Timothy Read

Applications of a Collaborative Learning Ontology

The objective of the research presented in this article is to find representational mechanisms for relating and integrating the collaborative learning elements present in real practical environments, create an integrated ontology that considers and relates these elements, and make use of it to define new collaborative learning scenarios. It is therefore necessary to identify the key ideas underlying the notion of ontology that will be essential in subsequent application development: a list of the basic elements that give rise to a common vocabulary for collaborative learning, and the relationship and dependencies between them. The Activity Theory framework is used as a theoretical foundation for organising the elements in the ontology. This ontology gives rise to the structured elements that form the conceptual structure for the definition and construction of CSCL environments, and the analysis and assessment of group collaboration.

Coalescing individual and collaborative learning to model user linguistic competences

A linguistic, pedagogic and technological framework for an ICALL system called COPPER is presented here, where individual and collaborative learning are combined within a constructivist approach to facilitate second language learning. Based upon the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the ability to use language is viewed as one of several cognitive competences that are mobilised and modified when individuals communicate. To combine the different types of learning underlying the European Framework, a student model has been developed for COPPER that represents linguistic competences in a detailed way, combining high granularity expert-centric Bayesian networks with multidimensional stereotypes, and is updated following student activities semi-automatically. Instances of this model are used by an adaptive group formation algorithm that dynamically generates communicative groups based upon the linguistic capabilities of available students, and a collection of collaborative activity templates. As well as the student model, which is a representation of individual linguistic knowledge, preferences, etc., there is a group model, which is a representation of how a set of students works together. The results of a student’s activity within a group are evaluated by a student monitor, with more advanced linguistic competences, thereby sidestepping the difficulties present when using NLP techniques to automatically analyse non-restricted linguistic production. The monitor role empowers students and further consolidates what has been previously learnt. Students therefore initially work individually in this framework on certain linguistic concepts, and subsequently participate in authentic collaborative communicative activities, where their linguistic competences can develop approximately as they would in ‘real foreign language immersion experiences’.

Virtual Communities Adapted to the EHEA in an Enterprise Distance e-Learning Based Environment

This paper describes the e-learning architecture of the National Spanish Distance Learning University of Spain (UNED). The UNED has more than 200,000 users of e-learning systems (most of them, students) so it needed an enterprise architecture in order to ensure the performance of the virtual campus. The core of virtual campus is aLF (active learning framework) supported by dotLRN/OpenACS open source framework that provides the e-learning core services. aLF is was modified to support the EHEA learning model, based in activity curricula, providing full integration with the evaluation model of aLF and three new tools to focus on the student tasks planning.

The UNED's interoperable virtual campus service management architecture

The creation and maintenance of a virtual campus is a task that not only implies the deployment of sophisticated hardware and software but also requires considerable effort in the integration of the main university management systems with the chosen teaching tools present in the campus. Such integration requires the definition of a range of services tailored for the different user profiles. Hence, it has been necessary to develop a management environment for the virtual campus that enables it to be manipulated and controlled in an efficient manner where new services (above and beyond the basic e-Learning platform tools) can be integrated in a seamless fashion. The implementation of these services should guarantee a large degree of interoperability among virtual learning environments, VLEs and tools. To this end, some of these services have been implemented using the IMS Enterprise standard. This standard essentially contributes to the organization of a given e-Learning platform in terms of users, courses and roles therein; leaving to one side the formalization of other services more specific to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) together with the current technological framework.

JaBot: A Multilingual Java-Based Intelligent Agent for Web Sites

This paper presents a novel type of intelligent agent with a multilingual natural language interface, which retrieves information from within a Web site. This agent, named JaBot after the fact that it is a bot which has been programmed in Java, has been designed and developed by the authors in an attempt to solve common Web site problems related to information retrieval. JaBot runs quickly and efficiently, and rather than running directly on the Web site pages, it is connected to a lexical semantic map. This map is based upon the contents of the Web site in question together with other associated linguistic knowledge.

Deconstructing VLEs to create customized PLEs

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) have gained importance over recent years thanks to the wide use of the Web 2.0. An interesting functionality is the creation of customized PLEs, to improve the learning process. This work proposes a new paradigm to create customized PLEs by deconstructing a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Designing a Semantic Portal for Collaborative Learning Communities

This paper presents the design of a semantic portal for collaborative learning communities and describes a persistence mechanism that stores objects enriched with a contextual description. The latter enables the knowledge reutilization in many learning activities and scenarios constituting, as such, a collective memory of the community. The current work is based on two theoretical foundations: the expressive capacity of ontologies, which offers a computer system new possibilities for using the knowledge it contains and the Activity Theory (AT) framework, which permits describing and structuring collaborative learning scenarios.

I-PETER: Modelling Personalised Diagnosis and Material Selection for an Online English Course

In this paper the underlying knowledge model and architecture of I-PETER (Intelligent Personalised English Tutoring EnviRonment) are presented. This system has been designed for the on-line distance learning of English where too many students restrict the teachers possibilities to provide individualised guidance. I-PETER is made up of four domain models that represent linguistic and didactic knowledge: the conceptual framework related to linguistic levels and knowledge stages, and the educational content and study strategies. The student model represents the knowledge that the student has learnt, the study strategies, and his/her profile. A students command of English is evaluated by interpreting his/her performance on specific linguistic units in terms of three related criteria, rather than by a general linguistic competence ranking. Evaluation consists of a diagnostic task model which assesses student performance, taking the form of a Bayesian network, and a selection mechanism that proposes appropriate materials and study strategies.

UNED OER Experience: From OCW to Open UNED

Much as happened with open software, there has been a global attitude shift in the education community toward the open sharing of educational courses and resources. As the largest public distance education university in Spain, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) has had a clear commitment to open learning and content since its very beginnings. Its open courseware (OCW) portal was started in 2006 and has received several prizes for its innovative content. During this period, the OCW materials were used to supplement standard teaching in a variety of educational applications, among them induction and competence transfer courses. These initiatives have been used as a starting point for a comprehensive open educational resource (OER) policy at UNED. Efforts to foster OER initiatives are collected in the project called UNED Abierta (Open UNED). UNED currently publishes its open resources in various platforms and formats, such as iTunes U, MOOC, and OpenCourseWare. This paper presents UNEDs experience in OER and describes how it is tackling the new challenges in OER creation and distribution.

Modelling ubiquity for second language learning

Distance second language learning is essentially practical and skill-based requiring personal, social and occupational language-mediated activities with other speakers using the target language. Computer technology has long been used to try to overcome the challenges of distance learning although with limited success. To improve this situation, the authors developed a theoretical framework for second language learning that combined a cognitive student model with a collaborative group model. As the underlying access to information and computational resources becomes more ubiquitous, the framework is less able to represent how a specific computing device and real-world context mediate the selection and structuring of materials and activities, therefore, limiting the frameworks effectiveness for second language learning. Hence, the existing models need to be complemented with a functional ubiquity model, which characterises the way in which the degree of ubiquity defines the types of learning activities and resources available in the framework.