e-learning services provision and management

With the rapid development of information technology, learners demand effective personalised learning support, which imposes a new learning paradigm in learning content management. Standards as well as best practice in industry and research community have taken place to address the paradigm shift. With respect to this trend, it is recognised that finding learning content which meet personal learning requirements remains challenging. This paper describes a model of e-learning services provision which integrates the best practice in e-learning and Web services technology so that learning content management is capable of supporting applications of learning services.

Teaching English as an additional language: a MESHGuide

This guide has been co-authored by Naomi Flynn, an Associate Professor at The University of Reading, working with Chris Pim and Sarah Coles who are specialist advisory teachers with Hampshire’s Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS). It was constructed with the support of teachers in primary and secondary schools in Hampshire, selected for their existing expertise in teaching EAL learners, who used the guidance for action research during the spring and summer of 2015. The guide is written principally to support teachers and learning support assistants working with EAL learners in any educational setting and who are at any stage of fluency in the learning of English. It will also support senior leaders in their strategic response to the EAL learners in their schools. As with all MESH guides it seeks to share knowledge with professionals in order to support the growth of evidence informed practice that works in promoting the best in pupil outcomes

Evolving features-algorithms knowledge map to support NIDS data intelligence and learning loop architecting – a generalised approach to NIDS pattern feature space knowledge processing

This paper describes a proposed new approach to the Computer Network Security Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) application domain knowledge processing focused on a topic map technology-enabled representation of features of the threat pattern space as well as the knowledge of situated efficacy of alternative candidate algorithms for pattern recognition within the NIDS domain. Thus an integrative knowledge representation framework for virtualisation, data intelligence and learning loop architecting in the NIDS domain is described together with specific aspects of its deployment.

Rapid word learning by 15-month-olds under tightly-controlled conditions

Infants (12 to 17 months) were taught 2 novel words for 2 images of novel objects, by pairing isolated auditory labels with to-be-associated images. Comprehension was tested using a preferential looking task in which the infant was presented with both images together with an isolated auditory label. The auditory label usually, but not always, matched one of the images. Infants looked preferentially at images that matched the auditory stimulus. The experiment controlled within-subjects for both side bias and preference for previously named items. Infants showed learning after 12 presentations of the new words. Evidence is presented that, in certain circumstances, the duration of longest look at a target may be a more robust measure of target preference than overall looking time. The experiment provides support for previous demonstrations of rapid word learning by pre-vocabulary spurt children, and offers some methodological improvements to the preferential looking task.

From activity to active learning: drawing and dialogue interaction in virtual learning environments for computer-supported collaborative work in design.

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) would appear to be particular effective in computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) for active learning. Most research studies looking at computer-supported collaborative design have focused on either synchronous or asynchronous modes of communication, but near-synchronous working has received relatively little attention. Yet it could be argued that near-synchronous communication encourages creative, rhetorical and critical exchanges of ideas, building on each other’s contributions. Furthermore, although many researchers have carried out studies on collaborative design protocol, argumentation and constructive interaction, little is known about the interaction between drawing and dialogue in near-synchronous collaborative design. The paper reports the first stage of an investigation into the requirements for the design and development of interactive systems to support the learning of collaborative design activities. The aim of the study is to understand the collaborative design processes while sketching in a shared white board and audio conferencing media. Empirical data on design processes have been obtained from observation of seven sessions with groups of design students solving an interior space-planning problem of a lounge-diner in a virtual learning environment, Lyceum, an in-house software developed by the Open University to support its students in collaborative learning.

Establishing a sexual identity: case studies of learners with autism and learning difficulties

The physical and emotional changes that occur in adolescence are part of the process of sexual maturity. These changes occur irrespective of ability and are often aligned with psychological and social factors. When the nature of a disability has an inherent limitation in social awareness, as is the case for individuals with autism, the achievement of personal sexual identity can become much more complex. Challenges in supporting individuals in this respect can be caused by the sensitive aspects of inappropriate behaviour, the abstract nature of teaching the topic, and the general reluctance on the part of parents and staff to discuss sexuality in individuals with disabilities. This article explores how a residential school addressed this gap. It provides details of how this need was met for seven students and the process undertaken to involve staff, parents and other stakeholders to establish ongoing support.

The role of perirhinal cortex in visual discrimination learning for visual secondary reinforcement in rats

Perirhinal cortex in monkeys has been thought to be involved in visual associative learning. The authors examined rats' ability to make associations between visual stimuli in a visual secondary reinforcement task. Rats learned 2-choice visual discriminations for secondary visual reinforcement. They showed significant learning of discriminations before any primary reinforcement. Following bilateral perirhinal cortex lesions, rats continued to learn visual discriminations for visual secondary reinforcement at the same rate as before surgery. Thus, this study does not support a critical role of perirhinal cortex in learning for visual secondary reinforcement. Contrasting this result with other positive results, the authors suggest that the role of perirhinal cortex is in "within-object" associations and that it plays a much lesser role in stimulus-stimulus associations between objects.

Investigation of support vector machine for the detection of architectural distortion in mammographic images

This paper investigates detection of architectural distortion in mammographic images using support vector machine. Hausdorff dimension is used to characterise the texture feature of mammographic images. Support vector machine, a learning machine based on statistical learning theory, is trained through supervised learning to detect architectural distortion. Compared to the Radial Basis Function neural networks, SVM produced more accurate classification results in distinguishing architectural distortion abnormality from normal breast parenchyma.

Semantic organization to enhance active learning based on distributed multimedia educational resources

In order to organize distributed educational resources efficiently, to provide active learners an integrated, extendible and cohesive interface to share the dynamically growing multimedia learning materials on the Internet, this paper proposes a generic resource organization model with semantic structures to improve expressiveness, scalability and cohesiveness. We developed an active learning system with semantic support for learners to access and navigate through efficient and flexible manner. We learning resources in an efficient and flexible manner. We provide facilities for instructors to manipulate the structured educational resources via a convenient visual interface. We also developed a resource discovering and gathering engine based on complex semantic associations for several specific topics.

Integrating constructive feedback in personalised e-learning

When using e-learning material some students progress readily, others have difficulties. In a traditional classroom the teacher would identify those with difficulties and direct them to additional resources. This support is not easily available within e-learning. A new approach to providing constructive feedback is developed that will enable an e-learning system to identify areas of weakness and provide guidance on further study. The approach is based on the tagging of learning material with appropriate keywords that indicate the contents. Thus if a student performs poorly on an assessment on topic X, there is a need to suggest further study of X and participation in activities related to X such as forums. As well as supporting the learner this type of constructive feedback can also inform other stakeholders. For example a tutor can monitor the progress of a cohort; an instructional designer can monitor the quality of learning objects in facilitating the appropriate knowledge across many learners.

Building communities via a learning landscape

The Learning Landscape project described here is known as RedGloo and has several objectives; among others it aims to help students to make friends, contacts and join communities based on interests and competencies. RedGloo provides a space where students can support each other with personal, academic and career development, sharing insights gained from extracurricular activities as well as their degree programmes. It has shown tendencies of becoming a learning community with several communities of practice.