Lahcen Oubahssi

Motivation and Engagement in MOOCs: How to Increase Learning Motivation by Adapting Pedagogical Scenarios?

With the MOOC movement, education stakeholders are taking part of a pedagogical renewal. These dynamics present different advantages such as: massiveness, openness, accessibility, etc. However, it raises particular issues related to the dropout. To remedy to this issue, a promising lead resides in supporting learners’ motivation and engagement. To reach this goal, innovative pedagogic strategies and /or sophisticated Instructional design, personalization or even adaptability are needed. The purpose of this paper is to examine the point of view of literature, the dropout issue and possible solutions to motivate learners.

From learner information packages to student models: which continuum?

User adaptation has been a major issue of ITS research since the beginning. At first knowledge about individual learners was used to produce adaptive educational hypermedia. Then, the deployment of web based learning management systems put the need to exchange learner data between systems in the forefront. Nowadays, specifications for describing learner information in a standardized way are being developed. So far most existing systems have processed learner data. Yet the processed data are neither the same nor are they used for the same purposes, even if they are data about the learners. We argue that it is time to bridge the gap between the many sets of data about a learner processed within different learning environments. We propose a set of categories for describing learner information that goes beyond IMS LIP and could bring a link with ITS learner models.

Re-engineering of the Apprenticeship Electronic Booklet: Adaptation to New Users Requirements

In this article we illustrate and discuss a techno-centric aspect of re-engineering realized on an existent TEL system: the Apprenticeship Electronic Booklet. Although this system has been designed with end-users following a participatory process, the first version had also been found too rigid in regard to the roles management and to the underlying academic structures. In order to improve this TEL system, two approaches of re-engineering have been conducted. The first solution focuses on an internal modification of the system functionalities and parametrization facilities. The second re-engineering work follows a Domain-Specific Modeling approach that led us to propose a graphical editor communicating with the TEL system. This external component aims to provide end-users with a more user-friendly facility to configure booklets. This second work is particularly illustrated and discussed in regard to the promising underlying re-engineering process.

A Process Using Ontology to Automate the Operationalization of Pattern-Based Learning Scenarios

For most teachers-designers, operationalizing learning scenarios based on patterns just replicates traditional ways by adding course content and multimedia elements on learning management systems (LMS). We aim to go beyond this method by trying to engage the teachers-designers to design deployable learning scenarios. Using patterns for their design is proven to be an adequate solution to seek balance between the need of expressive instructional scenarios, and the technical constraints that occur while deploying these scenarios on learning management systems. Pattern’s formal description is needed in order to translate the concepts of a pedagogical scenario, according to those embedded in the LMS. In this paper, we propose a process to structure, index, formalize, and finally adapt and operationalize the pattern-based learning scenarios. The presented process shows how the use of an ontology modeling learning scenario’s concepts helps the automation of deploying the learning scenarios on an LMS. For that, this ontology has been extended with one representing a learning platform paradigm.

Operationalization of Learning Scenarios on Open and Distance Learning Platforms: The Case of the Moodle Platform

This paper aims to facilitate the operationalization of scenarios on learning platforms. We propose an approach based on the explicitation and the formalization of the implicit business language in order to use it as a mean of communication with external design tools without losing the semantic of the designed scenario. The originality of our approach relies in performing the scenarios operationalization by the development of a simple API based on the implicit language of the platform. Our proposal is based on a theoretical framework inspired from the Domain Specific Modeling. Finally, we detail the implementation of our proposal on MOODLE.

Rethinking Learning Design for Learning Technologies: A Formalized Vision to Operationalize Pattern-Based Scenarios

The operationalization of learning scenarios on learning management systems (LMS) is more than a technology-related question. Different research issues around instructional design are to be addressed in order to provide pedagogical expressiveness of the different elements within a learning scenario, while it respects sufficiently the structure to describe it. In this work, we examine existing pattern-based approaches for learning design, and we provide a patterns formalism for learning designs that enables their deployment automatically on the chosen LMS. We have adopted a methodology elaborated on the basis of a case study on which we have executed a process of learning scenarios operationalization. One of the results was to prove the usefulness of a patterns formalism to design learning scenarios. We have considered the structural, constraints and content aspects of a learning scenario from both human and computational point of view. The formalism described in this paper is part of a process based on ontologies and semantic web principles, offering a support for teachers-designers to produce deployable learning scenarios without having to master the target platforms.

A meta-model based approach for identifying and formalizing LMS instructional design languages

The use of existent LMSs presents many difficulties related to the design and operationalization of learning scenarios. Teachers have to encompass the LMS technical features and services in order to understand the underlying way of designing. Generic instructional design editors fail in bridging the gap between how they design a learning scenario and how the learning session can be set up within the target LMS. If LMSs could be able to explicit their intrinsic and implicit learning design model, it can be exploited as a proprietary format to build tools and facilities dedicated to this LMS. The research presented in this paper aims to present our method in terms of necessary analysis and steps for the identification and the formalization of Moodle instructional design language. The method takes into account three different viewpoints: a viewpoint centered on the LMS macro-HMIs (Human-Machine Interfaces), a functional viewpoint and a micro viewpoint. We validate the proposed method by applying this formalization on two versions of Moodle.

Design and Operationalization of Learning Situations Based on Patterns for a Public in Professional Development

The research presented in this paper aims to support teachers design learning scenarios with a context-sensitive tool exploiting a library of patterns. This research was carried out in partnership with PARTAGE an association that offers professional training for jobseekers in a design-based research approach. The goal is to assist the associations pedagogical team in the expressing and the formalization of their learning situation through pedagogical scenarios in order to promote the capitalization and the reuse among their community. Moreover, we defined an engineering design process framework and we refined it in collaboration with trainers. To conduct this study, we analyzed the process guiding the jobseekers courses and we formalized the training practices as design patterns. We also studied the operationalizing feasibility of these patterns in Learning Management System.

MOOCAT: A visual authoring tool in the cMOOC context

This paper presents an authoring tool in the cMOOC context called MOOCAT (MOOC Authoring Tool). It is a visual authoring tool that helps teachers to design cMOOC-oriented pedagogical scenarios. MOOCAT has two main innovative features. The first is that it offers a tool for conceiving pedagogical scenarios in a simple way through graphical representation, by providing the functionality to design learning workflows. The second is related to its capacity to bridge the gap between the conception phase and its execution into different LMS (Learning Management System), by offering services that allow the automatic deployment of pedagogical scenarios to existing platforms (e.g. OpenEDX, Moodle, etc.). This facilitates the authoring process considerably, and enhances the ability of teachers to concentrate their efforts on the content. This paper presents the model underlying MOOCAT, and describes the cMOOC scenario-building process. Also, the paper highlights the findings from a case study which was organized in order to evaluate the utility and the usability of the tool, and the usefulness of its innovative feature of conceiving and deploying a cMOOC scenario into OpenEDX platform. MOOCAT seems to be an easy-to-use tool, which offers guidance and flexibility during the design process.

Platform oriented semantic description of pattern-based learning scenarios

In our research work, we address the issue of representing the learning scenario’s concepts, in a learning platform. In this context, we have proposed a process for operationalizing pattern-based learning scenarios. We present the first two steps dealing with the new challenge of modeling deployable e-learning scenarios using Semantic Web technologies. It is primarily an ontology-based description of learning scenarios, which helps reducing the gap between human-readable and machine-readable vocabulary. We highlight the effectiveness of orienting teachers-designers, non-platform experts, toward creating adaptable and deployable learning scenarios. We defend that an assisted and platform-oriented design, allows the teachers to have a better pedagogical use of the embedded tools and features of learning platforms.