Narayana Swamy Kutti

Integrating EduLearn learning content management system (LCMS) with cooperating learning object repositories (LORs) in a peer to peer (P2P) architectural framework

An attempt is made to integrate the EduLearn Learning Content Management System (LCMS) components with comparable Learning Objects Repository (LORs), specified in Peer to Peer (P2P) architecture to provide a better framework for sharing Learning Objects. Learning Content Designers need to be able to access a suitable learning object. For this the Learning Object needs to reside in an LOR which has the capacity to cater quickly to the needs of the Learning Content Designer. Reuse of a Learning Object is possible only if it is available easily and it is designed in a standard format. Such a reusable learning object (RLO) has the ability of being reused in different learning contexts and for various objectives. We have proposed a new framework for more efficient e-learning environment by using P2P architecture and Semantic Overlay Network. This will help in efficient management of LCMS components and improve the performance of LCMS through the RLO. Our framework authenticates Learning Object Repositories and provides a better load balance for the framework using P2P technology.

Promoting online learning through learners' vision

Rapidly improving services over the internet and increasing availability of web-based education (WBED) products and services encourages the management of the education institutions to decide for any tangible transformation in the existing education paradigm. As learners represent the customers of any education paradigm, it becomes an important issue to understand their vision over the infl uence of technology on the current education environment. Without this knowledge any transformation of the current education paradigm may seem to be possible, but may lead to some unforeseen results. It is foreseen that introduction of a course management tool at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) would initiate an effective transformation of currently practiced education scheme. This has also created an unavoidable hesitation to carry out a full-scale implementation of e-learning. In order to resolve this problem, we (the researchers at SQU) are encouraged to carry out a full-scale experimental study to identify the visions of learners with respect to the increasing influence of Technology on the current education. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted on the learner community in the Faculty of Science along with a useful discussion and conclusion.

Review of challenges in content extraction in web based personalized learning content management systems

A preliminary work in support of our research in developing ontology driven LO extraction analyzes some of the existing Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) with emphasis on Architecture and Design Issues. Learning Object Repositories (LOR) have great impact on retrieval and storage of contents, so performance improvement issues via content aggregation in LORs have been studied in this paper. The paper discusses the challenges that are being faced by Web-Based LCMS with regards to content extraction.

The Efficiency of Critical Slicing in Fault Localization

In software testing, developing effective debugging strategies is important to guarantee the reliability of software under testing. A heuristic technique is to cause failure and therefore expose faults. Based on this approach mutation testing has been found very useful technique in detecting faults. However, it suffers from two problems with successfully testing programs: (1) requires extensive computing resources and (2) puts heavy demand on human resources. Later, empirical observations suggest that critical slicing based on Statement Deletion (Sdl) mutation operator has been found the most effective technique in reducing effort and the required computing resources in locating the program faults. The second problem of mutation testing may be solved by automating the program testing with the help of software tools. Our study focuses on determining the effectiveness of the critical slicing technique with the help of the Mothra Mutation Testing System in detecting program faults. This paper presents the results showing the performance of Mothra Mutation Testing System through conducting critical slicing testing on a selected suite of programs.

PlagDetect: a Java programming plagiarism detection tool

Practical computing courses that involve significant amount of programming assessment tasks suffer from e-Plagiarism. A pragmatic solution for this problem could be by discouraging plagiarism particularly among the beginners in programming. One way to address this is to automate the detection of plagiarized work during the marking phase. Our research in this context involves at first examining various metrics used in plagiarism detection in program codes and secondly selecting an appropriate statistical measure using attribute counting metrics (ATMs) for detecting plagiarism in Java programming assignments. The goal of this investigation is to study the effectiveness of ATMs for detecting plagiarism among assignment submissions of introductory programming courses.