Enhanced recommendations for e-learning authoring tools based on a proactive context-aware recommender

Authoring tools are powerful systems in the area of e-Learning that make easier for teachers to create new learning objects by reusing or editing existing educational resources coming from learning repositories or content providers. However, due to the overwhelming number of resources these tools can access, sometimes it is difficult for teachers to find the most suitable resources taking into account their needs in terms of content (e.g. topic) or pedagogical aspects (e.g. target level associated to their students). Recommender systems can take an important role trying to mitigate this problem. In this paper we propose a new model to generate proactive context-aware recommendations on resources during the creation process of a new learning object that a teacher carries out by using an authoring tool. The common use cases covered by the model for having recommendations in online authoring tools and details about the recommender model itself are presented.

Integration of SCORM packages into web games

This paper presents a model that enables the integration of SCORM packages into web games. It is based on the fact that SCORM packages are prepared to be integrated into Learning Management Systems and to communicate with them. Hence in a similar way they can also be integrated into web games. The application of this model results in the linkage between the Learning Objects inside the package and specific actions or conditions in the game. The educational content will be shown to the players when they perform these actions or the conditions are met. For example, when they need a special weapon they will have to consume the Learning Object to get it. Based on this model we have developed an open source web platform which main aim is to facilitate teachers the creation of educational games. They can select existing SCORM packages or upload their own ones and then select a game template in which the Learning Objects will be integrated. The resulting educational game will be available online. Details about the model and the developed platform are explained in this paper. Also links to the platform and an example of a generated game will be provided.

An online e-Learning authoring tool to create interactive multi-device learning objects using e-Infrastructure resources

Education can take advantage of e-Infrastructures to provide teachers with new opportunities to increase students' motivation and engagement while they learn. Nevertheless, teachers need to find, integrate and customize the resources provided by e-Infrastructures in an easy way. This paper presents ViSH Editor, an innovative web-based e-Learning authoring tool that aims to allow teachers to create new learning objects using e-Infrastructure resources. These new learning objects are called Virtual Excursions and are created as reusable, granular and interoperable learning objects. This way they can be reused to build new ones and they can be integrated in websites or Learning Management Systems. Details about the design, development and the tool itself are explained in this paper as well as the concept, structure and metadata of the new learning objects. Lastly, some real examples of how to enrich learning using Virtual Excursions are exposed.

A model for integrating learning object repository resources into web videoconference services

Reusing Learning Objects saves time and reduce development costs. Hence, achieving their interoperability in multiple contexts is essential when creating a Learning Object Repository. On the other hand, novel web videoconference services are available due to technological advancements. Several benefits can be gained by integrating Learning Objects into these services. For instance, they can allow sharing, co-viewing and synchronized co-browsing of these resources at the same time that provide real time communication. However, several efforts need to be undertaken to achieve the interoperability with these systems. In this paper, we propose a model to integrate the resources of the Learning Object Repositories into web videoconference services. The experience of applying this model in a real e-Learning scenario achieving interoperability with two different web videoconference services is also described.

An architecture for integrating learning object repository resources into web videoconference services

Reusing Learning Objects saves time and reduce development costs. Hence, achieving their interoperability in multiple contexts is essential when creating a Learning Object Repository. On the other hand, novel web videoconference services are available due to technological advancements. Several benefits can be gained by integrating Learning Objects into these services. For instance, they can allow sharing, co-viewing and synchronized co-browsing of these resources at the same time that provide real time communication. However, several efforts need to be undertaken to achieve the interoperability with these systems. In this paper, we propose a model to integrate the resources of the Learning Object Repositories into web videoconference services. The experience of applying this model in a real e-Learning scenario achieving interoperability with two different web videoconference services is also described.

Arquitectura antidesertización. Fluidez, biodiversidad, hidrofilia y transpirabilidad

La escasez de recursos, la desertización creciente y el previsible calentamiento global forman un escenario físico sin precedentes que urge la revisión de las relaciones entre arquitectura y agua en la urbanización de los paisajes secos, donde la aridez es el factor limitante principal. Cuestionar la idea de escasez, la de residuo o la de confort es el punto de partida para analizar la hidrología urbana. La condición ubicua y dinámica del agua, sus continuos cambios de estado y las implicaciones energéticas y ambientales involucradas argumentan a favor de un entendimiento integral, holístico, que aborda el diseño en relación a lo paisajístico, lo infraestructural y lo ambiental como un único ámbito de investigación, planteado en términos no solo de materia o de escasez, sino de energía. Este trabajo se interesa por el rol de la arquitectura en este proyecto conjunto, integral, del espacio físico con el ciclo hidrológico donde lo orgánico, lo geológico y lo atmosférico están ligados, y donde las categorías de lo hidrológico y lo hidráulico se confunden. Las profundas implicaciones culturales en la construcción de la naturaleza urbana y en la relación con el cuerpo humano adquieren especial notoriedad en los modelos de paisaje y de espacio público adoptados, importados desde las geografías húmedas, y en la estigmatización del agua desde los presupuestos del higienismo decimonónico, que conduce al hidrofugado general de una ciudad aséptica y estéril, que se extiende hasta las envolventes de fachadas estancas y los interiores blancos y satinados. La búsqueda de referentes salta la modernidad hacia contextos de baja energía como el oasis tradicional de las tierras áridas, que concilia la formación de un ecosistema productivo con la climatización de un espacio público exterior, o los ambientes aislados de la investigación aeroespacial, con ciclos cerrados de materia. Las condiciones del ciclo del agua, como la vinculación con el suelo y el territorio, la capacidad de disolver, de mezclarse y de lavar, su volumen variable y su papel como termorregulador señalan el interés que características físicas como la fluidez, la biodiversidad, la hidrofilia y la transpirabilidad tienen para una arquitectura con competencias hidráulicas y un espacio urbano transparente a los procesos del agua. La morfología y localización, la elección de escalas, jerarquías y relaciones entre espacios y la reformulación de los sistemas constructivos aparecen como herramientas y categorías propias desde las que proponer mejores respuestas a problemas como la deshidratación, la erosión y la contaminación. Una urbanización permeable e hidrófila que absorba el agua como un recurso valioso, nuevos ensamblajes para la bioquímica urbana (que introduzcan una idea de limpieza más próxima a fertilidad que a la desinfección), y el diseño de las condiciones atmosféricas a través de una arquitectura transpirable, que se empapa y rezuma frescor, son las claves de este nuevo proyecto. La ciudad se piensa como una síntesis multiescalar de espacios hidráulicos que aporta mayor resiliencia frente a la desertificación y las condiciones climáticas extremas, y mayor visibilidad en la escena pública al agua y a las inevitables conexiones entre ecología y economía. Pero también es una oportunidad para revisar las categorías disciplinares, para renovar las consistencias materiales, las calidades ambientales y las relaciones entre el cuerpo y el espacio. ABSTRACT The shortage of resources, foreseeable global warming and increasing desertification create an unprecedented prospect that question the existing relationships between water and architecture, in the urbanization of the arid lands. The awareness of the huge volumes of water that pierce unnoticed through urban space, their impact on the landscape as well as on environmental qualities, promote a design field where cultural, social and political considerations intersect, related to the body and the physical experience of space within the built environment. Fluidity and ubiquity, solution ability, variability and cyclical processes are characteristic of water as material, directly related with the fields of potential, chemical and thermal energy and the reality of its mass, as it occupies a changing volume in space. These are also the imposing cross sections that water introduces into the project, that argue in favor of a comprehensive and holistic understanding, of addressing design in relationship to landscape, infrastructure and environmental issues as a one single area of research. This work attempts to investigate how architecture, with its specific tools, can partake in the design of water cycle in the space, linking the organic, geological, and atmospheric, blurring the lines between hydrology and hydraulic. It aims to identify issues, within the continuous query associated with water, that deal with the architectural project and may have here better results. The deep cultural implications in the construction of urban nature and the relationship with the body, acquire special notoriety in the models of landscape and public space adopted, imported from humid geographies. Also in the stigmatization of water from the premises of nineteenth- century hygienics, which lead to the entire waterproofing of an aseptic and sterile city, to the sealed facades and white and polished interiors. The search for alternative references goes beyond modernity towards a mindset of low energy, as the traditional oasis of arid lands, which aims to reconcile the formation of a productive ecosystem with the conditioning of an outdoor public space, or the controlled environments of aerospace research, with closed cycles of matter. Fluidity, biodiversity, hydrophilicity and breathability are characteristic of an architecture with hydraulic competences. The distributing phenomenon of water, its necessary connectivity to the ground and to small cycles in the ecosystems, shows strong affinities with an infrastructural architecture, as an alternative to large-scale centralized networks. Its volume has approximated to the dimensions of the built space, promoting a new found condition of coexistence. A permeable and hydrophilic urbanization absorbs water as a valuable resource; new assemblies for urban biochemistry introduce an idea of sanitation closer to fertility than to disinfection; a breathable architecture that soaks and exudes freshness design the atmospheric conditions: these are the essential components of this new project. The city is understood as a synthesis of multi-scale hydraulic spaces that provides greater resilience against desertification and increases the visibility of water and the linkages between ecology and economy in the public scene. It is also an opportunity to review the disciplinary categories of architecture, the material consistencies, the environmental qualities and the relationship between body and space.

Capacity Building through education, research and collaboration: AFRICA BUILD, an eHealth Case Study

AFRICA BUILD (AB) is a Coordination Action project under the 7th European Framework Programme having the aim of improving the capacities for health research and education in Africa through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This project, started in 2012, has promoted health research, education and evidence-based practice in Africa through the creation of centers of excellence, by using ICT,?know-how?, eLearning and knowledge sharing, through Web-enabled virtual communities.

COMUNICAÇÃO POPULAR-ALTERNATIVA DESENVOLVIDA POR JOVENS INDÍGENAS DAS ALDEIAS DO JAGUAPIRU E BORORÓ EM DOURADOS / MS

Trata-se de um estudo de caso em que analisamos a comunicação alternativa desenvolvida pela AJI (Ação dos Jovens Indígenas), em Dourados/MS, nas aldeias do Jaguapiru e Bororó. Os jovens, que produzem audiovisuais, fotografias, blog, fotolog e um jornal impresso, encontraram na comunicação uma alternativa ante à marginalidade com que os índios são tratados na cidade, e buscarem seus direitos à voz e ao espaço social, em suas próprias tribos, já que os jovens indígenas solteiros ocupam um não-lugar na Reserva, pois não pertencem à organização tradicional indígena, tampouco estão inseridos entre os brancos. A partir das características e limitações da comunicação alternativa no Jornal AJIndo, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas semi-estruturadas e análise de conteúdo, buscamos verificar o impacto da utilização desta comunicação nas aldeias para os jovens que a produzem, levando em conta interferências nas formas tradicionais de hierarquia e comunicação entre os indígenas e a função social da comunicação alternativa para eles. Embora não seja o objetivo principal do AJIndo, destaca-se o desenvolvimento da auto-estima como resultado desse processo. Soma-se a esta função, a mobilização por transformação social e a formação crítico-educativa. Após o esforço de organização, os jovens começaram a se sentir pertencentes aos indígenas e a serem ouvidos pelos brancos, mesmo que acreditem ser por interesses políticos da comunidade como um todo.

COMUNICAÇÃO POPULAR-ALTERNATIVA DESENVOLVIDA POR JOVENS INDÍGENAS DAS ALDEIAS DO JAGUAPIRU E BORORÓ EM DOURADOS / MS

Trata-se de um estudo de caso em que analisamos a comunicação alternativa desenvolvida pela AJI (Ação dos Jovens Indígenas), em Dourados/MS, nas aldeias do Jaguapiru e Bororó. Os jovens, que produzem audiovisuais, fotografias, blog, fotolog e um jornal impresso, encontraram na comunicação uma alternativa ante à marginalidade com que os índios são tratados na cidade, e buscarem seus direitos à voz e ao espaço social, em suas próprias tribos, já que os jovens indígenas solteiros ocupam um não-lugar na Reserva, pois não pertencem à organização tradicional indígena, tampouco estão inseridos entre os brancos. A partir das características e limitações da comunicação alternativa no Jornal AJIndo, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas semi-estruturadas e análise de conteúdo, buscamos verificar o impacto da utilização desta comunicação nas aldeias para os jovens que a produzem, levando em conta interferências nas formas tradicionais de hierarquia e comunicação entre os indígenas e a função social da comunicação alternativa para eles. Embora não seja o objetivo principal do AJIndo, destaca-se o desenvolvimento da auto-estima como resultado desse processo. Soma-se a esta função, a mobilização por transformação social e a formação crítico-educativa. Após o esforço de organização, os jovens começaram a se sentir pertencentes aos indígenas e a serem ouvidos pelos brancos, mesmo que acreditem ser por interesses políticos da comunidade como um todo.

Creating A Research Writing Environment With Personalized Library Instruction

Inman E. Page Library participated in the ARCL's Assessment in Action project led by Academic Librarian kYmberly Keeton. This is the final project poster presented by Ms. Keeton at ALA's 2016 Annual at Orlando, Florida. The poster shows how one faculty library group comes together to explore assessing students’ writing intensive projects in three academic semesters within a scholarly learning space at a Historically Black College University.

TravTek evaluation task C3 - camera car study. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Safety and Traffic Operations Research and Development, McLean, Va.

Is someone contaminating-- your drinking water? : an overview of potentially harmful shallow injection wells.

Mode of access: Internet.

Philosophy and the war, /

Mode of access: Internet.

Evaluation of retroreflective sheetings for use on roadway traffic signs. Final report.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Oklahoma City

Potential for application of ignition interlock devices to prohibit operation of motor vehicles by intoxicated individuals. Final report.

Mode of access: Internet.