A Model for Strengthening the Software Engineering Research
Capacity
Like all other New Member States (NMS) Bulgaria is
experiencing a dramatic change in all areas of its society. These
changes reflect very seriously on the research capacity of the
country and, in particular to Sofia University (SU). The Faculty of
Mathematics and Informatics (FMI) has experienced some serious
problems closely related to the general socio-economic and the
research environment in Bulgaria. This paper describes a model
for strengthening the research capacity of FMI, especially the
Åbne læringsressourcer - mod en sociokulturel teori om læringsressourcer
Afhandlingen behandler spørgsmålet om, hvordan it-baserede læringsressourcer udvikles med udgangspunkt i et læringsteoretisk grundlag. Læringsressourcer forstås som alle typer af ressourcer eller materialer, der anvendes til at understøtte læreprocesser. Formålet med afhandlingen at opstille et teoretisk begrebsapparat, der kan anvendes til forståelse og udvikling af it-baserede læringsressourcer. Ud fra en sociokulturel teoriretning udvikler afhandlingen først en forståelse af lær
Promoting Different Kinds of Learners towards Active Learning in the Web-Based Environment
According to many recent studies the effect of learning style on academic performance has been found to be significant and mismatch between teaching and learning styles causes learning failure and frustration. Thus balancing the teaching style and the students' learning style is very important. When emphasizing the individual learning processes, web-based learning offers a good opportunity for differentiating ways of learning. So far the aim of this study is to describe different learners (categ
An Experience Applying Reinforcement Learning in a Web-Based Adaptive and Intelligent Educational Sy
The definition of effective pedagogical strategies for coaching and tutoring students according to their needs is one of the most important issues in Adaptive and Intelligent Educational Systems (AIES). The use of a Reinforcement Learning (RL) model allows the system to learn automatically how to teach to each student individually, only based on the acquired experience with other learners with similar characteristics, like a human tutor does. The application of this artificial intelligence techn
E-science, E-research and E-learning:
New Perspectives for Graduate Studies
The quality of education for doctoral students is closely linked to the quality of the research they undertake. Benefiting from technological advances, new distributed and collaborative research practices can be witnessed. The concept of e-science has emerged and evolved to the concept of e-research. These concepts bring about a new research philosophy and the notion of collaboratory. Our research project aims to develop a renewed doctoral training approach and to facilitate researchers' adoptio
A Bayesian Student Model without Hidden Nodes and Its Comparison with Item Response Theory
The Bayesian framework offers a number of techniques for inferring an individual's knowledge
state from evidence of mastery of concepts or skills. A typical application where such a
technique can be useful is Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT). A Bayesian modeling scheme,
POKS, is proposed and compared to the traditional Item Response Theory (IRT), which has been
the prevalent CAT approach for the last three decades. POKS is based on the theory of
knowledge spaces and constructs item-to-item gra
ICT use in school: vision and performance measures
The implementation of ICT in schools requires a vision on ICT use in school, the formulation of clear strategic goals, and the planning and organisation of the use of ICT in school.
The pursued goals are those points we want to reach for the learner by setting up ICT use in school. At the same time the pursued goals are the results of using ICT as expected by the stakeholders, being the learner, the teacher, the ICT coordinator, and on an indirect way the parents, the environment and the funding
Streaming media as an alternative to direct student instruction for performing science experiments
In the present paper a comparison between the ideas of two groups of students, both of which were taught the same physics laboratory curriculum but using two different instruction approaches is presented. The experimental group was asked to watch some videos including the associated links to Physics theory explaining the phenomena to be observed, gather the information needed and then perform the experiments involved, while the control group followed the traditional lab teaching practice. The ai
XML and Databases for E-Learning Applications
XML has become a standard format in information exchange and integration on the Web. Much research has been conducted in recent years on XML technology, which has led to new developments in this field. The effective combination of XML and relational databases for portable Internet data exchange and data management is the technology platform of choice for the Internet Applications. Our paper describes the relationship between XML and relational databases and its potential as an enabling technolog
Important Ornaments: The Impact of Graphics and Rule Systems on Academic Wiki Use
Collaborative websites, or wikis, are being used in the classroom to recruit user attention and to disseminate information [1). These wikis place a heavy emphasis on text, while generally neglecting graphics. Little to no research has examined the impact of this textual approach. This paper examines the use of graphics and rule systems as motivating tools in academic wikis. It reports the results of a 6 month long experiment involving 21 10th and 11th grade users to determine the impact of diffe
Changing the Education Culture through Technology
Technology has a potentially rich, but largely unrealised, role in teaching and learning. This role is defined variously by what the teacher has available, has had time to learn, or can find an appropriate use for, and by what students have access to, are familiar with, and are willing to use. In all of these ways, technology usually plays an adjunct role to others, more traditional modalities for teaching and learning, including lecture, laboratory, library, textbook, tutorial, and practicum.
Implementing the Challenge Based Learning in Classroom Scenarios
Our Challenge Based Learning (CBL) method can be described as a special form of problem-based learning, in which the problems are of realistic, open-ended nature. Additionally, CBL contains features of experiential and project-based learning approaches. CBL is supported by the provision of Digital Experimentation Toolkits (DExTs) which comprise materials, initial instructions, references to web resources and specific software tools. Within the COLDEX project, a number of remote sites which gener
CSCL Scripts: Modelling Features and Potential Use
The design of collaboration scripts is a new focus of research within the CSCL community. In order to support the design, communication, analysis, simulation and even execution of collaboration scripts, a general specification language to describe collaboration scripts is needed. In this paper, we analyse the suitability and limitations of IMS LD for modelling collaborative learning processes. Based on the analysis, we propose a CSCL scripting language. This paper presents the conceptual framewo
Measuring knowledge convergence: Achievement similarity and shared knowledge in computer-supported c
Learning in small groups may result in convergent knowledge outcomes or foster possible prior differences between learners. Few studies, however, measure convergence or divergence of knowledge as an outcome of small group learning. This contribution analyzes knowledge convergence/divergence as an outcome of learning in small groups with the concepts of achievement similarity and shared knowledge rooted in two different theoretical frameworks. Achievement similarity means that learners acquired s
Cooperation scripts for learning via web-based discussion boards and videoconferencing
Computer-supported collaborative learning often means that locally distant learners discuss a task via text-based discussion boards or videoconferencing. Collaborative learning, however, is often suboptimal with respect to how learners work on the concepts that are supposed to be learned and how learners interact with each other. Collaborative learning environments may be improved by scripts that structure epistemic activities and social interactions of learners. Two studies are being reported t
Innovative pedagogical and psychological perspectives of podcasts
Podcasting, being a new form of audio distribution offering the possibility to be loaded on personal mobile devices from teachersÂ’, studentÂ’, universityÂ’s websites and blogs, is discussed as an activity with potential in learning and teaching. The existing and potential varieties of podcasts represent sources for learning, converging, socializing. In this paper, podcasting is supported as an innovative approach to stimulate university studentsÂ’ reflection, specifically on epistemic quest
Task and Interaction Regulation in Controlling a Traffic Simulation
In collaborative problem solving, metacognition not only covers strategic reasoning related to the task but also reasoning related to the interaction itself. The hypothesis underlying this work states that regulation of the interaction and regulation of the task are closely related mechanisms and that their co-occurrence facilitates collaborative problem solving. These assumptions are tested experimentally with a traffic simulator. The results show that co-occurrence of task and interaction regu
From mirroring to guiding: A review of the state of art technology for supporting collaborative lear
We review systems that support the management of collaborative interaction, and propose a classification framework built on a simple model of coaching. Our framework distinguishes between mirroring systems, which display basic actions to collaborators, metacognitive tools, which represent the state of interaction via a set of key indicators, and coaching systems, which offer advice based on an interpretation of those indicators. The reviewed systems are further characterized by the type of inter
The defining characteristics of intelligent tutoring systems research: ITSs care, precisely
his paper argues that, despite the changes in philosophies and techniques that have occurred since ITS research began, there are continuous threads running through this research which define its essential and distinctive nature. In particular, ITSs are computer-based learning systems which attempt to adapt to the needs of learners and are therefore the only such systems which attempt to 'care' about learners in that sense. Also, ITS research is the only part of the general IT and education fie
Learning physics with a computer algebra system
To become proficient problem-solvers, physics students need to form a coherent and flexible understanding of problem situations with which they are confronted. Still, many students have only a limited representation of the problems on which they are working. Therefore, an instructional approach was devised to promote students' understanding of these problems and to support them in forming associations between problem features and solution methods. The approach was based on using the computer alg
