Luis Pablo Prieto

Perceiving Learning at a Glance: A Systematic Literature Review of Learning Dashboard Research

This paper presents a systematic literature review of the state-of-the-art of research on learning dashboards in the fields of Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining. Research on learning dashboards aims to identify what data is meaningful to different stakeholders and how data can be presented to support sense-making processes. Learning dashboards are becoming popular due to the increased use of educational technologies, such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The initial search of five main academic databases and GScholar resulted in 346 papers out of which 55 papers were included in the final analysis. Our review distinguishes different kinds of research studies as well as various aspects of learning dashboards and their maturity regarding evaluation. As the research field is still relatively young, most studies are exploratory and proof-of-concept. The review concludes by offering a definition for learning dashboards and by outlining open issues and future lines of work in the area of learning dashboards. There is a need for longitudinal research in authentic settings and studies that systematically compare different dashboard designs.

GLUE!-PS: a multi-language architecture and data model to deploy TEL designs to multiple learning environments

The complexity of orchestrating TEL scenarios prompts for a careful learning design by practitioners. Currently, teachers can use variety of tools and languages to express their designs, but they are unlikely to be supported in deploying such designs in the learning environment of their choice. This paper describes a multi-tier architecture and data model to support the deployment of learning designs, expressed in multiple languages, to different learning platforms. The proposal strives to be sustainable in authentic scenarios by minimising both software development costs and changes to current installations. The architecture and data model are theoretically validated through the transformation of a well-known learning scenario from several design languages to different learning platforms, preserving the designs essential characteristics.

ILDE: Community Environment for Conceptualizing, Authoring and Deploying Learning Activities

This demonstration paper presents the Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE). ILDE is being developed in the METIS project, which aims at promoting the adoption of learning design by providing integrated support to teachers throughout the whole design and implementation process (or lifecycle). ILDE integrates existing free- and open-source tools that include: co-design support for teacher communities; learning design editors following different authoring and pedagogical approaches; interface for deployment of designs on mainstream Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). The integration is designed so that teachers experience a continuous flow while completing the tasks involved in the learning design lifecycle, even when the tasks are supported by different tools. ILDE uses the LdShake platform to provide social networking features and to manage the integrated access to designs and tooling including conceptualization tools (OULDI templates), editors (WebCollage, OpenGLM), and deployment into VLEs (e.g., Moodle) via GLUE!-PS.

Supporting Teacher Orchestration in Ubiquitous Learning Environments: A Study in Primary Education

During the last decades, educational contexts have transformed into complex technological and social ecologies, with mobile devices expanding the scope of education beyond the traditional classroom, creating so-called Ubiquitous Learning Environments (ULEs). However, these new technological opportunities entail an additional burden for teachers, who need to manage and coordinate the resources involved in such complex educational scenarios in a process known as “orchestration”. This paper presents the evaluation of the orchestration support provided by GLUEPS-AR, a system aimed to help teachers in the coordination of across-spaces learning situations carried out in ULEs. The evaluation, following an interpretive research perspective, relied on a study where a pre-service teacher designed and enacted an authentic across-spaces learning situation in a primary school. The situation, which illustrates the orchestration challenges of ULEs, was aimed at fostering orienteering skills. It spanned five sessions taking place in the classroom, in the schools playground and at a nearby park, using multiple technologies and devices. The evaluation showed that GLUEPS-AR helped the teacher in the multiple aspects of orchestration, including implementation of his pedagogical ideas, adaptation in runtime, and sharing of orchestration load with students. Teacher awareness during outdoor activities was the main aspect to improve upon.

Supporting orchestration of CSCL scenarios in web-based Distributed Learning Environments

The orchestration of technology-enhanced learning situations (especially collaborative ones), that involve both Virtual Learning Environments and Web 2.0 tools (what some authors call Distributed Learning Environments, or DLEs) is often complex and burdensome, given the heterogeneous array of resources involved. In this paper we explore how GLUE!-PS (a system for the deployment and run-time management of learning designs across DLEs) supports orchestration, through its teacher usage in three authentic university courses and one teacher workshop. Our mixed methods evaluation reveals that GLUE!-PS supports multiple aspects of orchestration, especially the efficient implementation of teacher learning designs, the ability for useful and intuitive adaptations in run-time, and its adequacy to pragmatic restrictions that teachers face in authentic settings. Aside from the implications for the evaluated system itself, this article discusses the need for evaluations that address orchestrations multiple facets, and provides a practical example of such multi-faceted evaluation of educational systems, in order to assess their potential for adoption and sustainability in authentic settings.

Understanding learning at a glance: an overview of learning dashboard studies

Research on learning dashboards aims to identify what data is meaningful to different stakeholders in education, and how data can be presented to support sense-making processes. This paper summarizes the main outcomes of a systematic literature review on learning dashboards, in the fields of Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining. The query was run in five main academic databases and enriched with papers coming from GScholar, resulting in 346 papers out of which 55 were included in the final analysis. Our review distinguishes different kinds of research studies as well as different aspects of learning dashboards and their maturity in terms of evaluation. As the research field is still relatively young, many of the studies are exploratory and proof-of-concept. Among the main open issues and future lines of work in the area of learning dashboards, we identify the need for longitudinal research in authentic settings, as well as studies that systematically compare different dashboard design options.

Towards an Integrated Learning Design Environment

Learning design research focuses on how educators can act as designers of technology-supported learning activities according to their specific educational needs and objectives. To foster and sustain the adoption of Learning design, the METIS project is working towards the implementation of an Integrated Learning Design Environment ILDE. This paper presents the vision for the ILDE and how user requirements from three educational institutions in vocational training, higher and adult education justify the need for this vision. The paper discusses the data collected in questionnaires, on-line interviews and face-to-face group work with the end-users, as a first phase in the design-based research methodology applied in the project. The results support a vision towards an ILDE that enables teachers to choose among multiple learning design authoring tools, co-produce, explore, share, evaluate and implement learning designs in Virtual Learning Environments. The paper also outlines a roadmap to achieve this vision.

Integrating orchestration of ubiquitous and pervasive learning environments

Ubiquitous and pervasive computing devices, such as interactive tabletops, whiteboards, tablets and phones, have the potential to enhance the management and awareness of learning activities in important ways. They provide students with natural ways to interact with collaborators, and can help teachers create and manage learning tasks that can be carried out both in the classroom and at a distance. But how can these emerging technologies be successfully integrated into current teaching practice? This paper proposes an approach to integrate, from the technological perspective, collaborative learning activities using these kinds of devices. Our approach is based on the concept of orchestration, which tackles the critical task for teachers to coordinate students learning activities within the constraints of authentic educational settings. Our studies within authentic learning settings enabled us to identify three main elements that are important for ubiquitous and pervasive learning settings. These are i) regulation mechanisms, ii) interconnection with existing web-based learning environments, and iii) awareness tools.

Studying Teacher Cognitive Load in Multi-tabletop Classrooms Using Mobile Eye-tracking

Increasing affordability is making multi-tabletop spaces (e.g., in school classrooms) a real possibility, and first design guidelines for such environments are starting to appear. However, there are still very few studies into the usability of such multi-tabletop classrooms as a whole, considering well-established constructs such as cognitive load. In this poster we present an exploratory study of the usage of mobile eye-tracking techniques to follow cognitive load of a teacher during a lesson in such a multi-tabletop space. By analyzing several eye-tracking measures over three sessions of a collaborative learning lesson on fractions, we obtained insights on the user experience of the facilitator in these concrete sessions. We also show the potential of eye-tracking to identify critical episodes in the usage of a multi-tabletop space under realistic usage conditions, in a less intrusive and more objective manner.

Sensitive, specific, and interpretable: evolving a fuzzy mammographic-interpretation assessment tool

In this paper we focus on the problem of mammographic interpretation and in the construction of a computerized system to assess physicians in this task. We propose a solution based on fuzzy systems, and apply our fuzzy modeling methodology-Fuzzy CoCo-to find systems exhibiting both good performance and high interpretability. The results presented show the capacity of Fuzzy CoCo to find systems that satisfy different requirements concerning the complexity of the solution, expressed mainly as the number of rules.