Estefanía Martín

The impact of learning styles on student grouping for collaborative learning: a case study

Learning style models constitute a valuable tool for improving individual learning by the use of adaptation techniques based on them. In this paper, we present how the benefit of considering learning styles with adaptation purposes, as part of the user model, can be extended to the context of collaborative learning as a key feature for group formation. We explore the effects that the combination of students with different learning styles in specific groups may have in the final results of the tasks accomplished by them collaboratively. With this aim, a case study with 166 students of computer science has been carried out, from which conclusions are drawn. We also describe how an existing web-based system can take advantage of learning style information in order to form more productive groups. Our ongoing work concerning the automatic extraction of grouping rules starting from data about previous interactions within the system is also outlined. Finally, we present our challenges, related to the continuous improvement of collaboration by the use and dynamic modification of automatic grouping rules.

Supporting the Development of Mobile Adaptive Learning Environments: A Case Study

In this paper, we describe a system to support the generation of adaptive mobile learning environments. In these environments, students and teachers can accomplish different types of individual and collaborative activities in different contexts. Activities are dynamically recommended to users depending on different criteria (user features, context, etc.), and workspaces to support the corresponding activity accomplishment are dynamically generated. In this article, we present the main characteristics of the mechanism that suggests the most suitable activities at each situation, the system in which this mechanism has been implemented, the authoring tool to facilitate the specification of context-based adaptive m-learning environments, and two environments generated following this approach will be presented. The outcomes of two case studies carried out with students of the first and second courses of ldquoComputer Engineeringrdquo at the ldquoUniversidad Autonoma de Madridrdquo are also presented.

A mechanism to support context-based adaptation in m-learning

In this paper we present a mechanism that supports the generation and management of adaptive mobile learning systems. Such systems are accessed by students and teachers for the accomplishment of diverse individual or collaborative learning activities. The main aim is for the systems to suggest the most suitable activities to be tackled by a given user in a specific context (location, idle time, devices). The basis of this mechanism, as well as an example of the context-based adaptation carried out for three different users in a specific scenario, are presented.

Dynamic Generation of Adaptive Web-Based Collaborative Courses

In this paper we present the use of adaptation techniques to dynamically generate adaptive collaborative Web-based courses. These courses are generated at runtime by selecting, at every step and for each student, the most suitable collaborative tasks to be proposed, the time at which they are presented, the specific problems to be solved, the most suitable partners to cooperate with and the collaborative tools to support the group cooperation. This selection is based on the users’ personal features, preferences, knowledge and behavior while interacting with the course. The advantages of this approach and the peculiarities of combining individual adaptation with collaboration seamlessly are also presented.

Architecture of a System for Context-based Adaptation in M-Learning

In this paper, the architecture of a system that supports context-based adaptation for m-learning is presented. This system manages data about users and activities so that the most suitable activities to be accomplished at each time are proposed to each user. This decision is not only based on the userx92s personal features, preferences or previous actions but also on information about the specific userx92s context, including spare time, location and available devices.

Benefits of Combining Multitouch Tabletops and Turn-Based Collaborative Learning Activities for People with Cognitive Disabilities and People with ASD

Learning technologies offer new opportunities to people with disabilities to develop their autonomy and independence. This paper shows how multitouch tabletops support collaborative learning activities for people with cognitive disabilities and people with ASD. We report two educational experiences that have been set up in different contexts. The first one involved 52 students with cognitive disabilities learning musical instruments collaboratively. In the second one, 8 students with ASD worked in pairs focusing on activities related to theory of mind and daily life situations. The main finding is that the students awareness of other students actions is increased when they were performing the activities by turns in both experiences. This gives another perspective on the use of these devices as learning tools which have been mainly devised for simultaneous interactions.

Authoring and dynamic generation of adaptive e-courses

Adaptive hypermedia constitutes a pretty rich resource for developing web-based courses. With the aim of dynamically generating adaptive e-courses, we have developed the TANGOW system which, starting from the course components and their adaptation capabilities (specified independently and out of the adaptation engine), generates different courses for students with different profiles, supporting several adaptation strategies. An integral part of any adaptive hypermedia system is the set of authoring tools to specify the course components and their adaptation capabilities. Without adequate tool support, authors may feel that it is “not worth the effort” to add adaptation to their courses. However, the development of this type of tools is not an easy task. The main goal of our authoring and visualization tools is to provide a simple interface to create such courses. This demo would demonstrate i) the dynamic generation of tailored e-courses that include individual and collaborative activities and ii) the use of authoring tools for the creation of such courses.

DEDOS: An authoring toolkit to create educational multimedia activities for multiple devices

Information and Communication Technologies offer new possibilities for teachers to enhance their teaching methods. The increasing use of personal computers, tablets, interactive whiteboards, or even multitouch tabletops in the classrooms seems to attract the interest of the students. However, there are not many tools that allow teachers to create multimedia activities for all these technologies in an effortless way. Most of current authoring tools either focus on creating content for only one device or they do not fully exploit the benefits of rich content for designing engaging educational activities. In this paper, we present an authoring toolkit composed by two applications: DEDOS-Editor, which allow teachers to design their own learning activities, and DEDOS-Web, which allows the students to perform those activities adapting them to multiple devices. To test both tools, we have performed two evaluations. One with teachers to test the authoring tools and a second one with primary school students to test if the activities designed with this tool enhance their learning process. Results show that DEDOS-Editor is an easy to learn authoring tool which helps teachers to complement their learning methods while DEDOS-Web is flexible enough to create several learning scenarios from just one set of activities, factors which lead to achieving positive learning outcomes.

Checking the Reliability of GeSES: Method for Detecting Symptoms of Low Performance

In the last years the development of learning environments, and particularly of Educational Adaptive Hypermedia (EAH) systems has increased significantly. However, it is important to complement this development with evaluation methods in order to improve EAH system performance. In this context, we propose to analyze the data from student interaction with EAH systems utilizing the GeSES method. This method has been specifically designed to work with student logs and is based on C4.5 rules. In particular, the work described in this paper aims to achieve the following two objectives: testing the method with different types of data in order to find out its reliability, and detecting symptoms of low performance in a specific adaptive learning environment, called CoMoLE.