Ramón Fabregat Gesa

Activity-based learner-models for learner monitoring and recommendations in Moodle

In technology-enhanced learning, activity-based learner models can provide evidence for competence assessment. Such models are the foundation for learning and teaching support, such as: adaptation, assessment, and competence analytics, recommendations, and so on. This paper analyses how to construct activity-based learner models based on existing data in the Moodle learning management system. Based on the activity theory model and the actuator-indicator model, aggregators of learner activities for different activity types were implemented in Moodle. This requires the consideration of the social roles in a course, in order to enable adaptive views for learners and instructors on the stored activity information. The implementation showed that Moodle stores information about course activities that requires filtering before it can get used for higher level processing. The social planes in Moodle reveal a higher complexity than it has been previously described by theories of classroom orchestration, such as actors who are no longer present in a course.

A Software Suite for Efficient Use of the European Qualifications Framework in Online and Blended Courses

Since introduction of the European qualifications framework (EQF) as one instrument to bridge from learning institutions to competence driven lifelong learning, it remains a challenge for instructors and teachers in higher education to make efficient use of this framework for designing, monitoring, and managing their lessons. This paper presents a software suite for enabling teachers to make better use of EQF in their teaching. The software suite extends course design based on well-defined learning outcomes, monitoring performance and competence acquisition according to the EQF levels, assessment using scoring rubrics of EQF levels and competences in a 360-degree feedback, as well as visualizations of learning analytics and open student models in dashboards for different social perspectives in social planes. This paper includes a case study with 20 teachers who used the software suite in all phases of the course lifecycle for three programming courses. The results show that integrated applications for adopting the EQF in teaching practice are strongly needed. These results also show that the suite can assist teachers in creating contextual awareness, kindling reflection, understanding students and course progress, and inferring patterns of success and failure in competences development.

Teaching Support Units

This paper describes some features of the telematics platform named Teaching Support Units (TSU), developed by PLAN-G using WWW technology. PLAN-G was supported by the CICYT TEL98-0408-C02-01 project: Design and Implementation of a New Generation Telematics Platform to Support Open and Distance Learning The TSU platform provides a set of tools that enable teachers to create and edit didactic materials, generate and manage different types of interactive exercises and create and manage teaching units. The main goal of these tools is to alleviate the problem of teachers having to understand various applications and languages in order to make dynamic and interactive didactic material. The system was set up with structures and transversal navigation which make learning easier and guide the student during its use. The student”s activities are collected in a personalized database, which enables teachers to follow his/her navigation and performance. This information may provide criteria for improving the didactic contents. We place special emphasis on the personalization of the system so that it can be adapted to the student”s preferences (presentation, languages, etc.), to his/her way of working and to his/her ability to understand the contents provided.

Adaptive integral assessment package for the A2UN@ project

This paper presents a first approach of Evaluation Engine Architecture (EEA) as proposal to support adaptive integral assessment, in the context of a virtual learning environment. The goal of our research is design an evaluation engine tool to assist in the whole assessment process within the A2UN@ project, linking that tool with the other key elements of a learning design (learning task, learning resources and learning support). The teachers would define the relation between knowledge, competencies, activities, resources and type of assessment. Providing this relation is possible obtain more accurate estimations of students knowledge for adaptive evaluations and future recommendations. The process is supported by usage of educational standards and specifications and for an integral user modelling.

Framework for Intervention and Assistance in University Students with Dyslexia

This paper presents a framework for providing personalized and adapted support to university students with dyslexia in a learning management system (LMS). The components of the framework include tools for: detecting reading difficulties and preferences in the students, assessing cognitive processes involved in their reading, and delivering intervention and assistance tasks according to specific cognitive deficits. This framework is designed considering multimodal interaction mechanisms by means of using different communicative channels (visual, auditory and speech). Additionally, its architecture is formed mainly by: 1) a student model including individual reading profiles, learning styles and cognitive traits, 2) an adaptation engine based on the delivery of learning analytics and adapted recommendations, and 3) tracking tools to measure the performance and satisfaction of users. The framework is proposed to be integrated into a LMS and, to this end, the architecture is supported in web services.

Recommending Learning Routes for Heritage Education

Heritage education allows people to understand and take advantage of patrimonial assets. Emerging technologies can offer new and innovative ways for people to learn about their own patrimonial assets. The Framework for Heritage Education supported in emerging technologies gives insights about how to design learning experience and systems to support heritage education. This article describes the method of recommending patrimonial learning routes defined on the Framework for Heritage Education to personalize the learning experience based on the visitor/citizen interests. An evaluation scenario of the method was carried out in the city of Cartagena de Indias – Colombia obtaining promising results.

Runayaysoft: sistema recomendador de actividades de enriquecimiento. Caso de estudio

La principal contribucion de este articulo consiste en la descripcion de un caso de estudio realizado en tres colegios publicos de la ciudad de Bogota utilizando RunayaySoft, sistema que recomienda actividades de enriquecimiento tanto a estudiantes como a instituciones educativas basados en sus caracteristicas y necesidades. El sistema busca desarrollar algunas de las habilidades de los estudiantes a traves de las actividades sugeridas. La recomendacion hacia los estudiantes considera caracteristicas tales como los estilos de aprendizaje, aptitudes, inteligencias multiples, intereses y preferencias en cuanto a como le gustaria que se desarrollen las actividades. Para el caso de la institucion educativa, recomienda que actividades debe desarrollar dentro de sus instalaciones basandose en las caracteristicas y necesidades de sus estudiantes. Cuando la institucion no tiene los recursos necesarios para el desarrollo de las actividades, se le recomiendan con que otras instituciones educativas pueden realizar un convenio de colaboracion. Para realizar la validacion de lo mencionado anteriormente, se realizo un experimento con las instituciones educativas para observar como el sistema genera la recomendacion de las actividades de enriquecimiento considerando la adaptacion de la informacion. Este experimento es el principal enfoque de este articulo.