Pierluigi Ritrovato

Advanced ontology management system for personalised e-Learning

The use of ontologies to model the knowledge of specific domains represents a key aspect for the integration of information coming from different sources, for supporting collaboration within virtual communities, for improving information retrieval, and more generally, it is important for reasoning on available knowledge. In the e-Learning field, ontologies can be used to model educational domains and to build, organize and update specific learning resources (i.e. learning objects, learner profiles, learning paths, etc.). One of the main problems of educational domains modeling is the lacking of expertise in the knowledge engineering field by the e-Learning actors. This paper presents an integrated approach to manage the life-cycle of ontologies, used to define personalised e-Learning experiences supporting blended learning activities, without any specific expertise in knowledge engineering.

IWT: an innovative solution for AGS e-learning model

This paper is a technological development and realisation of the e-learning model presented by Albano G., Gaeta M. and Salerno S. (AGS) which appeared in the previous issue of IJKL, focused on the advanced features provided by Intelligent Web Teacher (IWT) an innovative learning platform available in the market. In this paper, the approaches used in IWT for knowledge representation and management through ontologies are examined in detail. Similarly, the way the special component Learner Intelligent Advisor (LIA) uses these and other information available on the system for creating personalised learning paths taking into account the single user preferences including present knowledge state and preferred didactic approach, etc. is carefully studied. IWT is in continuing evolution. In particular, we are improving LIA structure and algorithm and integrating IMS learning design for the description of our unit of learning. We paid particular attention to the issue of giving an insight into the main ideas and challenges underlying the solutions we chose.

LIA: An Intelligent Advisor for E-Learning

Intelligent e-learning systems have revolutionized online education by providing individualized and personalized instruction for each learner. Nevertheless, until now very few systems were able to leave academic laboratories and be integrated into real commercial products. One of these few exceptions is the Learning Intelligent Advisor (LIA) described in this article, built on results coming from several research projects and currently integrated in a complete e-learning solution named Intelligent Web Teacher (IWT). The purpose of this article is to describe how LIA works and cooperates with IWT in the provisioning of individualized e-learning experiences. Defined algorithms and underlying models are described as well as architectural aspects related to the integration in IWT. Results of experimentations with real users are discussed to demonstrate the benefits of LIA as an add-on in online learning.

An emerging architecture enabling grid based application service provision

In this article we examine the integration of three emerging trends in information technology (utility computing, grid computing, and Web services) new computing paradigm (grid-based application service provision) that is taking place in the context of the European research project GRASP. In the first of the paper, we explain how the integration of emerging trends can support enterprises in creating competitive advantage. In the second part, we focus on grid-based application service provision (GRASP), which builds a new technology-driven business paradigm on top of such integration. We conclude by outlining a plan for prototyping a GRASP platform in the context of an ongoing European research project.

SERVICES, SEMANTICS, AND STANDARDS: ELEMENTS OF A LEARNING GRID INFRASTRUCTURE

There has been considerable political pressure and much hope invested in the use of communication and information technologies to provide wider access to education, while improving quality and reducing costs. Unfortunately, many of the responses to the challenge of these aspirations have consisted of simple Web technology-driven products, which have failed to progress effective learning. In this paper we outline the characteristics and pedagogical goals of a learning paradigm that is used to drive the technical requirements, rather than being constrained by what is easily achieved in XHTML. We identify and explain the key roles played by services, semantics, and standards in meeting pedagogical goals of novel learning situations, and illustrate with some scenarios that build bridges between traditional learning contexts and future possibilities. Crucially, we explain why we have adopted Grid technologies in the European Learning Grid Infrastructure (ELeGI) research program.

How to integrate technology‐enhanced learning with business process management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative approach for providing an answer to the emerging trends on how to integrate e-learning efficiently in the business value chain in medium and large enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed approach defines methodologies and technologies for integrating technology-enhanced learning with knowledge and human resources management based on a synergistic use of knowledge models, methods, technologies and approaches covering different steps of the knowledge life-cycle. Findings – The proposed approach makes explicit and supports, from the methodological, technological and organizational points of view, mutual dependencies between the enterprise’s organizational learning and the business processes, considering also their integration in order to allow the optimization of employees’ learning plans with respect to business processes and taking into account competencies, skills, performances and knowledge available inside the organization. Practical implications – This mutual dependency, bridging individual and organizational learning, enables an improvement loop to become a key aspect for successful business process improvement (BPI) and business process reengineering (BPR), enabling closure of, at the same time, the learning and knowledge loops at individual, group and organization levels. Originality/value – The proposed improvements are relevant with respect to the state of the art and respond to a real need felt by enterprises and further commercial solutions and research projects on the theme.

A grid based software architecture for delivery of adaptive and personalised learning experiences

This paper is centred on one of the main results of the ELeGI project, namely its software architecture for the delivery of personalised formal-learning experiences. The architecture has been designed and developed: (1) taking into account a general model for the personalisation of learning experiences, allowing us to obtain a solution that is flexible with respect to the pedagogies, and (2) on top of service oriented grid technologies, allowing us to obtain several advantages in the process of creation and delivery of personalised learning experience like, for instance, ubiquitous and seamless access to heterogeneous learning resources distributed over the network. In order to validate our result, the first prototype of the ELeGI architecture has been deployed on a virtual organisation consisting of three geographically distributed nodes. Each node of the VO provides services and learning resources that have been adopted in the creation and delivery of a personalised learning experience about the Torricelli’s law and based on the virtual scientific experiment model. The case of study has been successfully executed and has given us a proof of our assumptions related to the added value of the service oriented grid mainly in terms of: (1) capabilities to access educational resources distributed over the network, that is relevant in achieving the personalisation of learning experiences, and (2) high level of dynamicity and adaptiveness in the creation and delivery processes of a personalised learning experience.

Dynamic security perimeters for inter-enterprise service integration

Levaraging the convergence of Grid and Web services technologies, we anticipate the emergence of new business and scientific computing paradigms that are based on dynamic Virtual Organisations (VO). These VOs span across organisational boundaries and enable the enactment of collaborative processes that integrate services, resources and knowledge in order to perform tasks that the VO partners could not undertake on their own. Such a dynamic and complex structure opens several challenging problems relating to VO security. In this paper, we summarise a novel architecture supporting Grid-enabled collaboration for the purposes of Application Service Provision. We then focus on the underpinning security architecture that enables the federated management and distributed enforcement of dynamic security perimeters for virtual communities of services, and on resources that span across administrative and enterprise boundaries. We highlight how this architecture, realised in the context of a European research project developing a Grid platform for application serviced provision, addresses the outstanding challenges that underlie the automation of trust and security management in scalable, multi-institutional, and dynamic Virtual Organisations.

Managing coordination and cooperation in distributed software processes: the GENESIS environment

We present the GENESIS platform (GEneralised eNvironment for procEsS management in cooperatIve Software engineering), the outcome of a research project aiming at designing and developing a noninvasive and open-source system to support software engineering processes in a highly distributed environment. The system supports the cooperation and coordination in software processes as its process modeling language enables the decomposition of complex processes into subprocesses that can be distributed and executed at different organizational sites. In GENESIS, workflow management technologies have been integrated with artifact management and communication services to meet the necessary requirements of managing the cooperation among distributed teams. Its strengths are a powerful activity management, covering all the main aspects of the life cycle of an activity; an efficient and flexible project monitoring, collecting productivity and quality metrics to show on-demand snapshots of the whole process and of its parts at different levels of detail, and a careful consideration of the process evolution questions, allowing to adequately manage the most common exceptions happening during process execution in a simple and flexible way. Copyright

Optimizing learning path selection through memetic algorithms

e-Learning is a critical support mechanism for industrial and academic organizations to enhance the skills of employees and students and, consequently, the overall competitiveness in the new economy. The remarkable velocity and volatility of modern knowledge require novel learning methods offering additional features as efficiency, task relevance and personalization. The main aim of adaptive eLearning is to support content and activities, personalized to specific needs and influenced by specific preferences of the learner. This paper describes a collection of models and processes for adapting an e-Learning system to the learner expectations and to formulate objectives in a dynamic intelligent way. Precisely, our proposal exploits ontological representations of learning environment and a memetic optimization algorithm capable of generating the best learning presentation in an efficient and qualitative way.