Ana Casali

Analyzing the evolution of learning technology area using science mapping

We present a systematic mapping, also called science mapping, to identify major areas of research activities concerning Learning Technology and the evolution from one area to another. The purpose of this work is to compare international tendencies with the LACLO community. The systematic mapping is primarily guided by authors keywords co-occurrence in the dataset selected. The scope of the data is limited by the sources of the literature used, in this case the LACLO and ICALT conferences and relevant Journals in the area, between years 2009 and 2016. We use the SciMat tool for this purpose and we present the analysis performed in the field of Learning Technology. Finally, some visual analytical studies of the identified areas and the relationships between them are presented. Incorporating the evolutionary stages of a specialty into the visual analytic study of the Learning Technology research domain is valuable. It provides a systematic methodology for researchers to achieve a good understanding of how the field evolves, to recognize potentially insightful patterns from visually encoded signs, and to synthesize various information so as to capture the state of the art of the domain.

Recommender system of educational resources: A critiquing-based proposal

The learning objects recommending systems designed in the last decade employ different recommendation techniques, which mainly use collaborative filtering and content-based filtering. This paper aims to analyze a new recommendation approach, that has not been yet applied to learning objects communities, called critiquing-based recommendation. This approach gathers the users preferences through an interaction based on examples and critiques. This feedback helps the system to recommend the most suitable learning resources. In this work we propose an hybrid recommender system of open educational resources that combines collaborative filtering and critiquing-based techniques. A prototype using MERLOT data and considering just one round of interaction was built in order to evaluate the recommendation results amongst a small group of volunteers. Preliminary results pointed out that the relevance of recommended learning resources increases as the system receives the users feedback and generates new recommendations based on it.

A Digital Ecosystem for the Collaborative Production of Open Textbooks: The LATIn Methodology (Abstract only)

The access to books in higher education is a issue to be addressed especially in the context of underdeveloped countries, the case for many Latin American countries. More than just financial issues, cultural aspects and need for adaptation must be considered. In this way, the present paper shows a proposal for a methodology framework that would support collaborative open text books initiatives.