Adaptive learning in multiagent systems: a forecasting methodology based on error analysis

Electricity markets are complex environments, involving a large number of different entities, playing in a dynamic scene to obtain the best advantages and profits. MASCEM is a multi-agent electricity market simu-lator to model market players and simulate their operation in the market. Market players are entities with specific characteristics and objectives, making their decisions and interacting with other players. MASCEM pro-vides several dynamic strategies for agents’ behaviour. This paper presents a method that aims to provide market players strategic bidding capabilities, allowing them to obtain the higher possible gains out of the market. This method uses an auxiliary forecasting tool, e.g. an Artificial Neural Net-work, to predict the electricity market prices, and analyses its forecasting error patterns. Through the recognition of such patterns occurrence, the method predicts the expected error for the next forecast, and uses it to adapt the actual forecast. The goal is to approximate the forecast to the real value, reducing the forecasting error.

Supporting learning through tagging systems

With the advent of Web 2.0, new kinds of tools became available, which are not seen as novel anymore but are widely used. For instance, according to Eurostat data, in 2010 32% of individuals aged 16 to 74 used the Internet to post messages to social media sites or instant messaging tools, ranging from 17% in Romania to 46% in Sweden (Eurostat, 2012). Web 2.0 applications have been used in technology-enhanced learning environments. Learning 2.0 is a concept that has been used to describe the use of social media for learning. Many Learning 2.0 initiatives have been launched by educational and training institutions in Europe. Web 2.0 applications have also been used for informal learning. Web 2.0 tools can be used in classrooms, virtual or not, not only to engage students but also to support collaborative activities. Many of these tools allow users to use tags to organize resources and facilitate their retrieval at a later date or time. The aim of this chapter is to describe how tagging has been used in systems that support formal or informal learning and to summarize the functionalities that are common to these systems. In addition, common and unusual tagging applications that have been used in some Learning Objects Repositories are analysed.

From e-learning systems to specialised e-learning services

Learning systems are evolving from component based and centralized architectures towards service oriented and decentralized architectures. The standardization of e-learning content and interoperability is a powerful force in this evolution. In this chapter we put in perspective the evolution of e-learning systems and standards, and argue that specialized services will play an important role in future learning systems, especially in those targeted for competitive learning.

Modelling a network of heterogeneous e-learning systems

In recent years emerged several initiatives promoted by educational organizations to adapt Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) to e-learning. These initiatives commonly named eLearning Frameworks share a common goal: to create flexible learning environments by integrating heterogeneous systems already available in many educational institutions. However, these frameworks were designed for integration of systems participating in business like processes rather than on complex pedagogical processes as those related to automatic evaluation. Consequently, their knowledge bases lack some fundamental components that are needed to model pedagogical processes. The objective of the research described in this paper is to study the applicability of eLearning frameworks for modelling a network of heterogeneous eLearning systems, using the automatic evaluation of programming exercises as a case study. The paper surveys the existing eLearning frameworks to justify the selection of the e-Framework. This framework is described in detail and identified the necessary components missing from its knowledge base, more precisely, a service genre, expression and usage model for an evaluation service. The extensibility of the framework is tested with the definition of this service. A concrete model for evaluation of programming exercises is presented as a validation of the proposed approach.

Curso E-learning de sistemas multicorpo (multibody systems) para engenheiros mecânicos

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Teaching and learning with social software in higher education: content management systems integrated with Web-based applications as a key factor for success

The change of paradigm imposed by the Bologna process, in which the student will be responsible for their own learning, and the presence of a new generation of students with higher technological skills, represent a huge challenge for higher education institutions. The use of new Web Social concepts in teaching process, supported by applications commonly called Web 2.0, with which these new students feel at ease, can bring benefits in terms of motivation and the frequency and quality of students' involvement in academic activities. An e-learning platform with web-based applications as a complement can significantly contribute to the development of different skills in higher education students, covering areas which are usually in deficit.

Learning domain-specific sentiment lexicons with applications to recommender systems

Search is now going beyond looking for factual information, and people wish to search for the opinions of others to help them in their own decision-making. Sentiment expressions or opinion expressions are used by users to express their opinion and embody important pieces of information, particularly in online commerce. The main problem that the present dissertation addresses is how to model text to find meaningful words that express a sentiment. In this context, I investigate the viability of automatically generating a sentiment lexicon for opinion retrieval and sentiment classification applications. For this research objective we propose to capture sentiment words that are derived from online users’ reviews. In this approach, we tackle a major challenge in sentiment analysis which is the detection of words that express subjective preference and domain-specific sentiment words such as jargon. To this aim we present a fully generative method that automatically learns a domain-specific lexicon and is fully independent of external sources. Sentiment lexicons can be applied in a broad set of applications, however popular recommendation algorithms have somehow been disconnected from sentiment analysis. Therefore, we present a study that explores the viability of applying sentiment analysis techniques to infer ratings in a recommendation algorithm. Furthermore, entities’ reputation is intrinsically associated with sentiment words that have a positive or negative relation with those entities. Hence, is provided a study that observes the viability of using a domain-specific lexicon to compute entities reputation. Finally, a recommendation system algorithm is improved with the use of sentiment-based ratings and entities reputation.

Testing Delivery Systems in Transnational virtual learning: the vocational management training for the european tourism industry (VocMat) case study

This article discusses the lessons learned from developing and delivering the Vocational Management Training for the European Tourism Industry (VocMat) online training programme, which was aimed at providing flexible, online distance learning for the European tourism industry. The programme was designed to address managers ‘need for flexible, senior management level training which they could access at a time and place which fitted in with their working and non-work commitments. The authors present two main approaches to using the Virtual Learning Environment, the feedback from the participants, and the implications of online Technology in extending tourism training opportunities

Learning about Distributed Systems

This paper presents the "state of the art" about distributed systems and applications and it's focused on teaching about these systems. It presents different platforms where to run distributed applications and describes some development toolkits whose can be used to develop prototypes, practices and distributed applications. It also presents some existing distributed algorithms useful for class practices, and some tools to help managing distributed environments. Finally, the paper presents some teaching experiences with different approaches on how to teach about distributed systems.

Dialogic learning and interactive groups: an IMS LD template integrated in runtime systems

Dialogic learning and interactive groups have proved to be a useful methodological approach appliedin educational situations for lifelong adult learners. The principles of this approach stress theimportance of dialogue and equal participation also when designing the training activities. This paperadopts these principles as the basis for a configurable template that can be integrated in runtimesystems. The template is formulated as a meta-UoL which can be interpreted by IMS Learning Designplayers. This template serves as a guide to flexibly select and edit the activities at runtime (on the fly).The meta-UoL has been used successfully by a practitioner so as to create a real-life example, withpositive and encouraging results

Towards reusability and tailorability in collaborative learning systems using IMS-LD and grid services

CSCL applications are complex distributed systems that posespecial requirements towards achieving success in educationalsettings. Flexible and efficient design of collaborative activitiesby educators is a key precondition in order to provide CSCL tailorable systems, capable of adapting to the needs of eachparticular learning environment. Furthermore, some parts ofthose CSCL systems should be reused as often as possible inorder to reduce development costs. In addition, it may be necessary to employ special hardware devices, computational resources that reside in other organizations, or even exceed thepossibilities of one specific organization. Therefore, theproposal of this paper is twofold: collecting collaborativelearning designs (scripting) provided by educators, based onwell-known best practices (collaborative learning flow patterns) in a standard way (IMS-LD) in order to guide the tailoring of CSCL systems by selecting and integrating reusable CSCL software units; and, implementing those units in the form of grid services offered by third party providers. More specifically, this paper outlines a grid-based CSCL system having these features and illustrates its potential scope and applicability by means of a sample collaborative learning scenario.

Combining Generic Programming and Service-Oriented Architectures for the Effective and Timely Development of Complex e-Learning Systems

Peer-reviewed

Secuenciamiento de actividades educativas orientado a la reutilización y la auto-organización en tutoría inteligente. ' 'Sequencing of learning activities oriented towards reuse and auto-organization for intelligent tutoring systems' '.

Se pretende la elaboración una plataforma capaz de implementar sistemas de tutoría inteligente, orientada al problema de la adaptación del secuenciamiento; la creación de una herramienta o método que defina secuenciamientos adaptativos de material educativo; el desarrollo, empleando la herramienta anterior, de uno o más tutores y adaptar las técnicas de inteligencia de enjambre al campo de los cursos impartidos a través de Internet, Elearning.. En primer lugar se analiza el estado de la cuestión, destacando los aspectos novedosos. A continuación se presentan las aportaciones de la investigación. Por último, se exponen las conclusiones y las líneas de investigación abiertas. También se incluyen apéndices con información adicional que puede ser relevante para algunos lectores. Se investiga el uso de técnicas de inteligencia de enjambre para obtener sistemas educativos robustos y con capacidad de autoorganización. Las lecciones aprendidas de los sistemas cristalizan en la creación de un módulo para SIT.. Las principales contribuciones son: el diseño de una plataforma para el desarrollo de Sistemas de Tutoría Inteligentes (ITS); se presenta una herramienta para la adaptación de secuencias de unidades de aprendizaje, grafos de secuenciamiento (Sequencing Graphs, SG) y se analizan las iniciativas actuales relacionadas con las técnicas de enjambre en educación. Estas técnicas tienen un interés especial para los sistemas de elearning dada su complejidad. .

Dialogue Systems for Language Learning

En este artículo se presenta el caso de Milao, un entorno virtual que ofrece a los estudiantes de idiomas extranjeros la oportunidad de desarrollar y mejorar sus habilidades comunicativas dialogando en escenarios de conversación predefinidos que simulan la interacción con un nativo. Esta tecnología propone una solución a uno de los mayores retos en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras: la falta de oportunidades para poner en práctica la gramática y el vocabulario recién adquiridos. Combinando la investigación sobre la lingüística y el aprendizaje de lenguas con los avances tecnológicos en el campo del Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural (NPL), particularmente sobre sistemas de diálogo, hemos creado oportunidades en la demanda de los estudiantes a conversar en la lengua que tratan de aprender.