Cloud services, interoperability and analytics within a ROLE-enabled personal learning environment

The ROLE project (Responsive Open Learning Environments, EU 7th Framework Programme, grant agreement no.: 231396, 2009-2013) was focused on the next generation of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). A ROLE PLE is a bundle of interoperating widgets - often realised as cloud services - used for teaching and learning. In this paper, we first describe the creation of new ROLE widgets and widget bundles at Galileo University, Guatemala, within a cloud-based infrastructure. We introduce an initial architecture for cloud interoperability services including the means for collecting interaction data as needed for learning analytics. Furthermore, we describe the newly implemented widgets, namely a social networking tool, a mind-mapping tool and an online document editor, as well as the modification of existing widgets. The newly created and modified widgets have been combined in two different bundles that have been evaluated in two web-based courses at Galileo University, with participants from three different Latin-American countries. We measured emotional aspects, motivation, usability and attitudes towards the environment. The results demonstrated the readiness of cloud-based education solutions, and how ROLE can bring together such an environment from a PLE perspective

Modeling Educational Usage of Cloud-Based Tools in Virtual Learning Environments

In recent years, cloud computing has motivated new learning tools based on the cloud to collaborate and share content with a large number of students. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to propose structural equation modeling explaining the educational usage of cloud-based tools (CBTs) in terms of their adoption and application in learning activities within a virtual course. The data analysis used a representative sample from Galileo University, Guatemala. The results of the study revealed that usefulness is one of the main reasons for the rapid adoption of CBTs. The study also showed that in terms of educational usage, there is a greater correlation with lower order thinking skills than that with higher order thinking skills of Bloom's taxonomy. Finally, the evidence from this study suggests that from a student perception, peer-to-peer communication and collaboration can be a strong motivation to use CBTs on learning activities.This work was supported in part by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, Project MOOC-Maker, under Grant 561533-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP, in part by the Madrid Regional Government (Comunidad de Madrid) under Grant P2018/TCS-4307, and in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness/Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities through the Project RESET under Grant TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R and through the Project Smartlet under Grant TIN2017-85179-C3-1-R