Semantic Web applications: a framework for industry and business exploitation – What is needed for the adoption of the Semantic Web from the market and industry

In recent years, Semantic Web (SW) research has resulted in significant outcomes. Various industries have adopted SW technologies, while the ‘deep web’ is still pursuing the critical transformation point, in which the majority of data found on the deep web will be exploited through SW value layers. In this article we analyse the SW applications from a ‘market’ perspective. We are setting the key requirements for real-world information systems that are SW-enabled and we discuss the major difficulties for the SW uptake that has been delayed. This article contributes to the literature of SW and knowledge management providing a context for discourse towards best practices on SW-based information systems.

Gestión de la actividad no presencial y autoevaluación de competencias = Management of Student Learning Outside the Classroom and the Self-evaluation of Competences

Psychological Assessment is a core subject of Psychology studies, and of the university degree Human development, at the University of Girona and according to the University regulations, had 12 credits. Until the 2005-06 academic years, the student work conducted outside the classroom consisted of undertaking a psychological assessment that was written and handed in at the end of the course. From this the student obtained a qualification and a review if they applied for it In accordance with the European Credits for Higher Education, this subject was reduced to 9 credits, which is the equivalent of a total of 255 hours of in-class work and outside the classroom. In the 2006-07 academic year we created a guide to manage the student’s experiences outside the classroom, with the objective of encouraging the application of problem solving/critical thinking (Bloom, 1975), in line with the recommendations of the Catalonia Agency for University System Quality (2005). The guide includes: learning objectives, evaluation criterions, a description of activities, work week timetable for the whole course, programmed tutorials to review all steps of the psychological assessment process, and the use of a web-based virtual forum for the transfer of knowledge, analysis and constructive critiques of the assessment done by themselves and their colleagues

Análisis del entorno colaborativo creado para una experiencia de mobile learning

Se presentan los resultados de una investigación sobre las concepciones y usos de dispositivos móviles de un grupo de estudiantes que trabajaron en un entorno de aprendizaje colaborativo como parte un proceso de e-learning. Se emplearon dos métodos de investigación, en primer lugar el análisis del contenido de los mensajes de un foro de discusión enviados durante todo el curso, para recoger datos acerca del uso y la valoración que hacían del proceso de mobile learning. Posteriormente, mediante las entrevistas en profundidad, se analizó la percepción de mobile learning y los cambios producido durante el curso en el entorno colaborativo de aprendizaje. Los resultados indican que el entorno de intercambio creado amplifica la participación y colaboración entre los alumnos en el proceso de mobile learning, favoreciendo un mayor protagonismo de los estudiantes en una experiencia de aprendizaje online.

Student Journalism 2.0 : Testing Models for Participatory Learning in the Digital Age

Many educators and educational institutions have yet to integrate web-based practices into their classrooms and curricula. As a result, it can be difficult to prototype and evaluate approaches to transforming classrooms from static endpoints to dynamic, content-creating nodes in the online information ecosystem. But many scholastic journalism programs have already embraced the capabilities of the Internet for virtual collaboration, dissemination, and reader participation. Because of this, scholastic journalism can act as a test-bed for integrating web-based sharing and collaboration practices into classrooms. Student Journalism 2.0 was a research project to integrate open copyright licenses into two scholastic journalism programs, to document outcomes, and to identify recommendations and remaining challenges for similar integrations. Video and audio recordings of two participating high school journalism programs informed the research. In describing the steps of our integration process, we note some important legal, technical, and social challenges. Legal worries such as uncertainty over copyright ownership could lead districts and administrators to disallow open licensing of student work. Publication platforms among journalism classrooms are far from standardized, making any integration of new technologies and practices difficult to achieve at scale. And teachers and students face challenges re-conceptualizing the role their class work can play online.

CRM and higher education : developing a monitoring system to improve relationships in e-learning environments

Peer-reviewed

Broadening the CRM domain of application to higher educational (e-learning) environments

In this paper, we reflect about the broadening of the field of application of CRM from the business domain to a wider context of relationships in which the inclusion of non-profit making organizations seems natural. In particular, we focus on analyzing the suitability of adopting CRM processes by universities and higher educational institutions dedicated to e-learning. This is an issue that, in our opinion, has much potential but has received little attention in research so far.

Enriching e-learning metadata through digital library usage analysis

Peer-reviewed

University teacher competences in a virtual teaching/learning environment : analysis of a teacher training experience

This paper attempts to shed light on the competencies a teacher must have inorder to teach in online university environments. We will relate a teacher trainingexperience, which was designed taking into account the methodological criteriaestablished in line with previous theoretical principles. The main objective of ouranalysis is to identify the achievements and difficulties of a specific formativeexperience, with the ultimate goal of assessing the suitability of this conceptualmethodologicalframework for the design of formative proposals aiming to contribute tothe development of teacher competencies for virtual environments.

Towards automated specifications of scenarios in enhanced learning technology

Recent standardization efforts in e-learning technology have resulted in a number of specifications, however, the automation process that is considered essential in a learning management system (LMS) is a lessexplored one. As learning technology becomes more widespread and more heterogeneous, there is a growing need to specify processes that cross the boundaries of a single LMS or learning resource repository. This article proposes to obtain a specification orientated to automation that takes on board the heterogeneity of systems and formats and provides a language for specifying complex and generic interactions. Having this goal in mind, a technique based on three steps is suggested. The semantic conformance profiles, the business process management (BPM) diagram, and its translation into the business process execution language (BPEL) seem to be suitable for achieving it.

An ontology to automated learning scenarios? an approach to its knowledge domain

Automation or semi-automation of learning scenariospecifications is one of the least exploredsubjects in the e-learning research area. There isa need for a catalogue of learning scenarios and atechnique to facilitate automated retrieval of stored specifications. This requires constructing anontology with this goal and is justified inthis paper. This ontology must mainlysupport a specification technique for learning scenarios. This ontology should also be useful in the creation and validation of new scenarios as well as in the personalization of learning scenarios or their monitoring. Thus, after justifying the need for this ontology, a first approach of a possible knowledge domain is presented. An example of a concrete learning scenario illustrates some relevant concepts supported by this ontology in order to define the scenario in such a way that it could be easy to automate.

Metadata for describing learning scenarios under European Higher Education Area paradigm

In this paper we identify the requirements for creating formal descriptions of learning scenarios designed under the European HigherEducation Area paradigm, using competences and learning activities as the basic pieces of the learning process, instead of contents and learning resources, pursuing personalization. Classical arrangements of content based courses are no longer enough to describe all the richness of this new learning process, where user profiles, competences and complex hierarchical itineraries need to be properly combined. We study the intersection with the current IMS Learning Design specification and theadditional metadata required for describing such learning scenarios. This new approach involves the use of case based learning and collaborativelearning in order to acquire and develop competences, following adaptive learning paths in two structured levels.

Learning 2.0 : concepts and experiences

E-learning arises in all educative contexts and levels with the use of information and communication technologies and massive access to internet connected computers. On the other hand, the fast development of social networking tools and web 2.0 technologies are producing an evolution of e-learning towards what is called a learning 2.0 paradigm. In this short paper weshall present the main technologies and pedagogical issues related to that new way of learning and how we can use them to improve the acquisition of competences and new knowledge.