Diseño y uso de objetos didácticos basado en contratos

Los objetos didácticos son el paradigma en el que se centran la mayor parte de los esfuerzos actuales para potenciar la reutilización de los contenidos educativos en la enseñanza a través de Internet/Web. Los metadatos permiten describir el contenido de un objeto didáctico para facilitar su almacenamiento en repositorios distribuidos, así como los procesos de búsqueda, recuperación y composición de nuevos contenidos educativos a partir de otros ya existentes. No obstante, los estándares de metadatos actuales son deliberadamente descriptivos, en lugar de normativos, y no están pensados para ser procesados por sistemas automatizados. Este extremo dificulta la automatización o semi-automatización de los procesos citados, limitando la capacidad de reutilización de los objetos didácticos. El diseño por contrato, una técnica semi formal aplicada con éxito en la ingeniería de software, puede adaptarse al diseño de metadatos de objetos didácticos para crear registros de metadatos formalizados compuestos por aserciones que informen sobre los prerrequisitos de utilización de un objeto didáctico y los resultados esperados tras su uso. En el presente trabajo se presenta una técnica de diseño de metadatos de objetos didácticos orientada a facilitar los procesos automatizados o semi-automatizados de selección y composición. Esta técnica permite definir, mediante una semántica no ambigua, los requisitos y resultados del uso de los objetos didácticos en forma de contratos. La técnica propuesta se aplica a la descripción de metadatos conformes con las especificaciones y estándares actuales sobre metadatos de objetos didácticos. Esta nueva especificación en forma de contratos extiende las técnicas actuales de diseño de objetos didácticos. En particular, en este trabajo se analizan y detallan aquellos elementos de información que pueden describirse con mayor expresividad y riqueza utilizando la nueva técnica, tales como las relaciones entre objetos didácticos, las cláusulas de inclusión, la representación de roles para los participantes en actividades educativas o la definición de requisitos y resultados de actividades metacognitivas. Para evaluar la efectividad de la técnica, se contrasta, en primer lugar, su factibilidad técnica, analizando el lenguaje creado y realizando su conversión a un lenguaje de ontologías. Posteriormente, se procede a la descripción de diversos escenarios de aplicación mediante los denominados per¯les de conformidad semántica. Finalmente, se muestra su integración en una arquitectura específicamente orientada a la selección y composición automatizada de objetos didácticos. Learning objects are the cornerstone in current efforts towards enhancing reusability of Internet/Web-oriented learning contents. Writing metadata information about the learning objects, in the form of records describing their content, facilitates a number of processes such as the storage, the search and retrieval from distributed repositories and the composition of new learning materials as an aggregation of others. However, a number of shortcomings regarding learning object metadata exist. On one hand, current standards are purposefully descriptive instead of normative. On the other hand, they are not machine consumption-oriented. These problems seriously hamper the automation or semi-automation of the aforementioned processes, thus limiting learning object reusability. Design by contract, a semi-formal method successfully applied in software engineering, can be adapted to the design of learning object metadata. In this dissertation, design by contract is used to write metadata records in an unambiguous, machine-readable, assertion-based formal syntax that allows to define learning objects' requirements of use and outcomes expected from their use. A new learning object metadata design technique, aimed at facilitating automated or semi-automated processes such as selection and composition through the use of some design by contract concepts and guidelines, is here presented. This technique is applied to the description of learning object metadata that conform to current standards and specifications in the field. This new contract-based specification extends current practices in learning object metadata design. In particular, a number of new information items which can be described with more richness of detail by using learning object design by contract is analyzed. Among these information elements, the relationships between learning objects, the inclusion clauses, the description of roles in learning experiences and the definition of metacognitive requirements and expected outcomes should be pointed out. To evaluate the efectiveness of the technique, its technical feasibility is first collated by analyzing the new syntax created and translating it to an ontology language. Later on, it is used as the basis for describing application scenarios through the so-called semantic conformance profiles. Finally, its integration in an architecture specifically designed to allow automated or semi-automated selection and composition of learning objects is performed

Exploring the Relevance of Europeana Digital Resources: Preliminary Ideas on Europeana Metadata Quality

Europeana is a European project aimed to become the modern “Alexandria Digital Library”, as it targets providing access to thousands of resources of European cultural heritage, contributed by more than fifteen hundred institutions such as museums, libraries, archives and cultural centers. This article aims to explore Europeana digital resources as open learning repositories in order to re-use digital resources to improve learning process in the domain of arts and cultural heritage. To carry out this purpose, we present results of metadata quality based on a study case associated to recommendations and suggestions that provide this type of initiatives in our educational context in order to improve the access of digital resources according to a specific knowledge areas

A systematic literature review on Wikidata

To review the current status of research on Wikidata and, in particular, of articles that either describe applications of Wikidata or provide empirical evidence, in order to uncover the topics of interest, the fields that are benefiting from its applications and which researchers and institutions are leading the work

A complex network analysis of the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) package ecosystem

Free and open source software package ecosystems have existed for a long time and are among the most sophisticated human-made systems. One of the oldest and most popular software package ecosystems is CRAN, the repository of packages of the statistical language R, which is also one of the most popular environments for statistical computing nowadays. CRAN stores a large number of packages that are updated regularly and depend on a number of other packages in a complex graph of relations; such graph is empirically studied from the perspective of complex network analysis (CNA) in the current article, showing how network theory and measures proposed by previous work can help profiling the ecosystem and detecting strengths, good practices and potential risks in three perspectives: macroscopic properties of the ecosystem (structure and complexity of the network), microscopic properties of individual packages (represented as nodes), and modular properties (community detection). Results show how complex network analysis tools can be used to assess a package ecosystem and, in particular, that of CRAN

Homogeneity and isotropy in the 2MASS Photometric Redshift catalogue

Using the 2MASS Photometric Redshift catalogue we perform a number of statistical tests aimed at detecting possible departures from statistical homogeneity and isotropy in the large-scale structure of the Universe. Making use of the angular homogeneity index, an observable proposed in a previous publication, as well as studying the scaling of the angular clustering and number counts with magnitude limit, we place constraints on the fractal nature of the galaxy distribution. We find that the statistical properties of our sample are in excellent agreement with the standard cosmological model, and that it reaches the homogeneous regime significantly faster than a class of fractal models with dimensions $D<2.75$. As part of our search for systematic effects, we also study the presence of hemispherical asymmetries in our data, finding no significant deviation beyond those allowed by the concordance model.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, published in MNRA

Alternative Computer Assisted Communicative Task-based Language Testing: New Communicational and Interactive Online Skills

[EN] Computer-assisted language learning knowledge tests should no longer be designed on traditional skills to measure individual competence through traditional skills such as reading, comprehension and writing, but instead, it should diagnose interactive and communication skills in foreign languages. In recent years in online education, it has been necessary to review the concept of interactive competence in digital environments in a complementary way to its traditional use. It is important to promote a new typology of alternative tasks and items in tests where examinees can prove a real interactive performance in communication and interaction through the digital scenario. This should be done through tools that facilitate oral negotiation, the management and understanding of the information extracted from online repositories, the search for suitable online digital material, and the use of new modes of audio-visual communication. Although some of these tasks have been used in a complementary way in the design of language tests previously: it is true that they have not been applied in a coherent way to be used as an assessment tool. A first approach was made by Miguel Alvarez, Garcia Laborda & Magal-Royo (2021) in the development of oral negotiation skills through the use of interactive tools. The current online assessment models analyzed by Garcia Laborda & Alvarez Fernandez (2021) indicate the need to seek new ways of assessing foreign languages through the design of tests that fit in the current digital and interactive world.Magal-Royo, T.; García Laborda, J.; Mora Cantallops, M.; Sánchez Alonso, S. (2021). Alternative Computer Assisted Communicative Task-based Language Testing: New Communicational and Interactive Online Skills. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (Online). 16(19):251-259. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i19.26035S251259161

Prototipo informático para extracción de recursos digitales sobre internet

El despliegue que ha tenido internet en los últimos años conlleva la creación de modelos de comunicación y de negocio que giran en torno a las actividades realizadas por una comunidad de tipo social, comercial, económico, académico o investigativo, permitiendo así interconectar millones de recursos informáticos sobre la Web mediante tecnologías todavía soportadas a través de HTML. El siguiente artículo presenta el modelo de desarrollo y operación de una herramienta de extracción de datos, para explorar recursos digitales de tipo Open Source a través de una fuente de recursos mediante una URL empleando como caso de estudio la Biblioteca  Europeana. Se analizará su modelo de desarrollo, análisis de los resultados obtenidos y finalmente se presenta un apartado donde se enmarcan algunas tendencias de análisis y aplicaciones que se pueden abordar en el área de la educación

Linked Data: what happens to heterogeneity and interoperability

Linked Data – LD, allows the construction of the Web of Data, which use basic principles that contribute to the growth of the Web. The process developed by LD faces different scenarios that seem to limit the linking process. This paper exposes the problems of heterogeneity, interoperability and data quality, as factors that restrict the process of data linkage. For this, the methodological design performs a bibliographic exploration; the results examine and discuss the postures about the mentioned problems, and the possible incidence of these in the quality of the linked data. In conclusion, speaking about heterogeneity is intrinsic, since the information will always be heterogeneous. Data models may be different but if the data format is common, interoperability is possible. Data models must be known and public, in order to avoid problems that prevent the development of the Web Data.Linked Data – LD, allows the construction of the Web of Data, which use basic principles that contribute to the growth of the Web. The process developed by LD faces different scenarios that seem to limit the linking process. This paper exposes the problems of heterogeneity, interoperability and data quality, as factors that restrict the process of data linkage. For this, the methodological design performs a bibliographic exploration; the results examine and discuss the postures about the mentioned problems, and the possible incidence of these in the quality of the linked data. In conclusion, speaking about heterogeneity is intrinsic, since the information will always be heterogeneous. Data models may be different but if the data format is common, interoperability is possible. Data models must be known and public, in order to avoid problems that prevent the development of the Web Data

Predicting length of stay across hospital departments

The length of hospital stay and its implications have a significant economic and human impact. As a consequence, the prediction of that key parameter has been subject to previous research in recent years. Most previous work has analysed length of stay in particular hospital departments within specific study groups, which has resulted in successful prediction rates, but only occasionally reporting predictive patterns. In this work we report a predictive model for length of stay (LOS) together with a study of trends and patterns that support a better understanding on how LOS varies across different hospital departments and specialties. We also analyse in which hospital departments the prediction of LOS from patient data is more insightful. After estimating predictions rates, several patterns were found; those patterns allowed, for instance, to determine how to increase prediction accuracy in women admitted to the emergency room for enteritis problems. Overall, concerning these recognised patterns, the results are up to 21.61% better than the results with baseline machine learning algorithms in terms of error rate calculation, and up to 23.83% in terms of success rate in the number of predicted which is useful to guide the decision on where to focus attention in predicting LOS