhance the discoverability, reuse and integration of OER into formal and informal education. From a general perspective, the framework is the synergy between OER, Linked Open Data and human expertise. Developing semantic interoperability in the open education context is a complex research, and development project. Although some fragmented knowledge and solutions for interoperability have been accumulated since years, a semantic interoperability approach is still missing. Interoperability is generally defined as the ability for two (or more) systems to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged (IEEE, 1990). In the context of OER, interoperability refers to the ability of interactions (exchange of information and semantics) between OER information systems. Semantic Interoperability is considered as significant if the interactions can take place at least at the four levels: technology/data, semantics/information, organizational and legal in a defined and given context. Autonomy, heterogeneity and distribution are not the bigger problem. The key problem is the presence of silos and poor collaboration to establish agreements towards global interoperability. The World Wide Web uses relatively simple and open technologies with sufficient scalability, efficiency and utility that they have resulted in a remarkable information space of interrelated resources, growing across languages, cultures, and media. In this way, the Semantic Web, is a new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new possibilities of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling human beings and machines to work in cooperation. In order to perform semantic interoperability to OER Ecosystem, in an organized and efficient way, this work presents a framework, which aims at helping establishing interoperability in OER Information Systems in a step-by-step manner. The proposed framework combines the traditions of knowledge sharing and creation (human power) with emergent Web technology and knowledge base systems, to create a vast ecosystem of openly shared educational resources, while harnessing today’s collaborative spirit to develop educational approaches that are more responsive to learner’s needs. Interoperability is studied from four aspects: Technical, Semantic, Organizational, and Legal. In our proposal, these four aspects are considered as problems (barriers) to be tack led rather than interoperability to be established. The framework presented in this work consists of four main parts: Strategic vision, general instruments, technological instruments, OER semantic interoperability ecosystem. The interoperability and openness of OER ecosystem is enhanced through LOD4OER Framework (Linked Open Data for Open Educational Resources). An interoperability framework is elaborated to structure interoperability issues and concerns. An interoperability measurement approach is designed to characterize the degree of interoperability achieved. A structured Linked Data lifecycle approach is defined showing the main phases to follow to use the LOD4OER framework, and openness and interoperability measurement methods. Semantic Web approach and Linked data technologies are used to consolidate and integrate OER information systems and resources to ensure the best discovery, use, and reuse of OER. Linked data is essential to connect the semantic web. Linked Data is about using the Web to connect related data that wasn’t previously linked, and, using the Web to lower the barriers to exposing, sharing, and connecting pieces of data, information, and knowledge on the Semantic Web using URIs, RDF and ontologies. Currently, Linked Data delivers the most scalable and best performing interoperability available for OER sources. The LOD4OER framework is a effort fostering global collaboration to address interoperability and integration challenges in OER ecosystem and open education. Silos and isolation must stop. The way is breaking down the silos and facilitating collaboration