DCCSEDU 2015 Abstracts


Short Papers
Paper Nr: 4
Title:

Learner Generated Content - Fostering and Valuing User Generated Content in eLearning using Social Feedback

Authors:

Gabriel Reimers

Abstract: Learner Generated Content (LGC) is any form of educational content that is created by the learners themselves in order to make it available to others. The presented thesis will investigate LGC in terms of user acceptance, quality of content, the role of social feedback and effects of LGC on learning success. Existing LGC platforms like Wikis and Question & Answer systems will be evaluated, and two new platforms shall be created to experiment with different approaches. It shall be analyzed how well different LGC concepts are accepted by users, how correctly their content is categorized and rated, and what effect they have on learners motivation and success. A special focus will be put on the effect of social feedback in terms of peer assessment, voting, rating or ‘liking’. It is expected to positively affect users’ willingness to contribute content and increase their intrinsic motivation to learn the topics covered by the LGC platform. It shall also be shown that user ratings are an ideal tool to measure quality of learner generated content and can be used to rank search results on LGC platforms.
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Paper Nr: 5
Title:

Assessing and Implementing English-learning Mobile Applications in a University Graduation Program: SLA 2.0

Authors:

Artur André Martinez Campos and João Correia de Freitas

Abstract: As a result of the access Brazilians are having to ICT through a more dynamic economic situation, professors have witnessed an increasing presence of smartphones and tablets inside university classrooms. This article assesses the pedagogical resources for Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as well as the human computer interaction (HCI) designed to promote English language learning via T.A.L.L (Tablet-Assisted-Language-Learning) or M.A.L.L (Mobile-Assisted-Language-Learning) from two Learning Virtual Environment (LVE) applications designed for the English language autonomous learning named Busuu and Babbel (free versions) available at AppStore and Google Play. This research assesses both apps and it will be considered to the implementation of one of them in the English Language Graduation course syllabus (1st and 2nd semesters) (Slattery, 2006) from Universidade Tiradentes – a 50-year-old Brazilian University. We believe that apps focused on SLA are somehow used by many university graduates in Portugal, in Brazil and basically everywhere. I am also aware of the fact that these students are what Prensky (2001) calls “digital natives” and live their lives “eager about technology use” (Leu, 2004) nowadays. This massive access to gadgets helps mobile learning (m-learning) as a whole since it happens anywhere, in special outside of class (Kukulska-Hulme, 2009); it is focused on the student as it is learner-centered (Anderson, 2008) and it is “thoroughly ubiquitous” (Valk, Rashid and Elder, 2010). To Vavoula (2005), “any learning situation that is not at a fixed predetermined location has to be defined as m-learning”. The learning opportunities provided by these gadgets regarding their time and space possibilities cannot be taken for granted and any post-graduation study dwelling with these opportunities has to be considered. We investigate their multiple uses and applications to L2 learning through this research project to a Doctorate degree in Educational Sciences. Theoretically, the pedagogical aspects that evolve from learning through an online community reinforce the SLA according to Krashen's (1981) language acquisition theory of i+1. Vygostky’s (2002) knowledge of Zone of Proximal Development and Thorne and Payne's (2005) theory for using podcasts are also intertwined with this study. It includes as well the concepts of Lan et al (2007), where “language learning is no longer limited to one-way individual learning, but can be expanded to a two or multi-way collaborative learning”. As an Assistant Professor I at the English Department at UNIT (Aracaju, Brazil) and now granted by Erasmus Fellow-Mundus with a Doctoral Program in Educational Sciences at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, I will develop my doctoral studies within these two institutions. In Portugal, the students may have the same objectives when interacting with the aforementioned apps, so conducting this research at ILNOVA may present some similarities to the findings when conducted at Unit in Brazil. Afterwards, I will be on the forefront of the implementation of m-learning tablet and smartphone applications to the 1st and 2nd semester syllabus (Slattery, 2006) of our College course. This new pedagogical procedure will prepare “future teachers of the idiom to the reality of their audience in post-modern educational times” (Campos, 2008). As a methodological approach to this project, focused on the implementation of a new paradigm in instruction and pedagogical studies, my Advisor suggested performing a Design-Based Research (DBR) that according to Herrington (2007) and Barab and Squire (2004) aims at “producing new theories, artifacts, and practices that account for and potentially impact learning and teaching in naturalistic settings”. To Reeves (2006), “a research proposal for a doctoral study using a design-based approach must include a practitioner-oriented focus as well as degrees of collaboration that are not necessarily required for more traditional predictive research designs”. Finally, Collins (1992) acknowledges that the methodology should address the complexity of the problems in real classroom context when “integrating known and hypothetical design principles with technological affordances to render plausible solutions to these complex problems and conducting rigorous and reflective inquiry to test and refine innovative learning environments as well as to define new design principles.” Consequently, as an English teacher, I will assess all learning resources and possibilities presented on the applications for English learning named Busuu and Babbel, our thesis analyzes their concepts of language progression, pedagogical purposes as much as their HCI (human-computer interaction). For the HCI, we use some of the ergonomic criteria for LVE's of Bastien and Scapin (2003) such as Immediate Feedback, Information Density, User Control, Consistency and Compatibility. During this research, we are also investigating how these apps define linguistic progression, vocabulary choices, themes, dialogues and finally, the “schooling” approach focused on language learning that these tablet and smartphones’ versions present. The final results of this 33-month doctoral program will adequately identify which app would be implemented as an official content for the Graduation Course subjects entitled English Language I and English Language II at Universidade Tiradentes. As a conclusion, the option will be for the most adequate Learning Virtual Environment (LVE) applications designed for the English language autonomous learning that presents a wider range of possibilities for an effective SLA learning and a higher level of adequacy to the profiles of the students we have in our classrooms at UNIT, and now at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. We remind our audience that most subject students to be involved on this research (UNIT and UNL) will not be fluent on the English language – we aim for A1, A2 and B1 C.E.F.R. levels here and therefore they might demonstrate a higher necessity of a more guided or grammatical approach to learning sometimes. As we said before, tablets and smartphones are a reality nowadays as they can be found in almost every household, classroom and educational institution in both countries. Brazilians (UNIT) as well as Portuguese students (UNL) will certainly improve their overall knowledge learning a lingua franca through some apps that can bring you real learning possibilities for free or for some Reais or Euros. Concluding with the reason why these countries should learn English as soon as possible, according to EF’s English Proficiency Global Index - Brazil still stands at the 46th position (Low Proficiency) while Portugal is doing a better work but stands at the 19th position (Moderate Proficiency), what it is not so adequate when comparing to other European countries.
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Paper Nr: 6
Title:

Mixed-reality Adaptive 3D Multi-user Online Communities of Practice in Academic Education - Tackling Students Motivation and Teachers’ Self-efficacy

Authors:

Livia Stefan

Abstract: In the present Doctoral Consortium paper the general purpose MUVEs are re-discussed in the context of mixing a virtual online 3D campus with real time activities within communities of practice. In our research we study and implement Gamification and visual Learning Analytics for supporting a more creative and adaptive instructional design, stimulate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of both students and teachers, measure performance and usage indicators. The paper presents the research problem and details on general objectives, state-of-the art approaches, methodology and the expected results, according to the initial research hypothesis.
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Paper Nr: 7
Title:

Intelligent and Adaptive Student Support in FLIP - Early Computer Programming

Authors:

Sokratis Karkalas and Sergio Gutierrez-Santos

Abstract: Teaching and supporting learning of elementary computer programming is a demanding task that requires resources. This paper presents work that has and will be done to offload part of this task on intelligent agents and support learning in an open and exploratory environment.
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Paper Nr: 8
Title:

Animation and Automatic Evaluation to Support Programming Teaching

Authors:

Paula Correia Tavares, Pedro Rangel Henriques and Elsa Ferreira Gomes

Abstract: Learning programming is a complex task that poses significant challenges. Students face different kinds of difficulties at complex levels that traditional teaching/learning methods are nor able to cope with. For this reason, several authors have researched the pedagogical effectiveness of program visualization and animation, and developed some tools. Animation can help students on the analysis and understanding of given programs, and can also guide on the development of new ones. Besides that is very important to give students the opportunity to practice solving programming exercises by themselves. Receiving feedback is essential for knowledge acquisition. New tools arose (especially in the area of programming contests) to allow for the submission of solutions (programs developed by the students) to the problem statements presented by the teacher and to assess them, returning immediately information about the submitted answer. These tools can be incorporated into teaching activities, allowing students to test their work getting immediate feedback. Automatic evaluation systems significantly improve students performance. In this article are shown two approaches to the teaching of programming, animation and automatic assessment are reviewed, and a new pedagogical practice resulting from combination of both is proposed.
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Paper Nr: 9
Title:

Adaptive Multiagent System for Learning Gap Identification Through Semantic Communication and Classified Rules Learning

Authors:

Kennedy E. Ehimwenma, Martin Beer and Paul Crowther

Abstract: Work on intelligent systems application for learning, teaching and assessment (LTA) uses different strategies and parameters to recommend learning and measure learning outcome. In this paper, we show how agents can identify gaps in human learning, then the use of a set of parameters which includes desired_concept, passed and failed predicate attributes of students in the construction of an array of classified production rules which in-turn make prediction for multipath learning after pre-assessment in a multiagent system. The context in which this system is developed is structured query language (SQL) domain with concepts being represented in a hierarchical structure where a lower concept is a prerequisite to its higher concept.
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Paper Nr: 10
Title:

Innovative Authoring Tools for Online-courses with Assignments - Integrating Heterogenious Tools of e-Learning Platforms into Hybrid Application Solutions

Authors:

Matthias Then, Benjamin Wallenborn, Birgit R. Ianniello and Matthias L. Hemmje

Abstract: This paper is working towards defining requirements and integration architectures supporting interoperability of hybrid e-learning solutions in higher-education institutions. Effective learning- content authoring scenarios ask for interoperable software solutions to seamlessly integrate existing e-learning infrastructures and legacy tools with modern innovative tools. Above all, these tools and platforms have to be cognitively efficient to handle, so that non-computer scientists like teachers and scholars may use them without having to dive too deeply into the challenges of learning about information technologies. The need for easy to learn and use, cognitive efficient and at the same time technically interoperable and transparently usable tools to support learning-content creation can be fulfilled by developing authoring software. We introduce our approach of developing a software solution that will bridge the gaps between an up-to date Moodle platform, and existing infrastructures by embedding long-established legacy via LTI - and beyond - to Moodle.
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