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2007 | Book

Innovations in E-learning, Instruction Technology, Assessment, and Engineering Education

Editor: Magued Iskander, Ph.D., PE

Publisher: Springer Netherlands

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About this book

Innovations in E-learning, Instruction Technology, Assessment and Engineering Education includes a set of rigorously reviewed world-class manuscripts addressing and detailing state-of-the-art research projects in the areas of Engineering Education, Instructional Technology, Assessment, and E-learning.

Innovations in E-learning, Instruction Technology, Assessment and Engineering Education includes selected papers form the conference proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Education, Instructional Technology, Assessment, and E-learning (EIAE 2006) which was part of the International Joint Conferences on Computer, Information and Systems Sciences and Engineering (CISSE 2006).

All aspects of the conference were managed on-line; not only the reviewing, submissions and registration processes; but also the actual conference. Conference participants - authors, presenters and attendees - only needed an internet connection and sound available on their computers in order to be able to contribute and participate in this international ground-breaking conference. The on-line structure of this high-quality event allowed academic professionals and industry participants to contribute work and attend world-class technical presentations based on rigorously refereed submissions, live, without the need for investing significant travel funds or time out of the office. Suffice to say that CISSE received submissions from more than 70 countries, for whose researchers, this opportunity presented a much more affordable, dynamic and well-planned event to attend and submit their work to, versus a classic, on-the-ground conference.

The CISSE conference audio room provided superb audio even over low speed internet connections, the ability to display PowerPoint presentations, and cross-platform compatibility (the conferencing software runs on Windows, Mac, and any other operating system that supports Java). In addition, the conferencing system allowed for an unlimited number of participants, which in turn granted CISSE the opportunity to allow all participants to attend all presentations, as opposed to limiting the number of available seats for each session.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Role Of Ldap In Enterprise
Amrita Shukla, A.S. Thoke, Smita Shukla
Engineering modelling in transfer function form: an active learner approach

Traditionally, the modelling of real systems in engineering, using transfer functions, has been done in a mathematically intense manner. However, non-traditional learners such as mature students, part-time students and students without a conventional second-level educational background may not have strong mathematical foundations; in addition, all students increasingly expect technical work which is practical and which motivates independent learning. This paper reports on, reflects on and evaluates an innovative experiment developed by the author to estimate a transfer function model of a persons’ eye-brain-hand motor response. In the experiment, carried out using a PC with data acquisition capability, the person is successively asked to track, with a mouse, ten sine wave signals at different frequencies on a computer screen. Based on an average of the data recorded, the person’s eye-brain-hand motor response in the frequency domain is recorded (and may be summarized on a Bode plot). Subsequently, the parameters of a single input, single output (SISO) process model may be determined, using an analytical technique.

Aidan O’Dwyer
PCML: A Pedagogy-oriented Content Markup Language

Online learning requires learning material to be made available in a suitable manner over a network. Content Management System (CMS) [1] helps in making the learning materials organized and accessible in some intelligent fashion online. Content creation for a CMS requires two roles of people, teacher and content developer. Content developer interacts with teacher for getting content. Content developer then formats and places content into a CMS. This interaction between teacher and content developer is manual and depends on their personal experience.

Pedagogy-oriented Content Markup Language (PCML) is an effort to automate this interaction between teacher and content developer. PCML defines a set of tags, for tagging content, based on the pedagogic role of a particular part of content. Content developer can then use this tagged content (developed by teacher) to develop contents for a specific Content Management System. It also addresses many other issues in content development like reusability, personalization and minimal loss of information.

Akshay Kumar, M Sasikumar
Macromedia Flash Graphic Design Possibilities

Because of limited capabilities of media processing in Flash, visual and sound components of many Flash projects are modified in other appropriate applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Audition, Macromedia Freehand, etc. and Flash is used to compile those materials in the desired composition. The main idea of this work is to overcome standard uses of Flash and to present it as a tool for creating design solutions through many possibilities that ActionScript programming language offers. Main features of this kind of design are computer-generated shapes, colors and compositions based on random selection in a way that the designer does not entirely know the final solution until the program ends.

Creating that kind of design solution requires fundamental knowledge of Macromedia Flash tool, ActionScript code and structure of algorithm. Our work will present how to make simple but effective solutions using basic tools only.

Alen Okanović, Dubravko Banić, Tina Ćorluka
New approaches for Linux-based Undergraduate Operating System Concepts Laboratories

It is widely accepted that hands-on experience is key to helping students get a better grasp of the concepts, techniques and technologies introduced in lectures. The following quote, attributed to Confucius, embodies the underlying philosophy quite well; “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”. This paper discusses the design and implementation of a set of laboratories for an introductory undergraduate lecture in Operating Systems Concepts (OSC). More specifically, we focus on exploring how the Linux kernel can be made even more suitable as a vector from which to learn operating systems’ internals. To this end, we present a new pedagogical approach to Linux-based OSC laboratories which addresses issues stemming from Linux‘s monolithic kernel architecture and its “real world” complexity. We also apply the lessons learned form educational operating systems (OS) and show how some of the assignments which are typically unsuitable for production-level OSes can be adapted to offer students the best of both world. This paper then describes how these ideas can be translated into a laboratory structure, which favors learning by scaffolding, and further develops this structure into a set of laboratories covering both “classical” and new topics in operating systems. The analysis of the technical and pedagogical features of these laboratories concludes this paper.

Alessio Gaspar, Sarah Langevin
The Case for Case Study assignments in Undergraduate Operating Systems Courses

Undergraduate operating systems courses can benefit form a plethora of pedagogical activities and approaches; system-level programming, kernel programming, algorithms simulations, etc. This paper explores the benefits of assigning students a semester-long case study in such a course and discusses the lessons learned from doing so for the past 4 years. We then propose to revisit the core objectives of such an activity and suggest a generic structure which can easily be adapted to fit institutions, courses and instructors requirements. The proposed case study assignment offers a scaffolding-based guidance to students and combines a high technical level with a good diversity of topics while addressing the issues which are typical in such assignment.

Alessio Gaspar, Sarah Langevin
Inexpensive, Scalable and Transparent Open Source Classroom Management for Linux-based Laboratories

Many courses in the computing curricula (CS, ITℓ) can benefit form hands-on pedagogical activities in the form of laboratory components associated with the lectures. While the benefits of such hands-on learning sessions is agreed upon, some courses offer a non-trivial challenge to instructors (and sometime even institutions) interested in providing this kind of experience to their students. Operating systems, system administration and networking are all examples of laboratories for which students need root access to be able to experiment with the concepts and implementation studied in the lectures. With this constraint comes the need for a more flexible classroom management strategy. This paper explores how some open source virtualization and clustering technologies can be deployed to provide students, as well as instructors, with such an environment. We focus on providing solutions which can integrate transparently to any campus without involving significant changes to the classroom computers. This enables us to integrate Linux-based courseware even on campuses exclusively using proprietary software without actually requiring Linux to be installed in the classrooms. We also emphasize the scalability aspect by providing a highly cost-effective solution which can be easily scaled up as the number of students or the requirements of the course in terms of computational power increase.

Alessio Gaspar, Sarah Langevin, William D. Armitage
A general Framework and Booking System for Online Laboratories based on Open Source Technologies

This paper discusses the creation of a common Framework for Online Laboratories especially used in the field of e-Learning. Online Laboratories allow students to deepen their knowledge by doing experiments in practice by use of Online Laboratories. These Online Laboratories can be accessed over the Internet - thus allowing students to participate in laboratories whenever they want and from wherever they are.

Currently available reservation Systems for Online Laboratories are central based systems - allowing booking and access to the Online Labs over only one central system. The past has shown that this implies one big disadvantage: If the reservation system is down for some reason, an Online Laboratory can not be booked or accessed any longer!

This paper shows a new way of avoiding this big disadvantage by use of a distributed reservation system. Furthermore it will show how easy and efficient Online Laboratories can be offered within a Common Framework.

De Vora Alexander, E. Auer Michael, Grout Ian
Teaching Mathematics and Computer Programming Together

Object-oriented computer programming and mathematical systems have commonality that may be used as a teaching tool: both operate with properties of and operations on abstract objects. A mathematical system is a triple ⌊set_of_elements, axioms, operations⌋, while object-oriented programming structure is a triple ⌊class, properties, methods⌋. It is suggested to use this commonality as a teaching tool with the goal of increasing students’ understanding of abstract mathematical categories. Following this approach, students will learn writing mathematical problems as algorithms in pseudocode thus improving mathematical communication skills. In this paper, groups of natural and whole numbers, a ring of integer numbers, fields of rational and real numbers, and a well-known Nim game are considered as examples.

A. Y. Vaninsky
Knowledge Representation of DC Electrical Circuits Analysis for E-Courses – From Basic Concepts to Long-Term Strategies

This paper describes a work in progress which consists in representing knowledge related to the analysis of DC elecatrical circuits taught to electrical engineering undergraduate students. In this paper, emphasis is put on the explicit representation of resolution strategies which span covers several steps, or the entire resolution process. To that end, a domain-independent cognitive-computational knowledge representation model is used, specially adapted to handle the description of long-term strategies. The resulting modelled knowledge is taught through an intelligent tutoring system

Amir Abdessemed, Jean-François Lebeau, André Mayers, Habib Hamam
Content and e-Learning Provision Services Management Framework: Architecture and Session Profile

During the last years, we are witnessing an explosion in WWW, communication and device technologies that enables access to e-Services via diverse means and locations. Systems that present different features and functionality, and offer various content and e-learning services are implemented en masse.

Proposed management framework aims at acting as a facilitator among content and e-learning systems, clients, underlying communication infrastructure and access devices, content and provided learning/delivery methods, offering an integration management architecture, while at the same time, acts as a broker for e-learning and content providing systems. Our framework is session profile centric, since a key characteristic of proposed architecture is the dynamic creation of user session by detecting and managing information and parameters that are either derived by stored profiles or change dynamically at each user session with middleware and concern user, broker or service current context .

In this paper, we present content and e-learning provision services context, resulting in functional requirements and design principles for our management and brokerage framework. We outline key features of proposed architecture with emphasis to session profile parameters and middleware components, and conclude with summarizing the main points of proposed framework.

Theodore Apostolopoulos, Anna Kefala
Sandesh – An Automatic Email Response System

E-learning has become very popular in the last few years and more and more people are switching to this mode of education. The primary mode of communication between the faculty and the students, in an e-learning scenario, is email. This mode of communication requires the faculty to answer the same query a number of times and this increases the burden on the faculty. We propose an email response system called Sandesh which addresses this issue. Sandesh uses NLP techniques to identify previous query-responses which match the new query and forwards the same response to the student. It also caters to fixed format queries. Sandesh also allows students to bypass it and directly contact the faculty. Further enhancements to support web and other local resources to generate responses are in progress.

R Aparna, M Sasikumar
A Constructive Learning Framework for Language Tutoring

There is a lot of interest in second language learning in formal as well as colloquial form. With the advent of Internet and computer technology there is more and more demand for computer-based tutoring systems for language learning. However, not all computer-based tutoring systems available address the pedagogy component in language learning. There is a need for a language tutoring system which not only uses technology to deliver content but also applies pedagogical component for effective personalized instruction. We have designed and developed a constructive learning framework for language tutoring. The framework enables personalized instruction by adapting itself to the knowledge level of the student. Various pedagogical principles for second language learning are incorporated in the system. Using the framework we have implemented a tutor for the Indian language Marathi. The framework can be adapted to develop tutoring systems for various languages.

Archana Rane, M Sasikumar
Assessing Critical Thinking in STEM and Beyond

This paper reports the latest findings of a project to refine the CAT© instrument, a new interdisciplinary assessment tool for evaluating students’ critical thinking skills. Tennessee Technological University partnered with six other institutions across the U.S. (University of Texas, University of Colorado, University of Washington, University of Hawaii, University of Southern Maine, and Howard University) to evaluate and refine the CAT instrument. The results of this project reveal the CAT instrument has high face validity when evaluated by a broad spectrum of faculty across the U.S. in STEM and non-STEM disciplines, has good criterion validity when compared to other instruments that measure critical thinking and intellectual performance, has good reliability, and good construct validity using expert evaluation in the area of learning sciences.

Barry Stein, Ada Haynes, Michael Redding, Theresa Ennis, Misty Cecil
The Teutates-Project: Tablet-PCs in Modern Physics Education

The overall objective of the TEUTATES approach is to implement a flexible mobile learning concept for a modern physics education at universities, focusing on enhanced access to a broad variety of experiments. Within a blended learning concept, Tablet-PCs allow an extended experimental part of the education right from the beginning. Different types of experiments – remote and virtual – are introduced. Executed within web-interfaces, experiments can be implemented and accessed regardless of the location of the laboratory and the experimenter. Additionally, experiments can be performed which otherwise would not be accessible for reasons of expense, security, or availability.

Students work individually or in small groups, designaing and executing different types and realizations of experiments including the investigation of the underlying theoretical models. Through its highly interactive approach, TEUTATES contributes to a modern pedagogy for university teaching which aims at creative thinking and high level learning, encouraging students to become active learners challenged by complex problems and situations, seeking collaboratively a variety of solutions. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are applied to learning purposes and modern pedagogics such as project-based learning, problem oriented learning, principles of non-linear learning, co-operative and cross-cultural learning.

N. Dahlmann, S. Jeschke, O. Pfeiffer, H. Scheel, C. Thomsen
Collaborative Virtual Environments for Teaching Physics

Eafit University created a Telepresence application for distance education. It supports bi-directional audio and video and a shared virtual environment that allows the instructor and students to manipulate virtual objects in a collaborative manner, thereby reinforcing the learning process. In this paper we report the experience of creating new contents and deploying the tool in a Physics course at Universidad del Quindío. The tool was improved an extended in order to include new functionality and make it easier for development teams to create new content. Teaching for Understanding was used as pedagogical framework for course creation and also as a guide to develop the interviews that were used to capture user’s perceptions and to asses the improvements in the learning process. The results showed that the use of the tool had a positive impact on the students’ understanding of the topics at hand.

Faber Giraldo, Àngela María, Jiménez Rojas, Pedro Esteban, Helmuth Trefftz
Intelligent Testing using Fuzzy Logic
Applying Fuzzy Logic to examination of students

This paper is focused on using the Fuzzy Logic to determine the Human Proficiency in a particular knowledge domain using ‘Time’ to solve the questions and ‘Score’(the number of questions answered correctly) as possible metrics. The outcome of the paper would be a Intelligent examination System that would be used to judge the students for the subjects taught at the under graduate level at NED University of Engineering & Technology. Fuzzy Logic, Intelligent Testing, E-Learning.

Syed Fahad, Allam Shah
An Experience Providing University Students with Skills to Work with Collaborative Tools

This paper summarizes the results of an experience in a subject at Carlos III University of Madrid in order to provide Graduate Software Engineering Students with collaborative teamwork skills and the collaborative tools to work with.

Fuensanta Medina-Domínguez, Antonio de Amescua, Maria-Isabel Sánchez-Segura, Javier García Guzmán
Designing an e-Learning System for Language Learning: A Case Study

Within the South African context, e-learning provides various opportunities to contribute towards a multilingual society. This paper describes a new project, ICALLESAL (Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning for Eleven South African Languages), where an e-learning system is being developed for the acquisition of the official South African languages. The paper commences by defining computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) within the context of e-learning. The benefits of CALL within the South African context are discussed, with specific focus on how it could promote a culture of multilingualism, and also help towards bridging the Digital Divide in South Africa. In the subsequent section, the ICALLESAL system is discussed in more detail by presenting various technologies, content objects, and features of the system.

Gerhard B van Huyssteen
E-Learning Tool & Remote Experiment on Simulation of the Control Systems used in Electrical Domain

The paper proposes an innovative approach of the teaching method using a virtual & remote laboratory. The e-learning product consists of two parts: the theoretical part and the remote experiment. The e-learning tool presented in this paper has been accomplished in the Leonardo da Vinci pilot project Virtual-Electro-Lab.

Gheorghe Scutaru, Paul Borza, Vasile Comnac
Design, Development and Implementation of a Bioinformatics Course Sequence

Bioinformatics is emerging as a new and exciting field. Biological data repositories are complex and increasing in size constantly. Manipulating, analyzing, and interpreting this data requires the use of computers and trained biomedical informaticians. Spending on bioinformatics projects has exceeded a billion dollars in the past year and is expected to grow every year. To support this growing need for trained biomedical informaticians, Devry University has developed a bioinformatics curriculum available to both onsite and online students. This paper provides a context for two of the classes in the curriculum, the course content, labs, and instruction.

Gina Cooper
An online 3d virtual learning environment for teaching children Mathematics

Structuring and organising an advanced online collaborative learning environment (CSCL) is the object of this research. The way it can be integrated in the classroom and the curriculum is related to the vision of every reform that aims at improving education. Most of the existing 3d virtual worlds do not combine learning benefits, development of advanced learning and communicative skills, as well as substantial involvement of both students and teachers in the learning process. At first, the theoretical background of the structure and organisation of our world is given. Then, a description is given of the general characteristics of Active Worlds software that was used, along with a brief description of the structure and characteristics of the 3d virtual environment that is being constructed to support the teaching of Mathematics in primary schools. The expected outcomes and proposals for future utilization follow.

H. Mpouta, F. Paraskeva, S. Retalis
The Concept and Strategy of ICT Integration in Teaching and Learning Process at Bina Nusantara University – Jakarta

This paper discusses ICT integration in teaching and learning process at Bina Nusantara University (UBiNus). The presentation starts with an introduction clarifying background of ICT implementation in higher education, e-Lerning definition and implementation models, and the internal factors that supporting UBiNus to integration ICT for teaching and learning process. Next, clarification of Multi Channel Learning Model designed for classroom activities, e-Learning activities, and self study. Initiatives policy describes class meeting, course materials, content development team, teaching certificate, and scoring policy. Programs related to MCL preparation for both lecturers and students, units, and IT supports are presented. The paper also discusses Learning Management System (LMS), infrastructure condition, and performances that will be achieved. It is concluded that ICT implementation in Bina Nusantara University supports not only administration and management activities, but also in teaching and learning activities.

Harjanto Prabowo
An Authoring Tool to Construct Adaptive Assessments

This article presents an authoring tool to construct adaptive assessments covering two aspects: the first one is a proposal to adapt to the learning style of the student by defining links to multimedia material that could be presented to the user and the second one is to adapt the questions presented to the student based on the level of difficulty of each item.

Héctor G. Barbosa León, Francisco J., García Peñalvo, Sergio Bravo
Delicious Learning Resources

This paper presents a novel approach to semantic annotation of learning resources using a blend of folksonomy keywords and ontology-based semantic annotation. This approach attempts to match folksonomy terms (after normalization), from bookmarked resources saved in a bookmarking service such as del.icio.us, against terms in the ontology (which operates as a controlled vocabulary). The approach will provide an attribute-value relationship that is semantically rich and adds ‘intelligence’ to searche for learning resources in a specific subject domain.

Hend S. Al-Khalifa, Hugh C. Davis
The effect of the CABLE approach on the levels of mental engagement of students in computer programming

This paper reports on the findings of the third of a series of trials (Project 3) which evaluated the impact of CABLE, a cognitive apprenticeship based learning environment on the teaching of computer programming at the National University of Samoa The results of the first two trials (Project 1 and Project 2) had shown that students exposed to CABLE evidenced increased scores on a post-test relative to those taught in the traditional (non-CABLE) mode of instruction. The aim of Project 3 was to investigate the effect of CABLE on the levels of mental engagement of students. The results of Project 3 indicated significant differences, in the levels of mental engagement, in students taught programming skills within CABLE classes, when compared to students taught programming skills within non-CABLE classes.

Dr Ioana Tuugalei, Chan Mow, Dr Wing Au, Dr Gregory Yates
Fuzzy TOPSIS Method for Academic Member Selection in Engineering Faculty

This paper presents fuzzy TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) method for academic member selection. In academic member selection problem the ratings of various alternatives versus various subjective criteria and the weights of all criteria are assessed in linguistic variables represented by fuzzy numbers. Fuzzy numbers try to resolve the ambiguity of concepts that are associated with human being’s judgments. To determine the order of the alternatives, closeness coefficient is defined by calculating the distances to the fuzzy positive ideal solution (FPIS) and fuzzy negative ideal solution (FNIS). Universities can select the appropriate academic member by using fuzzy TOPSIS method. By this way the quality of education will be increased in universities.

Írfan Ertuğrul, Nilsen Karakaşoğlu
Guidelines of Proposal Writing and Project Descriptions

This article deals with the relevant success factors of proposal writing and project description, based on long range experiences in the area of Leonardo and other large projects of skills development in Eastern-European regions. Authors emphasize the role of establishment and professionality in the proposal writing and project success. The article offers a framework and practical guidelines for trainers of proposal writing as well.

I.D. Mikus, J. Varsányi
Science And Engineering Research: Assessment Methods

The evaluation of research and indeed any aspect of science and engineering is a complex process. Engineering research encompasses a wide range of creative, theoretical and practical activities involving many communities within a country and beyond. Such diversity, both in the communities of interest that science and engineering serves, and in the character of the research itself, poses a number of challenges to the assessment of excellence.

All those responsible for the funding of public research, across the globe, are re-examining the methods traditionally used to assess research quality. Government funded research agencies are increasingly under pressure to justify their share of tax- payers’ money.

Meanwhile, research, particularly engineering research, is becoming increasingly more interdisciplinary, carried out by a wider set of practitioners, whose interests include simple wealth creation and academic excellence. It is in this complex, dynamic environment that the essential differences between science and engineering are sometimes overlooked.

This paper therefore presents in simple terms what we consider to be general principles for the assessment of excellence in science and engineering research, adaptable to different needs.

J.K. Kiplagat, P.K. Rotich
Issues In The Evaluation Of A Program To Provide Assistance To Science Teachers In Inner-City Secondary Schools

Revitalizing Achievement by using Instrumentation in Science Education (RAISE) is an NSF funded program in which undergraduate and graduate engineering students (Fellows) assist high school science teachers, using sensor-based experiments as laboratory exercises to test concepts taught in the classroom. Fellows assist the teachers in presenting the labs and checking that students understand their assignments. Fellows are also utilized to help teachers in other ways such as clarifying concepts taught in class and to assure that students working in groups were following their assignments properly and understood the main concepts involved. Initial analysis of grades and test scores of students involved in RAISE after the first year of the program have not shown any major academic changes or differences that can be attributed to the project. Issues involved in making such comparisons in a real-life setting are raised in the paper.

Questionnaire data from the high school students and their teachers do suggest that there have been positive effects. These are reflected in the students judging the RAISE contributions to the class – the sensor-based experiments and the Fellow – as having positive educational value. There also are some indications that RAISE class students seem more interested in science than their counterparts in non-RAISE related classes and that they value having a Fellow involved in future science classes.

The high school teachers are generally supportive of the program, find the Fellows quite useful in a variety of ways and rate the sensor-based laboratory exercises as effective. The majority of teachers recommend participation in the program to other teachers. Fellows, too, recommend the program to other university students. They generally have found the program a rewarding experience that has helped them in developing their own science skills and most would be interested in continuing the experience.

Jack Victor, Magued Iskander
Synchronous e-Learning: Three Perspectives

Synchronous e-Learning is not well-described in the literature. A common complaint is that there is an absence of reported research in the area. Here are given the summary results from a number of synchronous eLearning pilot studies presented from student, lecturer and administrative perspectives.

J.A. Redmond, A. Parkinson, A. Mullally, D. Dolan
A Framework for Benchmarking Arabic Verb Morphological Tools

Arabic morphology tools are numerous, but there have been no standard tests of performance with which success and extent of coverage can be gauged. Much of the testing has been done by developers in accordance with ad hoc standards of their own. Although many claim success, users remain skeptical of the efficiency and level of coverage. In this study, we discuss the problems that Arabic morphological tools need to address in order to be considered successful, and describe a test set that we are advancing as a proposal for golden standards for computational Arabic verb morphology.

Sane M Yagi, Jim Yaghi
A Hands-on Approach to Capstone Design and Implementation

Students planning to work in the software industry are best served by exposure to the type of skills necessary to acquire employment in a software developer capacity. One way to prepare students is to teach students the software development life-cycle process utilizing a design and implementation two-course capstone project. This paper describes a successful teaching approach to the capstone project by utilizing a practical hands-on approach.

Joseph T. Catanio
E-Learning in Technology – Using Project Merlot as a Resource
Judy A. Serwatka
On the Relation between Semantic Network and Association Map for the Assessment of Class Work

Authors had reported a paper [1] that two association methods were useful for the assessment of class work. Especially, association map was very useful to know the changes of schema of learners before and after class work. However, the association map does not express the flow that learners get the concepts in the class work.

In this paper, authors propose the new semantic network which is constructed from short contexts obtained from the stimulating word and the response words (R)in association test. Authors classify five patterns for short contexts and present the semantic network before and after class work.

Authors discuss on the effectiveness of this semantic network as a detailed document for the assessment of class work.

Kagehiro ITOYAMA, Teruo NITTA, Takashi FUJIKI
Towards A Methodology For Ontology Development

Analysis of existing methodologies for ontology development is conducted and basic problems and drawbacks are defined. The goals of this article are to propose possible solutions for these identified problems by developing a specific approach and giving detailed guidelines for ontology creation. Proposed approach, summarizing best practices in the field of ontology development, is demonstrated by describing the process of implementation of specific ontology. The approach includes basic methods, rules and principles. Main results from the application of the approach are discussed and analysed.

Kornelia Todorova
An Encyclopedia of Software Resources – A Possible and Realistic Project?

Personally, I strongly believe that it is very difficult to imagine today’s civilized world without computers and Information Technology. Within a relative short period of time, computing has been implemented in all the possible domains of activity. Technology has developed rapidly and the notions of information society and knowledge-based society have become familiar. In my view, there is no doubt that the humanity’s future goals cannot be accomplished without a solid understanding of how to use a computer properly and of the art of computer usage. In this sense, all of us who aim to be well informed and productive need to understand not only a limited number of specific software applications to work with, but also to have the possibility to access valuable information about software packages of all kinds. Starting from the definition of an encyclopedia as “A book, or set of books, or digital version of such, containing authoritative information about a variety of topics...” in this paper I will try to show that this Encyclopedia of Software Resources which I envisage will be a collection of information related to all possible software applications, very useful for students, for developing specific lessons/courses, for the research community, the industry, and the general public.

Liciniu-Alexandru Kov´cs
Undergraduate Students Assessment on Materials Chemistry Topic using an Auto-Calibrated Online System

Development of communication and information technology had an important impact on teaching, learning and knowledge assessment. According with national trends in objective evaluation of undergraduate students’ knowledge, starting with experiences obtained by creation of the multiple choices examination system for general chemistry, an auto-calibrated online evaluation system has been developed. The aim of the research was to assess the first year undergraduate students’ knowledge on materials chemistry topic at the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania by using the developed auto-calibrated online evaluation system. The testing and evaluation methodologies are presented. The students’ performances in terms of individual correct answers score and the average time per correct answer were collected and analyzed. The proposed auto-calibrated online evaluation system proved to offer a stable and valid evaluation environment for undergraduate students’ knowledge assessment on materials chemistry topic.

Lorentz JÄNTSCHI, Carmen Elena STOENOIU, Sorana Elena BOLBOACMĂ
Development and Evaluation of a Web-Based E-Learning System

In this contribution the development of a web-based e-learning system is described and a method for evaluation is introduced, whereby the e-learning portal INTEGRAL II will be used as an exemplification. The proposed approach is based on system monitoring of user interaction by data capture in a server-log-file, and it additionally integrates external data. As such it is a user-based approach, which typically applies to prototyping or early stages of the product life-cycle. Due to its non-reactive character, the hypothesized biasing effects are supposed to be minimal. Especially server log-files are means of gathering objective, quantitative data which can not be derived by other means. Additionally the procedure is not very complex, that is, it is easy to conduct and does not take too much time to collect data. Log-files are records that are generated by the system automatically and incorporate information about access to and quitting the system, location of the user, time spent with the system and actions within the system. As illustrated in this contribution, these data can be analyzed and interpreted in seven steps. The analysis reveals specific results for the INTEGRAL II system as well as more abstract suggestions for usability testing in general. Log-file analyses in combination with other measures are powerful means of evaluating a web-based system. What information is provided by log-files? What technical framework must be considered for the interpretation? How can these implicit data be used to evaluate web-based systems? These questions are considered in detail in this contribution.

L. Schmidt
Promoting Engineering Careers Using Modern Sensors in High School Science Labs

A student’s first introduction to engineering and technology is typically through high school science. Unfortunately, science labs often make use of antiquated tools that fail to deliver exciting lab content. As a result, many students are turned off by science, fail to excel on standardized science exams, and do not consider engineering as a career.

This paper reports on the preliminary results of Project RAISE, Revitalizing Achievement by using Instrumentation in Science Education. RAISE is a partnership between Polytechnic University and several New York City (NYC) high schools that is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). By using sensors and computerized data acquisition in science labs, RAISE seeks to enhance students’ academic achievement; excite them about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); and inspire them to pursue STEM careers. A description of the project, along with some of the sensor-based experiments that are in use, are presented along with lessons learned.

Edwin Yu, Magued Iskander, Vikram Kapila, Noel Kriftcher
Our experiences in teaching of digital logic

This paper contains some examples of using Multisim in teaching of digital logic and describes an Internet website containing didactic materials created in the Department of Ship Automation at Gdynia Maritime University. Use of simulation software in education is one of modern training methods. The Multisim 8 software is an easy to use instrument, enabling designing and simulation of electric, electronic or digital circuits and programmable logic devices. Multisim provides large amount of component’s database, schematic entry, VHDL/Verilog design entry and simulation.

Krystyna Maria Noga, Marcin Radwanski
Integrated Contact- and E-learning Course in Managerial Psychology for Engineering Students

In the current paper we share our six years of experience and examine an integrated contact- and e-learning course in managerial psychology for engineering students. To better understand the effectiveness of combining various didactic methods, including e-learning, the engineering students’ (N=796) feedback on the course was analyzed. Our study focuses on the face-to-face lecture and the e-lecture, employing either the digital teaching tools on CD-ROMs or web-based e-lectures. We failed to find any statistically significant difference between these two types of lectures in the students’ assessment. The analysis of the feedback suggests that the engineering students generally have a highly positive attitude towards integrating contact- and e-learning courses. The findings indicate that successful e-learning takes place within a complex system involving various didactical methods of teaching.

Jüri Ilvest Jr, Mare Teichmann
Engineers’ Occupational Stress and Stress Prevention System: E-psycho-diagnostics and E-learning

The present research focuses on engineers’ occupational stress through the sources of pressure in their job and includes quality of life with the purpose of demonstrating how these pressures affect engineers’ quality of life. The main sources of occupational stress in engineers’ job were high workload, home-work imbalance and the need to take personal responsibility. The relation of the sources of occupational stress with engineers’ quality of life was consistent being negative, yet moderate or low. In the quality of life domains, the strongest relations were between the sources of occupational stress and engineers’ physical health and psychological well-being. After these findings we created Engineers’ Occupational Stress Prevention System including engineers’ occupational stress E-psycho-diagnostics and E-learning.

Mare Teichmann, Jüri Ilvest Jr
From Collaborative Video Library to Annotated Learning Object Repository: Using Annotated Video Library in Personalized E-Learning

With the proliferation of digital and video cameras, personal collection of multimedia materials such as amateur video-clips are abundant now-a-days. Most of these multimedia materials may be useful to others if they are shared and can be located easily. Semantic Web technologies hold promise to organize and re-use such non-textual information effectively. However, annotation of multimedia contents is a tedious task. Notwithstanding, as we observe growing number of community collaborations on the present Web, such content annotation can be done through online collaboration. In this research, we investigate the development of a collaborative video annotation system using open technologies and tools where people can upload, annotate and share their personal multimedia collections efficiently. We also examine how the contents acquired and annotated with this collaborative system can be transformed into (1) Reusable E-Learning Contents for personalized learning; as well as, (2) Dynamic Digital Library with exploratory search and retrieval facilities using state-of-the-art Semantic Web technologies.

Md Maruf Hasan, Nophadol Jekjantuk, Yenruedee Chanwirawong, Ekawit Nantajeewarawat
Floe-T: Tool To Measure The Quality In Learning Objects
Miguel Vargas, Manuel Ortega
Computer Aided Architectural Design Training

The present time can be characterized as an era of digital revolution which has resulted in a creativity burst in different design applications. Rapid advancements in Information Technology (IT) are still under way and are widely used to communicate architectural design projects. The paper deals with an exploration of some elements of IT – how they can be integrated into both architectural design process and university curricula. In academic courses contemporary CAAD knowledge basically is about the development of computer aided creative and problem solving skills in the context with fast changing CAAD media. It becomes more difficult to teach the common principles behind individual software which is general and will most likely survive ever-changing software versions. Limited university class contact hours for the subjects do not allow developing of detailed courses for the training of particular software. A case study is presented about the evaluation of the capability of the architectural students for their problem solving skills. Statistical analysis of the data revealed strong linear correlation between the time to complete particular exercises and preliminary CAD competence level among the students, thus clearly demonstrating the significance of CAD training in effective usage of software.

M. Dobelis
Learning Two-Dimensional Physics and Mathematics through their Applications in Robotic Manipulators

We present our experiences with the use of parallel robotic manipulators in the learning of mathematics at high school and beginning undergraduate level. The appreciation of the applications of mathematics developed in this process helps students in all the basic courses taught at this level including physics, mathematics, statics & dynamics, etc.

M. Ali Yousuf, V. Cueva de la Hernández, R. Montúfar Chaveznava
A University e-learning and Service Providing System: A Case Study

This paper lists a number of essential services and information requests that are expected to be offered in any e-system intended to assist the educational process of any educational institute. The way the list is presented is through a system that has actually been developed and tested in some university. The goal of such a system is to utilize the latest practice in responding to the needs of technological teachers and trainers with a focus in providing quality services to its students and staff. The services and requests are categorized into a number of modules: e-courses, grading, assignments, communications, and supervision. The paper will summarize most of the services listed, but with some level of details, it will focus on the e-learning part. With a view of the future, the paper will also include review of the challenges and opportunities that continue to exist in technological teacher development.

Nael Hirzallah, Sandrella Mahjoub
Computer-aided Building Design Education: Simulating the Design Process in a Project-Based Learning Curriculum

Teaching computer-aided building design (CABD) in a project-based learning environment is an idea derived from the broader problem-based learning movement. However, a project-based learning curriculum has rarely been implemented in building design education, let alone in CABD. The idea of teaching CABD through design-based approaches has been increasingly adopted over the past 20 years. However, most of the resulting experiments have been limited to specific courses within larger programmes. This approach has rarely affected a dedicated CABD curriculum. The development and implementation of a feasible project-based learning CABD curriculum is described in this paper. In this programme the emphasis is placed on the building aspects and/or objectives of the design process rather than on the different products of the design phases or even on software categories.

Neander F. Silva, Ecilamar M. Lima
Towards a Multi-Criterion Web-Based Tool for Evaluation of an E-Learning System

As e-learning systems evolve to a requisite tool for education and as the e-learning platforms’ alternatives are enhanced, an evaluation need arise. This need comes not as a valorization process but as a forthright effort to ameliorate e-learning systems. There are many factors, other than learning, impacting behavior, and many factors, other than behavior, impacting performance. In this study This research has been carried out with financial support from the European Community and the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs of Greece – EPEAEK II Project. we propose a web- based evaluation model which implements a multiple criteria methodology. This technique allows e-learning systems to assess their performance while it exhibits an overall view of their users' behavior. The proposed system was tested through a survey. A brief results' presentation of that survey is also included in the last part of this paper.

Pavlos Delias, Nikolaos F. Matsatsinis, Agelos Karagounakis
Novel Aspects of the Use of ICT in Mathematics Education

During spring semester 2006, a synchronous on-line course in basic calculus was offered at the University of Helsinki, and a voluntary remedial synchronous on-line course in geometry was offered at the Technical University of Catalonia. Both courses used the iVocalize conferencing system. Students’ feedback was very positive, and it is clear that synchronous on-line delivery of education will emerge as a real option at the university level. How to keep students focused during an on-line class, and how to discuss complicated mathematical problems are the main challenges. Traditional contact instruction cannot be simply transmitted electronically. Just like recorded theater plays are not movies, the content and the way how to interact with students must change for mathematics education to be successful in a virtual setting. Here we offer our views on how instruction will benefit of technology in the near future, and discuss some technical solutions provided by the WebALT eContent Project [5]. Recorded short lectures, automatically graded exercises and examinations have big potential both in traditional contact instruction and in on-line education.

Olga Caprotti, Mika Seppälä, Sebastian Xambó
Mediation in Virtual Environments

This paper deals with the influence of mediation in different kinds of virtual environments, for example virtual conferences (e-conferences, CISSE), e‐learning platforms, distance learning environments and surroundings, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and user interfaces. Mediation is a means in which messages, discussion and behavior are becoming more and more conceptual and abstract and have an effect on our social being. Mediation effects on our capability to make independent ethical decisions. The same process is discerned in all the social and commercial practice where it is rationalized by processing techniques or when it’s made virtual. Mediation is studied from different perspectives or viewpoints in a phenomenological manner. A mean person could call mediation vitiation or nullification, but that is value judgment. The term quantification as well as modeling and regulation also describe some aspects of mediation. Classical philosophy will be applied in this study, which is an opening in “mediational ethics’. An empirical case study (Tritonia Academic Library) dealing with distance learning is also presented in this paper.

O. Mäkinen
Web-based Interactive Virtual Laboratory System for Digital Circuit Experiment

With the development of E-learning technology, web-based virtual laboratory has aroused more and more attention of educators. In this paper, we describe the design of a web-based electronic circuit virtual laboratory system for digital circuit. This system provides the user with real expression, convenient operation and powerful simulation capability. Furthermore, we designed segment-simulation mechanism and circuit status persistence mechanism to realize the simulation process in digital circuit. At the moment, ECVlab (Electronic Circuit Virtual Laboratory) has been implemented and successfully applied in an undergraduate course in Zhejiang University and has gained positive evaluation from the undergraduate students.

Ouyang Yang, Ye Shiping, Dong Yabo, Zhu Miaoliang
Effective E-Learning Environment Personalization using Web Usage Mining Technology

Presently, more and more Web-based technologies are adopted in e-Learning environment to provide users with relatively convenient and efficient access to the resources on the World Wide Web. Personalized support for learners is becoming even more important when the learning recourse volume is increasing with a dramatic speed. This paper represents the idea of using Web usage mining techniques to enhance the personalized capabilities of e-Learning environment. We describe the idea based on three-tier architecture as data collection and preprocessing, pattern discovery and pattern analysis. Brief algorithms in pattern discovery process are presented. We also show the system architecture of how to integrate the Web usage mining process into the e-Learning system.

Ouyang Yang, Zhu Miaoliang
Tutor: A web-based educational platform for university studies

This paper presents Tutor, a web-based educational support system for university-related teaching, learning and academic data management. It explains the most relevant aspects of its design (e.g. underlying role-based model and architecture) and the main operations that each type of user can perform in the system. It also analyzes the answers given to the questionnaire completed by the students in order to discover what they thought of the system.

Roberto F. Arroyo, Miguel J. Hornos, Pilar Fernández Sánchez
The eChalk System: Potential of Teaching with Intelligent Digital Chalkboards

eChalk is a software system that transforms an electronic whiteboard into a teaching tool simulating a traditional chalkboard. In addition to writing and drawings, the electronic chalkboard handles a wide range of multimedia enhancements. These may be used to enliven the lessons by visualization, allowing the system to surpass the didactic potentials of the traditional chalkboard. The system records all actions and provides both a live transmission and a replay of the lecture from the web as a by-product of regular classroom teaching. Remote students follow the lecture by watching the dynamic board content and listening to the recorded voice of the instructor. While originally created only for the use in the Western hemisphere, recent developments target the support of teaching in the Middle East. From our point of view, advantageous application in particular for teaching in different cultures is characterized. This is especially true for cultures with non-Latin scripts and regions which lack the infrastructure for high-speed Internet connections. Systematic evaluations from regular use at two universities are presented.

S. Jeschke, L. Knipping, O. Pfeiffer
On Remote and Virtual Experiments in eLearning in Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
S. Jeschke, T. Richter, H. Scheel, C. Thomsen
Virtual Room Concepts for Cooperative, Scientific Work

Cooperative knowledge spaces offer new potentials for experimental and scientific work in the current fields of engineering and natural sciences. Widely accepted content management systems often only provide simple content in combination with communication tools; cooperative knowledge spaces are able to project the concept of natural cooperative work onto virtual rooms. In this article we introduce our concept of virtual rooms for scientific and educational work. We describe requirements for complex cooperative work in virtual knowledge spaces where the rooms are arranged in a dynamic, heterogeneous network and incorporate experimental laboratory equipment, shared whiteboards and version‐controlled documents. We developed this concept in the context of our project ViCToR‐Spaces (Virtual Cooperation in Teaching and Research for Mathematics and Natural Sciences) and are currently implementing some of the parts of the concept. Index Terms ‐ cooperative knowledge spaces, virtual and remote laboratories, virtual rooms, cooperative education and work

Sabine Cikic, Sabina Jeschke, Nadine Ludwig, Uwe Sinha
Comparative study of learning achievement on the online asynchronous learning course in engineering metallurgy between individual-learning and group-learning

—In this study, authors describe the construction of Interactive Multimedia Computer Instruction Package (IMMCIP) on web for online asynchronous learning on engineering metallurgy course. The efficiency evaluation and comparative study of the learning were achieved between individual learning and group learning. The research tools were constructed an IMMCIP on Web, which included introduction to engineering metallurgy, crystal structure, deformation mechanism, phase diagram, Fe C‐diagram, heat treatment process, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, corrosion in metals and powder metallurgy. The samples were 30 undergraduate students in engineering metallurgy course in Department of Production Technology Education, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand. The samples were divided into three groups: one computer per student, one computer per two students, and one computer per three students, which are 11, 10 and 9 students respectively. The results revealed that the efficiency of an IMMCIP on Web was higher than that the criteria set. Results were analyzed on pre‐test and post‐test of every group, which were achieved significantly high score. The results found that learning achievement of one computer per three-student group was different from others and had the higher learning achievement with significantly.

Santirat Nansaarng, Supreeya Siripattanakunkajorn
An Architecture for a SCORM-Conformant Content Delivery System in an E-learning Solution

- This paper proposes an architecture for a SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model)-conformant content delivery system in an e-learning solution. Since the most important purpose of e-learning technology is to deliver highest quality education and training cost-effectively anytime and anywhere, in this paper we focus on learning content delivery as an online and asynchronous manner. On the other hand, in order to build an interoperable system, it is clear that we should utilize e-learning standards and specifications. For this reason, various available solutions have been evaluated and it has been found out that SCORM, as a comprehensive collection of e-learning specifications and standards, has some unique features which are useful specially for employing in a content delivery system. Eventually, we turn to the implementation perspective of our proposal. In particular, what is important to this study is that how an LMS (Learning Management System) employs the sequencing strategy defined by content author to deliver the appropriate piece of content at any given time and how to pave the way for communicating with content object at run time based on SCORM criteria in order to make proper decisions about delivery of next content object to the learner

Sedigheh Abbasi, Gholamhossein Dastghaibyfard
Impact of University Education on Software Quality Skill-set of HR in Software Outsourcing Industry of Pakistan

- The authors of this paper have attempted to suggest an ideal set of software quality skills for IT Outsourcing companies that could boost software export revenues of software export-focused IT firms in Pakistan by enhancing much needed quality factor in their products and services. This ideal set of skills is extracted by assessing the quality related human resource from top performing IT outsourcing companies in Pakistan. In order to identify quality skills that are not imparted to IT professionals with adequate emphasis, a curricula based analysis of software quality related programs in top Pakistani IT universities was done. As a result of this analysis, again a set of imparted software quality skills at top Pakistani universities was identified. Authors believe that skills that are not addressed either at university end or IT company’s end, can be incorporated in curriculum of software related courses offered at Pakistani IT universities. This step would result in enrichment of local IT resource which without requisite quality skills has to rely solely on expensive foreign quality certifications. The authors’ research is based on two basic but crucial assumptions (i) an IT professional who gained software quality skills through his/her university education years has a significant positive impact on quality of software produced by his organization (ii) Most software-exporting companies outperform others due to their emphasis on software quality. No previous studies done locally, have been able to establish a clear relation between demand of industrial software quality skills and requisite supply of skills from universities.

Muhammad Emad-ud-din, Shahid Javed Ansari
State Model Diagrams – a Systems Tool for Teaching Network Technologies and Network Management

There are a range of network management tools. One of the simplest, but most commonly used, is the hierarchical text based Command Line Interface (CLI). However, CLI commands typically provide a lot of unnecessary data. Furthermore to manage one protocol operating on a single network device may require a number of different CLI commands. These problems are exacerbated when managing an operational network consisting of populations of different devices each running a number of different protocols. The GUI based CiscoWorks appears to be not widely used. State Model Diagrams (SMDs) extract and diagrammatically integrate the output from different CLI outputs and hence succinctly describe protocol operation. Furthermore, SMDs may be used to describe not only different protocols but also different network devices such as routers, switches, wireless access points etc. SMDs also provide top down decomposition thereby enabling a large complex network to be partitioned into independent units of an amenable size. Using SMDs it is possible to examine the overview of an entire network and also obtain increasing levels of detail whilst still maintaining links and interfaces between the different levels. SMDs have been successfully used as the pedagogical basis of network curriculum. The paper presents the results of a further more extensive pedagogical evaluation. Furthermore, SMDs were evaluated as a network management tool. The results clearly demonstrated that SMD’s were found to be as useful as the CLI for all aspects of network management and, significantly, more useful than Ciscoworks.

S.P. Maj, B. Tran, D. Veal
Cooperative Learning Objects in a Federated Learning System

—Course design costs a significant part of a WEB-based learning project budget. A big cost reduction is possible if the involved learning objects are reusable and are shared among collaborative organizations. This paper describes a system based on a flexible framework that provides the instructors and students with possibilities in designing courses using shared, reusable learning objects.

S. Encheva, S. Tumin
Application of Meet-Distributive Lattices for Assessing Students Knowledge

—The goal of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework for assessment of learners’ level of mastering of lower and upper concepts. The presented work involves the theory of knowledge spaces, distributive lattices and nested line diagrams. Application of distributive lattices in the framework facilitates avoidance of answer combinations that do not contain both lower concepts and related to them upper concepts.

S. Encheva, S. Tumin
The concept uf the internet textbook on theoretical mechanics

The concept, structure and contents of the Internet textbook on classical mechanics intended for Higher Technical Institutions are presented in this work. Aspects of program realization of textbook applications and the technology of elaborating the textbook in the “Hecadem” Internet-teaching environment are given too.

E.V. Ponomaryova, T.O. Nevenchannaya, V.E. Pavlovsky
Game Playing and Systems Thinking

A lot of the literature builds on a theory of communication that focuses on text contents and interactive learning. But in order to improve teaching and learning we need to understand why students communicate the way they do. In order to do so, research needs to begin with the actual process by which textual messages are produced. Then we can analyse the form and contents of the messages. The shift of focus from text products to working processes is a matter of didactic design. This chapter outlines the teachers’ didactic designs and the students’ verbal exchanges on a virtual platform. More specifically, what would be the characteristics of emerging patterns of interaction produced by ICT and social communication systems?

Thomas Hansson
Research On Maintainability And Expansibility Of E-Learning Systems

-Web based E-learning system is by nature a multi-layer structured web application. It is composed of a main directory in web server which includes sub-directories, virtual directories, a large amount of documents and databases, all of which constitute the educational resources of the E-learning system. In the traditional E-learning system, educational resources are often organized statically in specific coursewares. Due to the characteristics of web application itself, updates in course contents may lead to great changes in document positions and hyperlinks, thus resulting poor maintainability and expansibility of E-learning systems. This paper proposed a knowledge point based metadata model of educational resources, though which the changes in course contents could be altered logically via directory structures of the course, without direct change of the contents of web pages, hence enhancing the maintainability and expansibility of E-learning systems. Based on this research, an educational resources content management system supporting this model was designed and implemented.

X.W. Hao, X.X. Meng, X. Cui
Research On Web-Based Self-Learning

E-learning has now become a very important education mode, and various E-learning systems and prototypes have been developed. In knowledge society, updates of knowledge is accelerating, continuing education and lifelong learning has accordingly emerged. As a solution to these new education forms, we proposed a novel E-learning mode, i.e. web-based self-learning, In this paper, we first analyzed the differences among self-learning and other E-learning modes(such as CSCL etc). Then, we give more detailed discusses about a self-learning environment, such as characteristics of learners, learning contents, learning objectives and learning theories, and made further researches on the organization and management of learning resources. At last, we described briefly our self-learning system prototype GSL.

X.W. Hao, X.X. Meng
Design and Development of an E-learning Tool for Children to Learn How to Write the Chinese Words

How to make learning the Chinese language fun and interesting for young children is a non-trivial challenge to educators and/or institutions. At the China-America Language and Culture Exchange Center (CALCEC), an integrated education system (IES) is currently under development for teaching Chinese to children. This paper presents the design and development of a Chinese word-writing tool, one of the interactive e‐learning tools developed at CALCEC as part of its IES. The Internet is chosen as the conveyance tool for the e‐ learning system. A website www.kidchinese.com has been built to deliver the interactive learning system to students. The preliminary survey results indicate that the interactive e‐learning tool helps to keep and increase students’ interests in learning the Chinese language.

Yan Liu, Ketao Liu, G. Scott Owen, Rajshekhar Sunderraman
A Study Support System on a Hands-on Networking Laboratory

- In the present paper, we describe the mechanism and performance of a LAN building support system for the undergraduate study of LAN administration. The present system can be used to make a real hierarchic network from design information alone in a short time. Using the present system, students are able to select a LAN design for study as an administrator. The study of the administrative aspects of LAN management with active communication has become important. We built a hands-on networking laboratory in which each student is able to study LAN administration from the perspective of a user to that of a network manager, without any risks. Students are able to study how to design networks and construct servers on each domain network, which consists of a router and a number of hosts. Undergraduate students evaluated this system highly. In addition, some of the students requested additional study using a different LAN structure. By switching LAN structures, students are able to develop skills that are needed in LAN management for different design structures. Therefore, we propose a support system for more effectively and efficiently developing advanced skills in LAN administration. Index Terms ‐ Networking Laboratory, LAN Administration, Virtualization Technology

Yasuhiro Nakagawa, Hiroshi Suda, Yoshiro Miida, Masahiro Ukigai
User Modeling in the Context of Cognitive Service Delivery: Application to Learning Management Systems

—A contemporary trend in the field of telecommunications is the development of a constantly increasing number of services available to users through computer networks. These services are being used in order to facilitate users’ everyday life and save them time and effort. The following paper discusses on the service delivery and the way it can be adapted to each user’s specific needs, in the context of cognitive networks and service provisioning. An example of such a service is being examined, namely a Learning Management System and specifically User Model entity, which is responsible for storing user’s preferences. In support of this vision, a paradigm of Bayesian Networks’ application is presented, aiming at predicting user’s preferences in a Learning Management System, by managing a specific set of parameters that affect it and providing the information to configure the learning content to be delivered, accordingly. For the confirmation of this Model’s validity a set of indicative results are also presented at the end of this paper. Index Terms‐E‐learning, Learning Management System, Service Provisioning, User model

Y. Kritikou, P. Demestichas, E. Adamopoulou, K. Demestichas
Management Architecture for the Provision of e-Services in Cognitive Environments

—The following paper discusses on the evolution of cognitive networks in conjunction with the development of advanced e-services, making a brief description of their role in modern society. E-services are delivered through a specific model, which is described in detail, and find several applications in peoples’ everyday activities. E-learning has proven to be a very important application of e-services, since the number of users that adopt it in their lives increases everyday. Thus, this paper presents the architecture of an e-learning platform, as well as the principles of the learning theories that influence the content’s structure. In this work, the e-learning content is formed for use by adult learners. Finally, the need for adaptation to each user’s specific demands and preferences, concerning both the content and the technical features of the platform, is discussed, providing further information on the way this personalization can take place, so as the maximum performance of users can be achieved. Index Terms

—adaptation, cognitive networks, e-services, e-learning, user profile

Y. Kritikou, P. Demestichas, G. Dimitrakopoulos, F. Paraskeva, A. Kyriazis, M. Paradia, N. Mitsis
e-Learning techniques in IT programs
are they helping my sense of cyber-ethics?

With the boom in technology, it is not surprising to see high-tech tools implemented at most schools and colleges to enhance the total learning experience for the students of the twenty-first century. From up-to-date software, hardware and online tools, electronic learning has becoming somewhat of a ‘fashion’ where most tertiary academic organizations are concerned. World-wide, academic bodies are competing to develop and implement the latest, advanced tools to gain advantage over peers across the globe, to give their students a better learning experience, to improve their resumes and ultimately earn millions.

Universities and schools all over the world are opting to include at least one element of e-learning in every field of study, be it medicine, business, law or information technology it self. From WebCT to Netmeeting to the basic computer on-line and offline applications, every electronic system that has a potential to be used as a whole or part of e-learning is already being used in some form or the other in and out of classrooms. Where students are being taught using these tools, it does not seem clear if they can distinguish between e-learning and e-cheating. Or can they?

This paper looks closely at the gap that exists in students to distinguish between e-learning and cyber ethics. It tests student awareness of e-learning tools and how these are affecting their sense and perception of ethics. The paper ends by proposing suggestions to include subjects or courses that highlight the difference between e-learning and e-cheating in order to arm students with the necessary understanding to increase their awareness to ethical issues and thus become potential value-added professionals, and thus opening the door to further study in this area.

Zeenath Reza Khan
E-Learning Based Distance Education At Szechenyi Istvan University

The paper describes our experiences of e-learning based distance education of transport engineer, engineer manager and economist students.

Z. Letray, M. Kovacs, L. Nyeki
The Web Enhanced General Physics Course

The presentation describes the set of ready to use simulation software that can be utilized for both the lesson illustrations and the virtual lab assignments. The interactive simulations allow learners to explore a topic by comparing and contrasting different scenarios. Users may get a deeper exposure to the subject matter either by modifying parts of existing simulation or by building a new simulation from scratch. Another advantage for the users is the ability of simulation illustration to be paused and restarted for reflection and note taking. Each chapter of the course is followed by originally developed computerized test. The computerized tests are three levels hierarchical applications that allow the random access to the question data bank.

General Terms

Curriculum, Virtual Labs, Simulation

Gene G. Kuleshov
Accessibility and Model-Based Web Application Development for eLearning Environments

- eLearning and eScience technologies offer a particularly wide range of possibilities for pedagogical concepts supporting the special needs and interests of the individual user. The two decisive advantages are defined by interaction capability and the ability to adapt the presentation to the user, both practically unachievable using traditional media. These two features are the key to extend the methodology of teaching scenarios as well as the support of individual learning strategies. Thus, the integration of new media into the academic education possesses the potential to assist in transcending the disadvantages facing disabled people in education. Based on semantic content encoding and model-based development, a broad range of accessibility features can be supported.

Sabina Jeschke, Helmut Vieritz
Creation of a teaching timetable using random variables – The STB application

- The creation of a teaching timetable based on the needs of students and teachers is a problem hard to solve. In this paper we introduce the basic operation parameters of the STB application with emphasis to the processing module. The application, as can be deduced from the results of testing in cases having varying degree of complexity, can create the teaching timetable of a typical high school based on all the relevant limitations and constraints that result from our educational system. The processing module operates with random variables and it gives satisfactory results within reasonable processing time.

C.T. Panagiotakopoulos, A.D. Kameas
E-learning and handicap: new trends for accessibility with model driven approach

This paper exposes an approach to create accessible contents for e-learning objectives dedicated to handicapped persons. This preliminary study focuses on the proposition of a generic abstract meta-model that can be used to define specific models for different platforms and user configurations.

Amina BOURAOUI, Mohamed JEMNI, Mohsen LAABIDI
Two Different Approaches of Modeling the Teacher Relocation Problem in a Constraint Logic Programming System and Their Comparison

We propose two ways of modeling the teacher relocation problem in the ECL ECL

i

PS

e

constraint logic programming system, implement them and compare their performance through simulation. The first one relies on logic variables that take on boolean values. The second one involves the use of the built-in predicates “element’ and “occurrences.’ Simulations confirm that the approach that uses the built-in predicates performs better in general.

Nagehan Ilhan, Zeki Bayram
A Continuous Unsupervised Adaptation Method For Speaker Verification

—This paper deals with unsupervised model adaptation for speaker verification. We proposed a new method for updating speaker models using all test information incoming in the system. This is a continuous adaptation method which relies on the probability of the test trial belonging to the target speaker. Our adaptation scheme is evaluated in the framework of the NIST SRE 2005. This approach reaches a relative improvement for the NIST unsupervised adaptation mode of 15% DCF and 35% EER.

Alexandre Preti, Jean-Franˆois Bonastre, Franˆois Capman
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Innovations in E-learning, Instruction Technology, Assessment, and Engineering Education
Editor
Magued Iskander, Ph.D., PE
Copyright Year
2007
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Electronic ISBN
978-1-4020-6262-9
Print ISBN
978-1-4020-6261-2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6262-9